After much consideration I’ve decided to move Consuming The Harvest from WordPress and give it it’s very own url.

Thankfully I have been able to import all previous (to today) posts and comments up to and including the post “Of Flowers And Flowery Questions”.  Posts beyond that have been imported, but not comments as it was a copy and paste operation (to the new servers) after that post.

Please visit the new site and click on the RSS feed to get current updates into your preferred reader.  Also, anyone who has been kind enough to put me in their blogroll, please change the link to direct to the new site which is:  http://www.consumingtheharvest.me.uk.  I believe in many cases the “http://” bit can be left off, but  possibly not it all.

I hope that everyone who has subscribed, just stopped by now and again and especially those of you who have commented in the past will continue to visit at Consuming The Harvest – the next generation.  There is still a little design work going on, but that is over and above regular postings.

See you there! 

I do want to get some re-arranging done in our little garden, but also need to do a clear out in the laundry area of the workshop.  Think I’ll do the clear out first with hopes that that gorgeous sun will warm things up somewhat for this afternoon and do the re-arrange then, after lunch.  Fingers crossed the skies stay so blue and the sun decides to humour us on into the afternoon!

Away I go . . . . .

A die hard JamieO fan, I had to buy the first issue and enjoyed it enough to purchase the second one too!

This recipe is from his Ministry Of Food cookbook, the stuffing was delicious if a bit too ‘moist’ on this first try – I’m thinking that I probably didn’t squeeze the bread quite enough.  It was the first time I’ve ever dunked and squeezed chunks of bread, so I’m giving myself a little leeway, lol.  Next time I’ll try using a little more strength

Slight changes I made/did I’ve put into italics.

Delicious Sage And Onion Stuffing

Ingredients

• 3 medium onions
• a bunch of fresh sage (I used dried from last years herbs)
• 1/2 a large loaf of stale bread
• olive oil
• 750g good quality sausage meat (I used good quality butcher sausages and removed the meat from the skins)
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• optional – a handful of roasted, peeled chestnuts or a handful of dried fruit such as sour cherries or apricots.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.  Peel, halve and roughly chop your onions.  Pick sage leaves from the stalks and roughly slice.  Cut the crusts off of the bread and discard (I kept mine for breadcrumbs).  Tear the bread into chunks and fill a bowl with cold water.
2. Put a large pan on a medium heat and add 2 lugs of olive oil.  Add onions and cook gently for 7 to 10 minutes until soft and golden.  Stir in the sage leaves.
3. Take handfuls of the bread and dip into the bowl of water.  Squeeze the water out well and then add the wet bread to the pan, stirring and breaking up any large chunks with a spoon.  Let cook for a few minutes and add any of the optional extras you wish.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and spoon the contents into a large bowl and put aside to cool completely.
5. Once thoroughly cooled, mix the sausage meat into the bread mixture and season well with salt and pepper.
6. Put the stuffing into an oil rubbed dish and bake at the bottom (I used the middle) of the preheated oven for 50 minutes until really golden and crispy on top.  Serve .

This recipe freezes very well, just put meal size helpings into bags or containers and freeze, which I did.

And the finished and cooked product, plated up.  Yummy!

The order process was painless and the bicarb showed up at the door within 3 days.  Along with a load of other products.  I was sure that they had mistakenly boxed up someone else’s order with mine and promptly sent off an email stating so.  I received a reply back which surprised me and (very odd) left me silenced.  All of the extra goodies in the box were sent on purpose, for me to try their products and get this . . . they were free.  All of them.  Not dinky little sample ditties you occasionally get from some companies, but full size products!  The photo below shows what was in my box, the bicarb and Citrus Room Fragrance containers are the only things that I ordered, the rest are the ‘freebies’.

I’m sorry, but companies – no matter the size, just don’t do things like this any more.  As a matter of fact, I don’t know of any company anywhere that I have ever received so many full sized products from, free, for me to test out their worth.  Now, I don’t speak for EcoShopDirect so I have no idea if I was just lucky that day I ordered or if this is something they do on a regular basis (even 1 or 2 products), so I can’t say that if you were to place an order you would be quite as fortunate as I was in receiving ‘extras’, but I can speak for the products themselves that I’ve tried thus far.

I have not used the furniture or floor polish yet.

• The Bicarb – I suppose bicarb is bicarb, it is what it says on the tin (bucket) so good enough for me
• The Citrus Room Fragrance is absolutely lovely.  I put some in a little dish in the lounge and the aroma stayed for about 4 days, and I then stirred it up a bit and it lasted another 4 before I shook it up a bit once more and was good for another 2 days!
• The Fabric Conditioner is extremely economical, just a small (very) amount worked wonders on a full load in fairly hard water with a subtle fresh scent.
• The Colour Washing Powder worked very well with my coloured loads, and once again, you use a really very small amount per load.  So small in fact, I was a bit dubious and was certain that I would have to double up (at least) on the amount the next time, but no worries.  Just the small amount stated on the container is all it takes.
• The White Washing Powder – the same as above.  Using only the small amount recommended did the job wonderfully on my white loads.

Now, as for the laundry, my usual washes are of garments that are what I suppose you call average grubbiness.   If you were to have a load that was really dirty or your water was extremely hard, you would probably have to use a bit more product, but I’m certain that it wouldn’t be too much more, and not nearly the amount your average laundry detergent would need.

So, can you tell, I’m thrilled.  A company that offers innovative ecological products which actually work and is good to it’s customers. I think that speaks for itself, but just in case you’re waiting for the specific statement – I would highly recommend EcoShopDirect and those products that I’ve tried thus far.

There are plans in place to try a fair few more in the future . . . . .

EcoShopDirect gets a place under ‘Shops’ in the sidebar too, from one very pleased customer!

I could have, of course, done something similar up myself and probably cheaper, but they’re a quick Spring fix and I will be using the little cauldrons over and over so still a bit thrifty I’d say and they definitely lifted my spirits!  We ended up buying two for us and two for the IL’s to give them a bit of colour to start their garden with too. 

We had gone to the HFG farm shop in Blofield (where the flowers are from), which has bits of anything and everything “farm-shoppy” and I love going there, although it is probably about 10 miles from us – I think, I’m not so good at distances, lol.  For the first time ever I purchased some goose fat.  I think I make rather nice roast potatoes, but word is you’ve not had a decent roast potato until you’ve had one done with goose fat.  So, I’ll give it a go and see if it truly does make all the difference.

And of course, we bought some lovely local veg, some rolls, garlic stuffed olives (my fav) and a few other things.  It was nice to have a wander and see the garden centre section gearing up for spring and summer, the outdoor part where they usually set up tents and campers that are for sale was still shut though.  We went for a short drive afterwards and then headed back home as it was time to rustle up some lunch for The Beast.  Our first proper ‘gardeny’ and Springy outing of the year, enjoyed, but as is so every year, it served to add somewhat to the frustration that Spring is not yet quite here!

Before I go, can someone tell me what these flowers are?  They are small, only about 6 inches high in total, lovely and delicate.  Please click on the photos to enlarge.  Everyone have a great weekend, sounds as if it will be a nice one!