How to make an Icebowl for the Summer Table.

As I was making elderflower champagne and cordial this year I was thinking how pretty the flowers were and how I should freeze some in iceblocks to make a pretty addition to our summer drinks.  Then I remembered how back last century I used to make icebowls for the festive table – a simple but stunning look.  I could make an ice bowl using elderflowers and match it with gooseberries for example. What a great way to serve any cold food, fruit, salad, icecream or even cold soups.

I have made one with elderflowers but you can use any edible flower, herb or plant or slices of orange or lemon.  You can get really creative and mix and match colours and shapes.  Some plants you can use are; violas, pansies, borage flowers, herbs, chive flowers, cucumber slices, calendula, lavender, oranges, lemons  and so on.   A great idea for the summer Christmas table for those of us in the southern hemisphere.   If you are eating outdoors this will keep your salads and deserts cool for as long as the course is on but of course the bowl will be melting. No extra dishes to wash though.  Another advantage is that you can make it ahead of time and make as many as you can fit in the freezer.  There are so many combinations you can use so get creative and try this.

What you will need.

Two  bowls - one that will fit inside the other. I used a 25cm enamel bowl with a 21 cm smaller bowl fitted inside. 

Strong sticky tape.   

Tin of beans or similar to weigh second bowl down. 

Skewer to push flowers into position.                                    A couple of ice blocks.

A  jug of water.

Directions.

Clear a space in the freezer first so you can place your bowl on the level until it freezes.

Collect the flowers or herbs that you want to use and rinse them clean.

Place your flower arrangement starting on the bottom of the bowl – arranging out from the centre. 

Lay down the ice blocks on the base of the big bowl so you can sit the second bowl on them. You don’t need to do this but it is a helpful  to keep the bowl in place and stop your plants from floating where you don’t want them.

Tape the 2 bowls together in position. Make the gap about 1 inch or about 2.5 cm apart. The thicker the ice the longer it will last. Experiment to find the size you prefer.

Carefully pour the cold water into the bowl.  Weight top bowl down.  Add more flowers into the sides of the bowls and use your skewer to place them in position.

Freeze overnight.

Once frozen, take out and pop the bowl briefly into a sink of warm water until it comes loose. Same with the top bowl if you need to.   Put into a plastic bag and pop back into the freezer until you need it.

If you want your bowl to be clear boil your water first then cool. 

Some more ideas;

Individual bowls for kids. Get them to make their own. Great for children’s parties with icecream jelly or berries in.  (Imagine lavender icecream served in lavender decorated ice bowls!)

I saw somewhere an icebucket bowl – will try that for my elderflower bubbly. 

Use flowers and decorate to go with your colour theme.

Use cucumber slices and herbs or other vegetables to make ones for salad.

https://www.pinterest.com/cabbagemackay/icebowl-inspiration/  

Garden Notes for the Family Vegetable Garden December

Abundance in the Kitchen Garden

   You should be well into eating from your garden this month – a reward for all the hard work you put in!  Keep picking and eating your fresh produce and keep sowing and planting to ensure a good long season.  Be observant this month too for signs of water stress – it’s better to give the ground a good deep watering once a week than a lot of little sprinkles.  Mulching will continue to be important to keep the weeds at bay and keep any moisture in the soil in.

     Mound up potatoes and if you have access to seaweed, mulch down the rows with seaweed, manure and straw. The beauty of this is that once you have harvested those spuds, you can dig all that mulch into the ground and the soil will  love you for it.  There are so many good things about mulching – it does its job for the season and is then dug into the soil helping to create good structure and adding vital nutrients.   

     If you planted early enough you should have some delicious new potatoes for Christmas – even if you have to bandicoot them by reaching your hand into the row and pinching a few off the main plant, leaving it to continue to grow. New potatoes are different to main crop ones in that they are ready once they start to flower. Pink flowers indicates red varieties and white flowers, white.  Peas traditionally make an appearance at Christmas as well with the oldest and the youngest family members assigned the task of shelling the fesh peas.

    There’s so much going on in the December garden and it’s a busy time. Keep an eye on your plants to watch they don’t get stressed by either too much or too little water.  If you are away over Christmas think about how you can manage the garden. Avoid having seedlings ready to be planted during this time unless you can get them in. Ask a neighbour or a friend to check on the garden in return for some of the harvest. Put pot plants into the shade and make sure they have plenty of water.

Jobs for this Month

Sow:  Keep up succession sowing. Beans, carrots, lettuces, Swedes, turnips, spinach, radishes etc.

Plant: Cabbage, Cauli, corn, celery, leeks, lettuces, spinach, courgettes, pumpkins, capsicums, chillies, tomatoes in a warm spot.

Stake: beans and peas.

Cultivate: Thin beetroot to 15 cm apart. Mound up main crop potatoes. Liquid manure green and fruiting crops such as courgettes, tomatoes etc but hold off on roots and tubers like garlic, onions and potatoes to allow them to start drying off.

Harvest: Garlic – traditionally starts on the longest day (21^st Dec). Stop watering now and harvest when still 6 green leaves per plant.  Pick peas and beans regularly to keep them producing. Eat lots of lettuces, herbs, spinach, potatoes, asparagus (until mid-Dec), strawberries and other soft fruits.

Happy Sheep

Our little flock of sheep have just been blade shorn by an expert - Richard Hore of Oamaru.  He had the choice to use a machine but prefers to blade shear!  A very quiet process and the sheep I am sure enjoyed the gently handling. This pic shows Richard blade shearing but not my sheep - I was not able to be there that day so this one came from a demonstration he did at Totara Estate. The sheep are feeling much better thank you - still got their "Singlets" on as they say about the blade shearing.

Some More Elderflower Recipes.

In the Kitchen with the Professional Countrywoman. 


The hedgerows around our town are billowing with elderflower at the moment and I am so glad we still have hedgerows!  Here's a couple more recipes I will be trying this month. The cordial recipe is from our resident herbalist, Penelope Baldwin, who is currently completing a Bachelor of Culinary Arts at Otago Polytech in Dunedin. I haven't tried it yet so will have a go today and see how it turns out.  I might use sugar as I don't have a lot of honey this year.  

Elderflower Cordial. 

14 elderflower heads

2 organic or spray-free  lemons

1 teaspoon citric acid

2 cup honey (or sugar)

3 cups water

Pick elderflowers on a dry sunny day and shake gently to remove any dirt or insects then separate the flowers from the stalks with a fork into a heat proof bowl  Add the honey/sugar, citric acid and lemon (cut into 5mm slices)Bring the water to a boil then pour over elderflowers, stirring till honey/sugar is dissolved.

Cover bowl and let stand overnight, strain through clean muslin and place into sterilised bottles and store in the fridge

Elderflower and Gooseberry Fool

This is a very traditional  pudding combining some classic tastes of summer. Gooseberries were a Christmas treat and a bit of an acquired faste for us Northland country kids. Grandma would always get some sent up on the train to make tarts for Christmas. I often thought that's how the tart got its name! Now I can grow heaps of them here at 45 degrees South but lemons are another thing altogether.  I need to swap some abundant northern lemons for some abundant southern elderflowers!

You Will Need.

About 10 elderflower heads (fresh as you can)

500g Gooseberries

1/3 cup caster sugar (about 40g)

Lemon Zest – just a strip or a teaspoon of grated lemon peel.

300ml cream.

To Make:

Place flowers, 2 tbsp of the sugar, strip of lemon zest in a pan. Add a little water and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up heat to a simmer and gently cook for 10-15 minutes until the berries have softened and started to break up.

Whiz in food processor or push through sieve to make a puree and test for taste. Add more sugar now if necessary. Leave to cool.

To make the fool: Whip cream and fold into the puree. Put into some beautiful glasses and chill before serving.

I would think that if you didn’t have access to fresh elderflowers then a few drops of elderflower cordial to taste should be a good substitute.

Stir Up Sunday. - Reviving old Christmas traditions.

In the Christmas Kitchen with the Professional Countrywoman. 

Stir Up Sunday is the traditional day to make your Christmas Pudding and this year falls on this coming Sunday 23 November, the Sunday before Advent.  It’s the day where you make your pudding which of course is much nicer after mellowing for the 5 weeks before the big day.  Stir Up Sunday takes it’s name from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer where the prayer for the Sunday before Advent starts with these words;

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Supposedly the cooks or mothers in the congregation would immediately say to themselves “Goodness Gracious – that reminds me – time to stir up the Christmas Pudding!” So off home they would go to get the pudding on.  It was always the day that the family got together to make the pudding; and was an opportunity to show the children how to prepare it and to take turns at stirring the mix and making a wish.  That’s when coins were added too –which is another tradition you may have heard of. I don’t know how many teeth have been broken over the years by crunching on a thruppence but I think I will give this one a miss. Unless you put a $2 coin in, no modern child is going to be that interested and really if you put those in there would be no room for the actual pudding

I think it’s a lovely tradition and more in rhythm with the traditional festival of Christmas - as opposed to Christmas Carols from October onwards in the Malls! In a world where we are losing so many connections with out past this is a good one to revive. So in the few days between now and Sunday make sure you have the ingredients ready for your pudding. Over the years we have collected lots of Christmas themed recipe books which do a great job of getting you in the mood for the Season so I think I will get them out now and start looking at them.  There are lots of recipes out there so check them out.

 In our family it was always my grandmother who made the pudding so I made it my business to learn from her and that mantle has passed to me. I have made a few tweaks (mostly involving brandy) and now have an excellent recipe down pat. 

They do take a bit of attention – it takes 5-6 hours to steam a family size pudding and for many years I made them to sell so would sometimes set the alarm to get up in the night to check on them!     

So this Sunday – get your family together and get your Christmas pudding on the go!

In the November Kitchen Garden.... Dwarf Beans

November is time for the bush or French beans and also the perennial climbing beans.  They do not like the cold so simply won’t germinate before the ground reaches the required temperature. If you happen to have climbing beans like Scarlet Runner planted at the back of your border, you will know that the time is right when they start poking their heads through the ground.

I really like dwarf beans and if you are starting out in the vege patch then this is a good choice for you.  Good for children too as easy to grow and fun to pick.  The seeds are a good size for small fingers plus you don’t need to climb them up anything so no special frames are needed. I also like to do at least 2 different colours – green ones and butter beans which look very pretty on the plate. A very versatile vegetable – great cold in salads or the usual way with your dinner.

The day before sowing you can take the seeds out and soak in a bowl –this should give you a bit of a head start.  Your soil should have been well nourished over winter with plenty of rotted manure or compost added. If not dig over well and add compost and blood and bone before planting. They do like to be fed well.

Make a trench about 2 cm deep and sow the seed about 10 cm apart. Cover with soil to a depth of 2 cm and water.  Do a double row – one of green and one of yellow. They should germinate fairly quickly and if you plant now you should be eating beans in the New Year.  If you have left over seeds then plant a few in pots. These are good to tuck in where others have not germinated of pop into any gaps in the garden.

When the pods are ready start picking and keep picking – they will keep producing beans if you keep harvesting them! The good thing is that you eat beans in many ways and can also freeze them. Cut off each end, slice to your preferred size and blanch for a minute or two in boiling water. Put straight into icy cold water to stop cooking. Drain and pop into serving size portions in a snap lock bag.

Sow another crop in after Christmas to keep the season extended. You can all sorts of gourmet or heirloom beans now and it’s fun to try new varieties or colours. Last year I grew a row of purple ones which looked fabulous on the vine but cooked to a bit of a lack luster colour.  Will try again and experiment with a nicer way to cook!  Look at some of the seed companies on line (like Kings Seeds) or check out the seed stand at your nearest garden centre.

How to take Rose Cuttings.

I have been following a facebook conversation with Honey and Spice

(www.honeyandspice.co.nz/) - a gorgeous little artisan soap company here in coastal Otago – about a beautiful striped rose that had flowered in her garden for the first time. I'm pretty sure the rose is one called "Scentimental" which I have grown from a cutting from my mother's plant.  The question was how to take rose cuttings so I thought I would put up a post about roses and how I take cuttings. 

Back last century I had a lovely rambling country garden north-west of Auckland and had a lot of old fashioned roses. Back then I could identify just about any of them but I have forgotten a lot in the meantime. I still love them and will be planting more on our property. Old fashioned roses do grow easily from cuttings and most actually prefer to grow on their own roots. Plus most are public domain so you won’t be breaking any laws if you take cuttings.  Many old roses would not have survived if we didn’t have enthusiasts like Toni Sylvester and Nancy Steen (among many) taking cuttings from cemeteries and old gardens.  Most modern roses you buy from shops are grafted onto suitable root stock. However it is fun to give it a go and so here’s what I do.

I take cuttings about the size of a pencil in February once the wood is semi-ripened.  Take half a dozen or so and cut the base on an angle and the top square. Trim the top to about a centimetre from a bud. I do use rooting hormone now but didn’t always. Some people use willow-steeped water and apparently you can use potatoes as well. Haven’t heard of that one but sounds like its worth a try!  I take several cuttings at a time because not only does the probability of success improve but some kind of chemical reaction takes place that increases the strike rate.  Maybe they share hormones. Dip the end in the rooting hormone and push into a pot of riversand cutting mix or you can use potting mix too. I then put a plastic shopping bag over the whole lot (to ensure the right humidity), put the pot into an icecream container, water it and leave it in a sheltered patch near the potting table. I have quite good success from that method. My mother used to stick them in the ground by the outdoor tap in a bit of shade and had good success with that. Nothing to lose so try it!

Striped roses have always been a favourite for me.  I love the old paintings with striped roses in and one of my favourite fabrics is a Sanderson print with roses just like that. There are a few classic old striped roses like Rosa Mundi and others. Scentimental is a more modern one which grows more like a pillar rose here in NZ. I have seen in climbing up a big shrub in a garden near here. 

Elderflower Champagne and Rhubarb Champagne

About a month ago after a day's hard work in the vege patch, I found a leftover bottle of last year's batch of Elderflower bubbly.  After a suitable chilling time it was opened and found to be very delicious. There was a bit of a fight over who was going to have the last little drop. My friend Jim who is a cider maker said it was surprising that it was still nice - he would have expected it to be off by then.  Anyway - it was delicious. Elderflower is such a refreshing, light and summery drink and now is the time to get some made in time for Christmas. I posted this recipe last year it's worth a re-post 

For people who don't have access to elderflowers we can certainly try sending you some - email me if you want a package. 

Elderflower Champagne

For this recipe you will need 7 large Elderflower heads –about the size of a lunch plate or saucer, a clean plastic bucket and some bottles. Start with recycled small sized fizzy drink bottles and lids.  (750ml or less) 

Dissolve 500g sugar in 2 litres of hot water in your clean plastic bucket.

Add 2 and a half litres of cold water.

Add 2 tablespoons of white or cider vinegar plus the juice of 2 lemons.

Add flowers

Leave in a covered container for 24 hours. The timing is important – try to be exact.

After the 24 hours is up, strain and bottle.  

Put into plastic or glass drink bottles that you have saved.  750mls or less preferable.

Leave in a cool dark place for 6 weeks.

Chill before serving. Enjoy.

Rhubarb Champagne

In a bucket dissolve 1 kg of sugar in 2 litres boiling water.

Add 1 kg finely chopped rhubarb, 2 roughly chopped lemons (peels, pips and all)

Add 175 mls apple cider vinegar.

Top up with 4 litres cold water.

Cover bucket with a clean tea towel or lid and stand for 3 days stirring from time to time.

Strain through muslin cloth.

You can add colour if you want but I found the soft pink colour rather nice. Beetroot would be the most natural colour to add.   

Pour into clean plastic bottles  and seal. Chill before opening.

This recipe smells gorgeous with the lemons added.