There were plenty of delicious bright red tomatoes in the garden this year, of all shapes and sizes. But as the evenings drew in and the record breaking, baking summer finally cooled off, ripening slowed, and for tomatoes was pretty much over. With a mild reprise even in mid November, ripening can continue, if slowly. But with this mild and often damp weather there is the increasing risk of late tomato blight spoiling those last pickings…
Cooking
Spring garden meet up and pizza firing
After one of the coldest and wettest Springs on record, optimistic Shrubland gardeners met up to survey the winter damage and plan their year ahead. There was a good sort out of the seed box, and liberal swapping of seedlings and plants between plot holders. After a long day, cheer was provided by a test firing of the community’s new wood fired pizza oven.
Preserving vegetables
As part of the Capital Growth’s Urban Harvest, Shrubland community garden and kitchen held a preserving vegetable session in the garden. Residents led on different types of preserving. There was preserving in oil, by fermentation, in vinegar and heat.
Pumpkin festival
Shrubland community garden and kitchen held a pumpkin festival to highlight all the delicious dishes we can make using pumpkins. So next time, you carve a pumpkin use the flesh … Read more
Hackney Winter Night Shelter – Volunteer Lunch
Shruland TRA hosted a Hackney Winter Night Shelter thank you lunch for their volunteers at the weekend. Over 40 pizzas were baked in the community’s wood fired pizza oven and were complimented by fresh salads grown in the garden.
Hackney Winter Night Shelter (HWNS) is a volunteer-run project that provides temporary accommodation for homeless people seven nights per week during the coldest months of the year.
Ratatouille
The children’s gardening club organised a ratatouille event for the children who have been involved in growing vegetables in the children’s box. Six children attended. They harvested some vegetables and … Read more
Spanish: Gazpacho soup and tortilla
Fernando got everyone involved in chopping and straining the tomatoes for the Gazpacho soup, which is a cold soup. In total we chopped and strained 5 kilos of tomatoes and … Read more
English: homemade mayonnaise with radishes and courgette fritters with a coriander and lime dressing
Piers was the chef for this session, using seasonal vegetables from the garden. Piers has experience as a sous chef at River Cottage so it was great to see him … Read more
Gujurati: Vegetarian Pullao rice and Kadhi
On a warm Saturday afternoon Bhavna and Nirmala cooked up some traditional recipes from Gujarat. They made vegetarian Pullao rice and Kadhi which is a warm yoghurt dish with spices. … Read more
Community Kitchen
The community kitchen was funded through the Big Lottery Celebrate England fund. The vision of the community kitchen is to build on the success of the community garden by bringing … Read more
Gardening club – harvest, meet and eat session
On a very hot Sunday afternoon, the gardening club met to harvest vegetables from the community plot and to turn them into lunch. Marjon led this session with the help … Read more
Trial session: warm lentil hummus and couscous salad
The first session, on 22 June, we held the the first session to test the concept of the mobile kitchen unit for cooking in the garden. The session was led … Read more
Cooking and growing sessions
A series of cooking sessions, part of the cooking and growing project, is now underway, starting on Saturday 24th June and culminating with the street food festival on 23rd July. … Read more
Peter cooks up a dream
When Shrubland TRA treasurer Peter Jarvis set about his growbox early in spring 2016, he had a vision: onions, potatoes, leeks, celeriac, some fresh herbs, all grown in his growbox … Read more