Tiger Nuts - An Edible Sedge

 Tiger nuts before and after soaking

As a youngster I enjoyed nibbling on tiger nuts. I remember them being a bit of a treat with a taste resembling almonds and coconuts and a look of a tiny wizened potato the size of a peanut. It appears they are now included in the ever increasing list of superfoods. But their story way goes back to a time before marketing. 

Tiger Nuts

Also known as chufa (Cyperus esculentus), is one of the very small number of edible sedges which made up about 80% of our Palaeolithic-period ancestors diet around two million years ago  ( A Palio diet is a thing today too which entails eating lots of fruit/vegetables and grass fed meat ). 

Not Nuts

Tiger nuts are not actually nuts; they are underground tubers formed by grass from the sedge family. The Egyptians appreciated their sedges. One of them is papyrus, from which they made the world’s first paper and tiger nuts have been found in Egyptian tombs from around 6,000 years ago. 

Food Supplement

More recently tiger nuts were a mainstay in the war and offered a slightly sweet treat something a little different for the palette other than dried eggs.  They were popular up to the 1950’s era of post war rationing and were even seen as a treat for children, and could be bought at the sweet shop up until the early 70’s. But Like many ‘war foods’ that were associated with the ‘Hunger Winter’ that followed and leaner, harder times, they fell out of fashion. Until now. 

They are an ideal snack for people as they are allergy-friendly(not nuts) ,gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, suitable for vegans, vegetarians and a host of other groups. Livestock enjoy the top growth as well.

I used to eat them raw with the skins on but you can buy pre-skinned ones and there’s also a flour option. The favoured way to eat the tuber, grown predominantly in Spain is to soak them overnight to soften them up. I might need to do that now as my teeth aren’t what they used to be.

New Plants

I’ve decided that Tiger nuts are to be my “New Plant of the Year” to grow. I have received a kilo of grade A tubers through the post this week, you can get lower grades but they are generally used for bait in fishing and can contain maggot damage.

The grass can be a pest is actually a really invasive weed in some countries so I’m going to grow mine in containers for now. One plant can produce hundreds if not thousands of small tubers but probably ne here as our growing season is a lot shorter than Spain. I think the variety I have should be killed off by frost so I don’t think it’ll take over the garden. I’ll chop the young seed heads off before they mature as well to limit any spread.

Growing Tiger Nuts

Tigernuts (Chufa tubers) have a notoriously poor germination rate so I’m sowing mine under cover in a propagator with bottom heat until they germinate and I can then transplant them into large tubs of quality organic compost in the tunnel giving them space to grow.

I’ll keep them fed and watered using a seaweed feed with rainwater before moving the  pots outside as the plants develop and the weather warms.

It’ll be a labour of love as the will need looking after until the first frosts later in the year.  That’s the right time to harvest the ‘nut’ bounty.

When the tops die off, the tubers can be unearthed from the roots under the plant. They can be cleaned and eaten raw or added to daily meals, smoothies, salads or just as a snack. 

Drink

There’s a traditional drink we can make too which entails first hydrating one cup of tiger nuts by soaking them in water for 24 hours. Then bland the hydrated tiger nuts into a paste, adding water as needed before straining the tiger nut liquid thoroughly through a sieve. Add four cups of hot water and blend until desired consistency is achieved. This can be sweetened to taste. I prefer just to chew on mine and if you can’t be bothered clearing up after all of that, Sainsburys’ sell Tigernut milk.

Healthy option

Chufa tubers are very nutritious, with twice the starch content of potatoes and plenty of vitamins and minerals. Full of fibre and rich in Vitamin C, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Potassium and Magnesium have things to help the digestive system. They are also rich in vitamin E and contain a hard to digest starch so you feel fuller for longer. 

They also store very easily: once dried they keep indefinitely.

The Blossom is Out. So are the Contents of my Compost Bin

Photo1 Emptying the compost

Photo 2 . Salix caprea 'Kilmarnock'

I half emptied one of my two compost bins this week. I’ve been putting it off all winter but after walking around the garden with a bowl of kitchen scraps and nowhere to put them I thought it was time. 

Compost Bin

The two plastic bins were so full the lids wouldn’t fit on, and the small hatch at the bottom had burst open and given the dogs something else smelly to roll in as it cascaded onto the path. 

Last year it was just emptied by tipping the whole thing up spreading around the immediate area. This did work and we grew some lovely, healthy courgettes and broccoli in it. It would of course be easier if I moved the bin around the garden every year as it was emptied so I could just tip it over in a new patch, but I don’t like emptying the bin totally as it means building up the worm population again.

The rest of the garden needs a bit of fortification this season so instead of throwing it around, I have got the spade in and put the black gold in old composts bags. 

Lovely Stuff

The material I got from the bin is a lovely colour and texture. Because it’s well-rotted there are very few worms in it as they have moved higher up the pile to fresher things to digest so there’s very little disturbance to their colony. 

It’s not that easy getting a spade into the bins as you really have to stretch to get to the back of the pile and twist the edges free. There comes a time when all the less rotted material decides to drop down, hopefully not trapping the spade in the process. This is OK as this tells me that I have extracted all of the usable compost for now. The worms will now do their work to give me another batch later in the year. Things move at a far greater rate in summer as the pile gets a lot hotter.

So for the time being I have one bin empty enough to add the weekly vegetable kitchen scraps into without the need for digging a trench and burying it to grow peas and beans on. In the big clear out I was lucky enough not to come across any mice in the bin. For some reason they decided not to take up residence this winter. 

They are probably in the garage, but clearing that out is for another day.

Blossom

The blossom is out and a lovely sight it is too. Some seems to have come early after that warm spell a couple of weeks ago.

Hazel or Lamb’s tails, gives us a good show from January to April, especially in hedges. They appear on bare twigs in spring. Old coppices, cut on a 7-10 year rotation for harvesting small wood, produce fine catkins displays.

Blackthorn. Another hedgerow favourite from March to April. Blackthorn flowers are densely clustered, so hedges covered in its blossom sometimes seem from a distance to be covered in a light fall of snow. It often blooms at the time when northerly winds bring bitterly cold weather with real snow, a period known as a ‘blackthorn winter’. 

Silver birch. Female trees have spiky green catkins but both sexes produce nectar, attracting bees, butterflies and blue tits. In early Celtic mythology, the birch symbolised renewal and purification. Bundles of birch twigs were used to drive out the spirits of the old year, and gardeners still use the birch besom, or broom, to 'purify' their gardens. It is also used as a symbol of love and fertility.

Wild pears. Not as common as other trees but worth a mention. Probably introduced by the Romans, wild pear has small, inedible fruits. Its fragrant blossom opens before the leaves expand and is carried in upright clusters, attracting bee pollinators. Ash See it: March to May

Wild cherry. Wild cherry is thought to be the most ornamental of our native broadleaf woodland trees.The spring flowers provide an early source of nectar and pollen for bees, while the cherries are eaten by birds including the blackbird and song thrush, as well as mammals such as the badger, wood mouse, yellow necked mouse and dormouse.

Hawthorn . Prolific in hedgerows which have formed enclosure boundaries since Roman times and the species has gathered millennia of folklore and superstition. Winter-flowering Glastonbury Thorn is said to be descended from Joseph of Arimathea’s staff, which rooted and burst into flower on the Isle of Avalon. 

Goat Willow: goat willow is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers grow on separate trees, in early spring. Male catkins are grey, stout and oval, which become yellow when ripe with pollen. Female catkins are longer and green.

Rowan. Few trees are so richly endowed with folklore. Flowering rowans were planted beside cottage doors on May Day to prevent visits by witches, while crosses made from twigs were hung over doors on the Isle of Man.

Jobs to Do in the Garden - March

Photo: The bees were out in force last week

I found the garden photos on social media interesting last week.  They compared February gardens from 2018 to 1019 and the differences were startling. Temperatures were double that of previous years since records began.

 One image shows three feet of snow on the ground and then an image taken from the same spot was a garden full of spring bloom and colour. The warm spell we had did jolt me into action and I found myself doing clean up jobs I wouldn’t normally do until the end of April, even May.  Washing down, planting up, clearing, planting, weeding and at one stage I was actually sat outside on a sunbed drinking my cup of tea (I did have a hat on still) I think I was as confused as the plants, shrubs, trees and wildlife, the bees were out in force getting their nectar from open dandelions.  

Thankfully things are back to a more regular and predictable pattern which is dodging inside and out in between the hail showers and gusts of wind.

Let’s just say that you do get outside for a while. I’ve compiled a pretty exhaustive list of things to do this month. Think of it as a checklist and all of the things you don’t get around to can simply be added to next month’s list , we have time on our side.

Jobs to Do in March

Keep hoeing to keep emerging weeds under control whilst still small. You’ll find chickweed will grow a lot faster than your prized seedlings.

Mow the lawn on a high setting in mild weather and rake out thatch. I did mine last week and it’s an instant makeover for the garden which gives a real feeling of progress and achievement.

Tidy the borders and cover with 5-10cm of organic mulch

Hard prune buddlejas, hardy fuchsias and caryopteris to encourage lower, bushier growth. I’ve hacked back our bay tree so it forms a tighter bush too as they can get too big sometimes.

Cut back shrubby cornus and willow to two buds to encourage new stem colour next year.

Prune roses to encourage strong new growth and stop them rocking about in the wind.

Prune clematis - prune early-flowering varieties once their flowers have finished and summer-flowering ones before they start into active growth. 

Finish cutting back cornus and salix cultivars, and other shrubs grown for their colourful winter stems. Cut them right back to their bases, they will reward you with stronger colours next year.

Cut out the top rosette of leaves from mahonia shrubs after they have flowered, to encourage 

branching.

Finish cutting back dead foliage from perennials and ornamental grasses to make way for new growth. Leave them lying a day or two so the insects can find new homes.

Prune overwintered fuchsias back to one or two buds on each shoot.

Prune winter-flowering jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) after flowering, to encourage new growth for next year's blooms. Cut back the previous year’s growth to 5cm from the old wood.

Trim winter-flowering heathers as the flowers disappear, to prevent the plants becoming leggy.

Keep an eye out for slugs as the weather warms. Pay special attention to soft, new growth, which slugs love. 

Cut the old leaves off hellebores to remove any foliar diseases and make spring flowers more visible.

Continue to deadhead winter pansies to stop them setting seed. This will encourage flushes of new flowers throughout the spring.

Deadhead daffodils as the flowers finish and let the foliage die back naturally.

Deadhead hydrangeas before new growth appears. Cut to about one third of last season's growth.

In the Veggie Garden

Plant out chitted early potatoes towards the end of the month

Sow salads in cold frames or under cloches

Put supports in. If any of your garden plants need supporting this year, put them in now, so plants can grow up through them. Adding supports afterwards is trickier and often looks unattractive.

Cover strawberries with a cloche to encourage earlier fruiting.

Mulch rhubarb with a thick layer of well-rotted manure 

Here are the other jobs to be getting on with this month:

Get rid of slimy patches on patios and paving by scrubbing with a broom or blasting with a pressure washer.

Install water butts for the season ahead. Position them under a downpipe to make the most of rainfall.

Scrub watering cans to prevent fungal diseases.

Check compost bins to see if there is any compost ready to use, ours are full to the brim.

Bring bags of compost into the greenhouse to warm up for a week or two before you start sowing.

What Reasons for Cutting Down Trees in Ireland? and Boomtree Bees Want Your Trunks

Do you believe the increasing number of trees being cut down in Ireland by local councils is because it’ll improve 5G coverage?

If so it could mean faster phones and the ability do have driverless cars when it’s introduced, but it’s hard to see how a tree in a town could slow down the signal. 

I still think that the world works by valves warming up so I can’t really comment. 

Felling Trees

There are also rumours that trees are being felled because of claims from insurance companies, they are messy, can increase a house value if removed or they are being sold off for pulp to raise money for struggling councils. 

The Green Party are trying to stop the spate of tree felling that is being reported around the country. They also reported that a number of Gardaí were deployed to oversee tree felling in one housing estate in Waterford as it was being protested by locals. This has been done without consultation and against the will of local people and has generated substantial local anger.

Reports of significant tree felling are coming from Waterford, Cork City, Tipperary, Limerick, Westmeath, Mayo, and a few parts of Dublin. There don’t seem to be any reports of Donegal County Council taking part in the cull though so a big hand for our town planners. The more trees we can keep the better.

There does come a time though when trees need to be removed.  Maybe they are old, diseased or pose a real hazard to life. It’s inevitable they go and with careful management something suitable can be planted in its place. Do you have any thoughts about the situation or have you had first hand experiences at the hands of over zealous council workers?

For every one tree felled, plant three more is the way to go.

Homes for the Bees

There are a few uses for old felled trees. Burning them of course, but that will release carbon back into the atmosphere. Shredding them to use as mulch, and my favourite way to reuse them is to get Michiel Verspuij from Boomtree Bees in Buncrana to come along in his pick-up truck (If it’s not too far away) , take the trunk back to his workshop and turn it into a natural log bee hive. These are a true work of art, especially when topped off with a thatched roof.

Michiel is looking for trunks of 20” (50cm) diameter or more to convert to hives. Any dead, fallen or hollow trunks will do.  Ash, oak, beech, Scots pine, larch all preferred but other types are also welcome. Generally for durability for the hives, hardwoods have more durability.

Michiel is running a couple of workshops very soon if you would like to learn a bit more about how these natural hives work and replicate the bees natural habitat which reduces the need for human intervention.

Log Hive Workshop March 30^th -Drumnaph Nature Reserve/ An Carn Maghera Co Derry

Throughout the workshop you will learn about the life of the honeybee and its colony. You will be actively involved in the making and erecting of the hive.

Cost: £50 (lunch included)

April the 13^th Honeybee Conservation in Inishowen- Boomtreebees, Westbrook, Buncrana

Learn about how to help the honeybees in Inishowen.  An afternoon packed with information about honeybees, their natural habitat, what their needs are and tips on how to help with their preservation/conservation. Find out about housing that mimics their natural abode and see honeybees up close. It will be an informative afternoon for the whole family. It’s just €5 entry  with tea and coffee provided.  1pm - 4pm

For more information about the courses or if you have an old tree stump to donate, check out www.boomtreebees.com or you can contact Michiel on (00353) 0862698474 or on Facebook @boomtreebees.

Tree Care in March

As we are on the subject of trees, here are a couple of tips to look after your own.

• Feed trees, shrubs and hedges with a slow-release fertiliser by lightly forking it into the soil surface.
• Move smaller deciduous trees or shrubs. Now is the time to do this task, provided the soil isn’t frozen or waterlogged.
• Mulch fruit trees with well-rotted manure or garden compost. Take care not to mound mulch up around tree trunks.
• Weed, feed and mulch fruit trees and bushes