It's Been A Long time!

Hello! Its been far too long since we blogged and in this post we will share why and update you.
The boys are growing quickly and we are spending every spare minute at the moment making sure the garden is at the best for the boys for summer (we will do a blog on what we have done so far)... we are in the process of preparing and sorting B for starting school in September! How he is 4 already is anybodies guess, but if you can tell me why these four years have been the fastest of our lives, please share!
C (me)- I have been spending all my spare time in the gym trying to get into shape and trying to get the house in to order.
Now the update people really want... M is coming to the end of his four months in which his diet can go back to normal, I wouldn't say his diet has been the easiest of things at times and we have had more waste than we usually do but we are getting in to the habit in which we have less waste again.
M is finally feeling the effects of the lemtrada and has had to admit defeat (rather a strong word but not the less defeat, even though he isn't going down with out a fight) he has had to slow down on a lot of things, cycling mainly and has in the past month had to take time off to rest. With the Lemtrada treatment wiping his immune system it has finally wiped a bit of his energy though his long restful weekend did include gardening in which he lost his wedding ring for the second time this year! He is doing amazing and hasn't let anything stop him, I always look at him and think how can i be a better wife for him as he is the best husband and still, even with his lack of energy, lets me have lies in and will do anything for me (and the boys).


So we haven't blogged because we have been finding our feet as a family after this life changing news and treatment. We have also had a lot going on in our wider family, both bad news and good news, but all things balance out in the grand scheme of life.

Tribe Wardle is so ready for summer! Six weeks with the boys, B is ready for the long break and am ready for some quality time with him. I can't wait for our adventures.

Well that is all for now, but I promise it wont be so long until we post again.

Chestnut Flour!

Looking for a new all rounder in your flour? Look no further...
Shipton mill flour can be purchased in the northeast from mmm... Situated in the Grainger market for £4.95 per 500g.... Expensive compared to your bog standard plain flour but you will not be disappointed.

Firstly we made Chilli and salt flour coated prawns to go in with other sea food... our favourite Saturday night treat.
You salt and pepper your prawns drop them in some whisked egg then drop in the flour... deep fry, then add to some garlic, onion and chilli into a pan... so yummy and quick and made at home for a fraction of the price you pay in the take away. normally we use cornflower but i wanted to try it with this flour, we were not disappointed!

Then I made an apple and blackberry crumble.
Using the chestnut flour for the topping... I found on trying it to be sweet. So I added coconut oil instead of butter and no honey or sugar.... We used honey on the apple and blackberries so it was all round sweet enough.... It came out delicious a softer type of crumble almost cakey... M and me both agreed it was a lovely alternative...

next up I tried making a family favourite... Brownies!

melt 1 tablespoon if coconut oil with ten dark chocolate buttons(which we also picked up from mmm....)
once melted add one egg two teaspoons of honey and a quarter cup of chestnut flour.
bake at 180 for around 20 minutes.

They came out all fudge-like, so moreish, and my boys exclaimed mummy should never make brownies any other way! I say that is a win!
Without the high sugar content that brownies pack I think that in itself is a mummy victory!

Whilst eating our brownies on our walk from Souter to Latimer's in whitburn (please wait on next post)we ate the brownies... They are a lot richer so satisfied quicker.

From Latimer's we picked a pack of hollandaise sauce up which on getting home I made a chestnut pasta, turning it into crab lasagna.

To make, I used one whole egg and one egg yolk. A cup of chestnut flour and a quarter cup of pasta flour and a tablespoon of olive oil.
The pasta definitely needed the pasta flour to make it a bit smoother.
I mixed all these together worked it a little while then left it to rest for twenty minutes then ran though a pasta machine...
To make the crab lasagne I put some hollandaise sauce then pasta layered four times with the second and third layer having a good portion of white crab meat added... On the top I smeared the hollandaise sauce and added asparagus and baked until cooked...

It was amazing... The nutty taste with the sweet crab worked well and then the fresh hollandaise sauce and crunch of the aspargus added to a perfect dish... It was a lighter lasagne and definitely  one I will be making again as it went down well with everybody in Tribe Wardle.

So all in all, we love chestnut flour. It was an easier alternative to work with. Plain flour is fine but chestnut flour seemed lighter and has a moreish texture.... It did everything we tried with it very well, proving it is a good versatile flour, I think it will be firmly staying on Tribe Wardles shipping list....

But which flour should we try next?

Beautiful Weekend to Get in the Garden

But that does not mean we broke our backs doing all the hard work that is waiting for us.

Easter weekend was glorious, at least the Sunday and Monday, but after a relaxing Sunday with the only gardening being the planting of some more seeds indoors (rainbow chard, courgettes, marrow and a variety of squashes) we decided to spend Monday in the garden.

The lawn had its first mow of the year, its now looking a lot better from a distance, but up close there is another story to tell.  Yes its nice and green, only a couple of bare patches in the shade, but on closer inspection it looks to be mostly down to the even coverage of moss!  There arent too many larger weeds, a handful of dandelions but nothing more.  So something need to be done about the moss before it chokes out all of the grass.  I will aim to rake it this week so long as the weather stays dry, then it will be a prescription of regular weed and feed.  This helps to strip out the moss while also providing nitrogen rich fertilizer to enhance the appearance of the grass.  It will be a long road to a healthy lawn, but so long as I treat it every 4 weeks or so, keep it mowed and rake it to remove the dead moss it should be looking good by the time summer begins for real.

Our lawn does not get as much sum as I would like, and doesnt drain too well as there is a slight slope on the garden that means one side of the lawn collects most of the rain water, and that side is in shade most of the day and only get real sun in the high of summer as its too low later in the day the rest of the year.  It all amounts to a difficult to manage lawn, sounds like a challenge we can meet.

News on the seedlings planted last week is that the majority of the peas have sprouted and are growing well.

Peas

The runner beans are not fairing so well, with only one having made an appearance so far, that one being one of the unidentified beans I harvested from the 2013 crop, it was larger than the scarlet runners I planted, reddish brown in colour with black mottling, and it has grown fast, about 3 inches high now having only appeared 3 days ago.

Runner Bean, cabbage and kohlrabi

The cabbages and kohlrabi are both coming away well, and will need splitting soon, similarly with the leeks and one of the other seedlings which I am uncertain of which it is.  It could be kale of spinach, but whilst currently only about a half an inch high, they are difficult to identify and I foolishly did not label these as I presumed I would be able to tell the difference once the sprouted, as only one has done so I cant tell what it is!  If you review the post about planting these I don't even mention the kale, but it was in there.  The tray with leeks has either kale or spinach in, the other tray has the turnips, celeriac and the missing plant.  the turnips have sprouted, no sign of celeriac, and nothing of the mystery seedlings yet.  Hopefully this week everything will start and I'll be able to tell what is what.

Turnips, no sign of celeriac and what is that single tiny shoot?

Leeks to the right, is it kale or spinach at the left??

Starting Seeds

This weekend saw the starts of indoor planting for the year.  In order to have a nicely varied veg garden we have decided to plant a wide range of types of veg, with less of an emphasis on potatoes this year,  Yes potatoes are fairly simple in terms of the amount of care needed after planting, but we want to make things a bit more interesting and diverse this year.  As its probably a little early, and the garden itself is not ready (not cleared ad dug over fully yet) we started some seed trays away this weekend.

With the help of B and I 4 trays of seeds were started.  Some would say it is best to plant one type of plant per tray so you know what is what when it comes up, no such wisdom here.  We planted a tray of peas, half a tray of runner beans, filled this tray with cabbage and kohlrabi then two other trays with an assortment of leeks, spinach, turnips, swedes, and celeriac.

These trays are now situated in underbed storage boxes on the dining table. The boxes serve two important functions, you can move them easily, and any water will not reach the table and damage it.

The hope is in a couple of weeks we will have a load of seedlings ready to separate into pots, which will similarly find themselves in the storage boxes.  This lot can then easily be taken outside to be hardened off during the day, and brought in to be protected overnight until I am happy the weather is good enough to plant them outside.

The compost used was a basic all-purpose compost from Aldi.  Many people suggest that a richer potting compost is better for starting seedlings away in.  And it may be true that these composts will provide more nutrients in the early development of the plants.  For the additional cost I don't see that it will have a major effect over the lifetime of the plants when they will spend most of their lives in what is currently not excellent quality soil in the garden.  We are looking to improve the quality of the ground soil in the garden through composting, but this will be a long process,

Gardening season begins

Bit delayed, but gardening season has begun for real now. If you have read this and our other blog (http://tribewardle-ms-journey.blogspot.co.uk/) you will understand that early season preparation has been sparse, and things aren't going to suddenly change in our garden. Saying that we are not sitting back and letting the year slip by, we still aim to grow some good home produce, and planting started today.
I did plant a couple of rows of onions a fortnight ago, but today started the ball rolling properly.

To give a bit of a background, we have 2 decent size gardens, one with a lawn over much of it and a wide border for veg. The other is currently a wasteland with some remains of the rubble from building a house extension. So we aim to work with the lawned garden this year and potentially salvage some of the other time permitting, and prepare that for full use next year.

To minimise heavy work, I am attempting potatoes in bags for the first time.  I was given 8 bags for this last year, so I set about filling 4 of these today.

I started by placing a thin layer (~1") of gravel in the bottom. 

This is to aid drainage as the soil compacts over the summer.

I then added about 5" of old top soil (I had a compost heap made from turf bricks that had been removed from the lawn that has all been mixed together, so its not high quality compost, mostly old soil), added a sprinkling of poultry manure, and some slow release plant food, then topped with another inch of soil.

I then placed a small number of seed potatoes on the surface.  The seed potatoes are part of last year's crop which had started sprouting.  These were left to chit naturally in a dark, warm area of the house before planting.

I covered these with about 2" of further soil and watered in.  Hopefully we will get a nice crop from these.

The only other thing I managed to get done was the planting of some carrots.  A couple of years ago I made a trough of sorts to grow carrots in a controlled quality of soil, ensuring light airy soil with no stones.  I made this from an old wardrobe, so its chipboard, and not the strongest.  Last year one side broke, its holding together but only just.  Still, no time to replace it, planting seeded the best way. After weeding the trough and mixing in some poultry manure I added 12 drills of assorted carrot seeds (nantes etc ) and some parsnips.

The Reality Of Neurological Conditions

This was something we retweeted yesterday:

"A third of people w/ neurological conditions had to see a GP 5 times or more before seeing a specialist."

Isn't that shocking?

But the sad fact of MS is that GP's and most people do not know enough/ what they are looking for, It is a complex disease which takes many months if not years to diagnose.

If you are following us and have MS how many different people did you see before getting a preliminary diagnosis? and how many people before a final diagnosis?

If you would like to share your experience with us, so we can add it to the blog please email us at atribecalledwardle@gmail.com

We will be Blogging about M's Experience later both from his side and C

Can You Help Us? To Help Others?

PLEASE SHARE THIS POST...

We are a family of four based in Gateshead, UK.
As a family we have had a hard two years but are trying to use it to help others.

In February M was Diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis and has under gone Alemtuzumab Treatment this last week.
MS is a scary Disease, which people don't understand and it gets bad press... We as a family are trying to get it out there so people get quicker diagnosis and don't feel alone and over whelmed like we did when M first got his diagnosis...

How you can help you ask?

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