I learnt a new word last week: komorebi: a Japanese term which refers to sunlight that is filtered through the leaves of trees. I’d taken myself for an early morning wander around the garden and noticed a very welcome morning sun; shafts of light appearing through the branches of the sycamore and in the reflections on the water as it bounced in the burn. Komorebi. Spring has arrived, and both mornings and evenings are now light. We have made it through the winter.
Not that winter isn’t still lingering at the door. We’ve had a snowy few days of late and crunched through frozen mud and made tracks in the snow as we went for a midweek
walk to Letah Woods. Lovely Letah, managed by the Woodland Trust is one of my favourite haunts here in Northumberland. There’s a short walk from the Dipton Mill pub (handy for lunch) that goes along the burn and then up and into the woods. As we entered, the snow and ice that had been resting on branches started to fall as temperatures rose to just above freezing. With the sound of birdsong all around, and the falling ice crystals making music as they landed, our path through the trees became ethereal. Wild garlic was sprouting over every surface, the smell so heady it almost became too much and brought us back down to earth as our stomachs started to churn.
It is very much wild garlic season here, with restaurants adding this foraged fare to their menus. Pesto is the obvious choice, and an easy blend to whizz up for supper – guess what we’re having for tea tonight? Wild garlic and blue cheese scones became a hit with many of The Bridge Cottage Way followers last year – a handy tea-time treat that can be stored in the freezer to defrost when visitors call.
Here’s the post that gives lots of tips for foraging and using wild garlic in the kitchen:
Wild garlic - Foraging and Cooking Food for Free
You can also follow the same method as I’ve given in this post, Making your own herb salt for making wild garlic salt. A handy jar to have on the kitchen counter for flavouring soups and stews.
When the wild garlic buds appear, why not try making pickled wild garlic buds? Zingy on a salad!
It goes without saying to forage responsibly, never pick without the landowner’s permission and avoid patches where dog walkers go! We’re spoilt for choice here with the countryside carpeted with wild garlic around now.
In my last newsletter, I announced that the ducks were back and Mr and Mrs Duck are very much settled in, making their nest on the bank and banging their beaks on the patio doors in the morning to be fed. Hares too are a welcome sight here at Bridge Cottage, with one now living in the garden again. She sits every morning opposite the kitchen window, chewing twigs and feasting on the ground elder to which she’s very welcome. The male has been bounding around, mad as a March hare, and I hope we will be graced for the third year on the trot by a leveret in the garden. We have friends who have called their little boy, Arlen, meaning Land of Hares, which it really is, down this Northumbrian lane.
As I type this, I’m looking out at the bird feeder and see the goldfinches have returned for the Spring Equinox. What beautiful little birds they are with their flashes of red and gold. Luna, our two-year-old granddaughter is in charge of filling the feeders, a job she loves to do with Grandad. We get so much pleasure from sitting together in ‘nanny’s chair’ and watching the birds from the windows. I love that our granddaughters know the names of so many birds.
With the weather unpredictable and the temperature barely making it above freezing these past few weeks, we are very glad about the hot box in the greenhouse. For not much outlay, a homemade hot box can mean the growing season gets underway early and I’m thrilled to say we have tomatoes, chillies, broad beans, cabbages, and lettuce doing very well on a warm bed of sand, with a covering of bubble wrap, being kept cosy in the hot box.
Make Your Own Hot Box for Propagating Plants
We found carrots grew especially well in buckets last year, so have sown some and trialling a bucket of parsnips. Will let you know how they go. First early potatoes can be grown in the greenhouse now in bags, but be careful to cover any leaves that come if frosts are still a worry. This weekend saw the temperature rise, so I’ve sown a line of parsnips in the veg plot, hoping the soil is warm enough and the shrews aren’t hungry. It’s a gamble, but all I will have lost is a few seeds if they don’t germinate. It was so good to go through the gate again and into the vegetable garden accompanied by the sound of curlews overhead.
When it does warm up enough to get our plants outside and in the veg patch, you might like to consider some companion planting – as with us adults, plants have those they get on better with than others!
I’ve set a few climbing French beans away, as this is a welcome early greenhouse crop while it’s still too cold for them to go outside. I had help from Luna this week in the greenhouse, and we sowed some beetroot, spinach, chard, rocket, radish and lettuce into the warmed soil, though goodness knows what will come up with Luna being very free with the broadcasting of seeds.
She has a corner in the greenhouse where she likes to make slop – a mix of mud and water, with whatever she feels like adding – sand, shells, leaves and of course her feet.
As we get our hands back in the soil, we are reminded how good this is for our mental health. I quote from the Sustainable Soils Alliance:
‘Soil contains the bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae that is absorbed through the skin of the fingers and palms when gardening, triggering a release of serotonin in the brain: the ‘happy hormone’, serotonin is a natural antidepressant and mood lifter; it also strengthens the immune system and provides a general sense of wellbeing.’
So, even if you only have room for a couple of pots on a terrace, do get your hands dirty! Grown something, even if it’s just a few herbs or salad leaves in a pot. With food prices rocketing, shortages of veg in shops, growing our own food and eating seasonally this year will be even more vital than ever. I’ve expanded this point further in the article I wrote, ‘Why Bother Gardening And Growing Food?
Thanks for reading this Spring Equinox newsletter – there’s plenty more to read on the Bridge Cottage Way website so do dive in, and do follow us on social media if that is your thing. I’ll write again at the Summer Solstice so it’s bye, bye, for now, happy foraging, gardening, growing and seasonal eating – we know it makes sense!
PS. I know I said I’d keep my writing news separate, but I’m bursting to let you all know that novel The Rewilding of Molly McFlynn has found a publisher and is due out in October 2023 with The Book Guild. Exciting times!
But more of that over on Sue Reed Writes Substack.