MINK,BROCCALI and UNCLE BEN

How is your day going?

It’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK. Which means it’s raining!

Wife, got called into work but thats Ok we are going to my daughters for dinner.

Er No! She is not feeling well. Change of plan.

Phone rang.”A mink” has moved onto your boat! A what! We have a small boat on The Kennet and Avon Canal a few kilometers south from home.

Now this is not the USA. I do not have a high powered rifle. Even if I had I wouldn’t. You know what I mean. I am thinking furry rats. Bait. The only chocolate we have is my wife’s uneaten Easter Egg. I set off thinking. Here minky minky! No. These are American mink. Howdy Mr mink? Yogi Bear! Smarter than the average bear! keeps going round my head.

Nervously I eat some chocolate. Harry Potter!

When I get there he has gone! Moved on. Not before he has left me many presents. Hm next time raisons. I brush and wash the floors. Yes! Dear with bleach.

Dinner? We have some broccoli in the fridge. Broccoli and Stilton soup? All right broccoli and Danish Blue soup.

Peel and roughly chop an onion. In a pan with water. Roughly chopped broccoli in steamer above. Heat say thirty minutes. Cool. Blend. When you reheat add the cheese.

I am starting some more seeds.

When dealing with very small seeds I use a plastic chop stick we got free from Uncle Ben.

I open a bottle of wine and have a drink. I deserve it!

Only then do I realize I left the Easter Egg on the boat!

DRIZZLES DROPS and DRIPS

My NFT system is four two meter square line drain pipes running into a 110 mm soil pipe. All standard UK fittings.

At the moment I would gladly burn it!

I cut four square holes into the 110 mm to accept the square tubes.

An accuracy of +/- 1 cm.

Not good enough! It leaks!

I tested it on max water flow. No problems!

However when I adjusted the individual flows to between one and two liters per minute ( Ideal)

Water creep!

Drizzles Drops and Drips.

Now one drip can lose 20 to 40 liters per day.

Constant top up will throw my PH. Disaster!

Duck Tape. Do you call four rolls; Flock Tape?

Yes! I am a grown man and spending my day drinking tea and watching Duck Tape joints to see if it leaks.

I am dreaming leaks! The only time I stop thinking about leaks is,... When I take a leak!

Yesterday I spent two hours making a fitting. I cut and filled an exact square hole in a shroud to except a female fitting which I then glued in place.

This morning I glued this shroud ( fish safe silicone) to the 110 mm pipe.

This is the bottom pipe and the good news is it doesn't leak.

Same again for pipe three tomorrow!

NFT

Not worth the F***** Trouble

To add insult to injury, I also have a slug that is eating my lettuce plants!

I go out at night with a torch but cannot catch the little devil!

I am trialling red/blue spectrum LED lights at the moment. So What the neighbors think of me late at night with a torch in a purple lit garden I don’t know!

I have laid a trap for him with larger. The slug not the neighbour! Perhaps he is a bitter drinker!

Obsessive? Me? No!

I just need to lie down.

SPINACH

This will be my last post on Spinach.

 I took this photo this afternoon just before we picked some for tonights dinner.

It is perpetual Spinach. We are now self sufficient. A continual supply of fresh greens for salads and other dishes.

However this particular harvest is not destined to join a salad.

Butter,flour and milk. A standard white sauce. I make it a bit thicker than normal and then add grated cheese. Our choice cheddar. I then scoop out the centre of a tomato and fill it with the creamed cheesy spinach mixture.

In the past I have always added grated nutmeg to spinach. It softens the sometime metallic taste. I find I am adding less to the AP spinach. I don’t know if this is because of an iron deficiency in my system or simply because it is fresher.

Fill the tomatoes. Bake for about thirty minutes.

TROUT SIZE

Some time ago I posted about a fish with a white tail.

Today sadly I removed another fish with identical symptoms.

This time however there were visible trauma marks. Bite marks.

I am convinced that he was attacked by the other fish.

On the first occurrence the victim was number four in the tank. About 50 to 60% in size of the king of the tank..

 I ate the king. 

This left two again a size differential of about 50%. Possibly with more fish aggression would be spread. With low numbers and marked size differential I now realise i was heading for trouble. Lesson learnt.

European Perch having fun

FISH HEALTH

The dentist said, All OK!

I can’t help thinking something is missing

RED CHARD

Red chard is a new vegetable for me. I bought the plants at the tail end of last year. A remnants sale in the local garden centre.

Really for some sort of bio-load in the grow bed over winter.

The last few weeks with the warmer weather they have been growing like crazy. 

So Sunday both of us have a day off. Real food tonight!

 Instinctively I turn to the Mediterranean for inspiration.   

Finley chop  a shallot onion and four cloves of garlic.

I am always an enthusiastic user of garlic. Long ago I had a garlic crusher gadget. Today I crush it with the blade of the knife and then chop. If in doubt add another clove.

Fry in half and half butter/olive oil.

Strip the leaves from the chard.

Roughly chop the stems. Add to the pan.

Pour a full glass of good white wine.

Two good swallows should leave you with a half glass.

Add this exact amount to the pan.

Reduce. Add the chopped chard leaves, half a hand full of grated  Parmesan cheese and stir.

Finish off with a squeezing half a lemon.

By the time you have washed your hands it’s ready.

As I said this is a new vegetable for me. If you have a favorite recipe I would love to hear it.