sprouts | The Little Room of Rachell

It’s technically the first day of autumn in metrological terms (which I think is really all about neatness of calendar dates and forecasting the seasons.) Autumn in England lasts for September, October and November, then deep in the winter on the 21st of December we are suddenly at the shortest day of the year with fewer hours daylight but the days then start to lengthen again by two minutes per day. We all start looking forward to spring. I’m not wishing my life away, but it is nice to think about spring and which seeds to buy. The garden centre already has a full array of spring bulbs on display which you’re meant to plant any time from August onwards, for flowering in April or May. I’ve just come across this autumn list from our Met Office. I was surprised by number eight.

Did get some blackberries! But not enough for BB gin jam making, they’re now frozen waiting to be paired with bramley apples.

For Christmas last year I was given a box of 50 Tea pigs Darjeeling Earl Grey teabags. They got somehow pushed to the back of the top shelf of the cupboard, which I can’t reach and can’t see into. Recently re-discovered, I’m drinking a cup now, only my second. I can’t recommend them enough! The smell alone is enough…

White sourdough and cheddar & sun dried tomato. The cheesy one was buttered and eaten in the garden with my cousin in exchange for a favour on bank holiday Monday.

I think this weekend is due to be sunny and warm again. Hurray! There’s a chilli festival tomorrow and a family bbq on Sunday, wearing sandals again will be perfect. Yesterday I met a friend for tea and cake and a wander. I discovered all sorts that he’d gleaned from a recent local tour, but it was in misty rain and we both got quite wet. I saw a woman wearing tights and boots, there were lots of umbrellas up and an array of raincoats. I’m NOT READY! We’ve had such a patchy summer. I’m hoping that once the schools go back the sun will start shining, it often does that. (Mainly to torment the poor staff.)

Tonight’s dinner will be a sedate meal of salmon, spicy bean salad and homegrown pea shoots. We mutually agreed first thing this morning that tonight needed to be Thursdayish as we’d already had Friday, with new to us gin (Whitley Neill Distillers Cut Dry, good with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and wedges with plenty of ice) then Rioja with a curry. It was a combination of tiredness from a late late night before and the rainy weather. As usual the other portion of aubergine curry, with leftover pieces of chicken from a dansak has made a fabulous cold brunch.

The gin was only £5; as a thank you my mother in law bought me a scratchcard and also one for herself. Neither of us have a clue about them and the rules seemed really complicated. It wasn’t until I checked out a YouTuber, who basically just scratches off the silver on £20 worth of cards and calls it entertainment (!), that we checked hers again properly and found that she’d won two lines of £5. She shared half with me so: £5 scratch-card winnings, £5 of Nectar points and it was on special offer for £15 for Nectar card holders! Good timing, as there was NO GIN in the house. Not even a miniature. This is an unusual state of affairs.

No crochet has happened yet, my hands are too sore still, but I’ve got some good books. I’ve just been approved for the advanced copy of Nina Stibbe’s new book, so what I was reading has been abandoned. I’m not meant to talk much about it yet, but it’s her diary and is putting me off doing other things. I always have this issue with entertaining diaries, because you can’t do the “when I reach the end of the chapter I will get up / head out / do my physio exercises / wash the dog / pick the beans etc because there aren’t any breaks. I keep on reading and reading. Before I know it May has turned into June, and then I realise I’m totally engrossed in August.

Harvest time

Apart from pea shoots I’ve also been trying sprouting seeds in some purpose made jars I was given. They have blackout covers, but this was the last day when I wanted them to green up a little. The seeds are from a mixed selection of varieties from Verdant Republic. They were tasty eaten with a salad and are apparently full of really healthy micronutrients.

This week a long-term blog reader told me that my blog posts are long. Too long. I feel it’s all a matter of personal preference. Too long? Read in a few goes, or not at all. I’ve been catching up with some of my favourites and realise they’re partly my favourites because I do gravitate to long meaty blog posts, with lots of photos, that I can linger over and enjoy. (Lately: Ginny’s Small Things, Alicia’s Posy and Lucy’s Attic 24.) A mere paragraph or two can be frustrating and if it’s interesting, I find I want more. If someone habitually writes short posts I will save them up and read half a dozen at a time in a batch. Like a diary. Far more satisfying.

Kate of Fox’s Lane blog has just published a brand new longish post, after a hiatus. As usual her photos are sublime and capture some of her life on a smallholding in Victoria, (the link keeps disappearing, I’ve added it at least a dozen times.) I now really want to try heating water for tea in a pretty kettle on the log burner this winter. Her post inspired me and is why I found myself launching straight into writing about it being our first day of autumn. She’s so right – I too don’t want to be ‘told’. I just want to read about ordinary things. What someone’s making, cooking, watching, or reading, how the garden is looking or where they visited at the weekend. I used to love the Nothing is Ordinary hashtag in the early days of Instagram. Blogging for me is reading about the small things, but that’s what life is about, isn’t it?

How are things with you?

MAKING Still crocheting my coastal colours cowl. I haven’t done a lot of anything crafty recently, April was ‘a bit of a month’ to use typical British understatement! I’m focusing on it now, and then will try to finish the Coast blanket next

LIKING Sitting in a holiday cottage crocheting and watching the lead up to the Coronation from 9:30am, just for a little while before going out. Then, it absolutely poured on and off all morning and so plans to walk, or go anywhere were shelved until the afternoon. Crochet, tea and the whole of the Coronation service (though not the balcony and fly-past) followed. I really enjoyed it all

COOKING Tray bake fish with olives, lemons & cherry tomatoes. I swap the fish, sometimes using haddock, or cod and last week it was salmon. I eat the cooked lemon too. See John Torode’s recipe

BAKING Sourdough rosemary focaccia. Woah! This is so good, it’s left to prove in the fridge in the tin overnight so develops an amazing texture. So good I made it twice in as many weeks

SIPPING I did Dry Lent once again and since then haven’t really drunk much alcohol at all, unless you count last Friday night’s spiced rums? No, we probably don’t count those, as it was holiday refreshments

READING A novel I saw recommended in Good Housekeeping magazine. I’m not entirely sure about it at the moment as it’s quite chick-litty, not my usual genre really. It’s One Moment by Becky Hunter

LOOKING A bit funny? Woolly slippers, no socks, joggers and one of my favourite bright pink patterned tees. Open windows and a rather cool day, but too lazy to go fetch a hoodie

Cowslips are everywhere, we’ve recently walked alongside a field full

LISTENING to Weightless by Elbow, on my liked songs playlist on Spotify

WISHING for free train travel for a year, including the sleepers. I’ve wanted this for ages, since someone once said they get it through their job working for a rail company

BAKING Sourdough pitta bread regularly now. I have now stopped buying any and freeze half of each batch. It’s always handy to have emergency bread in the freezer. You can defrost them in the toaster then warm them. I can’t recommend them enough. So much tastier with the sourdough flavour, than the supermarket equivalent

Part of the first batch, now I make them half them the size, weighing the dough for accuracy still

ENJOYING Warmer weather, it’s very on and off at the moment but my flowers have doubled in size in the garden

Parsley seeds are growing well on my sunny windowsil

BUYING A variety of seeds, plant labels, the May issue of Gardeners World magazine mainly for the 2-for-1 Garden Card, a sprouter (actually this was with the last of a birthday garden voucher), pots, bottle top waterers, propagators, compost, top soil, plug plants … it’s that time of year again

The Cotswold Sculpture Park has reopened, hurrah! GW mag 2-for-1 card still accepted.

‘Despair’, the detail on this is incredible

OBSESSING Over seeds and sprouts and microgreens. I’ll show you a few pics, but if you’re interested keep an eye on stories for progress pics on my Instagram

Look at the roots on these microgreens! Grown in a hydroponic sprouter, they have replicated the pattern on the base of the section in which they sat

Mung beans in a soup mug covered with muslin, after 8 hours soaking. I think we’ll eat them before the roots grow so long this time. When they looked like tiny tadpoles they were at their crunchiest and sweetest, that might be the time to add a few to salads

APPRECIATING Salads for lunch again with home sprouted beansprouts! Delicious with this dressing and toasted pumpkin seeds

MANAGING To produce mouldy and rotten peas, instead of pea-shoots, in the new sprouter. So I’ve gone back to growing in soil, I’m not sure about hydroponics for those. I have put my first lot of lentils (puy) in it today though, we’ll see how they do

WONDERING If you know that sprouted lentils are meant to be good for chickens too?!

Mustard, mizuna & beetroot, they are packed with so much good stuff. You’re going to be seeing grown microgreens and sprouts for sale and I predict there will be an explosion of sites about how to grow them

For sale from the shop pictured below, in Chichester. Spotted on Monday

EATING More chocolate, Easter always gives me a taste for it again. The less I eat, the less I fancy any

WAITING for my pea shoots! They’ve just starting to show. I can’t wait to eat them

WATCHING Annika. (I’ll generally watch anything Nicola Walker does, apart from the Marriage thingy with Sean Bean.) I’ve only watched the first episode on UK TV Play, it’s free with ads, and Annika breaking the fourth wall, quoting literature is refreshingly different. Have you seen it?

WATCHING Would I Lie to You? But nearly at the point where we watched the latest series, it’s the best thing after an urgh day. It makes us laugh so much. (Newer series is on the BBC Iplayer. Old ones on UK TV Play for free, with ads)

HOPING for sunnier days please, today we had everything: a dramatic hailstorm, torrential rain which was so heavy I had to stop the car, then weak sunshine and super fluffy white clouds in a blue sky

NOTICING A MASSIVE spider by the bed this morning. The spider pot (an old ricotta tub) and birthday card was fetched from the bathroom cupboard, along with Someone to pop it outside as I was only wearing a towel. Then I peered out anyway, as it was walking along the garage roof. I warned it not to even think about coming back in again

FOLLOWING The weather forecast

Inside The Gothic Temple at Stowe, a National Trust property. It’s a holiday let and this was an open day so visitors to see what it’s like inside

SORTING Seed packets. Oregano, carrots, beetroot and lettuce need to be planted soon

GETTING Teased by a friend, Lucy, for taking my beansprouts away for the weekend

COVETING Raised vegetable beds

FEELING Pressed for time. I need to add photos, change and go to take someone for their Covid Booster (and ummm collect the 34 tomato plants, including a few which look suspiciously like pepper or chilli, which were babysat for the long weekend. I thought taking a freshly baked fruit cake for a Coronation Street Party would be a fair exchange. In retrospect it went as well as I’d anticipated, haha

HEARING What’shername – Self Esteem, this song