New 'My Garden' page

In celebration of my three month blog anniversary I've added a new blog page called 'My Garden' that gives a bit of an overview of my garden. The property is a 1950s 'modern' farmhouse. Not sure it looks very Irish. I'm lucky to be surrounded by grazing pastures and my neighbours are mostly beef cattle. My biggest challenge is weeds. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Left: Dogwood with its red stems looks fab in Winter.

Apple Chocolate Crumble

I'm a chocoholic! It runs in the family. This week I was aimlessly staring at Mr Farmer's cooking apples... thinking of how I could make them taste more like chocolate! I remembered a recipe I'd seen in the Autumn 2010 'Tesco Real Food' magazine for Blackberry and Apple Crumble and decided to use the recipe as a starting point for 'Chocolate Apple Crumble'. I don't exactly follow recipes... so here's the results...

I mixed together 2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp brown sugar and 2 tbsp cinnamon (I like cinnamon so I added alot) and then coated 750g of cooking apples, before putting them into an ovenproof bowl. I then added about 70g of dark chocolate pieces, pushing them in between the apples.

 For the crumble topping, I mixed 75g of brown sugar, 4 tbsp flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, and worked the mix into 75g of butter; I added a handful of pecans.

Above - this is what it looked like after 45 min baked at 180C (350F). It looks like treacle - yum!

Served with the world's best ice cream, Northern Irish 'Pooh Bear' by Maud's (aka Poor Bear). It doesn't look very pretty (I'm trying to improve my food presentation skills!). The chocolate definitely made the apples a little more interesting. I love super rich desserts!

This is what the picture in the magazine looked like lol. I have to admit, I forgot to add the oats in my crumble topping; the recipe called for 50g. Wow, total different look than mine; I put chocolate in mine instead of blackberries - a chocoholic must!

Gardeners' Playground

Private gardens at The Landscape Centre, Donegore.

When I feel like I need a little inspiration (whether it be Autumn, Winter or Summer) I take a trip to my local garden centre... I really love wondering around and they often have their private gardens open too (I love this). Its a magical place, even if the prices are very high! I have to admit I enjoy their coffee and cakes (homemade and very yummy) however I get the most pleasure wondering around the nature walk or private gardens, which most people don't realise are open to the public. By the time I get home I'm full of ideas!

Everyone needs a mini beach resort in their back garden
(even if there's no ocean within miles)!
Private gardens, The Landscape Centre Donegore.

Above - I discovered this little gem in a newly planted section of the private grounds and it's the BIGGEST hydrangea flower I've ever come across. I guess the little plant has put all its effort into producing one giant flower. Love it! Variety: Hydrangea Midnight Blue.

 

I wanted to buy some of this (I was too 'cheap' to pay £6.99 for a little plant). Looks like it has a good spreading habit & would suppress weeds.
Variety: Polygonum Darjeeling Red (herbaceous perennial).

I like the idea of mixing old and new and recycling items; this area of the garden at Donegore is relatively newly landscaped. Photo taken 10 Oct 2010. I'll be following progress on their gardens and getting ideas for my own. Too bad they don't have a veg plot!

 I love all the rocks they've used. Not many people could afford this.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Did I buy anything on my day out to Donegore? Apart from coffee and cake, I bought five winter primrose plants in the 'discount' section at 50 pence per plant. A bargain!