365 Chepstow day 304

365 Frankendael

This was Frankendael park, Amsterdam as I set off for the UK this morning…

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This is Butterbur, growing in a hedgerow opposite my parent’s Welsh home this afternoon…

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This flower smells intoxicatingly of vanilla or almonds. I love the smell, it reminds me of home and the exciting arrival of spring. The leaves of the plant are said to have been used to wrap up butter in times gone by. It is a sure sign for me that the seasons in this part of Wales are a little ahead of Amsterdam. Butterbur (Pestites vulgaris) has several historical uses, including being a diuretic, helping alleviate migraines and as a useful treatment for wheezing.

Wild garlic cheese balls

Food, Foraging, ,

I’ve been making different types of soft cheese at home and this weekend and wanted to share this incredibly simple recipe. The soft cheese is made from yoghurt and then is infused with wild garlic leaves, fresh from the local park.

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All that you need is:
A cup or two of good quality yoghurt (no added thickners etc, goats or cows is fine),
Cheesecloth, very clean and just scalded (by dunking in boiling hot water for a few seconds),
Olive oil
2 wild garlic leaves, finely chopped (other fresh herbs can be substituted)

To make the yoghurt cheese simply…
1. Pour the yoghurt into the centre of the cheesecloth and pull up the four cloth corners to prevent the yoghurt spilling out.
2. Use a rubber band/clean string etc to tie up the cheesecloth somewhere convenient.
3. Hang it up somewhere clean for about 24 hours, over a bowl so that the drips are collected.
4. After that time you should have a cream cheese consistency, with a milder taste than yoghurt – soft cheese!
5. Scoop out teaspoons of the cheese and form into small balls with your hands.
6. Place in a clean container along  with enough olive oil to cover the balls and of course, the chopped wild garlic.

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7. You can eat it straight away but after a half a day or so, the cheese will become deliciously infused with the wild garlic flavour.
8. If you manage not to use it all up before hand, it should keep well in the fridge for a week.

365 Frankendael day 301

365 Frankendael, ,

Here are a few of the plants, growing in my tree pit today:

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This large leaved plant was a gift as a seed, from Elodie. I can’t transfer the name but it’s a fruiting plant, from Greece, I think. I must check, especially as I notice that birds have moved one of the original seeds to a neighbour’s geveltuin.

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This is a Curry plant, looking and smelling a little like last week’s curry, rather than a fresh tikka masala, but come late sporting this will be a culinary herb to be reckoned with! I love a pinch of the leaves in a salad our cooked into many different dishes. I find the scent fragrant and mildly spicy. Quite delicious and very easy to grow and take cuttings from.

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And lastly today, several easy to multiply bunches of Grape hyacinth, developing their floppy, messy foliage, in preparation for the unique blue flower spikes. I didn’t realise until lately that this popular little plant has some historical uses. None are very interesting to me these days, especially as the bulb is poisonous. But the fact that the flowers are nectar rich and very useful to bees, is interesting.

You’ll also see easy to grow Ivy, in the photo and a strange plastic tube which I’m told, is there to aerate the soil around the young tree roots.

365 Frankendael day 300

365 Frankendael, , ,

A lovely walk through the snowy woods of Frankendael for me today. I picked a few Ramson (Allium ursinum) leaves to make infused olive oil and then wild used that to make garlic bread sticks.

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Apart from Ramsons and trees like these coppiced Willows, the most obvious plants at present are the dry seedheads of Teasel and Figwort.

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For once, I can photograph the pretty Figwort, it usually merges so well with the background. I’m very much looking forward to the spicy smell of this plant in the late spring.

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365 Frankendael day 296

365 Frankendael, River of Herbs,

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Today was the first meeting of the first River of Herbs course. We Al gathered in Oosterpark, sure some wild garlic bread sticks, tried to stay warm and liked at ways to get started with urban herb gardening that can benefit people and pollinating insects. It was so beautiful, snowy, bright and I was amazed that all but a couple of booked-on people turned up!

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Have a look at riverofherbs.org for further information, to download the booklet every one received today and to get involved.

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Here’s a snowy but thriving Hollyhock (Alcea rosea) photo, on the Middenweg as I travelled home from the meeting. I think this of the perfect urban herb for Amsterdam!