 26 April 2025 (Saturday)
We were both up early; me at my desk very early to edit together yesterday's A Week at the Plot footage and upload to Planet Vegetaria. Sunday Chat filming day, and whilst Richard started editing it together I made lunch of homemade hummus - a staple in our house which freezes REALLY well! I’ve popped my recipe below. It’s also so easy, and you can use your own cooked chickpeas instead of a tin, just ensure if they’ve been frozen they are well defrosted. After lunch, I was at the plot doing the usual watering, checking on germination, tidying and weeding… at the end of my work there, sitting on my wooden chair outside the shed and mulling wending my way home, I checked the time on my phone… 5:03pm. My eye wandered to my left, spying the overgrown flower border bed… Into the shed I went, and grabbing my kneeler, putting my gloves back on, and laying my hands on a big 30l tub, I got to work. Half an hour later the bed looked very much better - at least I can now see the plants for the weeds! LOTS of weeds still to pull, and especially sturdy roots of tufted grasses and that pernicious Cinquefoil, though I can take my time doing some each week. It will never be perfect, though in reality very, very few things ever are! Whilst cooking supper I read another chapter or two of The Beautiful Mystery. I’m now at that stage where I’m keen to finish it, though don’t want to as I’ve enjoyed reading it so much - a bit like when you meet a friend irregularly and after hours of chat you know you need to leave and make your way home, though at the same time you want to stay and chat for just that little bit longer. If youi don't know the Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, I highly recommend them! Supper was followed by some TV, and we stayed up late, both fully engaged watching a fab series called 40 Hidden Music Treasures at the BBC… we watched volume two and there's volume three too, so two others to watch! Happy Days!! My Hummus Recipe I drained two cans of chickpeas very well, and added them to our food processor (keep a few tablespoons of the liquid - aquafaba - for if you want to use any later) and four cloves of garlic, roughly chopped. I actually used a block of garlic from the freezer - I heated it through in the microwave to bring it to a steam, just because I don’t like eating vegetables from the freezer without cooking them. In next, one tablespoon of Marigold bouillon powder (use a teaspoon of salt if you prefer) and five tablespoons of lemon juice (love fresh lemons, though I always have a large bottle of bought lemon juice in the fridge, which I use for this). If you like your hummus less lemony use only four, and if you like it extra lemony use six! Blitz this all up in the processor, or mash with a fork if you are doing by hand - doing this by hand you can keep this as chunky as you wish, or not, though it will never be smooth like you get in the shops. I’ve not used a stick blender for this, though I would be interested to know how it works so please let me know, or I’ll give it a go myself at some point. The fridge always has a large tub of tahini, which is sesame paste, and four generous tablespoons goes in, and I blitz again (or carry on mixing and mashing if doing by hand). Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl to ensure all is incorporated, and blitz till smooth, or until you have the texture you wish. If you like your hummus thinner, add some more lemon juice or a tablespoon or two of the drained aquafaba from the can. I portion this up into plastic Tupperware or similar and freeze; I do 150g servings for two. It will keep in the fridge happily for several days, and in the freezer for several months. In the summer if I take out a tub at breakfast it's defrosted by lunch, and I give it a good stir. In the winter it might need a quick wizz on Defrost in a microwave, or bring it out the day before and pop in the fridge to fully defrost. I don't have a photo - though when I find one or make the next batch I will add! Weather: Overcast start to the day, and remained so much of the day with the afternoon being bright and much warmer. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt and sultanas Lunch: Homemade Hummus, Pitta, carrot batons, cucumber slices and a little leftover coleslaw Supper: Lidl Vegan Cumberland Sausage, roasted carrot, parsnips, onion and potato wedges with an instant onion gravy
4 Comments
 19 February (Wednesday)
One of the staff at For Earth's Sake who regularly does a few days each week, always including Wednesday, is now travelling through India for 3 months or so. This means Vanessa's covering in the shop more than usual; the impact of this is that she and I need to discuss things and get a morning's work done or at least planned before the she needs to go over the road, put out the newly delivered fruit and veg and open the shop, ergo, I'm up early and at my desk, getting on with work work. I'm definitely still feeling under the weather, and even though I was hoping to get down to the plot this afternoon to continue with the soft fruit bed I accidentally started doing yesterday, even early on I'm not sure that it’s actually going to happen. A full morning at my desk, sending out loads of emails, setting about planning socials, and also much other work including pricing, stock checks, blah, blah, blah. We've also decided to up the ante on our socials for both For Earth’s Sake and the Great Green Barn. Of course, Richard’s now more free generally than he was so what we're going to do is plan mini videos for him to film... of Vanessa and the shop and the barn. We can then have these in the can (so to speak) and schedule a couple of regular socials each week for the next month or so. It seems to make sense that we do this and utilise Richard's skills and time. He’ll come down and do a full day with me and then spend two further days editing and getting things ready to go on to socials. We've decided on a day for next week, so we'll see how it goes. In the afternoon, with a very full day's work work already done in the morning, I decide to take some unread library books I have back at the same time as I take some due books back. I'm in a funny time at the moment where I'm reading regularly - a few chapters before bed and on a Sunday. However, it is a fact that many books that I’ve reserved to read have all become available at once, or at least this month. Clearly, in my view at least, it's unfair to hang on to books and just renew them and renew them; if I'm five or six or seven or even eight weeks off of reading a book why hang on to it, or take away a new one that's arrived? I'm sure other people don't feel the same way and will hang on and renew books until the date they cannot renew them further, eventually returning them unread - raised eyebrows! Of course, this is simply selfish and denies others the opportunity to read them in the time they've been hung on to! Now, as the library is in the same area as Lidl, I decide to do a full round and go to the library, then popping into Lidl to do a small but not minor shop on the way back. I don't take Fenella to Lidl. 95% of the time choosing to walk there with my backpack to do the shopping. However, by the time I was walking back with a heavy-ish rucksack and another bag in my hand I was definitely feeling exhausted, and it dawned on me yet again that I need to pace myself and think about balance... and how I'd really overdone that soft fruit bed work at the plot yesterday. The rest of the afternoon I spent catching up on things with Vivi by phone and seeing where she is on her home move. I also made further notes, planning more work work at my desk, getting a few emails off in between times, and further thinking of those FES and GGB socials. Oh, and about twenty minutes ago as I was typing this I got an email from our local library to say that another book I’d reserved had arrived and was ready for collection… Weather: It’s around 6°. The sun’s out quite a bit today, though still it feels cold. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt and a banana Lunch: Leftover Red Cabbage Coleslaw, pitta, hummus and a tinned if soup mixed with some leftover soup from a day or so ago Supper: Linda McCartney Burger (I thought they were the mozzarella ones, though they weren't), Red Cabbage Coleslaw and a slice of Lidl pumpernickel loaf. Early start at my desk despite being a bit blurry eyed…
Spent half an hour at the end of my work work day finishing off Louise Penny's A Trick of the Light - she is such a great writer of community, place and murderous twists. Weather: Cold, though that blanket has lifted a tad and we have sun breaking through a watery sky from mid-morning. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, Yogurt, Banana Lunch: Squash & Red Lentil Soup, Lidl Wrap, Quorn Ham, remains of last night’s grated salad with some mayo. Supper: Smoked Tofu & Red Kidney Bean Burger (again, recipe to follow after a tweak), Red Cabbage Coleslaw, Lidl German Bread slice |
Paul SavidentFollowing on from A Guernsey Gardener in London, I've decided to try and write a regular blog, and we'll see how it AND 2025 go! Archives
May 2025
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed