Angelica - from this to this.

Last year at the festival of history at Kelmarsh hall I bought myself a little Angelica plant. I dutifully planted this baby in my garden and have nursed it through the severe snow and frosts of the winter by wrapping it up warm and placing a plastic dome over it and much to my delight it survived. It is now over 5ft tall and growing still and now flowering which is quite pretty to see, but alas I understand that once it goes to seed that will be it.

So here's a little pic of my Angelica plant in flower, when it was just under 5ft tall.


Before she went to flower I did a little bit of preening back as some of the stems were bending. Not one for waste I decided to candy the angelica stalks, here is the results which I'm quite pleased with. All ready for cake decorating, adding to pies and generally to sweeten things. Angelica has a sweet perfumy taste so is used sparingly. I was left with some of the syrup and not knowing what to do with it I've bottled it while I research want it can be used for.

Pot Seasoning

I decided today that due to the lovely weather it was time to season my cooking pot/cauldron, so I got out the old BBQ, filled it with charcoal and set it going. I've had a great time, heating up some water in it, emptying that out and then liberally oiling it to stop it going rusty.

After all of this I decided to try make singin hinny on outside on the girdle pan. Yay! So nice and didn't taste as smoky as I thought it might. Final cooking exploit was the usual baked potatoes.

Next time I think I'm going to have to try actually cooking in my pot :)

What a way to spend a Sunday.