Thursday 24 February 2011

Jerusalem fartichokes

I have had a very busy day for me today. The best part was after lunch when, having seen the first proper warm sunshine of the year out the window, I went round to my neighbour's house to dig up his Jerusalem artichokes. Some people nickname these fartichokes, for obvious reasons!

But this has all stimulated me into thinking about the veg plot for the year. I now have 4 bags of the fartichokes, some to eat this year and some to plant, so I need to find the appropriate spot for them.

My first job today, bizarrely enough, was to put tea on. Just browning chicken and sweating leeks (from the garden [smug]!) and then I put it (with a bottle of wine, mushrooms and potatoes added) in the Chasseur in the oven on gas mark half. It will come out when my lovely hubby comes home from work, in about an hour from now - but a good 8 hours from when it went in the oven. Its been brill knowing all day that tea will be ready whenever we're ready for it. And not a 'convenience' food in sight! I guess this dish would be a Coq-a-Leekie-au-Riesling.

Tomorrow's job will be to get the kitchen back up to scratch as its been allowed to slide for a couple of days and I've put too much effort into cleaning it to let that happen. And after that I really need to plan this veg plot for the year, get sowing the first lettuce and chit my seed potatoes.

Oh yes, nature is just starting to stretch its legs for the year.

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