THE VEGAN
NEWS
THE VEGAN
NEWS
AUTUMN 2008
In This Issue:
- Recipes
- Vegan Product Review
- In the Veganic Garden - Gardening News + Garden Diary
- Growing for Health - Berry Healthy!
- In the Wildlife Garden - Cottage Garden Plants
- Web Sites
- Book Review(s)
Autumn Recipe(s)Source: How to Grow Your Own Food by Dirty Nails of The Blackmore Vale Magazine.
Ingredients
Method
- Red chili pod - fresh or dried
- Oil (olive oil is best for frying)
- 1 tsp. jeera (ground cumin seeds)
- 2 tsp. garlic, finely chopped
- Beans (French/runner)
- 1 tsp. turmeric
- 1 tsp. red chili powder
- Salt
- Diced potatoes
Note: Instead of using oil I just add enough water to prevent burning. This dish is an excellent way of using up home-grown crops of runner beans, potatoes, garlic and chili peppers, all of which are in season at the moment.
- Drizzle oil into a frying pan. Add cumin seeds, garlic and a broken red chili pod complete with seeds. Fry briefly.
- Add diced potatoes and fry for 2-3 minutes, turning frequently.
- Add turmeric, red chili powder and the chopped beans. Continue to cook on a low heat until the potatoes and beans are cooked through. This dish is best served with boiled rice and a lentil dhaal.
Autumn Product Reviews
Just Wholefoods Organic Houmous
This tasty, vegan dip is made from chick peas and toasted sesame seeds and is flavoured with garlic, onion powder, parsley and paprika, the latter giving the dip a rather unusual pale orange appearance. Packaged in a recycled cardboard packet, this dip is easily reconstituted by adding some boiling water, the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon of oil. It has quite a nice flavour, although in my opinion it tastes more like cheddar cheese and onion spread rather than houmous. This is a good product to take on holiday as it's lightweight and easily packed and stored. Use it as a dip or as a sandwich filling. It also tastes nice in pitta breads (stuffed with watercress) or on the rye crisp breads, reviewed below. Price £1.19. Look out for this product in your local health food shop.
Finn Crisp Organic Crisp Bread
A Nordic, organic, whole grain, rye crisp bread, made from rye flour and containing 18% fibre. This crisp bread has a nice crisp texture and a rather nice taste. It's great when spread with a dip (such as the one mentioned above), but is just as good eaten plain when feeling peckish, or simply topped with mashed banana. Look out for this product in your local health food store. Price £1.19.
Chase Animal Free Fertiliser
I'm currently in the process of testing out this new animal-free fertiliser (Order Code: OFAF), which is in the form of easy-to-use granules that reduce the risk of scorching. Containing only vegetable ingredients, including non GM soya, this product is suitable for use as a general purpose feed for most crops. I use it mainly as an organic alternative to sulphate of ammonia and sulphate of potash on my container-grown apple and pear trees and soft fruit, along with seaweed meal and plenty of home-produced compost. This fertiliser is supposed to improve humus content and soil structure and contains 6% N, 4% P2O5 and 4% K2O. It costs £10.72 for a 4 kg packet. So far my pot-grown fruit trees are doing well and are now in their second year and starting to fruit. Incidentally, Chase also produce a 7% animal-free fertiliser (Order Code: OFPR) to supply extra nitrogen for leafy greens and lettuces. This is slightly cheaper than the above product. Both of these products can be obtained by mail order from the Organic Gardening Catalogue by phoning: 0845 130 1304, or alternatively you can order online.
Organic Laid Back Liquorice
Liquorice lovers may like to try out this small bar of liquorice. It's has a very soft and non-stringy texture, so it's easy to bite a bit off. Dark, smooth and rather delicious, although not especially healthy or good for one's teeth, being composed mainly of sugar syrup and molasses. Approved by the Soil Association. Look out for it in your local health food shop. It's also available by mail order from Penny Brohn for £0.45.
Essential Organic Fair Trade Red Quinoa
Finally, I would just like to mention this fairly traded and rather unusual red quinoa, which is produced in Bolivia. I found it slightly tastier than the usual cream-coloured quinoa. It can be purchased from Essential Trading in Bristol. If you live elsewhere, then look out for it in your local health food shop. You will also find a list of 51 stockists at the Essential Trading web site. I bought mine by mail order from Penny Brohn. However, they now seem to be selling only the cream-coloured quinoa online at £1.66 for a 500g packet.
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Gardening News
Autumn Sowing and Planting Schedule:Goji Update:
For more information on what to plant throughout September, October and November please see the GARDENING DIARY.
A quick update on the Thompson & Morgan goji berry bushes I planted last year. These seem to be growing quite well, although seem to thrive better when planted in containers on the patio, rather than directly into the ground. I was very pleased to see the first flower appear on one of the bushes in early July and by early August this bush was in full flower, although no berries have appeared yet. The only other problem I've experienced with the bushes so far is attack by slugs. They really do seem to go for goiji berry leaves in a big way and can quickly strip off most of the plant's lower leaves. A snail also got into my cold frame and ate all the leaves off the three young goiji plants I'd grown from dried goji berries I'd purchased in Holland & Barretts. However, with some extra nurturing these plants have now recovered from their ordeal.
Instant Gardens: I would just like to mention the various types of Instant Gardens that will shortly be available from the Natural Collection. These include the Rocket Garden Small ‘Instant’ Vegetable Garden for £39.95. This instant garden of summer plants can be grown in a 10m2 space and consists of 155 young plants of 11 varieties that are ready for planting out. There's also an Instant Children's Vegetable Garden (£34.95), Instant Window box or Patio Vegetable Garden (£24.95), Instant Salad Garden (£36.95), Instant Herb Garden (£24.95) and a Mediterranean Vegetable Garden for £36.95. If you are unable to grown these instant gardens yourself, then it's also possible to purchase vouchers for them, which could be given to friends for birthday presents. The Natural Collection have confirmed that 'the gardens are Soil Association certified and vegan (the only fertiliser used is worm cast).'
Garden News The disappointing summer weather seems to have slowed down cropping in my veganic garden this year. My early peas were ready a few weeks later than usual. However, by July the garden was in full bloom. This year, I've extended my range of flowering plants still further in order to provide attractive flowers for pollinating insects. I've had a fine display of evening primroses, sweet peas, lavender, nasturtiums, pot marigolds, poached egg flowers, pansies, borage, candytuft, phacelia, red clover and large pink poppies. So far, later crops look promising, with drying beans in flower and starting to produce pods by the end of July. My tomato plants are enormous this year and look extremely green and healthy, with no signs of blight at the moment. They have been fed with home-made compost and seaweed meal and are under planted with trefoil, a green manure crop. The nettle tea smells like it's nearly ready too, so they will shortly get an extra feed with this too.Top of Page
In the Wildlife Garden
Many wildflowers and commonly grown garden plants are beneficial to animals and can be used to attract wildlife into your garden. Some of the plants, trees and shrubs that are suitable for this purpose have been covered in previous issues and are listed in The Wildflower Index. Plants that are also suitable for growing in a cottage garden are now marked with the letters CTGR in this index.
Cottage Garden Plants
In this section I am going to cover some of the plants that would traditionally be planted in a cottage garden. I intend to focus on cottage garden plants that are particularly valuable to wildlife and in this particular issue I am mainly going to cover plants that will grow well by the sea and could be planted in a seaside cottage garden.
Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber)
Originally imported from southern Europe, this handsome perennial is now widely naturalised in the UK, being mainly found in southern England. It grows well on dry banks, on walls, in rockeries, on paths and in crevices on cliffs, where it can often be found growing quite close to the sea. (The photograph was taken on the Northumberland coast and is of the related variety var. rosias, which is usually seen in gardens and is pinker in colour.) Red Valerian has deep pinky-red flowers and grows to about 60 cm to 90 cm in height, being smaller in size when grown on walls, where it is often at its best and is most attractive to butterflies. Both of these forms of valerian are very attractive to bees and butterflies. Look out for visiting comma, gatekeeper, large white and small tortoiseshell butterflies and moths such as the elephant hawk moth and dark arches will also use it for nectar at night. It prefers a sunny position and readily self seeds.
Sweet Rocket (Dame's Violet) (Hesperis matronalis)
A cottage garden favourite that's been grown since the 14th century. The flowers are stock-like in appearance and have a lovely smell. They provide nectar to bees, butterflies and moths. Birds will eat the seeds and the plant's leaves are eaten by orange tip and small copper caterpillars, as well as by various moth caterpillars. Try purple or mixed varieties for attracting butterflies. Sweet rocket is a very useful plant for the wildlife garden and grows up to 90 cm in height. It's not especially suitable for growing in a seaside garden though.
Thrift (Sea Pink) (Armeria maritima subsp. maritima)
This native maritime plant is often found growing on sand dunes, cliffs, salt marshes or on shingle. However, it also does well when grown in the garden and has been grown in cottage gardens since the sixteenth century. It's a low growing plant that forms a spreading cushion of grass-like leaves with deep pink flowers. In the garden it is best grown as a path edging, or on a rockery. It could also be grown as a pond or stream edging plant as it will stand some flooding. It doesn't like shade and should be planted in either partial shade or in a sunny position. Its flowers are attractive to butterflies and bees and it is sometimes used as a larval food plant by the mazarine blue butterfly and by various moth caterpillars.
Sea Lavender (Statice) (Limonium latifolium)
Another low-growing, perennial plant that should do well in a seaside garden. This attractive plant produces many tiny lavender flowers, that can be dried and used in flower arrangements. It's best grown in full sun in well-drained soil and according to Geoff Hamilton has been grown in cottage gardens since 1791. Its flowers are attractive to both butterflies and bees.
The Vegan Society (UK)
Websites
An excellent source of information for new vegans, or for anyone who is thinking of going vegan. You can also shop or become a member online.
Vegetarian-Scotland
This woodland vegan/vegetarian B & B is situated in the Scottish Highlands. As well as providing accommodation it also offers yoga, meditation, massage and guided walks. There are bicycles for hire and plenty of interesting walks and wildlife nearby. Vegan evening meals are available on request. There is also an online shop of Eastern Crafts and Arts.
Ethical Shopping News
Find out how to select products that are grown/manufactured to ethical standards. This newsletter provides information on many aspects of ethical shopping and gives access to a range of products regarded as ethically sourced. However, you may still need to contact individual suppliers to find out whether a product is suitable for vegans before purchasing. Covers topics such as clothes, food, cleaning and body care products.
Vegatopia
This rather unique academic web site combines veganism with utopianism and is aimed at students, teachers and researchers. There's an extensive bibliography of all things vegan including an archive of media resources, lectures and conference papers and public statements on veganism. An interactive forum is currently being developed. Please consult the site's diary for further information. The links page provides links to other organisations promoting veganism and covers topics such as vegan recipes, vegan organic agriculture and nutrition.
Autumn Book Review(s)
A few more books that should be of interest to allotment growers:
How to Grow Your Own Food by Dirty Nails of The Blackmore Vale Magazine (Spring Hill, 2007)
This simply illustrated book is essentially a week-by-week guide to wildlife-friendly fruit and vegetable growing. Its rather unusual format makes it stand out from the more traditional allotment growing guides. I found it very useful for keeping track of exactly what needs to be done each week and also rather intriguing in parts, just like the author's name! Providing interesting and useful snippets on garden wildlife throughout and historical facts on some of the vegetables, it also includes some recipes that could be used by vegans. (See Recipe Section.)
Food From Your Garden & Allotment Published by The Reader's Digest Association (Reader's Digest, 2008)
This complete guide to growing, cooking and preserving your own fruit and vegetables is beautifully illustrated, informative and a real pleasure to read. It includes:Excellent value and a very useful reference book. If you just want to buy or read one book on allotment growing then I would recommend that you buy this one. Highly recommended. ISBN: 978-0-276-44263-6. Price £14.99.
- A Basic Guide to the Kitchen Garden which covers topics such as planning, tools and the fruit garden.
- Growing and Cooking which is essentially an A - Z of about a hundred different fruit and vegetables, including tips on their cultivation, harvesting and cooking.
- A Food-Grower's Calendar that provides information on seasonal tasks and some recipes (some suitable for vegans).
- An A-Z of Common Pests and Diseases which covers their symptoms and treatment.
- Home Preserving which covers freezing, bottling and drying techniques and how to make jam/jelly/syrup/pickles/chutneys/wine and flavoured oils & vinegars.
The Allotment Handbook by Caroline Foley (New Holland, 2004)
This informative guide covers most of the traditional aspects of allotment growing in some depth. It includes a month-by-month guide to tasks and contains vegetable and fruit directories providing cultural information on each crop. There's also a chapter that covers the principles of organic pest and disease control. I found this book informative and helpful, but not especially interesting or inspiring to read.
Price £12.99. ISBN: 1-84330-583-6.
Your Allotment: The essential guide to creating and keeping a rich and fruitful plot by Clare Foster (Cassell Illustrated, 2007)
Another really nicely illustrated and inspiring reference book on allotment growing techniques for those interested in growing their own tasty, organic food. This book covers all of the usual topics on allotment growing and includes some rather interesting information on the history of allotments. Suitable for beginners, this book focuses on organic growing and pest control methods and also contains comprehensive directories on how to grow a wide variety of fruit and vegetable crops. Veganic growers should find most of the information provided useful, although more information on alternative veganic fertilisers may need to be obtained from a more specialised veganic source book
Price £12.99. ISBN: 978-1-84403-560-1. Available from Amazon for £9.09.
Note: I obtained copies of all of these allotment books, free of charge, by ordering them through my local library service.
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