The Little Green House

On again, off again

Tracy — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:40:25 +0000

Further to my recent decision to start blogging here again, I’ve changed my mind. It was a little on the ambitious side to think that I could maintain as many blogs as I am currently trying to, so I’m going to say goodbye, this will be the last post on this blog. I will be continuing to blog at EcoStreet and The Zen Housewife. Please join me there.

Mmmm

Tracy — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 10:21:29 +0000

I’m fed-up with this blogsome blog, considering moving it or abandoning it again. It’s all so very rigid, I wish I could import it to Blogger or something.

Recipe: Strawberry Cheesecake (baked)

Tracy — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:30:54 +0000

We’ve been enjoying local polytunnel-grown strawberries while we are waiting for ours to ripen. It’s a good idea to make the most of what’s in season, so apart from eating lots of them just as they are, or with yoghurt or ice-cream, I’ve also devised this Strawberry Cheesecake recipe.

Tracy’s Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

You’ll need to make this the day before you want to eat it.

Ingredients:

50g organic butter

200g chocolate chip biscuits (crushed in a food processor or by hand)

2 cartons Devon Gold curd cheese

1 carton Cornish clotted cream

75g unrefined golden caster sugar

25g cornflour

3 free-range organic eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract with vanilla seeds

200g fresh strawberries, sliced

Preheat the oven to 170′C (gas mark 3). Grease and line with baking parchment a loose-bottomed 18cm diameter cake tin. To make the base, melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the crushed biscuits until they are well combined. Press the biscuit crumb mixture into the base of the cake tin. Leave to chill in the fridge while you get the cheesecake mixture ready.

Put the curd cheese and cream in a mixing bowl and mix well (I used a fork and really beat this together). Beat in the icing sugar and cornflour, and then add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat it well until its smooth. Stir in the sliced strawberries and then pour the mixture onto the biscuit base.

Cook in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes (don’t let it get too brown). When it’s done, turn the oven off and leave the cake in it to cool for about 2 hours. When cool, transfer to the fridge to chill completely. When it’s chilled, you can carefully remove the cake from the tin and voila. Decorate with more sliced strawberries and dust with icing sugar.

As the strawberries lose their colour in cooking, it might be an idea to try this with raspberries or other berries for more colour.

Well done James

Tracy — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:03:57 +0000

A good friend of mine lost her daughter to leukaemia 7 years ago. Her son James is now raising money for Woking Hospice to help with their work in supporting bereaved children, support which he benefitted from when his sister died. You can support James by making a donation at justgiving (see widget in the right sidebar).

Who else wants to be a vegetarian?

Tracy — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:32:34 +0000

I heard on the news this morning that the government is considering encouraging us to become vegetarians for the sake of the planet. According to some research by the University of Chicago recently discussed at EcoStreet, it’s more effective to give up eating meat, than to replace your gas-guzzler with a Toyota Prius. This added to my recent personal misgivings about eating meat means that I’m going to be devising a plan to reduce meat consumption in our home. I respect the right of choice for the rest of the members of the household, so it won’t be a case of no meat at all, but I will only be providing a meal including meat once a week. There remains the issue of ensuring that everyone gets their vitamins etc. But I’m sure we’ll muddle through. Marmite contains B12 doesn’t it?

No more allotment

Tracy — Mon, 28 May 2007 10:34:02 +0000

I’m back to updating The Little Green House. I’m not promising daily updates, but I’ll see how I go. I have missed it. The latest news is that we have given up our allotment. We’ve instead decided to move our vegetable growing to our own garden, to allow for easier care of the plants, and some other projects that have come up and are taking up more of my time. We have scaled back our vegetable growing accordingly, but are still growing garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers, butternut squashes and potatoes at home, as well as plenty of fruit. We have two apple trees, a pear, a green gage, a kiwi, a cherry tree, raspberries, blackberries, grapes and strawberries. I’ve also made sure that I source more of my bought vegetables from very local sources as a way to assuage my guilt. My hunt has delivered some unexpected treasures and led to my meeting some amazing people.

The times they are a-changing

Tracy — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 14:07:33 +0000

This will be my last post at this blog for a while. We will still be living our little green lives at the Little Green House until at least August next year (2008), but I’m taking some time out from this blog to concentrate on other endeavours. I will continue to write regularly for the EcoStreet blog, as well as carrying on with the administration of the directory and forum on EcoStreet.

I am also writing a new blog with a spiritual twist: The Zen Housewife.

I’m going to leave The Little Green House just the way it is for now, and perhaps will come back from time to time to report on developments as we prepare to move around August 2008.

To everyone who has visited and commented, thanks for taking the time and I hope that our paths will cross again.

The growing season starts

Tracy — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:46:04 +0000

Hard to believe it’s March. The winter was very short this year. I finally got down to the allotment on Thursday to take stock, and pruned the fruit trees in the garden today. We still have leeks and beetroot going at the allotment, but that’s about the sum of it. The sprouting broccoli has been decimated by slugs it seems. So slim pickings for the spring. The garlic in our garden is doing well, I look forward to harvesting that in a few month’s time.

Our plan for this year is to grow fewer types of vegetables in bigger numbers, and I’m taking more into the garden to protect from pests/diseases that are rife at the allotment site. I will be publishing the growing plan on the blog soon.

Win over £150 worth of green books

Tracy — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:48:40 +0000

Friends of the Earth would like to hear from you. They’ve recently launched a new online bookshop and would like feedback from the green community.

All you need to do is answer 10 short questions for your chance to win over £150 worth of environmental books. Click here to complete the short survey.

Thanks to Anna at Friends of the Earth for the tip.

…we shall go singing to the fashioning of a new world

Tracy — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:54:30 +0000

Piper and I went to our first Woodcraft Folk meeting on Monday evening. Ayrton has been a member for over 2 years now, and has progressed from an Elfin to a Pioneer. He has encouraged Piper to become a Woodchip, and for me to get involved too. We are very glad we did. We’ve already been invited to our first camp.

If you don’t know about the Woodcraft Folk, it is an alternative to Scouts and Guides, with less of a military and more of a "peace and kinship" vibe. It in non-religious and not affiliated to any political party, but does play an active part in anti-war activism. Being a sucker for beautiful words, the envoi (creed) moved me to tears (well, moist eyes) at my first meeting. All the kids and grown-ups stand in a circle before leaving and say:

This shall be for a bond between us
That we are of one blood you and I
That we have cried peace to all and claimed kinship with every living thing.
That we hate war sloth and greed and love fellowship
And that we shall go singing to the fashioning of a new world.