It's another baking hot week here in the Balkans, sweetening the grapes on the vine and ripening ridiculous quantities of figs.
It's turning out to be a bumper year for figs, and we're drying them for the winter and digging out the fig jam recipes. Here in Bulgaria, jam is typically made by first of all placing the fruit into a saucepan or other container, covering it with sugar and leaving it overnight for the fruit to release its juice. The cooking part comes the next day. There is a delicious recipe here that unusually, uses the green, unripened figs. These figs are pierced with a sewing needle in several places, and then boiled 3 times for around 5 minutes (each time discarding the water) and finally cooked down in a sugar syrup. I found a video outlining these steps which you can see here.
September in our region generally equates to somewhat of a grape gluttony and fig feast, but there are plenty of other berries still on offer from the forest garden, including blackberries, raspberries and Cornellian Cherries. We've been experimenting with pruning the raspberries at different times of the year in order to try and prolong the fruiting period. We're finding pruning half of the raspberries in the autumn is an easy way to get fruits from late May through to October. The unpruned canes fruit from May - July and the pruned canes start to fruit in mid-August - October.
You can take a look at some of the fig and grape cultivars that we have on offer this season from our bio nursery. We're taking orders now for November delivery.
This week, Dylan has been on a herping trip to the Pirin mountains in southern Bulgaria He found a European Yellow Tailed Scorpian - Euscorpius flavicaudis. They are ubiquitous in Bulgaria. although i've never seen them here in Shipka. Interestingly, one of the largest colonies of this creature can be found on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent living in the south-facing walls, rock crevices, abandoned buildings and railway sleepers of the dockyard in Sheerness for over a century. It is thought that they originally found their way into the UK accidentally, stowed away in shipments of Italian masonry back in the 19th century.
Photo by Dylan Alfrey - European Yellow Tailed Scorpian - Euscorpius flavicaudis
Allium tuberosum - Garlic Chives are in full flower. These are one of our favourite perennial vegetables. The bodacious flowers, very attractive to bees, are on show around this time of year, from August - September. Being from the Allium family it is said to be a good companion plant in the garden confusing many pests with their strong aroma. The plant has many medicinal properties including the leaves and bulbs used on bites, cuts and wounds. We have the plants planted along the border of our Asparagus officinalis - Asparagus patch that you can see growing in the background in the below photo. It's a good spot for them, as if they were interplanted with the Asparagus more centrally in the beds, the tall and thick summer growth of the Asparagus would out compete them. Being on the edges of the patch also means the Allium leaves can easily be harvested throughout the year.
Asparagus leaves, known as fronds. Soon they will start turning beautiful autumnal tones
The ducks are doing well, with the ducklings really gaining weight now and growing up fast. The whole family is now free ranging around the garden and enjoying the refreshing water of the pond as temperatures continue to exceed 30°c this week. Some of our neighbours have expressed an interest in taking a few of the ducks, and soon we'll have to start organising their autumn and winter accommodation, as it's during these seasons in our region that their predators will start to visit, mainly house martins and foxes.
The ducks having a swim with Tansy - Tanacetum vulgare growing in the foreground
Honeysuckle - Lonicera periclymenum growing in the home garden. It's a great candidate for the vertical layer and is excellent for covering walls, but can overtake certain areas and plants so it's essential to factor that in before planting. One of the main ways that it spreads is via birds. The birds eat the berries and then deposit the seeds complete with a nice rich mulch of manure (their droppings). Flowers of Lonicera periclymenum are edible and can be used to make a syrup that seems to capture the sweet scent of the flowers in a delightful drink.
Talking of syrups, Sophie made a batch of Elderberry syrup the other day. Elderberries contain cyanide-inducing glycosides which are pretty toxic to humans, but if the berries are well cooked, these harmful properties are lost. We've been making the syrup a few times over the last decade or so and are still writing to tell the tale. The syrup is stored in the fridge and only used medicinally, usually a teaspoon a few times a week during the winter to ward off colds.
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We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
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| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
Elderberry Syrup
- Fresh Elderberries
- Water
- Fresh Ginger and Dried Cloves (optional)
- Honey
Cover the fresh elderberries with cold water by about 5cm. Add grated fresh ginger (as much as you like) and some dried cloves. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for around an hour, partially covered. When warm, strain through a muslin cloth (an old pillowcase is perfect for the job too) and squeeze the berries to extract as much of the juice as you can. Compost/discard this pulp. With the remaining juice, add some honey to sweeten. For 1kg fruit, we found just 2 tablespoons of honey was enough. Pour while still lukewarm into clean bottles and place in the fridge. A vacuum usually forms, keeping the syrup in a good condition for longer.
Satureja montana - Winter Savory - goes wonderfully with many meats and potatoes
Eupatorium cannabinum - Hemp Agrimony - an excellent perennial, highly attractive to wildlife
If you are would like to learn how to Design and Build A Forest Garden ,we have a webinar coming up on Saturday, 28th of November 2020 - 19.00 GMT+3. It's a live session where we'll go through step by step what you need to know to get started and end with a Q&A session. We'll send you a recording of the webinar when it is finished along with our design spreadsheets and plant lists to help get you started with your own Forest Garden Design.
The webinar will be hosted on zoom and you can book your place here - Looking forward to it!
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| Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes. |
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
|
| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
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If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
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