The Patience of Ordinary Things

Poem by Pat Schneider. 

> 

> The Patience of Ordinary Things

> It is a kind of love, is it not?

> How the cup holds the tea,

> How the chair stands sturdy and four square,

> How the floor receives the bottoms of the shoes

> Or toes. How the soles of feet know 

> where they’re supposed to be.

> I’ve been thinking about the patience

> Of ordinary things, how clothes

> Wait respectfully in closets

> And soap dries quietly in the dish,

> And the towels drink the wet

> From the skin of the back.

> And the lovely repetition of stairs.

> And what is more generous than a window?

> 

Allotment cooking:

Allotment cooking:

I am not a cook, just a man who cooks food that I grow.

I have always tried to grow as much variety of food as I can, partially vegetables that can be harvested from October till May.

Recipes from books do not really interest me because I find that you have to go out and buy little bits and pieces that are used only once and then take up space in the cupboard, till they reach the used by date and our chucked out. I hate food waste. I do , however like looking at the pictures in the cook books, I look at them and think: Oh, I can do that and go off and cook some thing, which most of the time works.

As time goes by I come back from the allotment with various varieties of food. The trick is to make meals of them and keep the shopping down to a minimum.

For this reason I like I have a failsafe method that works for me.

My main staple supper is savoury rice. With a change of seasoning I can make a risotto, or a jambalaya.

The basic method is the same. I only need one pot and can cook it on a fire or camping stove. 

The Ingredients:

Olive oil

Any vegetables that I have to hand 

An onion and garlick

50 grams of rice per person

1 stock cube

Any spice or herb you like

Any protein you like

Method:

Chop the vegetables

Heat the oil in a pan

Add the onion and garlick and fry till light brown

Add all the vegetables and fry them for about ten minutes.

Rinse the rice and add to the pan 

If you are using nuts add them now

Dissolve the stock cub in boiling water. You will need a pint per 100gram of rice, a bit less if you are using tomatoes.

Add stock to cover everything in the pan and let it all simmer.

Keep an eye on it to make sure it does not dry out.

Stir in your protein and keep checking to make sure the rice and protein is well cooked.

Add your herbs and spices and keep checking to make sure every thing iis cooked...then eat and enjoy.

The permutations are without end. 

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Good Coronavirus News

How about some good news?

-China has closed down its last coronavirus hospital. Not enough new cases to support them.

- Doctors in India have been successful in treating Coronavirus. Combination of drugs used: Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine. They are going to suggest same medicine, globally.

- Researchers of the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus.

- A 103-year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from COVID-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China.

- Apple reopens all 42 china stores,

- Cleveland Clinic developed a COVID-19 test that gives results in hours, not days.

- Good news from South Korea, where the number of new cases is declining.

- Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe.

- Scientists in Israel likely to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine.

- 3 Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered; able to return to everyday life.

- A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid-19 research.

- A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore.

- Tulsa County's first positive COVID-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery.

- All 7 patients who were getting treated for at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi have recovered.

- Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19.

So it's not all bad news. Let's care for each other and stay focused on safety of those most vulnerable.

Growing Leeks – How to Grow Leeks

Growing Leeks – How to Grow Leeks

How to Grow Leeks – A Guide to Growing Leeks

Leeks

Leeks

Leeks are very stalwart member of the onion family and are grown to gigantic proportions for showing, notably in the North East of England. But smaller plants are yummier and more tender for cooking Leeks are less demanding to grow than onions but they need very careful transplanting and earthing up to produce long well paled plants.

Varieties of Leek

There are early, mid-season and late varieties. Early varieties mature from September to November, Mid-Season varieties from December to February and Late varieties from February to April. Sow seeds from each group to extend the cropping season. You can also grow them in huge containers or pots and in heightened beds .

Early Leeks

King Richard is the one I grow I find it very good very early cropping variety. The leek can be harvested by July from your early sowings. I have found that it will stand until Christmas from a late sowings however King Richard is less hardy than some other varieties. It can be grown close together in the row for delicious, succulent mini leeks. This variety has been awarded the RHS Award Of Garden Merit (AGM).

Pancho is another early maturing, but will only stand until mid-winter however it is suitable for close spacing. It has an excellent flavour which is ideal for salads or conventional cooking. Also awarded the RHS Award Of Garden Merit (AGM).

Carlton another variety that gives rapid growth and an extra early crop. It has long, tight, straight stems which you will find needs less cleaning and is of exceptional flavour. And is good for close spacing . Once again awarded the RHS Award Of Garden Merit (AGM).

Mid-season Leeks

Mussselborough is a renowned , solid , mid-season variety, having an exceptional flavour and tender taste when cooked. It is exceptionally stalwart and stands well in even the coldest winter weather. It is a favored choice in cold areas.

Oarsman is a superior midseason variety. It has good early vigour, bulking up rapidly, with no sign of bulbing. It has good resilience to rust and bolting and sets well over a long period.

 Awarded the RHS Award Of Garden Merit (AGM): Thompson & Morgan.

Porbella is an impressive variety. It has good defiance to rust and excellent winter hardiness. Harvesting from October to February.

Edison is a reasonably disease resistant variety with even size and good texture that can be harvested young as a ‘baby’ vegetable, or when mature in autumn or winter.

Late Leeks

Below-Zero’ F1 Hybrid wasbred in the UK. This leek combines the vigour of an F1 Hybrid with severe cold resistance. It produces leeks that can tolerate the hardest of winter weather.

 It is rust resistant and stands well over a long period without bolting. This leek  can be lifted from Christmas until May, so quite a long time really.

Blauwgroene Winter – Bandit is really an outstanding variety with excellent winter hardiness for harvesting from winter through to spring. It has good resilience to rust and bolting.

 Awarded the RHS Award Of Garden Merit (AGM): Thompson & Morgan.

Pests and Troubles with Leeks

Leeks are typically trouble free, however may suffer from rust which is a fungal disease causing orange spots on the leaves and Smut produce black blotches. Affected plants should be lifted and burnt.

 Leek Moth is sometimes  a problem in southern England and is gradually spreading north, as the weather gets milder. The caterpillars will be found feeding within the foliage and stems or bulbs of leeks, onions and related vegetables.

Sowing and Growing Leeks

Leeks are less troublesome to grow than onions. They appreciate soil which is rich in humus and nutrients but may rot in wet ground . The white stems of leeks , which are desired for cooking , are shaped by blanching (preventing the light) as they grow. Plants are, therefore, planted in holes in the soil .

Leeks can be sown from March–April outdoors in drills in a seedbed or as early as January under glass in pots, modules or root trainers.

 Sow thinly and thin to the strongest ones to grow on for transplanting.

Leeks can be planted out during June or July when they are about 4 inches (10 cm) high and about the fatness of a pencil.

 Using a dibber, or an better still an old spade or broom handle with a square or taper shaped end, make planting holes 6 inches (15 cm) deep, 6–8 inches (15–20 cm) apart in each direction . Drop a leek plant into each hole – some gardeners recommend paring the roots so that they drop into the holes easily but others say just to twist the plant gently as you drop it into the hole – the choice is yours, I do not.

Do not add soil to the hole but fill it with water to settle the plant in, the leeks will fill the hole as they grow.

You can also trim seedlings leaves a little if you prefer, before transplanting to cut down transpiration before the roots have established in the soil. Keep the bed free from weeds and remember leeks do not grow well in dry weather, so water.

If you wish to increase the blanched length of the leek, gently earth up around them but avoid soil getting between the leaves.

I use a toilet roll or kitchen roll inner cut lengthways, seems to work well for me.

Harvesting, Eating and Storing Leeks

When you want to harvest leeks pull or dig up every second one in  the row. I then leave the rest  to grow on for a later harvest . 

Leeks can be used instead of onions in many recipes. You may not know it, but leeks can be for use later in stews and soups. When I freez mine I cut them up frist. 

To keep leeks available fresh at the end of the season, dig or pull  them up. Make a trench about 10cm deep and lay the leeks with their roots in the trench at a 45 degree angle. Cover the roots with loose soil.

The Fertilizer Question

THE FERTILIZER question 

There is one thing, however, that must not be ignored, and that is that you must feed the soil after each crop has been taken out and before another one has been put in, for you can't count on to growing good cabbage when the corn has taken sufficient food from the earth to enable it to grow a stalk six feet tall and mature two to six ears of corn ! 

Presume you have had a vegetable garden in the constant spot for countless years, and have given  insufficient fertilizer in that time, say, perhaps, nothing but manure, and you are speculating why your vegetables do not grow as rapidly and mature as perfectly as formerly.

 Could you absolve that garden for one summer and sow it with cow-peas, soy beans or red clover, and plow that crop under in the autumn? 

These three varieties of plants (and there are many more like them) gather great quantities of nitrogen from the air. They have very long roots, and some acquire little knobs, real nitrogen supplies, that store away the nitrogen which the leaves draw from the atmosphere, so improveing your soil no end. 

Nitrogen is the most crucial and costly material to secure in fertilizer form, and is greatly sought after; it is utilized not only to establish quickly such crops as lettuce, but to force for a more lengthen period corn, beans, celery, etc. 

The readily- soluble chemicals, such as nitrate of soda, are of course exceptional, as they are quickly exploited by the plants, but because of their easy solubility they are soon washed away by rains. 

Furthermore, they require moisture to render them accessible. The nitrogen storers are utilized to a greater extent each year. Their power is to absorb nitrogen from the air and to disseminate it throughout the soil through the mechanism of their roots. 

When the stalks of these crops are cultivated in, the nitrogen that they have gathered will be surrendered as the plants decay- It is the cheapest way to purchase nitrogen.