Planting Our Future Food.

Ed and I have been working hard at the allotment this weekend, I thought I would show you what we have been planting and what is growing. It is so exciting to see the first few plants poking their heads out of the soil. 

The garlic and the salad leaves have survived through the harsh weather. The salad seeds even had a heavy snow on them a couple of days after I planted them, so I was really surprised to see they were growing. I planted my sweetcorn in toilet roll tubes, sweetcorn gets very grumpy if you disturb the roots of young plants so by planting them in toilet roll tubes it means you can plant them straight into the ground when they have been hardened off. The pea shoots and mustard white are a chic edition to salads and they are so cheap to grow, you can even grow these on windowsills. (All the seeds shown were covered with compost after these photos were taken otherwise the seeds would not germinate.) I also planted a row of peas outside, some rocket, spinach, turnips and lettuce. Can't wait for us to have our first salad from our allotment!

Hope you have had a wicked weekend, we are off to a BBQ in a bit *yey*.

xkx

Tuesday Teacup - Lapsang Souchong.

Lapsang Souchong is a tea with a very distinctive flavour, I like to think of it as the cowboy of the tea world because it is bold, smokey and untameable. I have to admit to you that I am not a massive fan of this tea, I do like it occasionally but I find the flavour just too much. Ed, on the other hand, loves this tea. Lapsang Souchong is made from the leaves a few steps down from the bud, it gains its unique flavour from the drying process. Usually tea is air dried but this is smoked above pine wood fires, pretty special huh?

I used an infuser to brew this tea, a teaspoon of leaves is more than adequate to make a tasty cup. I bring the water to the boil, leave for a little while to cool then I pour the water into a cup with the infuser. I brew this tea for about 2-3 minutes, I find that this makes quite a robust tasting drink, just taste as you go to find the right strength for you. I would strongly advice not putting milk with Lapsang, would you bathe a cowboy in milk?

This tea embodies everything that I love about tea culture, it just makes me feel so special. When I buy good quality tea I can just imagine all the care that has gone into getting this simple pleasure into my cup. And it can be reasonable cheap as well, I bought a 100g of Lapsang for £3.99! Which will easily last a month, having a couple of cups a day. 

Hope you enjoyed meeting Lapsang Souchong. What teas have you been drinking lately?

xkx  

Tuesday Teacup

Being British means that you categorically have to drink tea. I love tea... green, black, white, its all yummy, as long as you get the good quality leaves! If any of you have tried green tea bags that are just off the supermarket shelf you probably will have pulled that 'eeek it's bitter' face. This is because they use the good quality leaves for the loose leaf and then chop up and chuck the rest into tea bags. (There are some top quality tea bags though such as Tea Pig). Every Tuesday I will share my favourite tea of the moment with you to try and spread the tea love <3

So my Tuesday Teacup this week is one of my own blends that I have been drinking a lot this week in the day time, I like to call it Floral Gunpowder. I blend 1-2 tsps Gunpowder Green Tea with 1 tsp Jasmi Yin Hao Lotus. I pour not quite boiling water onto the leaves and leave them for around 3-4 minutes before pouring. It is best not to use boiling water as this can scald the leaves and it can make it taste a bit funky. Experiment with the brewing time as well depending on how strong you like your tea. I finish off this tea with dropping one Damask Rose Tea Bud into it. The gunpowder tea has grey green leaves that will unfurl to produce a slightly fruity flavour, this is why it works beautifully with the heady fragrance and taste of the Jasmine tea (which I find too strong to drink on its own). I sacrifice a rose bud to this tea because it adds a heady subtle sweetness that promises turkish delight. The tea leaves should last for 2 pots of tea and the rose bud should last up to 5 cups so its rather pleasing on the pocket as well.