Herbs!

My success at planting seeds and them growing into flourishing herb plants is not my forte.  However, I've done well with dill, parsley & chives.

It was extremely hot yesterday so didn't want to spend too much time at the cooker - so boiled new potatoes, fresh broad beans then pan fried haddock in butter before adding the dill, parsley & chives from my garden.  Squeeze of lemon.  Delicious and fresh!

Next year I'm determined that the new potatoes and broad beans will be from my garden!

Composting over the years

Growing up in a large city we had a medium sized garden.  I recall blackberry bushes growing, rhubarb and mint amongst some of the fresh produce my father grew.  He was obsessed with compost and still is to this day. 

Vegetable peelings were not allowed in the kitchen bin, we had a separate box for those.  Tea bags and eggshells were added too.  The priceless offerings were added to grass clippings and weeds at the bottom of the garden.  He built a compost bin himself from spare pieces of wood, every weekend he would turn the compost over which was used to the cultivate our garden which always looked fabulous.

It's only now I have followed in his footsteps by having a vegetable peelings box in the kitchen whilst slowly building a compost heap at the bottom of the garden.

Edible Flowers

My first taste of a flower was on a holiday to Italy a few years ago.   It was a sensational summer - a group of us their mid 20s - we would party in Camden until the sun came up!  One of the girls always visited her family in Italy for the month of August - myself and another friend were invited along for two weeks.

As well as the amazing countryside in the hills above Rome, the sun bronzed Italian men!! the food was amazing - so fresh & simple.  Her mother was a fantastic cook taking many of the fresh ingredients from her own garden.  My favourite dish was shallow fried courgette flowers.  They were so delicate to look at and eat.

(Picture of courgette flower from BBC Food).

Now flowers have made their way into salads on the shelves of some of the UK supermarkets - they certainly look really pretty - violas and nasturtiums nested amongst crisp leaves.

(Nasturtiums on attractively composed salad (Photo by Sancho Papa - CC-BY)

I have used flowers or essence of flower in my cooking before - chive flowers, rose petals, rose essence in a rhubarb crumble.  And I just adore violet and rose cream chocolates!

Green Ripples

Green Living! - Two words for such a broad comment. It means different things to different people.

I'm not "green" per se but I hold a huge respect for our planet. There is nothing so soothing as watching the sun set against an ocean or the trees swaying on a warm summers evening, listening to bird song or watching an electric storm. I do wonder at the diversity on earth.

It has been said so many times before but just to repeat the mantra of "if we each do our bit....". By dropping a small green leaf we can send green ripples to others to help our planet slow down the current cycle of climate change.

The Green Living Today blog is about the small things I do, have heard or read about that I hope will help preserve our wonderful planet.

new to blogging

new to blogging - tips & hints please.