THE VEGAN
NEWS
THE VEGAN
NEWS
AUTUMN 2007
- Recipes
- Vegan Product Review
- In the Veganic Garden - Gardening News + Garden Diary
- Don't Miss The Article: Saving Two Birds With A Stone by Avery Posner & Gilda Ganezer
- Growing for Health - Goji Berries
- In the Wildlife Garden - Cottage Garden Plants
- Web Sites
- Book Review(s)
Autumn Recipes
Source: Thompson & Morgan Cultural Instruction Leaflet.
Ingredients
Method
- 1/4 cup dried goji berries, soaked overnight
- Water for soaking
- 1/2 tsp orange zest
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 pitted date, chopped
Serving ideas: No added sugar, so quickly prepared and rather nice. Try it on rice cakes, oatcakes and in sandwiches. Yummy! See the Growing for Health article on goji berries for more information.
- Soak the goji berries in water overnight.
- Using a blender, process the goji berries with the orange zest, ginger and the date, adding a little of the soak water if necessary.
- Use the jam immediately, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days.
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Fat-Free Coleslaw
Source: Own recipe.
Ingredients
Method
- Simple No-Tahini Hummus (amount to taste)
- 1 small white cabbage, finely grated
- 1 large carrot, finely grated
- Selection of chopped vegetables (e.g. mushrooms, red pepper, cucumber, tomato, sweet corn kernels etc.)
- Engevita yeast flakes, nori flakes (optional)
Serves: 1 as a main meal or 3-4 as a side dish.
- Roughly chop up the cabbage, then wash well, draining off any excess water. Process in a food processor using the grating blade until finely grated.
- Peel and wash the carrot. Chop into sticks, then process as above. Place the processed cabbage and carrot in a bowl.
- Wash and prepare any other vegetables you are using. Use some of the suggestions listed above, or experiment by with whatever raw veggies you happen to have in your fridge! Mix the chopped vegetables in with the grated carrot and cabbage.
- Spoon in a good portion of the simple no-tahini hummus (see the recipe in the last issue). I like to add mustard to the basic recipe. Mix in well and serve.
- Sprinkle on some Engevita and nori flakes just before eating.
Autumn Product Reviews
Orgran Rice & Millet Pasta
A rather nice spiral-shaped pasta that's completely wheat free, being made from buckwheat and rice flour. Vegan and gluten free it's ideal for those on an allergy-restricted diet. Cooks in just 8-10 minutes. Great with pasta sauces, or for use in a pasta salad! Unfortunately, it's produced in Australia, which bumps up the food miles somewhat. Price £1.75. Look out for it in your local heath shop or in large supermarkets.
Natural House Organic Soap Flakes
These mild, perfume-free soap flakes are ideal for hand washing your delicates, baby clothes etc. In fact I was rather pleased to discover this product as it can be quite difficult to find an effective vegan household product that is suitable for hand washing items. These soap flakes are made using only organic plant-derived oils, naturally occurring preservatives and use essential oils rather than synthetic perfumes. The product contains no animal ingredients or petrochemicals, is fully biodegradable and comes in recyclable packaging. Give it a good swirl round to completely dissolve the soapflakes before adding your washing (incidentally the flakes don't dissolve very well in very cold water). I find it rather pleasant to use because it doesn't have a strong smell.
This product is certified by the Soil Association and Organic Food Federation and bears the Vegan Society Logo. A 500g packet can be purchased for around £3.42. Visit the Natural House website for further information.
Bio-D Concentrated Multi-Surface Cleaner
I rather like this cleaning product, which I find especially useful for cleaning sinks. It's made using a blend of coconut oil detergents, orange oil, vegetable glycerine and sodium salts and cleans well without scratching surfaces. Can also be used on floors, tiles, paintwork etc when diluted. Vegan Society Approved. For more information on Bio-D products visit http://www.biodegradable.biz
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Gardening News
Autumn Sowing and Planting Schedule:
For more information on what to plant throughout September, October and November please see the GARDENING DIARY.
Well whatever happened to summer this year?! Generally I get very little rain from early May until the end of August in this area of the south of England. In fact it's not unusual for the ground in my veganic beds to start to crack open in July or August. But there has certainly been no shortage of rain down here throughout May and June of this year and it's still raining even as I write this in mid July! In some respects this is excellent news as many of my crops have done better than usual in the cooler and wetter conditions. However, my broad bean crop was attacked by a brown rust-like disease, which fortunately did not seem to affect the crop itself, just the plant's leaves. My field beans were even more badly affected and had to be harvested early, although again the beans were perfectly edible inside their pods. Apart from the aubergines, which just about seem to be struggling on, my hot-weather crops seem to be coping fairly well at the moment in the cooler conditions. However, as this is just the right sort of weather for tomato blight I am watching my crop carefully and hoping that things have warmed up a bit by mid to late August, which is when it tends to hit in my garden. Usually though, the Red Alert tomatoes I grow seem to escape because they ripen very early (first tomato ripe by mid July this year) and I have now stopped growing the larger varieties of tomatoes because of this problem. The slugs are nibbling a bit in the damp weather, but so far I haven't needed to do much in the way of controlling them, although I expect if the wet weather continues I may have to start rounding them up in jam jars and taking them for a little walk!
I am also growing some chickpeas this year as an experiment for the Vegan Organic Network. I soaked and sprouted some ordinary dried cream-coloured chickpeas, purchased from a health shop and planted them outside in May. By mid-July they were flowering nicely. I am watching with interest to see what happens next! I haven't used any form of protection so far, although I believe other people have succeeded in growing chickpeas in the UK by using cloches.
Also as an experiment, in the last two years I have been gradually converting to a more cottage garden approach. I now plant a mixture of crops in each bed, plus some flowers, rather than planting up the whole bed with the same crop and then rotating the crops between the beds each year. This looks a lot prettier and can help to distract and confuse the pests by hiding the vegetables somewhat. So far I've planted nasturtiums, red poppies, sunflowers, poached egg flowers, marigolds, red clover, phacelia and evening primroses, but I'm expanding the varieties of flowers I use each year. It's quite easy to do because after the first year, the flowers tend to sow & grow themselves. All I do is go round and pull out any excess flowering plants that have self-sown, otherwise some plants like nasturtiums or forget-me-nots tend to take over. As well as making the vegetable beds look more attractive and attracting pollinating insects to the beds, don't forget that many flowers (e.g.nasturtiums and pot marigolds) are edible too.
I also use a more three-dimensional approach, which uses the growing space more efficiently and intensively. For example I grow climbing beans for drying on poles along the middle of the bed with sprawling crops such as cucumbers, squashes and courgettes at ground level, intergrown with dwarf runner and French beans for fresh pods. The climbing beans add height to the bed, supply nitrogen to the other crops and look attractive when flowering. Initially, any extra space at ground level can be filled in with quickly-maturing crops such as lettuces or radishes whilst you are waiting for the sprawling plants to grow bigger. Sweet corn beds can be planted up in a similar way by interplanting the sweet corn with beans (either use dwarf beans or plant a climbing bean to grow up each sweet corn stem) and then underplant with a sprawling crop such as a squash. And for extra effect why not include a few giant sunflowers too? Additional 3-D growing space can easily be created by using arches, trellis work, rustic poles or an obelisk and by making full use of any walls and fences you have for growing trained fruit trees or climbing plants. Hedges could also be included to provide height, shelter from prevailing wind, nesting sites/food supply for birds, a show of colour from flowers and extra pollen for insects and even edible or useful crops such as fruit, nuts, berries or hazel rods for use in the garden.
In the cottage garden approach, fruit crops are grown in with the vegetables. You can save space for example by growing step over apples as a bed edging, or by growing a cordon, fan or espaliered fruit tree, or trained fruit bushes at the back of a vegetable bed against a wall or fence. In addition many fruit trees are now grown on dwarfing stock and will fruit well in containers. Strawberry plants could also be used as an edging plant at the front of the vegetable beds and maybe you could even fit in a rhubarb patch somewhere?
Remember to include some herbs in any cottage garden scheme. Fresh herbs are ideal for kitchen use. In addition, many herbs have a strong smell and these can help to deter to pests from attacking your crops, or simply smell sensational when you accidentally brush up against them whilst gardening. Some herbs can be used to attract pollinating insects to the beds too. Lavender, hyssop, chives, bergamot, oregano and rosemary are especially good for attracting bees or butterflies. Whereas chives and parsley make ideal bed-edging plants and are very tasty too! More invasive herbs such as varieties of mint are best planted in containers and moved around the beds to fill in any odd spaces that occur. Lavender, sage, garlic, basil, oregano and rosemary are examples of strong smelling herbs. I find that when I interplant garlic with lettuces, the slugs leave the lettuces alone!
The good news is that you don't necessarily need to live in the country to adopt a cottage garden approach. A cottage garden style can be created anywhere, even by using container grown plants if you don't have a garden. This approach fits in well with a veganic raised bed system where fertility is maintained by adding plant compost. If you prefer, a cottage garden can be informal, simple and unpretentious - a sort of organised chaos, or alternatively you could adopt a more formal and geometric approach.
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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.
Cottage Garden Plants
In this new section I am going to cover some of the plants that would traditionally be planted in a cottage garden, excluding any suitable plants that have already been covered in depth in earlier issues. I intend to particularly focus on cottage garden plants that are also valuable to wildlife.
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
Growing up to 1.5m (5ft), the native foxglove is a charming plant with rather majestic, bell-shaped flowers that vary in colour from purple to a pinky-rose. Foxgloves are easily grown from seed and will self seed prolifically, quickly establishing colonies. They prefer to grow in heavy clay soils in partial shade, but will grow in full sun provided the soil is rich and moist and preferably acidic. They look nice when planted in clumps under trees, or at the back of a border against a fence. Foxgloves have been grown in cottage gardens since the earliest times. Their flowers are very attractive to bees, especially bumblebees and their seeds are eaten by various birds, particularly by finches. In addition foxgloves are the larval food plant for fritillary butterflies and various moths, so from the wildlife gardening point of view they are quite a good plant to include, when designing a cottage garden.
Wild Wallflower (Gillyflower) (Cheiranthus cheiri)
Every cottage garden should have some wallflowers in it! Wild wallflower is a perennial plant that flowers for a longer period than the garden wallflowers, which have been bred from it. It has yellow, white, orange or red flowers and grows best in a sunny dry corner, doing especially well when grown in crevices on walls, on a heap of builder's rubble, or in a rockery or scree bed. The flowers provide nectar for butterflies and other insects, the seeds are eaten by birds and it's also the larval food plant for white butterflies. It readily self- seeds. If you can't get hold of any wild wallflower seeds, then plant garden wallflowers instead. Incidentally, both types of wallflower are excellent for use in spring containers.
Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus)
These very attractive flowering plants are ideal for use in a cottage garden, but don't forget to choose a strongly perfumed variety! These summer flowering annuals are great climbers and are available in a wide range of pastel colours. They like a sunny position and are ideal for growing up a trellis, through trees and shrubs, or for use on a pergola, arbour, old wall, or grown on wires on a fence, or on tall peas sticks at the back of a border. Seed should be sown in February in potting compost in empty cardboard toilet roll centres. Sweet peas are related to the native varieties of everlasting pea (Lathyrus sylvestris and L. latifolius), both of which have no scent and smaller flowers than cultivated garden sweet peas. The Perennial Sweet Pea (Lathyrus latifolius) was enthusiastically grown by the earliest of cottagers.
Forget-Me-Not (Scorpion Grass) (Myosotis sp. )
Growing about 15-38cm (6-15in) tall, forget-me-nots produce pretty bright blue flowers in spring. The plant readily self seeds, so once planted it can be difficult to get rid of, although you probably won't want to get rid of it anyway! A typical cottage garden combination is English daisy (Bellis) planted with one of the smaller varietes of forget-me-nots for a fine spring display, or a taller variety planted with tulips.
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.
Shared Earth
This company offers a large selection of fairly-traded sustainable products and crafts including hand-carved wooden products from India, textiles, accessories, hand-made paper cards, jewellery and eco-friendly jute shopping bags.
www.isanyonegoingto.com
This is a car share programme, set up by a vegan couple this April. The aim of this website being to put travellers in touch with each other in order to reduce the numbers of cars on the road. So if you are going somewhere, you can now find out if anyone else is going there too!
Vegan Adam (USA)
A new US website offering lots of useful vegetarian information, including a listing of US vendors, FAQ, Freestuff, Is it Vegan information on various products, News etc.
Ecoutlet
Stocks a wide range of environmentally friendly products including energy & water saving, green, organic and recycled products. I especially like the 'Goodbye Batteries' cycle lights and the Pedalite (see cycling section for these products). Plenty of ideas for eco-friendly gifts too!
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Autumn Book Review(s)
Creative Vegetable Gardening by Joy Larkcom (Mitchell Beazley)
I really enjoyed reading this inspiring and beautifully illustrated book. It covers a wide range of attractive and decorative vegetables, which the author skillfully intermingles with colourful flowers, herbs and succulent fruits in an eye-catching way. The author's creative approach to vegetable growing provides a charm and appeal, which is often completely lacking when vegetables are simply grown in neat, functional and regimental rows on an ordinary vegetable plot or allotment.
You'll discover how to plan out, design and maintain your potager, as well as how to display your plants in novel, colourful and creative ways for a dramatic effect. This book also contains practical information on how to create an attractively laid out system of beds and paths, made from local or recycled materials and discusses how to use various artifacts to add texture, focal interest, three-dimensional support and to provide shelter for the plants. It ends with a comprehensive A-Z of the vegetable plants and a wordwide list of suppliers. A really nice reference book that I'm sure you'll want to keep dipping into. Price £16.99. ISBN: 1840002921.
Growing Unusual Vegetables: Weird & Wonderful Vegetables and How to Grow Them by Simon Hickmott (Eco-Logic Books, 2003).
This clearly written and practical book contains information on how to cultivate and use just under 100 unusual and edible vegetables. Covering many rare and sometimes ornamental plants ranging from the Abyssinian Cabbage through to the Yard Long Bean, the book is divided into sections entitled: greens, roots, fruits, seeds, grains and flavourings. Under each plant listing you'll find information on:
This book is illustrated throughout with black and white pen and ink drawings and ends with a useful list of UK seed and plant suppliers.
- How to prepare and use the plant for culinary purposes.
- Advice on the best way to cultivate, harvest and store the plant.
- Details of plant type, Latin name and approx height.
- Historical and interesting facts.
- Details of likely pests and diseases.
- An idea of how easy or difficult it is to grow.
Simon Hickmott is the proprietor of Future Foods, a company specialising in rare and unusual edible plants. This book can be purchased online from Eco-Logic Books for £14.95.
The Half-Hour Allotment by Lia Leendertz (Frances Lincoln ltd, 2006)
Find out how to grow your own fresh and tasty fruit and vegetables, with minimal time and effort on your part. Yes, it is possible to incorporate a productive allotment into a busy lifestyle, without sacrificing other leisure activities! In this book the author maintains that this can be done simply by spending up to half-an-hour a day (with weekends off!) maintaining your plot. Packed with time saving tips this book includes:
Price £16.99. ISBN 0-7112-2605-9. This book was available from Amazon UK for £11.04 (hardback) at the time of writing.
- Detailed coverage of the Half-Hour Principle.
- Tips on what to look for when obtaining a plot.
- Advice on the best varieties to grow.
- Advice on how to produce the right amount of the types of produce you really need.
- Tips on getting started and in depth coverage of the first year.
- Information on how to nurture your plot by watering, feeding, providing support and protection for your plants.
- Tips on prioritising and planning.
- A sample work programme for each season.
- Advice on managing pests and diseases.
- Optional extras, which covers topics such as allotmenteering for kids, cut flowers, creating a wildlife area, storing produce and the use of poly tunnels.
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