Oat Harvest

The oats I planted back in autumn were finally ready for harvest. Last Sunday there was no well-muscled, bare-chested, god-like young man wielding a scythe available (as if!), so a chubby woman in her mid-forties attacked the oat patch with a pair of kitchen snips LOL! Well, it was only a small patch . . .

The result was a couple of boxes full of oat sheaves (as pictured). The oats are hanging upside down for the moment and in a couple of weeks when my exams are over, I'll set about threshing them to extract the grain. Not quite sure how as yet, but it should be good post-exam therapy.

After the harvest, I dug over the patch, putting the residue of the stalks onto the potato patch in the next bed - instant mulch! Interestingly, the roots on the oat stalks were only about 4cm (1.5") long (maximum), so oats are obviously very shallow rooted. The soil in the bed where the oats grew was quite fine and looked somewhat depleted, so I dug in some cow manure.

The patch now has some "seedless" watermelon seeds in it. We saved them from a watermelon we purchased and they were plump and brown, so looked to be fertile. Does anyone know whether these will grow? I thought I'd give them a couple of weeks and if they don't sprout, I'll plant something else there - maybe some other watermelon seeds.

love and light
naturewitch

Winter Solstice, Calendula, Oat Cakes and Corn Chips

This weekend, yesterday morning in fact, was the Winter Solstice. So good to know that the days will be getting longer now and spring will be here in no time. In celebration, I dug over a new area of the garden in preparation for planting Calendula there soon. It is in a lovely sunny spot and will form a nice little patch of flowers for the bees (when I get them), as well as providing blossoms for ointments and salads.

I've been using oats a lot lately in my cooking and my sister gave me a recipe for Aberdeen Oat Cakes, which I will share with you:
Place 250g fine oatmeal in a heat proof bowl, add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt. Melt 50g butter in another pot or heat proof container and make up to 300ml with boiling water. Stir boiling water and butter into the oatmeal to form a stiff mix. Leave until cool, then roll out, cut into squares and bake in a moderate oven (180C) until crisp. Lovely!

Having had success with the oat cakes, I thought I would apply the same principle to corn meal to make Corn Chips. I mixed corn meal 50/50 with polenta (to get the equivalent of freshly ground whole corn type meal). I used oil instead of butter and needed to make the water/oil mix up to 350ml. The dough was rolled out really thinly and it worked! The only problem with these corn chips is that they went soggy after a couple of days in a container, but a little while back in the oven refreshed them. However, I would recommend eating these on the day they are made - I think they were better then.

love and light
naturewitch

In the Garden Today

It's a bit overcast and chilly outside today, but I did have a little visit to my garden to check on it. The oats have now emerged (at least I hope they are oats and not sprouted grass seed!). The peas (Green Feast and Red Flowering) are starting to break through the soil and the Asian greens are ready for eating, along with the cauliflower and broccoli. The maize is continuing to struggle on and some of the cobs are looking promising, although it must be hard for them just now.

I also took a couple of photos of my fur-children and have posted them in the sidebar. They love being out in the garden with me and are great companions.

love and light
naturewitch

Today in the Garden

I am, as ever, thankful for the bounties supplied by my garden. A couple of months ago, I cut a couple of cauliflowers from their stems and didn't remove the rest of the plant. The result is that they have now sprouted a few mini caulis each. The biggest one (pictured) is now about 12cm across and I am looking forward to harvesting it very soon.

Meanwhile, the baby broccoli plants are getting a move on and the biggest head (pictured) is now about 10cm across. So, soon we will be starting on our winter pig-out on broccoli.

This morning, I also picked a colander-full of tomatoes, still surviving even though we've had a couple of light frosts now. And amaizingly (pun intended), the maize is still alive and the little cobs are starting to fill. I will definitely be planting it earlier next season.

I also dug over a new patch this morning and planted some oats and the old costata zucchinis, which produced so brilliantly this year, were cleared to make way for some Yakumo Giant snow peas.

love and light
naturewitch