Monday, January 18

Snowed under

We don't have snow very often. Looking through my database of photographs, the last lot of snow that we had was February and March 2018.

Last Thursday, it snowed for most of the day and the low temperatures meant that the snow hung around until the weekend. As a country, England is generally unprepared for snow and we don't cope very well when we get a significant amount of the white stuff. Traffic struggles on the roads, especially where there is anything like an incline. A lorry tipped over on our closest main road which caused the road to be closed for a while. Footpaths were treacherous and people were advised not to venture out which during a lockdown they shouldn't be doing anyway. Appointments including those for Covid vaccinations were cancelled.
The snow froze and to compound matters we were treated to freezing fog. We were thankful that, other than to stock up bird feeders and thaw bird baths, we didn't have to venture outdoors.

The birds arrived in force taking advantage of anything on offer, including access to the water.

I always shudder to see birds bathing when the weather is so cold but it's at these times that it's important to keep feathers in good condition so bathing is essential.
We saw more blackbirds than we had seen for some time and it was impossible to count the number of goldfinches that were flitting about in trees until space was available on the feeders.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but it was difficult to focus on all the activity especially through leaded, murky glass. One bird table is very close to the window and the birds are not very careful feeders and spatter the glass. There was no way that I was going outside to either take photographs or clean the windows.
Due to the weather and the fact that we didn't need to harvest any vegetables, we didn't visit the allotment but we did have one gardening event.

We noticed that our local garden centre had seed potatoes for sale. As we are still avoiding doing any shopping, which includes visiting garden centres, we decided to order seed potatoes from their website and use their click and collect service. In the event, once the order was placed, we were offered free home delivery and the potatoes arrived the following day.

The varieties that we ordered were; Apache, Casablanca, Elfe, International Kidney, Nadine, Osprey and Charlotte. We had hoped to buy Ulster Prince, a variety that did well last year, but it was unavailable. We had to forego buying any individual seed potatoes, for our trial bed, as that would have required a personal visit.

We will need to try to get to the allotment this week as we have used up the last lot of vegetables that we harvested. We brought a large batch of leeks home the previous week and these were prepared and frozen. The leeks have a lot of waste as the shafts have brownish streaks meaning that quite a few outer leaves need removing. Preparing the leeks in advance means we know what we have to work with.

The first dish that I used leeks in last week was a Turkey, lemon and leek pie which seems to have disappeared off the internet but the pie is basically turkey, lemon zest and leeks in a bechamel sauce with a short pastry top. This was served with some red cabbage that I braised in my slow cooker and sautéed Apache potatoes.  The red cabbage needed cooking down a little before it would all fit in the cooker. The red cabbage was more or less this recipe although I used apple cider vinegar and added cinnamon and raisins.

For some reason I can't find the photos that I took.
Another of last week’s dishes was Coconut and squash dansak. Our vegetables that went into this were some Crown Prince squash, onions and some tomato sauce from the freezer. I used the ingredients as stated in the recipe but used a more usual cooking method. The squash was frozen, (who can use a whole Crown Prince squash in one meal?) and I find that once it is thawed it has already softened and doesn't need so much cooking. This was served with one of Martyn's homemade naans.
More of our Crown Prince squash, onion and leeks went into a pasta bake. I topped this with parmesan rather than cheddar cheese.

Finally, this week's choice of gadget is something many of you will have which is a food processor. My choice, however is a couple of attachments that go with it. The attachments were in a box that I had forgotten about only to be discovered after I had been spending ages hand grating carrots and shredding cabbage for my coleslaw. The two attachments are a grater blade and a slicing blade. I used to especially hate grating carrots - the two attachments have considerably cut down the time it takes to make a batch of coleslaw and makes it less of a chore!

That's all for this week, as always stay healthy and safe. As they are in a higher priority group, two friends of ours have had their first Covid jab which shows that progress is being made. Let's hope the supplies keep on coming. There are no mass vaccinations hubs in West Yorkshire yet so I hope that they get round to us soon.


Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

25 comments:

  1. The last time we had snow that stayed was 2010! I agree about being unprepared, and living in Iceland for four years showed me how unprepared the UK is for snow. You need a completely different skill set to both drive in snow and walk in it!
    I have a processor but never use it now that it's just me.

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    1. I'm just glad that I can choose not ti drive in it these days, Deborah. When I was working U had a lot of driving to do and I hated waking up to snow or fog.

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  2. Blackbirds and goldfinches here too. But will they stay on for the Big Bird Count at the end of the month??? This winter is turning into a bit of a bumpy ride. Another "event" forecast to blow in midweek.

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    1. The birds are almost certain to go into hiding, Mal. I sometimes wonder whether more people put out food during the Bird Count.

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  3. Ooh, lovely snow pics but bad news for the people expecting their COVID jabs and that lorry driver.
    Your pasta bake looks delicious!

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    1. The pasta was delicious, Belinda. Snow is fine if you have nowhere to go

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  4. Even here where snow is common there are always a few that overdrive the conditions. Keeps the insurance people busy. The birds are a delight in these cold winter months.

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    1. Our problem is that we don't have special tyres, toals or well cleared roads.

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  5. I always feel hungry after visiting your blog! We had a tiny amount of snow early hours of Saturday but it didn't settle and turned to mush, I love the photos, especially the birds.

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    1. The snow didn't last too long, Karen it's always a shame when the snow is churned up and loses that photogenic look.

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  6. I usually read your blog post before breakfast. It makes me want to make a big breakfast for us. ha... I hope you are able to get to the allotment soon. The snow is beautiful. I always like a good snow. Here we have several snows per winter. Now that I don't have to drive to work I especially appreciate them. Do take care.

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    1. I hope I'm not to blame for you putting on weight, Lisa. Yes snow is beautiful to look at but not good if you need to drive in it,

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  7. Don't forget your gloves when you go to the allotment, you'll need them for the harvesting with all the rain we've had today. I'm glad the snow hasn't hung around any longer though, it was treacherous after it iced over and Archie hates going out in it. Did Ruby like it?

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    1. It took ages for Ruby to venture out, Jo she just stood at the door puzzled. Eventually she stepped out and ran back in a few times. Then she went out and tentatively explored, however it wasn’t very deep near to the house. She also watched the snow out of the window and all the comings and going’s on the bird feeders.

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  8. Snow is lovely, especially when you don't get it very often, it's a pain when it hangs around though. I would love to have one short lived pristine snowfall.
    That's a lovely variety of birds, they'll be most grateful for the feed. Lovely meals!xxx

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    1. I bet it won’t be as active in the garden during the Bird Count, Dina

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  9. Surprised that you get less snow than we do close to "mild" Morecambe Bay but even being a couple of miles inland at 300 feet above sea level makes a difference.
    Is the bird in the middle right photo a Red Poll or something less exotic?
    At the moment there are lots of Starlings about but no Goldfinches.I've got a bumper pack of sunflower hearts which I'll start putting out especially now that the Siskins are due.
    I did venture to my eerily quiet local garden centre last week ( not having the cafe open makes a huge difference to numbers!) to buy the first half of the seed potatoes.Arran Pilot,Nicola and also Ulster Prince inspired by my visit in the Autumn.My standby variety Kestrel had sold out so I'll see what else there is in March.The challenge now is to keep them from sprouting too soon but hopefully my outside shed will do it's job.I planted too early last year and the May frosts took their toll on the earlies.
    I must get a food processor to save on the fingertips!

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    1. We are quite low lying in the Aire Valley, David. We can be snow free when only a short distance away on high ground they can have quite thick snow.

      The bird is more common - a female chaffinch; we did once have a male redpoll but I’d we have had any since I’ve not seen them. We occasionally get siskins but haven’t had any for a while. We bulk buy sunflower hearts which we put out all year round and the goldfinches flock to them. Lucky to find Ulster Prince we tried them last year and were impressed. Our seed potatoes are in the garage for now which seems to work OK.

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  10. It is hard to think of a winter without tons of snow. So far ours has been mild, but March and April usually bring our biggest storms. I am always so impressed with all you make from your garden. You are an inspiration. Stay safe and healthy.

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    1. For me having the amount of snow that you have for such a long period of time is unimaginable, Bonnie

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  11. Oh, a lot of snow! I think, Sue, this cold won't last long. Here frost gave way to wet and windy weather we have +1 C. Hopefully Martin and you can go to the allotment and collect your crop. Your meals look delicious.

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    1. The snow soon disappeared, Nadezda but it left everywhere even more soggy.

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  12. We do seem to have had a lot of snow this month. Ours cleared away and then we got more heavy snow on Saturday. At the moment if it doesn't snow we get heavy rain. So we are not getting out much at all.

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    1. So far we haven't had any more, Margaret but it's still very wet.

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  13. We escaped Monday's snow Sue which certainly looks as if it was very heavy in your neck of the woods. We were very worried though on Wednesday when torrential rain fell for hours threatening to flood the lower level of the garden. Luckily in the evening the temperature dropped and the rain turned into very heavy snow just in the nick of time. More snow too yesterday morning and this morning. Great that your garden centre delivered your seed potatoes free of charge and that they delivered so quickly. You are well set up now!

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