Coffee in the Square

The Equinox

Today I issued an edict to my husband, Mike. "Thou shalt purchase no more supermarket salad. We now have our own crop on the roof top veg plot."
My efforts to have salad all year round can't be said to have given us enough greens through the deepest winter months, principally because a) I didn't plant enough and b) I forgot to take enough account of the slowing of the growth process that happens from November to February.
The Johnson's Mesclun mix I planted in October and left growing with very little attention in the growhouse has finally come to fruition.
The saladini mix I made myself and planted in January, produced a rather weedy crop of microveg, in about six weeks. The same mix planted in February, looks much more sturdy.
Next winter I will start my winter veg off earlier, so that it has already grown by the time winter sets in.
It seems the secret is that salads are happy to sit during the winter months, but they will only grow slowly. So there's little point in succession sewing for winter. Get it all in by the end of August and then you can crop right through winter.

Energy Saving Tip

How can something as simple as an onion skin save energy? Perhaps we forget just how much energy it has taken to grow, store and transport them to our kitchens. Don't throw them away.
Many of us compost peelings, but have you thought of other uses? I put a few onion skins into my stockpot thereby ensuring that my stocks have a lovely orange/brown tinge. The skins impart a rich oniony flavour. The immediacy and nutritional value of a stockpot is a wonderfully sustainable system, especially if you use waste heat to stew it up. And once you get into the habit of using real stock, rather than water or cubes in your cooking, you will never look back!

Three New Eateries

I'm heartened by three new places that have sprung up in the last few months in our area.  All of them serve good food and all of them are independents. 

The newest is cafe Gitane, 60 Great Titchfield Street.  This is the best place on the street for homemade cakes. They also serve a lovely selection of fine teas, as well as a few hot a clod dishes at lunch time. The black tea with rose petals looks beautiful, try this with a rose velvet cupcake. It's eccentric and homely - just what you need at tea time.

The purple outside tables with a flower on each one are lovely if the sun shines.  Like all good coffee shops they have free wi-fi.

Just up the road is Bonnie Gull, a fish restaurant which has grown up out of a street food eatery in the East End.  This is sophisticated and quite pricey, in a stripey, beach cafe kind of style, but the fish is fresh and generously served.  We had a lovely Portuguese Vino Verde with out skate with beurre noir and a haddock muffin.  Delicious!

They have a raw fish ice box, and a catch of the day.  The staff, as you can see in the shot are friendly and happy.

This is a small place, perhaps twenty interior seats, but they also have outside tables too.  It is 21a Foley Street, which is just round the corner to our B&B in Great Titchfield Street.

My third recommendation is Honey & Co, which is a good ten minutes stroll away in Warren Street.  But it is worth the walk. This place has caught attention of every food critic in London, and rightly so.  The chefs come from Ottolenghi, and have brought with them a very fresh take on middle eastern food - sans frontieres.  It has started as a lunch cafe, but they are beginning to open in the evening as well. Once again this is very small,  so you might need to book.  

I'm wondering if this is a sign of the recession fuelling something interesting.  Bad things often bring out the best in some people, encouraging them to go it alone.  With some of the the chains struggling, and others suffering from bad publicity over their tax affairs, it seems that there might be a bit more room for a few new ideas.

Even some of the small chains are doing rather well too. Wagamamas are opening three new branches this Christmas, and deserve their good fortune.  They have not forgotten why they became so popular. The food is as good as ever. Remember every chain started with just one branch.

 

The First Frosts

7th November 2012 will be recorded in my gardening annals as the first frost this year. A crisp layer of ice adorned patches of exposed vegetation in Regents Park as Rosa (the mini Schnauzer ) and I took the early morning constitutional. By the time I got up to the rooftop veg plot, only big droplets of dew on the purple sprouting broccoli, indicated where frost might have gathered overnight. But a glance at the max/min thermometer up there, which is tucked in above the compost bin showed nothing lower than 3'.
However, yesterday was far more important globally, as it marked, at least for me, a much more momentous occasion. I think history will record that the re-election of President Obama in the USA yesterday, will have been the first time that climate change policy tipped the balance in an election.
Obama has been much more forthright about these issues than his European counterparts. His victory speech yesterday included the pledge to release his country from their reliance on imported oil. It sounded suitably patriotic and got a big cheer from his supporters. They know, as well as he does, that our need for oil is horribly mixed up with our Middle East policy. We involved ourselves in Iraq and Lybia (both oil rich) but we shy away from involvement in Syria and Iran, where there isn't any oil.
But of course esoteric forward planning on energy does not win elections. It was hurricane Sandy that 'did it' for Obama. The horrifyingly vivid images of a city like New York torn apart by the weather, was a shocking reminder for voters over there, that we ignore climate change at our peril. Al Gore gained no political preferment for his campaign on climate change, only a few years ago. Now the situation is radically different. It is sad that it takes the demise of 80 people to open our eyes. But Sandy is not the only weather disaster to have hit the USA in recent years. It is this physical confirmation of climate change that seems to be changing opinions. I was really surprised that so many voters interviewed by the bbc, on both sides of the political divide, mentioned climate change policy as one of the deciding factors in Obama's victory. What a shame, because if these events are due to climate change, then it might already be too late to stay the tipping point.

New - Neo - or just unreconstructed?

James Murrays interesting article in the website Businessgreen illustrates the disarray that a global financial shambles has brought to the green movement.
http://touch.businessgreen.com/businessgreen/#!/entry/building-a-new-environmentalism-businessgreen-mobile,5089ce6dd7fc7b567031a03d
He wants to divide the environmental camp, depending on how pro-growth we are.
I don't think I fit into any of these categories because I believe that we must address far more radical change in order to create environmental improvements.
Does that make me unreconstructed?
I certainly don't agree with Murray that we can go on much as before, making just a few tweaks, in order to save the planet. But I feel that the solution to our environmental woes can be found in the current dissatisfaction with economic practice.
We've all become so familiar with the theory that success can be found by nurturing growth, expansion at any price, that we've forgotten the finite nature of our world.
If humans behave like locusts, they are destined to succumb. Nature is cruel to excess. It wipes it out. There are hundreds of examples. Think of the way moulds grow and die, the way plagues and viruses wipe themselves out, how any natural surfeit will tend to crash and burn.
In nature the organisms that survive find a natural balance.
If we subject economic thinking to biological understanding, then we should not go for growth, but steady state. From the position of steady state, genetic improvement proceeds gently and healthily. Steady state does not rule out improvements. In biological terms that improvement is in health, robustness, specialisation. In economy the improvement could be measured in level of national health, educational achievement, even contentedness.
At the moment there is a lot of discussion about how the Chinese need to encourage consumerism amongst their population in order to maintain their impressive (or do I mean frightening?) level of growth.
I wonder what Confucius would have said?

This is a picture of free energy

This is a picture of energy. You may ask what I mean. But in the light of the junior energy ministers ridiculous outburst against wind power yesterday. I feel I must comment.
We are in the middle of an economic crisis. Only today Michael Hesletine has been conscripted in to advise the government on kick-starting the economy.
Somebody should tell them that one issue which is worrying business and domestic consumers alike, is the cost of energy.
One way to reduce our energy costs is to rely more fully on the free energy that our weather systems and particularly wind power provides.
A few years ago 40% of our energy was going to come from wind power by 2020. Now it looks as if some parts of government are going to start siding with the Nimby's who don't want wind turbines on land, which is about the cheapest type of power we can get.
I can't see what all the fuss is about. Spain, Netherlands and Denmark already use wind power, in the landscape. I think there is something very grand about seeing large turbines striding across the countryside.
What really gets my goat, is that those people who oppose turbines tend to be the ones who make their coffee by using complex machinery, use an electric pepper grinder, leave every light on in the house and the heater blasting away, even when they go out!
Please can articles about energy remind those ostriches that the wind debate is not about landscape, it is about survival.

Autumn is With us

I've been protecting my crops against hard weather, forecast for the weekend. But my, how deceptively mild it has been today. At the moment, it is about four pm on a sunny afternoon, my garden thermometer reads 16 degrees. Sitting against a south facing wall and protected from a light east wind is delightful.
But I fully expect temperatures to plummet by the end of the week. In the nick of time, I am bringing in the delicate plants, protecting my seed crops and slowly clearing away spent vegetation.
There's something very cosy about huddling the pots together, wrapping fleece over the vulnerable seedlings and popping the lids onto cloches.
I've had to cut the Chinese broccoli right back so that it fits under the fleece.
The wisteria is turning colour, the last sweet peas and nasturtiums are in flower. Everything is awaiting winter.
But the soil is still deliciously warm, and this damp weather is brilliant for seeds. I see mysterious and familiar green shoots everywhere. Did I really sew pak choi amongst the garlic?
This is the time of year for record keeping and planning. I've already sewed onions in the wrong quarter! But no matter. There is some serendipity allowed on the rooftop veg plot.

Square foot garden images

Square Foot Gardening October Review

One whole season has passed since I decided to start a micro-garden on my roof in W1. By any account I chose a rotten year to start with. The rain has been ferocious and the quantity of sunshine fairly low.
However I think I can claim success, in spite of the awful weather. From fine beds, each 600mmx1800mm, I've cropped the following:
Broad beans - poor
Radishes- variable
Sugar Snap Peas - delicious but small quantities
Garlic - good
Onions - good
CCA lettuce - excellent
Butter head lettuce - good
Mizuna - amazing
Runner beans - awesome with sweet peas and tomatoes growing through them.
Tomatoes - awesome
Chard - tasty and long lasting but modest
Wild celery - alarming growth spurts
Cabbage - slow
Japanese broccoli - slow
Kale - prolific as CCA and delicious
Japanese kale - prolific, but susceptible to cabbage white and slugs!
Purple sprouting broccoli (not yet cropped)
Green and yellow courgette - not bad considering the weather
Dill - pretty
Cilantro - great seeds
Parsley - enduring
Cress - spicy
Red mustard - not enough, my all time favourite leaf. I plan to sew much more next year.
Beet - hopeless
Celeriac - lots of pretty leaves, but no bulbs yet
Silver thyme
Carrots - failed
In pots:
I've grown fantastic early potatoes, pretty good chillis and basil (which has been hopeless - but I blame the weather).
Mint - started well but now looks a bit sorry for itself.
Strawberries prolific for a short season.
Nasturtiums - pretty for a time
Autumn carrots, which so far look okay.
We've hardly has to purchase any salads or veg since May, and we've benefitted from some wonderful fresh food.
However the first crops have it easy. Now I'm contending with having to recondition the soil as I re-plant. I'm also getting to grips with intercropping - see strawberry plants squeezed between maturing garlic! So I don't get a chance to re-condition the soil between crops.
I've just bought a big bag of pelleted chicken manure and mulching like crazy with compost, as well as feeding with my own brand of liquid manure. I'm also considering a top dressing of lime. Anyone out there know if that might keep the soil sweet?

Veg plotting a la mode!

It is not often that I recommend a book on my blog - remember I'm strictly ad free. However it's worth learning French in order to read this one.
L'art du potager en carrés by Éric Prédine and Jean-Paul Collaert is an excellent read and an authoritative resource for the urban veg plotter.
The authors acknowledge their debt to Mel Bartholomew's ideas about square foot gardening. But this book is miles away from Bartholomew's rather dry rhetoric.
The French take on small scale veg gardening is infused with gastronomic enjoyment. For example the growing of lettuces is discussed in the light of the fact that the French believe that a meal really isn't a meal without a little salad au vinaigrette.
The photographs, which seem to be entirely taken in the authors' own garden(s), are delightful. They show a more picturesque Potager than the US model.
The book is packed with good ideas. Growing vegetables on this small scale is not done by many gardening writers, most of whom have large market gardens at their disposal. It's refreshing to come across experts who have actually tried growing on really tiny plots. They pass on loads of good advice, particularly on how to keep your plot moving; sewing, planting and harvesting at a really fast speed; so that you can get two or three crops per year from each square cm of soil.
The others revelation is the varieties they recommend, many of which can not be easily found in English seed catalogues.
Now I'll have to make a point of visiting a French seed merchant when next I cross the Channel.
For those who like surfing I can recommend the websites of Vilmorin, Caillard, Terre Vivant and Biaugerme for sources of authentic French seed varieties. I'm certainly going to try planting Courgette De Nice next year which is a climbing courgette, so takes up much less room, as well as being able to make use of the sunny south facing wall of my roof garden.
Bon appétit!