Live with webchat with Sarah 2-3pm Wednesday, 16th Dec.
Fri, 2009-12-11 08:53 — content admin
Sarah Raven will be answering all your questions live on the forum between 2-3pm on Wednesday 16th December. If you're unable to make this time please post your questions here in advance. To give everyone a fair chance questions are restricted to one per member.
Thank you Sarah, yes I do
Thank you Sarah, yes I do have your books I will go and have a look tonight. Best Wishes Carolyn
Hi Sarah, Just one other
Hi Sarah, Just one other question, do you have a good recipe for cooking gammon on the bone. something that is reasonably quick? And also to say I admire all the work that you do. Many thanks Carolyn
I do the usual - which is to
I do the usual - which is to boil the gammon for the required time and then roast with cloves poked in and smeared with brown sugar and honey and then basted regularly with orange juice. That is delicous. Its in my Christmas book if you have it. Best wishes sarah
They sound like wonderful
They sound like wonderful ideas. I will definately try the lamb dish - it sounds perfect for my guests. Many thanks.
good - its dead easy. And you
good - its dead easy. And you can buy the Pappadew peppers and humus for stuffing so don;t have to make your own.
Hi Sarah, One more question
Hi Sarah,
One more question if you have time-
I keep trying to grow Fennel and am not able to get it to produce a proper bulb. Do I need to do some sort of mounding of the soil around the base or any other prep? The base seems to divide into narrow stalks.
Dear Sarah, We are having a
Dear Sarah,
We are having a small gathering of friends on New Years Eve (about 10 of us) and I would love a suggestion of something a bit special to cook for everyone that doesn't involve too much work.
Best wishes and merry Christmas,
Lynne
Dear Lynne I love blinis
Dear Lynne
I love blinis with smoked and pickled fish for New Year's eve with flavoured vodka, but it is a bit of work making the pancakes before. You can cook them in a quiet moment and keep them in the frudge for several days or frzze them. Then just heat in a napkin in a warm oven for 10-15 minutes.
Serve piles of them with smoked salmon, smoked eel, salmon roe etc etc and some creme fraiche.
Or you could go for a 4 hour leg of lamb, marinaded for 2 days in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and lots of toasted cumin seeds really slowly cooked. Serve with a potato and Jeruslaem artichoke gratin or cumin roast potatoes and mini Pappadew peppers stuffed with humus. That's dead easy and delicous.
Do these sound the right sort of thing?
Have a good time
sarah
That's great news - thanks
That's great news - thanks for your time.
Hi Sarah, I had your Freedom
Hi Sarah,
I had your Freedom Food Chicken Recipe with the chard dish when I visited Sissinghurst this past year. I'm in the states and will need to order a cookbook from a local bookseller. Which of your books can I find this recipe in? My friends and I loved these dishes. Thank you!
Pat Wilson
New York, USA
was it the chciken with lemon
was it the chciken with lemon and rosemary? In which case it is in my Garden Cookbook, which has an American edition called In Season.
I hope that';s the recipe.
Thanks
sarah
Yes, it was the chicken with
Yes, it was the chicken with lemon and rosemary. Yum! Thanks so much- I'll order "In Season."
Sarah, I'm a Horticulturalist and I was first introduced to your work in the British Country Living Magazine. I greatly admire what you do. I just found out about the classes at Perch Hill so hopefully I'll get to attend one on my next visit to the UK. Keep up the great work!
Pat
Great Pat It will be good to
Great Pat
It will be good to see you.
Happy Christmas
sarah
Sarah, I have an allotment,
Sarah, I have an allotment, but this year I started my own business and found it hard to run a business and look after my allotment which I love very much as I find it so relaxing, but this summer I just did not have time to look after it properly and the weeds started to take over and I could not get down to water unless it was at the crack of dawn when walking the dog!
As I would like to keep up with my allotment how can I time manage myself and what would you suggest that I put in the allotment that does not take a lot of looking after, as I would like to start planning what seeds to put in.
Have a lovely Christmas
Best Wishes Carolyn Bishop
Dear Carolyn Definitely keep
Dear Carolyn
Definitely keep going with it, but put in things which can pretty much look after themslves. You may not get bumper crops but there are lots of things you can plant and let them get on with it.
I would go for some early potatoes things like 'International Kidney, Belle de Fontenay and then Ratte and Nicola.
I would also plant Swiis chard in March and that will keep going with no looking after for 6 months - with w weekly or fortnightly heavy pick.
I would go for low maintenace herbs such as flat leaved parsley, tarragon, chives and sorrel
and maybe some kale - Cavolo Nero or Red Russian (which like chard, needs almost no looking after).
Add a patch of broad beans, direct sown in March, well spaced so you don;t need to thin. All these will need is a bit of support.
With those productive plants, you should be ok on very little time.
Good luck with it
sarah
Thank you so much for that
Thank you so much for that Sarah, I can now start planning my allotment out after Christmas and then going through your website to order, and I will definitely keep going, I never give up!
Best wishes Carolyn
Am I too late to plant my
Am I too late to plant my broad beans aquadulce?
Hi there craked pot! no you
Hi there craked pot!
no you are not all too late to plant your broad beans. Sow them - I use Rootrainers - anytime in Januray or February on a window ledge for planting in the garden in early spring, or you could even plant a hardy variety stright out then too.
As long as you get broad beans in before the beginning of May, they'll be fine.
Super Aquadulce Claudia and Stereo (with no tough skin on the beans) are my favourites with Super Aqua the best for the North in the early months of the year.
I hope that helps
Best wishes
sarah
Hi Sarah, I'm meant to be
Hi Sarah,
I'm meant to be helping my niece create a mini veg plot next year - she'll be 8 then and she'll have about 2 metre sq to play around with - any ideas for something fun and easy to grow in there?
Hi there Does she like salad?
Hi there
Does she like salad? I hope so as all those delicous salad leaves - things like Mizuna, rocket, Green Oak Leaf lettuce etc are fantastic, quick and easy things to grow in quite a small space.
I would also try some herbs. Perhaps flat leaf parsley and tarragon, mint (in a pot) and chives.
Also think about an arch of climbing beans at one side of Blue Lake Climbing or Polestar.
and I think spinach or chard and the orange cherry tomato, Sungold.
I hope that helps a bit.
Good luck with it.
Sarah
h
h
I am getting married at the
I am getting married at the end of June next year and am hoping, along with my mum and mother-in-law to be, to grow and arrange our own flowers.
I was therefore really excited to see that you are running a course on 5th May on how to arrange your own wedding flowers. I'm mindful that this would be too late to actually grow our own for the end of June so was wondering if you had any recommendations on what to grow?
It is a country wedding in a village hall in East Lothian, Scotland and I love sweetpeas but am not sure they would be best at this time of year?
Thank you, Jenny
There are tons of things you
There are tons of things you can grow, sweet peas amongst them. Go for the highly scented varieties such as Matucana and Painted Lady and sow them soon after Christmas somewhere under cover. Then plant them out in the garden in late March or April with a frame of canes over which they can grow.
They will be at peak of flowering in late June.
Also try hardy annual plants such as Ammi majus, Salvia viridis 'Blue' cerinthe, Euphorbia oblongata, and any love in the mists.
These - sown under cover in March to be planted in April will also be in flower then.
You could try sowing into gutter pipes and planting out from there.
Good luck sarah
I've ordered the
I've ordered the Chrysanthemum collection (froggy, Shamrock, balloon) earlier and planted then in pots outside on an uncovered deck. They've grown and some of the plants flowered, but they're now mostly going over.
Could you pls advise what I should do next? Do I leave them outside for the rest of the winter? Do I cut them down? Do I plant them out in the garden at all?
best wishes agapanthus
Hi agapanthus You should
Hi agapanthus
You should cut them down and bring the pots inside and keep your chrysanths frost free (if they are the green -flowered ones) and dry them off to induce a dormant period.
Then in early spring, give them a little heat and they will start to grow again. Take cuttings from the shoots and multilpy your number of plants.
Best wishes
Sarah