I have come to the right place!
Gazing upon our new garden at length with hundreds of dandelions growing willy-nilly, I pondered what could be done with them. I have eaten the leaves and even tasted the flowers before but surely there was something more interesting that I could do. After consulting the internet, I decided to make dandelion jam. Allez les fleurs, here we go!
Without further ado, I set about gathering the golden flowers. There was another reason for my haste; our neighbour Christian (probably discusted by the state of our lawn!) had kindly promised to come and cut the grass, since we don't have a lawnmower yet, and I was determined to put the flowers to good use before they were all gone.
Gathering the required amount of flowers took no time at all but the next stage was more arduous. Only the yellow bits were required and all the green bits had to be discarded, for they would make the jam taste bitter.
I seem to have been destined for manual labour. I knew it already as a wee bairn on our farm; always the rake, the hoe or picking the stones from the field. Never the tractor or any other exciting machines.
Aaaaaanyway! Back to this moment.
Then you are supposed to heat it until it boils and leave it to steep or brew, but I just kept boiling it until I remembered that hey, you're not supposed to do that. So, I added a bit more water and let it brew. Then you put it all through a sieve, discard the flower bits, add sugar and boil again until sugar dissolves. And hey, presto!, you have jam. Or not. I must've added too much water for it turned out that I had made syrup, not jam. It was very good really, tasting like honey, but it was no jam. Och well, next time I'll get it right. Or I could just try boiling it again for a bit...
Meanwhile in the garden, our ash tree that looked half dead when we came here, has suddenly burst into life! Hurrah for nature!
Our neighbour Christian also gave us some rhubarb which I turned into compote. Our other neighbours, Marie-Therese and Daniel, have given us an old bucket. I know which neighbours I prefer!
Other plant that grows in our garden in abundance is nettle. Delicious, full of vitamins and iron and also free food; it begs to be cooked and eaten.I decided to bake little nettle breads, very popular in Finland and apparently also in here. Mon Cheri loved them and I took some to Christian and Sylvette, our lovely neighbours (who keep giving us food).
Popping in for a breaf visit without invitation at your neighbours' seems to be the thing in here and I love that. It's a countryside habit (in Finland anyway) and I have to admit I've missed it. Just a quick nip for a chat, cup of coffee or exchanging receipes and baked goodies! Show your love! Bake the bread or a cake and share it!
Next in line was nettle soup. Delicious, nutritious and easy-peasy to make.
Nettle pancakes. These were a favourite with Mon Cheri and I had to make them several times the following days. And it hardly made a dent into the nettle bushes growing everywhere around the garden. Good to know that I'll have an endless supply also in the future!
And nettle pesto which looked good and tasted ok but had a bit too much garlic in it. Well, it'll keep the colds away if nothing else.
We were blessed with couple of sunny, very hot days and that required the start of the bbq-season. My favourite. Aaaaahhh! Bliss! Mon Cheri is always in charge of the BBQ and I leave him happily to it, sipping my wine in the shade. C'est malin, no?
Milk and egg-soaked, pan-cooked brioche, cream and strawberries for dessert. This is the life!
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