Hi, I'm Theresa Storey and I run The Green Apron Artisan Preserve and Tea Company and write and blog and garden and teach and.....

Clover Bee and Butterfly Lawn

clover

clover

Last year I decided it was time to plant us up a lawn

I bought a batch of hard wearing grass seed from Garden World in Ellen St. Limerick .Its best to go to a decent supplier when getting your seed not packets out of B&Q.

The ground where the lawn was to go had been levelled when we did a lot of earth moving a few years ago. Grass and weeds had already started to grow in the area so I figured “no problem ” even though the soil was subsoil.

I got a few trailers of horse manure and spread an inch of it across the lawn and  thenspread the seed as directed. The same week my friend Colin laid his lawn he however put down 5inches of topsoil mixed with compost before he spread his seed. 4 weeks later Colin had the most fantastic lawn it looked like it had been there forever.Me I had a patchy nothing. This continued. I fed it ,didnt need to water it as it rained all summer . The only good growth was clover.Now I dont care what my lawn is made of provided its green, On my terrace clover had taken hold in the gravel so I transplanted as much as I could into the lawn and left it.

Nothing much happened over Winter or during our cold wet Spring.

Last week I was sitting in the sun on the terrace and I noticed a fantastic scent.I sniffed my petunias. They smelled good but it wasn’t them.I figured it was probably the sweetwilliams  all around the terrace.

Today I noticed the lawn covered in Butterflies.

The clover had spread and flowered  the bees and butterflies were feasting and thats what my fabulous scent was.

What a great lawn. Scented, wildlife friendly , green and needs little mowing. Once I saw that I dug up more clover and filled in any  thin patches. You can buy clover seed from your seed supplier or your local coop.

Plant up and enjoy!

Just watch out and dont sit on a butterfly or bee.

P.S Colin still has the best lawn I’ve ever seen but Im happy with mine

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13th June Limerick Market :Pelargoniums and Chrysanthemums

june-13-marketHere’s a picture of me at the market today. Love it when its sunny.

See the pelargoniums on the stall.

Today I bought  a bunch of Pelargoniums to use as mother plants for next year and a tray of rooted chrysanthemum cuttings

pelagoniumsI got these from Dennis who has been growing and selling these for many years in the market . He retired last season and was kind enough to provide me with stock for us to start propagating them for next season.

Dennis says that August is the best time to start cuttings from the pelargoniums. He says they like the bit of heat  to help them root better. Take  sideshoots preferably without buds and dip them in rooting hormone powder. Then stick them in pots of seed and potting compost to root.

The chrysanthemums are wonderful old varieties which flower in Autumn and provide great flowers for cutting .I’ll put them out in a bed with rich compost for now.When they finish flowering in Autumn I will take up the roots and put them indoors until spring and then take cuttings to root.

Chrysanthemums

Both need to overwinter undercover,(polytunnel ,windowsill or greenhouse)

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Spinach and other Greens

During the winter my Polytunnel is full of  greens. Four or five varieties of kale , mizuna , mibuna ,  mustard greens, rocket, spinach and swiss chard.  Now its time to clear them out to make room for the tomatos and cucumbers.

The question is what to do with all the greens. I’ve frozen them before but as there is a continuous supply throughout the year, those bags of greens just sit at the bottom of the freezer untill they are freezer burnt and end up thrown out to the chickens.

I need something to use them up, that also hides the taste  as  the kids complain.

I’ve tried quiche .  A hit with adults but not my kids.

So last night we fried up some green shallots and garlic and added greens . we whizzed this up with a tub of fromage frais and then mixed it through pasta.The kids loved it .They ate it so fast we didnt have time for a picture. I think this could also be great on bruchetta or a pizza or as a dip.

Green Pasta Sauce.

2 Green onions or three green shallots

3 big handfuls of Greens. (we used a mix of spinach,kale chard mustard lettuce and brocolli flowers)

3 cloves garlic

Butter for frying approx 1T

1x 250 mg tub fromage frais

roughly chop the greens , garlic and the onions .Fry  in the butter for a few minutes

remove from heat add fromage frais and then whizz  with a blender  until almost smooth.

Voila!  Mix through cooked pasta, season to taste .

Another suggestion for using the greens  is to roughly chop them and fry  until crisp, then season . Have as a snack or with chinese food.( this works really well with cabbage) This is what you get in many chinese restaurants as fried seaweed.

You could also roughly chop greens and  use them to stuff a chicken for roasting. We just tried this. Some of the greens fall out and crisp in the pan in the chicken fat.Yummy . The rest are delicious having been steamed in the cavity of the bird with all the juices .

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Lemon and Coconut Cakes

Yesterday at 4.30 the kids reminded me that they needed to be at the cubscout barbeque at 6. Having forgotten to tell the Scoutleader we were coming I needed to bring something to eke out the food there .Especially since we were bring the Bottomless Pit with us ( the 14 yearold boy). It needed to be fast and use only what was in the house.

We decided on Lemon and Coconut Cakes. This is one of our Secret Family Recipes. Mom used to make these for the Market every week and everyone loved them (even my coconut hating husband) . This is a great recipe as they are fast, simple , not too fancy ,but not plain. They freeze well and hold for about 10 days in an airtight container.


Lemon and Coconut cakes

Lemon and Coconut Cakes

juice and rind of one Lemon

180z selfraising flour( or plain and 3tsp baking powder)

12oz margarine

12oz  sugar

6 eggs

71/2 oz milk

6oz coconut

180 degrees

place lemon rind,flour,baking powder,margarine,sugar,eggs and milk in bowland beat for 2 minutes until glossy. Fold in coconut. Put in greaseproof lined cake pans.

This will make about 4 dozen small cakes or three loaf tin size cakes.You can also put it in a tube pan or any other shape you’ve got.

Small cakes take 12-15 minutes  . Large cakes take about 50 mins

cook untill a dark golden color. Let cool.

Mix 3T  granulated sugar with the lemon juice and drizzle this over the cakes. Then sprinkle them with a bit of coconut. Yum!

If you are feeling a bit more fancy ,use icing sugar with the lemon juice and omit the coconut for a lemon drizzle icing. Or you can frost the cakes with a lemon butter frosting.(dont frost them if you are going to freeze them)

P.S They went down a treat with both the scouts and the parents.

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Simple Salsa Recipe

We took a weekend off from the market in Limerick for a  family wedding in Galway and ended up going to the market in Galway saturday morning. Busmans holiday I guess.

I love Galway market  but we only manage to get to it once a year or so when we are playing hookey from Limerick.

The stalls crammed down one tiny street make it seem so much more vibrant than most markets. There is also such a variety of crafts there ( I bought fabulous handmade socks ,which the sockmonster has now stolen) ,as well as the ususal food stalls available at most markets . Olives ,organic vegetables, breads and cheeses. But Galway always seems to have more exciting foods than other markets. (We have a standing order anytime we are there to pick up smoked eels for my Dad.)

We ate our way around the market with fresh pretzels, hot donuts dusted with cinnamon and cocoa ,Boorwurst sausages and felafels. No smoked eels there that week.

The felafels were fantastic .There was a van there with two  guys cooking felafels .They came with a range of sauces and salads,including a wonderful coriander salsa. After eating donuts and pretzels ,I could only manage a small felafel pita, but it was fantastic.The only time I had made felafels they disintegrated all over my deep fat fryer and were thrown out so it was a joyous new taste sensation.

We met the rest of the wedding party at The Quays pub for coffee and beer then I dragged them back to the market  for more felafels. I had a whole felafel pita this time  .The others  were suitably impressed even my committed carnivore son . If you go to Galway market you need to try these.

This has now started a quest to make the perfect felafel at home. My sister Barbara shallow fries hers to keep them together so we decided to try it that way.

We’ve just made  a felafel mix from Tesco . The felafels tasted good but the mix does not make enough for 5 people and the felafels were a bit soft. We are going to try some of the recipes off the net using uncooked chickpeas later this week.

We think however that we’ve found the perfect salsa recipe.Simple to make with readily available ingredients.

SalsaSimple Salsa

1 can tomatos

1 onion

1 yellow or red pepper

1small red chili

1 good handful of fresh coriander

juice of one lemon

3cloves of garlic

salt and pepper to taste

chop everything finely or whizz everything up  together . Leave it a bit chunky.

Done

How easy was that. If you want  it to be a bit more exciting you could substitute lime juice for lemon and add about a half tespoon of cumin.If you dont have fresh coriander use  parsley or just leave it out .It will still be good.

This is great on felafels but also with mexican food, as a dip and good for barbeques

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Courses This Summer

Courses and workshops in Kitchen Gardening, at our award winning gardens in Ballingarry.

Workshops this year include

  • Vegetable Gardening an introduction
  • Kitchen Garden planning and design
  • Growing undercover in polytunnels, greenhouses and conservatories.
  • Greens throughout the year
  • Kitchen Garden chicken keeping
  • Natural wildlife gardening
  • The complete polytunnel from building to growing
  • Home Preserving.
  • Growing Fruit for smoothies and juice.
  • Intoduction to Beekeeping
  • Learning to work with living willow
  • Design and Build a herb garden
  • The Edible Garden.
  • Basic Hydroponics .

or contact Theresa Storey (theresa at thegreenapron.ie)

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