Cobnuts

“I’m going down to collect some walnuts. Apparently there are masses under the trees.”
“Is it OK to pick them up from the ground?”
“Yes. I used to collect them on the big estate when I was working there. They used to call me down from my ladder to gather them so that they could mow. The shells mucked up the mower.”
We were sitting at the top of our allotment. On two ancient chairs that we inherited with the plot. We spend quite a bit of time perched on these. Looking down the hill and on to the flat area on the other side of the concrete road where The Chicken Lady and S have a new plot too.

If it’s windy, we hole up in the old chicken shack. It’s a bit like being on the prow of an ancient steamboat. In fact we’ve started referring to it as our ship.
“I wish there were cobnuts to forage. Perhaps we should grow them at home.”
I’d heard that cobnut trees can grow very large but perhaps the size could be kept in check with annual pruning?

Apart from offering free compost, water and pallets the Allotment Association on our site provides some communal areas where all plot holders can share the bounty. Plums are succeeded by apples, pears and then nuts. Wet walnuts are a favourite of mine and considered a delicacy. Walnuts are easily dried in the airing cupboard or a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks if you are planning to store them for a year or so. Walnuts are a rich source of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/walnuts.html. On our new “move away from so much meat diet” the prospect of free walnuts was welcomed with open arms.

So I drifted down to the communal area. Bag in hand. Clearly mega foraging had gone on. So I started to examine the further reaches beneath the walnut tree where most people hadn’t bothered to venture.

Oh lucky, lucky day.

In the grass I spotted a cob nut and then another and a trio. Then more. I collected green and brown nuts. On closer examination, a lot of the brown ones had already been drilled by the dreaded nut weevil but the green ones are fine. Like the wet walnuts, cob nuts can be savoured green (they keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks) but drying them is a bit more of a palaver. Here are expert instructions if you are lucky enough to find cobnuts and need to dry them http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/6126936/How-to-harvest-and-store-cobnuts.html I reckon that it would be worth following the instructions for pruning the cobnut tree to get a much bigger harvest next year for everyone. I’m also going to dig over the ground around the cobnut tree to kill off a lot of the weevils and their grubs.

When I climbed up the hill with my bounty, Danny was delighted that I’d found cobnuts. We celebrated by resting in the prow of the old chicken shack and watched with awe the swallows flying low. They were looking for insects and preparing for the long trip back to a sunny winter in Egypt. We toasted them with water – that’s all we had. As our eyes followed them, twisting and swooping, we agreed that they deserved to be toasted with the best Champagne as their show was superb. Such tiny birds with so much beauty,  energy and elan.

Later we wondered how many swallows actually survive the autumn trip back to Egypt? It’s over two thousand miles after all.

spring fritattata

Well I finally cracked it. My meat loving partner announced with delight.
“That was the best frittata that I’ve ever eaten. I’d be happy to eat it twice a week.”
“Did you realise that it was entirely vegetarian?”
“No. It was just sublime.” Thoughtful pause. “I don’t care about the meat and still would guzzle this twice a week.”

A result! I’m trying to cut down on our meat intake. Healthier and cheaper meals. Delicious is a bonus.

rocambole stalks and flowers

The magic ingredient was rocambole . I had never used this before but after I reckoned that we’d have to finally just have to try it. Rocambole actually grows in our garden after all. It was unknowingly introduced by me from a plant swap. The Londoner declared
“It has little white bell shaped flowers and smells strangely of garlic.”

Everybody harps on about wild garlic. I bought some bulbs last autumn and they didn’t survive. I’m determined to try them again as I didn’t give them much of a chance – clay soil that I needed an axe to break – I reckoned that they just rotted. This time I’m going to plant them beside the Rocambole, in good leaf infused loam; hopefully they will race away in this shady wooded patch of our garden.

Meanwhile disappointment drew me to taste the Rocambole. I nibbled a stalk straight from the patch. It tasted like very strong chives with a garlic kick. I beetled inside to double check which other parts were edible. I was delighted that the leaves are edible too!

Tiny hands clapped with glee. Anything that is not savoured by us this spring will be mixed with butter and frozen in ice cube trays. The flavour is exceptional and will lift any number of dishes later in the year. The butter stops the herbs going all squishy.

Racombole has a bit of a poor press. It grows rampantly around the village. But as so few people mention it as a foodie treat I had never bothered to taste it until this week. Now I feel like the first miners that discovered gold and just wish that we had tasted it over the past 15 years.

If you would like to try growing racombole, I’ll post a few bulbs to the first three people who comment on this post. It will be in two or three month’s time when they have flowered and the leaves have shrivelled away leaving the bulbs enriched and ready to propagate in your garden.

Tasty spring frittata with new potatoes, rocambole, cheese and parsley recipe

Ingredients:
2 tbsp of olive oil
250g-300g of new potatoes. Washed and simmered until cooked and then cut into 1cm-2cm pieces
6 large eggs (or 9 bantam eggs)
100g of mature Cheddar (cut into 1 cm cubes)
30g of mature Cheddar  grated for the topping
10 stalks of racombole (including the flowers and bulblets chopped)
A large hadfull of fresh parsley (that is washed and then chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Boil the new potatoes and drain well.
Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan (medium heat, lid on)
Meanwhile crack the eggs into a large bowl, beat until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
Add the cubed Cheddar cheese and parsley and racombole and stir gently to disperse.
Pour the egg, herb and cheese mixture into the hot sauté pan and immediately lower the heat (our hob has settings from 1-9 so I chose 2).
After a minute or so place the sliced new potatoes on top and sprinkle the grated Cheddar cheese over them.
The frittata will take about 20- 30 minutes to cook. After five minutes or so use a fish slice or spatula to lift the frittata away from the surface of the sauté pan (just a few millimetres so that you can peek at the base). If it is golden brown turn the temperature down to one so as not to let it burn. Lift the frittata in the same way every five minutes or so.
After 20 minutes or so it should be cooked through – I generally put a frittata under a high grill to brown the top.
Season to taste and serve on warm plates with some salad leaves if you’d like. A good beer goes very well with this.

Photo: Wild garlic

Back in the last century, when I was at boarding school, the music and science block was a short five minute walk from our classroom. This is also where I was taught to play the violin by The Missing Link but that’s another story.

In Spring there were frothy cushions of wild garlic either side of the road. No one was keen on singing lessons so one day we thought that we’d spice things up a bit and eat some wild garlic.
“Then we’ll open our mouths as wide as possible as we sing.”
“Yes lets! She can’t complain as for once we’ll all be singing with gusto.”
We chomped in delicious anticipation.

Miss King, the music mistress was formidable. We trooped in eager to begin singing and quickly picked up our sheets of music. After the first few opening bars she held up her baton.
“You have been eating wild garlic!” She roared. Furiously opening windows.
“If you ever do this again I will report the entire class to The Head Mistress.”
She wouldn’t have lasted a minute on the Paris metro.
“You will all close your mouths tight, sit down and listen to music instead.”
The strains of Debussy warbled from the gramophone and I was transported. Ever since then Debussy’s Claire de Lune is magically linked to those pretty, pungent flowers.

Despite searching avidly I have not found wild garlic around here. It can become a bit of a thug but is so useful for cooking in the spring. Wild garlic can be used to make fresh garlic pesto, garlic butter, garlic infused vinegar and so much more. If you have a dehydrator it can be dried to fill the gap between finishing your garlic from the year before and harvesting in the summer. Of course, if you wish to put your singing teacher in her place, it could be munched on the way to your lesson.

As a woodland plant it would be perfect for planting on the north side of our front garden, under the trees where very little grows. I spotted that the Garlic Farm are selling wild garlic bulbs – 12 for £10. So I’ve invested in some and am looking forward to seeing it appear next spring. We want this to spread – so we’ll just make meagre pickings in the first year.