... 5 potatoes, 6 potatoes, 7 potatoes, More!

On April afternoons the birds are telling their own little story through song and there is promise in the air. It always reminds me of a period when I would finish middle school and sit in my mother's lean-to greenhouse planning things to grow. I liked the earthy fragrance but kept away once she grew tomatoes and geraniums as I didn't like the smell.

Since having a garden of my own I have always had, at the very least, a well stocked herb garden and sometimes pots of tomatoes, strawberries and chillis on the go. A few years ago I developed a proper garden and grew potatoes, onions, beans, garlic, courgettes, beetroot, radishes and salad leaves. That garden is now buried under a lovely patio but I have missed tripping out into the garden and snipping or digging up bits for tea.

Suburban gardening really took off during the war when needs must and even in the 1950s when there was still rationing. In the 1960s people had more leisure time and gardening became a hobby. Greenhouses were a popular addition to the garden and therefore more tomatoes were home grown. In the 1970s the repertoire included hot peppers which were essential for the food of the moment; chilli con carne! During the 1980s this became courgettes for ratatouille and in the nineties butternut squash. More recently rocket and spinach have been popular to grow for spicy salads and the cute baby veg is up there too.

This year I have decided to claim back a little piece of land and for the first year will grow potatoes as this helps to improve the soil. They are currently standing to attention in old egg boxes whilst they sprout (known as chitting) and soon I shall be able to plant them out, water and earth-up regularly before harvesting in the summer. When cooked they will be delicious with melted butter and chopped mint. Not counted as one of my five-a-day but a nutritious and tasty accompaniment.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness!

The Food Standards Agency launched the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme 5 years ago. This is a green and black sign which is displayed in the windows of food businesses for all to see and rates their hygiene on a scale of 1 - 5; 1 needing improvement and 5 being the top rating. This is useful when going into any eatery.

Not that I'm paranoid ... Or am I? I've just boarded the homeward train at Kings Cross and the first thing I did was to get the hand gel out as if to wash the smog of the Big Smoke off my hands! A few years ago I might have used a baby wipe but what happened in the years prior to babies? A quick visit to the washroom presumably.

When our children were tiny a friend of mine used to spoonfeed her son whilst wearing rubber gloves! She couldn't bear the mess. He then grew up wanting his hands washing and wiping regularly. No bad thing - I could never bear grubby boy fingers! When asked to bake for primary school fairs I would provide my famous flapjack but then buy it back as you never knew who'd made what! I have observed, first hand, children dipping their hands into school cookery. They are made to wash their hands initially but the temptation to pick and scratch ears, noses and butts proves too much for some children.

When I was young my grandma used to let me make concoctions which were basically any store cupboard basics mixed together in her old sugar bowl. In would go the Ready brek, sugar, flour, drinking chocolate ...whatever! I would pretend to cook it before offering it to poor old grandad! The other food memory of my grandparents is regularly going for Sunday tea and always eating tinned strawberries with Carnation cream. These would be stirred together and declared pink whilst grandma sagely nodded her head and wondered if I could stir them back to their original red and cream.

She really was a wise old owl. Her motto was "a little speck of dirt never hurt anyone." I'd like to think she was right but, just in case, I'll keep the hand gel handy!

Spiralling out of control!

In January I sneered at spiralisers for being a gadget fad. Now comes confession time. As of Mothers Day I have been the proud owner of my very own giant pencil sharpener (at least that's what it looks like!) Actually mine is quite a small version so whilst it handles a courgette quite well, I'm not sure how it would fare against a potato or squash.

I used the recipe given in my blog Pasta Zucchini dated 17/5/15 but used more courgette and no pasta. It was a little aquatic but nothing that a good draining wouldn't sort and it did taste delicious. Whilst I'm definitely not planning a trip to Marbella, it did cut out the carbohydrates from that meal!

Easter Hymnal to Easter Simnel!

Happy Easter! I have enjoyed a family gathering including an exciting Egg Hunt, an Easter Afternoon Tea with friends and, less enjoyably, a 10k run through local woods. The carrot on the end of the stick became a Chocolate Easter Egg both in my imagination and, thankfully, in reality.

I have baked Easter egg-shaped biscuits, rocky road nests and, for the first time, Simnel Cake.

Simnel cake has been eaten since Medieval Days when people would make a pilgrimage to the mother church of their parishes on Mothering Sunday (4th Sunday in Lent). It was later made by young girls in service for Mothering Sunday and taken home to their mothers as a gift. Nowadays it is synonymous with Easter.

The cake originally contained ingredients which could not be eaten during Lent. It is basically a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle which is baked and oozes almond flavour throughout. The cake is then topped with a layer of marzipan and decorated with marzipan balls to depict the disciples. I have done mine with 11 apostles, leaving out Judas, 'though some cakes include him (making 12) and some include Jesus (making 13). The marzipan topping is then (bizarrely) lightly toasted. 

Take a Walk on the Wild Side!

Today is the first day of Spring and with it comes a new food season. Think Jersey potatoes, salad rocket, watercress, Spring greens, asparagus, kale, spinach, salad onions, purple sprouting broccoli ...

Yum - so much to look forward to.

Some of our seasonal greens can be foraged from our woods and hedgerows at this time of year. Nettles make a wonderful soup (once you have cooked the sting out of their tale!) Another versatile food bursting with goodness is the common Wild Garlic. It is a member of the allium family and the pretty white flowers and broad pointy leaves can both be used in endless ways. Like spinach, the leaves can be wilted and popped in to risotto, soup, omelettes or served as a side vegetable. The flowers can be sprinkled in to salads to give a gentle hint of flavour in much the same way chive flowers do in summer. 

A lovely way of using wild garlic is in hummus by whizzing together a handful of chopped leaves with the usual ingredients of chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and salt.

Another idea is to make wild garlic pesto by whizzing together with pine nuts and olive oil (taste and add regular garlic if too mild in flavour).

It is thought that by eating the leaves and flowers, rather than the bulb, that this won't cause bad breath. I'll leave you to come to your own conclusions! 

Try these freebie treats - it's sure to put a spring in your step!

Service with a Smile!

Sitting happily in the passenger seat on a motorway journey this week, the windscreen wipers doing their best to obliterate the oncoming torrent, I gazed out of the window at the scenery, lampposts and signs rushing by. I was struck by the signage for motorway services which now inform drivers of extras,  ie the addition of Costa, Starbucks, M&S, Waitrose etc. Unless drivers are jiggling in their seats or passengers are crossing their legs, one has the luxury of driving the extra mile to reach the destination of choice.

My favourite service station has to be Tebay services near Penrith with its pond-side restaurant and home cooked, locally sourced food. It is the only family run service station and now has a sister site near Gloucester. NB Tebay is a real word. I am from Yorkshire and there are lots of Peter Kay jokes about t-internet. This isn't one about t'ebay!

My childhood motoring memories were of Granada Service Stations which ran from the 1960s until 2001. In the 1960s Service Stations had silver service restaurants (without alcohol) to meet the demand of more people being on the road and the introduction of the Good Food Guide. A far cry from today's fast food offerings.

Granada did, of course, diversify, providing the ITV for the North West, renting TV equipment and working with small hotel chains. 

When I was ten or so, my father bought his first brand-new car; a Ford Granada. At school that year we were learning about pie-charts and the boys carried out a survey on cars. When assessing their information and slicing up their pie, the percentage of Granada owners was deemed too small. The teacher asked us to put up our hand if we were the Granada owner. My hand went up, along with that of my friend Jane. "Ah, two owners?" the teacher quizzed, "I think we'll just put them in with the other Fords". Jane was mortified. Theirs wasn't a Ford but it was a Granada ... A Granada Rental Van!

Travelling around the country and filling up at stations was a joy as a child. There were football coins, Olympic stickers and Green Shield Stamps to be collected. My father had so many Green Shield Stamps that as he delivered his speech on my sister' wedding day, he gave her away ... With Green Shield Stamps!

Fair and square!

Martin Luther King Jr famously said "Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world." 

Fairtrade tell us, shockingly, that there are times of the year when many people who grow the food we eat for breakfast can't feed their own families.

We are currently in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight and the message this year is to support farmers worldwide with their "Sit down for breakfast, stand up for farmers" strapline. This could be as easy as buying and using Fairtrade coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas, surely something we could all do. Personally I'm going to take part this year and, hopefully, not just for a fortnight. I regularly buy Fairtrade bananas but haven't taken much notice of whether other products carry the logo or not. I do recall that last year even the banana sales were down in some supermarkets.

The Fairtrade Foundation is a movement for change, ensuring that farmers and workers in developing countries get fairer trading conditions and producers have opportunities to invest in businesses and communities for a sustainable future. It is a registered charity and has been active for over 20 years. 

I have just had a quick rummage through my cupboards looking for the Fairtrade logo on my produce. Sadly it wasn't on many of my products 'though I did find it on this ...

... My Cadburys Dairy Milk ... Fair AND Square!