Simple Syrup Recipe

Chocolate Peppermint Simple Syrup

Simple syrups are a great way to liven up coffee and desserts or create your own unique cocktails. This recipe is for Chocolate Peppermint simple syrup.

Ingredients
2 cup caster sugar
1 cup Chocolate Peppermint leaves chopped
1 cup of water
1 sterilised bottle

Directions

Add chopped leaves & water to a pan.
Bring mixture to the boil then simmer until the water has picked up the green. colour from the leaves, about 10-15 mins.
Strain the mixture through muslin to remove all the leaves.
Return water to the pan.
Dissolve the caster sugar in the water
Return to heat &bring to boil.
Pour mixture into a hot sterilised bottle.
Allow the mixture to cool before storing in the fridge.
Your syrup should keep for 2 or 3 weeks.

Tips

Vary the amount of chocolate peppermint depending on how strong a flavoured syrup you want to produce.
Wash your bottles in hot water and put in the oven on a low heat for 15 mins to sterilise them.
Use only freshly picked leaves as they rapidly lose their flavour.
Lemon Balm Melissa officinalis and English Lavender Lavandula angustifolia also work well.
Tights work well in place of muslin!

Seed Potatoes Earlies to Maincrop

Last years potato crop was so successful that we decided to grow them again this year. Potatoes are a very easy vegetable to grow in containers, which is great if you are new to growing and short on space. There is a wide variety of seed potatoes available, with varieties bred especially to grow in containers to unusual heritage varieties.

The phrases First Earlies, Second Earlies and Maincrop refers to the time the potatoes take to reach maturity. First Earlies  usually take 10 weeks to grow, Second Earlies 13 weeks, and Maincrop up to 20 weeks.

First Earlies which are also called new potatoes, are the most suitable to grow in small containers. A 10l container (about the size of a large black florist bucket) would be suitable for one seed potato but you can grow maincrop potatoes like we do in bigger tubs. If you have a sheltered sunny spot you can plant First Earlies in March but as plant roots can get cold in containers, we wait till the last frost has passed.

This year we will planting Purple Majesty (maincrop), Kerrs Pink (maincrop), Pink Fir Apple (maincrop), King Edward, (main crop), Epicure (first early) and  Kestrel (second Early) which you voted best tasting potato at our  Tasting Event.

Growing Food Culture

Our next event is Growing Food Culture 3:00  Fri 13th April
The Box FACT Liverpool L1 4DQ

Join tenantspin and The Mediated Garden for lively discussion on the relationship between food, culture and society. Find out how user led innovation is driving the green agenda and sample home cooked food made with produce grown in The Mediated Garden. There is an opportunity to network with local groups and find out more about our Seed Circle.

If you are interested in talking about a green project you are involved in please contact laura.yates@fact.co.uk

The Mediated Garden at Cracking The Curatorial

Earlier this month The Mediated Garden took a break from sowing and weeding to talk to Open CuRate It about the role audience curation and collaboration play in shaping the project. Discussion ranged from guerrilla gardening and seed swaps to the potential of the user led model to shape curatorial practices.
You can watch the discussion here
You can be part of Open CuRate It here
Jennifer

Seedy Saturday Seed Swap

This month we are excited to announce our first seed swap event. To join in all you have to do is pop down with your spare seeds and exchange them for some different ones.
Seed swaps are free events and are a great opportunity to meet other growers, share local growing knowledge and of course have a good chat. Here at The Mediated Garden, we have been producing our own seeds and will be bringing a selection for exchange. We’ll also be launching our Seed Circle project so if you are interested in growing, seed saving or just want to know more, we would love to meet you.

You can find out more about seed swapping and seed saving here.

Seedy Saturday Seed Swap
Saturday 18th February 1:00-4:00 pm
FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology)
Wood Street Liverpool L1 4BQ

What’s on in 2012

Happy New Year to all our followers and supporters. Over the last few months we’ve been busy rifling though the seed catalogues looking for yummy new plants for the garden. To add to our edible flower collection this year we’ll be growing Soko Breadseed Poppies. They are a beautiful white poppy which produce loads of seeds which can be used in baking and because they are non hybrid variety, we will be able to save the seed to swap or sow next year. Speaking of which, we are also planning to hold a seed swap event and start a seed circle, more details to follow. If you are interested knowing more about the seed swap, joining a seed circle or any other aspect of the mediated garden, do get in touch.

Happy Growing!

The Mediated Garden Team

Seasons Greetings

It’s been a great year at The Mediated Garden and on behalf of all the team I would like to say a big thank you for your support in making it a success. We look forward to growing with you in 2012.

Jennifer
The Mediated Garden Team

Winter Growing

While most of us are looking forward to curling up next to the fire with a seed catalogue, a few hardy growers are still sowing, tending and harvesting. For the beginner, winter growing can be a daunting thought, if one considered at all, but there is plenty of veg that thrives in cooler weather or even relishes a good chill.
Oriental and mustard greens are quite hardy, Mizuna Tatsoi  & Miike are all tasty though the Miike is too spicy to eat raw. Cabbages and parsnips both come in container varieties and stand well in winter and there are winter varieties of spring onions and lettuce available.
Don’t forget you still have time to plant garlic and onions both which grow well in containers.

Untitled II

In all of us there exists an imagination. It is situated in a place we consider private, it belongs to the individual person. For some people their imagination is perhaps an aspect of themselves that they refuse to share with anyone. For others it is a tool they use in order to express themselves or their ideas.
I think I might tend not to express my imagination very often, perhaps that’s why I find writing a blog something of a challenge. It would seem that the imagination is a vital feature for the creative artist, assisting them in drawing out something situated in the private into a public world. As already stated this is not something I do frequently, but I always have an admiration for people who do because without them we would be alot less than we are as a species.
Recently I took my daughter down to The Bold Street Festival. Our primary reason for going on the Sunday was to see the pavement artists create their art on the paving stones outside The Fact. Having found the previous year’s art to be marvellous, I was looking forward to the work on show.
The art was being created as we arrived and the weather had decided to be kind to pavement artists in Liverpool on that particular Sunday. My daughter and I wondered around, deciding which work we liked the best and just generally enjoying the explosion of colours on a normally drab grey canvas of the pavement. Then I noticed at the side of The Fact, children were also using chalk on certain paving slabs. I found out that an art group had set up a competition, each child was allocated one piece of pavement and was allowed to draw whatever they wanted to.
My daughter thought about doing a drawing for a short while then decided to have a go. As she went to work, I looked around at her and the other children, all had their heads down concentrating on their own particular piece of the street.
Each one was accessing their imagination to create a picture of their own choice. From inside a reservoir of imagination they brought forth pictures of people, fairies, animals, dragons and a host of other things.
From the private, an aspect of themselves was on display for all to see. I wonder how many of us adults would be willing to do the same? I don’t know who won the competition and I don’t really care and I don’t think the children cared that much, they were just enjoying themselves.
The real winners are the street and all the people that will get to see the pictures for as long as they are there. I admire all the adult and child artists from that day on Bold Street and thank them for making some part of their imagination public. I wonder what would happen if every person walking down Bold Street was given some chalk and invited to make an aspect of their private imagination public?

Roots

Root vegetables may not be the first vegetables that come to mind when planning an edible container garden but they do surprisingly well. Some of our most used vegetables are root vegetables. Carrots, turnips and potatoes all fall under this loose category. Yields are not as large when compared to vegetables grown in the ground but growing conditions are much easier to manage particularly for the beginner. This year we have grown baby turnips, golden beetroot and of course potatoes which we grew in flexi tubs. Onion, carrots and parsnip also do well or if you’re looking for something a little more unusual try Florence Fennel, Jerusalem Artichokes or Oca.