Well a week or so on and most of my seedlings have sprouted, I have a lot of sweet corn shoots (pictured above) plus tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, a few onions (for some reason I never do very well with growing onion family seeds). The large broad leaves of the scalloped Squash are now up (pictured below), although amusingly some resolutely stuck their heads in the soil and poked their bums (roots) up to wave at the ceiling. I guess I planted a couple of them upside down (how you tell I'm not actually sure!?).
I have bought and planted a few roots of Bocking 14 Comfrey, which I am hopeful will sprout. Comfrey is a plant that draws nitrogen and nutrients from deep within the soil with its' long roots, it stores these nutrients in it's leaves which can then be used to benefit your plants. You can use it to make a Comfrey tea (cut the leaves and soak them in a covered bucket of water until it smells manure like) to feed to them as liquid feed, or you can add the leaves directly to your compost heap. Maybe even plant it around your compost pile to ensure that the leaking nutrients are caught by the Comfrey and put back. Bocking 14 is a sterile seeded variety of Comfrey, useful for keeping it under control, as a result of this you'd have to get yourself some by buying roots cuttings. I bought mine from eBay, I am quietly hopeful but if they don't do well then I haven't exactly wasted much, the average price is very reasonable. It says plant horizontally though, this fills me with deep misgivings, I killed the Horseradish by doing that (remember kids, always read the instructions!!).
I also just bought some caffeine spray to keep the pesky slugs off my young plants. I'm not naming it yet, it might be crap, so I'll keep that to myself until I've had the chance to road test it on the lettuces!
Here is what the tiny egg from a few weeks ago looks like when cooked. It did have a yolk, just a tiny weeny one!
I'll leave you with a recipe. Nettle Pesto, I tried this last week and it's lovely (if a bit garlicky!). I think next time I'd use a bit less garlic. The mesasurments are in cups, because it was an American Blog I borrowed the recipie from. There is a link to that here - Fat of The Land Nettle Pesto
Nettle Pesto
Ingredients
2 Cups of Stinging Nettles (blanched and chopped = about 6 cups raw)
1/2 Cup finely grated Parmesan
1/2 Cup Pine Nuts
4-5 Large Garlic Cloves
1tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Method
Boil the nettles for a minute or two to neutralise the sting (you'll still see the hairs but don't worry, they will be soft).
Ball up the nettles and sqeeze the water out.
Ball up the nettles and sqeeze the water out.
Add to food processor with other ingredients and half the olive oil.
Whizz it up, and you're done!
The excess can be frozen in ice cube trays
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