End of Season BBQ

Minnowburn End of Season Social BBQ

Saturday 3^rd of September 2011

@ 3p.m

Live Music

Vegetable competition

Best Plot Awards

Bring your own food and Drink

All family and friends

of MCA welcome!!!

make cookies while it rains

My allotment may not be the most productive as I am weak and cannot weed out flowers especially if they seed themselves, therefore it is covered in callendula marigolds,sunflowers and poppies. I've been told poppy seeds are great for baking with. As I am useless at bread, time to get out the old family favourite cookie recipe.

Recipe makes loads and can be adapted - raisins, chocolate, berries etc, etc

225g unsalted butter, softened

375g light brown sugar

50g caster sugar

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

400g plain flour

2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp poppy seeds

Oven 170C (150C fan) 12-14 minutes.

Cream butter and sugars in large bowl along with vanilla extract. Beat in eggs one at a time. Sift in flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add poppy seeds, collected from site when thouroughly dry, and mix well. Spoon onto a lightly greased baking tray - be careful, a little dollop expands so 9- 12 dessert spoons or 6 -9 tablespoons on large tray. Bake until barey puffed and starting to colour at edges, 12 - 14 minutes. Freeze surplus dough, in logs and slice off when required. Excellent cooked or uncooked with ice cream.

Shall not be making chocolate beetroot muffins just yet - beetroot crop failed. Harvested some rather small and rather tough beetroot, which dyed my only good top. My lesson for not watering enough...

Lorna mca

strawberry jam





Strawberry season, at least for some of us is over. So wether you've dug them all up and brought them home in the back of the car or left the tangled mess of runners to pot up another day I hope you had the sense to make some stawberry jam.

'farewell dear strawberries its home time'

Despite my own crop being scant I very cunningly got my hands on a huge haul by offering to water a fellow gardeners plot while they were on holiday. They just so happened to have amazing strawberries, yummy yummy strawberry jam!

Lorna mca

Homework

Since it has basically rained non-stop since Tuesday night its time to get some homework done. MCA have been asked to attend an event in October hosted by the National Trust at Mount Stewart, 'Food Glorious Food'. After weeks of washing and disinfecting pots its time to fill them with the help of my 2 year old daughter, who is really helpful and quite good, though alas, we lost some spring cabbage seedlings.

At least I've been able to collect rainwater, its supposedly the best for watering young seedlings. After all that hunching over pots and hands in water, soil and gloves, I would love to get myself down to Irish Seed Savers based in Co Clare for their herbal spa workshop.. wonder would they come to mca sometime...

http://store.irishseedsavers.ie/Herbal_spa_day_1_day_workshop_p/1212.htm

Lorna and Eva mca

Delightful Rhubarb & Fruit Crumble Sundays Dessert

I would just like to share my favourite use of Rhubarb from my allotment 

this dish I make on a regular basis as I am not the biggest fan of Rhubarb on its own,

I have improvised by adding other fruits to the mix to make it not so Rhubarby but more sweet and tasty. 

Recipe

Ingredients:

Rhubarb 2-3 stalks

Strawberries (or any fruit of your choice raspberries, tinned pears in winter)

100 g Sugar (can be adapted to suit personal preference)

200 g Plain Flour or gluten free plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

100g margarine

Method:

1. Chop rhubarb and strawberries/fruit up into baking dish. Sprinkle 50g of sugar over fruit, you can add more if you like it sweeter but the fruit adds natural sweetness.

2. Crumble: Sieve 200 g of plain flour and salt into a bowl or food processor with sharp blade. Chop margarine into the flour using a knife and rub between fingers or whiz up in food processor until mixture looks like fine bread crumbs.

3. Add 50 g of sugar to crumble mix and mix up. Scatter over chopped rhubarb and strawberries.

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 5 for 40 minutes. Check to make sure crumble is golden brown and rhubarb and fruit mixture is bubbling up the sides. Remove from oven and allow to cool until warm. Serve with cream/ice cream.

Fidelma Maher

MCA 

 

When slugs attack...

ATTACK BACK, naturally
This year the National Trust kindly provided us with an automatic watering system for our polytunnel. It does a great job; plants are provided with water, automatically, all day long and it is a moist environment - perfect for slugs! They have particulary liked nibbling the chilli plants and the aubergines have suffered too. 
To defend the chillies, copper tape has been put around pots with the bottoms cut out. These are then placed over the plant. Slugs hate copper, it sends an electic shock through their slimey bodies when they come in contact with it.

A different tactic has been used with the aubergines, double defences - chives and sharp sand. Slugs produce mucus or slime to move so sharp or dry objects cause them to over produce slime and exhaust themselves. Onions and members of the onion family are a long used natural deterrent for pests but will they defend the aubergines?

Lorna mca

We all work together

At mca, we all work together. All ages take part in looking after the site with the best of tools. We are lucky to have such a beautiful place to be part of.

Lorna and Arthur mca