Monthly Archives: August 2020

Animal Magic with Johnny Morris

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Yes, it IS a squirrel with a scone! She/he dropped it at the end of the apples trees yesterday on it’s travels and has been back today to claim it. The cats didn’t even bother him/her!

And at the bottom of the garden is the pond. We’re always fretting that if the water level gets below a certain brick in there (pic above) the pond is leaking. We reckon it’s to do with the lack of some decent rain (which we’re getting at the moment) but the mini frogs ain’t complaining as it’s THE most fashionable place to hang out down if you’re of the baby frog variety! #squirrelwithascone #frogsinlockdown

Alternatives to chutney

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A big shout to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore from across the pond for sharing with us his Fried Green Tomatoes recipe.

We’ve never tried them before but are willing to give it a go! We don’t know how much sunshine we have left to ripen our remaining toms but this recipe certainly is an alternative to chutney or “unripe tomatoes in a drawer with a banana” trick! Here’s the recipe from Justin:

A classic recipe that my appalachian ancestors in Kentucky would serve alongside some poke salad.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup flour, divided
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic power (optional)
3 medium green tomatoes (cut into 1/3 inch round slices)
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:
In a shallow bowl, mix all the dry ingredients: 1/2 cup of cornmeal, 1/4 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder (optional). In another shallow bowl, combine the egg and ½ cup of buttermilk. Then place the remaining 1/4 cup of flour in a shallow bowl. Place the skillet on medium heat and coat it with 1/2 cup of oil.

Like an assembly line, cover the tomatoes with the flour, dip in the egg mix, and then dip in the cornmeal mix. Once pan is hot, pan-fry the tomatoes. You want to cook the tomatoes for about 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Once the tomatoes are crispy on each side, carefully remove and place on paper towels or a rack to drain. Serve with hot sauce or remoulade. (I prefer the remoulade.)

Remoulade recipe:
1 cup  Mayonnaise
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Creole mustard
½ cup chopped green onions
¼ cup finely chopped celery
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Louisiana-style hot sauce
Salt and cayenne pepper, to taste

Directions:
COMBINE mayonnaise, ketchup, red wine vinegar and Creole mustard in a medium mixing bowl and mix well.
ADD green onions, celery, parsley, garlic, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and salt and pepper (to taste), and whisk well.
AND EAT.
(Sauce can be stored in refrigerator for up to 4 days.)

Brilliant Justin, thanks for sharing that! Any more recipes for using up green tomatoes? Drop us a comment and we’ll post them up!

Every kind of weather to make what August’s about, yeah

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Well it’s been a weird few days, we’ve had a welcome bit of rain, then the sun returned back to “classic lockdown mode” and earlier today it was back to greyness. We’re confused, what month is it again? Well the sunflower’s out, it may not be of the giant variety but it’s great in that Fibonacci sequence style!

We did manage to do some gardening over the last few days. We dried out some of our broad beans earlier this year and we’ve stuck three small rows of them at the bottom of the garden. We don’t know if they’ll sprout but we gave it a go!

A few years ago we bought a dwarf blackberry/bramble bush and didn’t really have much luck with it and even moved it around a bit which probably don’t help matters. The last year or so we’ve left it in its present position and now it’s starting to fruit. There isn’t much there but a few blackberries are better than none!

In front of that dwarf bramble are the raised beds that we put together around the start of lockdown. In them next to the tomatoes and spuds there’s some pepper plants with fruit on them. They are out of the way and water is of the sparse variety unless we remember. We’ve given them some regular doses of comfrey liquid and a few of peppers on the plants are starting to get a little larger.

Just next to those peppers out of view is a cabbage that has been beheaded by them pesky pigeons. You win some you lose some. Well at least we’ll be having some nicer weather (supposedly) this weekend.

A big shout to Gerry Hectic for alerting us to this great track below from King Knut called “Spellbound”. Very Dub Disco band for the love of money, dubbed out weirdness and old cassettes of the Rhythm Doctor on Fantasy FM in the early 90’s. It’s a nice tune!

Don’t touch that lamp!

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Here’s the studio recording of One Deck Pete’s “The Purple Nucleus of Creation 002” that was broadcast this evening on Radio Lavalamp on 3955 kHz.

Tracklisting:
Nayl – Loading (Kontor Germany)
Drowsii – Leather Doves (AWAL)
Tabitha Project – Aguamar (Berry Parfait)
Seventh Soul & Homayoun Shajarian – Lost (Tarr)
Camille Murray – Ghosts are real (Khanti)
#shortwavesnotdead #radiolavalamp #thepurplenucleusofcreation

Found at the back of a drawer, the back of a drawer

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We were berating the lack of contents in our seed tin earlier this weekend and today as it was drizzling we’ve tidied out a drawer or two (very rock n roll! ) and found this pack of carrot seeds wedged at the back of one of them.

On the reverse of the packet it says “Best before 9/2019”. That’s well okay as seeds can last ages (you’ve just more chance of failure as the months/years go by especially something like parsnips but it’s well worth giving old seeds a go!) so we’ll be sticking them in the ground come the spring. Here’s an interesting thing here about out of date seeds and how long they’ll keep for.

Got any good out of date seed stories? Contact us here at onedeckpete (at) gmail.com We’ll even accept cleaning out drawers and shed stories as well!  #everyonelovesacleanoutduringlockdown

From our gardening friends abroad

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And here’s a gardening update from our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore with some pics of his veg patch in Cincinnati. From top to bottom, we have some lovely looking basil next to a great looking tomato plant. Wish our basil was looking as great as this one! And then below the tomato which looks like it’s enjoying growing there, loving those fruits!

And something we’ve never tried before, some healthy looking jalapeno‘s, the garden’s looking great Justin! #veglookinggoodincincinnati

Side of the garden that the tourists never see

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Due to the drizzle not much was done in the garden over the last couple of days apart from the old council trick of going over the soil (down the vegetable bed at the bottom of the garden) very very lightly with a garden fork before a storm or a shower so when the rain comes it gives the impressive a lot of deep forking and hard work had be going on! Well it makes it looks the bed appear a bit neater anyway.

And another light layer of comfrey leaves were ripped up and left on top of the freshly forked-over compost heap. We couldn’t find any decent borage or nettle leaves that would have added to the heap which was a shame but you should have seen the steam (or was it dust?) that came off the heap when we turned it! #compostinginlockdown.

This post was written while listening to this week’s This is a music show 77 which featured some great tunes as ever especially Rupert and The Rolling Coins from The Bahamas with Grooving which we can’t find on youtube which is a crying shame!

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-077

A job done yesterday

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It was far too hot to do anything in the garden today apart from cutting back some ivy but another job we did yesterday involved being on our hands and knees and weeding and taking out any old leaves between the busted paving slabs down by the pond.

We’re now giving that area a good daily water and lo and behold we’re seeing some of the Thompson and Morgan Beneficial Flower seeds mix coming through! Roll on a bit of rain and we should see some more! We were pushing it with putting those seeds down there as the area doesn’t get much light and it can be dry at times but let’s see…
#don’ttouchthemslabs #aslabinlockdown

Still life (with worms attached)

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And the heat in there is impressive too! Look at the build up of brandling worms at the bottom. We’ve just seen on the web you can buy them, 100 for £11! All we did is put a wet piece of cardboard down the bottom of the garden. Two days later, worms! Thanks to the great Bob Flowerdew for that! #theuniverseinthecompostbin

Dahlias during the day, Perseids later on tonight

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Big shout to our good mate Marc B for passing on a tuber of this lovely dahlia earlier this year. Look at it now! Ok it’s a bit thirsty looking and is a bit droopy but don’t we all feel like that when the temperature’s as mad as this?

Remember it’s the peak of a meteor shower tonight (or thereabouts.) So if you’re thinking of sitting out the back later on (it’s far too hot to sit in or even for trying to get to sleep!) have a look at this site here (and their twitter account here) it’s “Dead good” as they say. We’ve had many a happy evening looking at their twitter feed, looking up at the night sky, looking at their twitter feed, looking up at the night sky (Ad infinitum).