It’s been raining here – which means that the snow’s gone and we’re back to having a soggy garden instead of a frozen one. I spent an hour or so catching up with the garden this morning, we hadn’t been spending much time together while the temperatures were below zero. Turns out that while I’ve been huddled in the house grumbling about the cold, the garden has been carrying on regardless. For one thing, there are hellebores flowering – prettying up the place, and at this time of year anything that pretties up the garden is very welcome.
Not so welcome is the mole who has taken up residence in the garden. It would be fine if he kept himself to the bottom end where his mounds of soil aren’t a problem – in fact the hens are loving scratching through the soil he pushes up. Trouble is, he’s now popping up (or his molehills are anyway) in the veggie patch. I need to find a way to move him on before the season of serious planting begins – does anyone have any tried and tested ways of encouraging moles to relocate?
As always, there are huge numbers of weeds to pull up, and this year I’m determined to do some weeding every day (well OK, most days). Come the warmer, longer days of spring I want the soil to be ready for sowing – for once I’m going to be prepared instead of constantly playing catch-up.
I haven’t been harvesting much from the garden in the last couple of weeks – herbs mainly, and then mostly those growing in pots close to the kitchen door. I used seasonal herbs with some shallots stored from last autumn to make individual mushroom crumbles for tea at the weekend. Each mushroom makes an edible ‘dish’ for a creamy sauce topped with crunchy crumble. I thought they looked quite cool, but novelty value alone wasn’t enough to tempt the picky eater to eat mushrooms – obviously I need to be more inventive. The recipe was originally for the Guardian reader’s recipe swap in the new Cook section. But they didn’t use it, and it seemed too good to waste – so I’ll share it with you here instead!
And I’ve just realised through reading Chez Foti’s great-sounding recipe for Pizza Puttanesca that these mushroom crumbles would probably qualify for Made with Love Mondays over at Javelin Warrior’s blog. This is a new blog challenge for me – another source of fabulous recipes to try!
Creamy Mushroom & Herb Crumbles
Serves 2
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
50ml white wine
3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
50ml double cream
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
35g plain flour
20g unsalted butter
20g dry breadcrumbs
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
2 large flat mushrooms
100ml vegetable stock
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.
First make the shallot and cream sauce – heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a small saucepan. Add the shallots and sauté over a low heat for about 5 minutes, until they are soft but not browned. Add the white wine and thyme leaves, and bring everything to a simmer. Reduce the liquid to about half, then turn down the heat and add the cream. Stir and leave to cook gently until the sauce thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.
While the sauce is cooking, make the crumble topping. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the dry breadcrumbs, parsley and lemon zest and season with salt and pepper. Add the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil and stir through the crumble mixture.
Wipe the mushrooms clean and place them in a shallow ovenproof dish. Top each mushroom with half of the cream sauce and half the crumble mixture. Pour the stock into the bottom of the dish, to surround base of the mushrooms.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until the mushrooms are meltingly tender.
Looks and sounds really delicious, Sarah. And how lovely to see your Hellebores in bloom! We have a mole occasionally pop up at the end of the garden… fortunately it seems to be just one, and he/she hasn’t come nearer the house… maybe the dogs are a deterrent…?
You may well be right about your dogs keeping the mole away. Our cats used to be good for keeping unwanted visitors out of the garden, but they’re getting old now and the rabbits (and moles) are visiting more often.
I am going to copy you and try to do a little bit of weeding every day if I can. I’m sorry you have a mole issue – they are a nightmare to deal with. We have had problems with moles, but then we installed rabbit fencing last year and that seems to have deterred them.
The mushroom crumbles sound delicious!
I suspect that my new weeding regime will be something like my seed organisation scheme and won’t last beyond a few weeks! In fact, if this rain carries on the way it is there will be no weeding tomorrow.
I used to help my mom garden every year – and as a kid I hated it! I’m still not much for yard work or gardening, but your account of the mole and the photos kind of, ever so slightly, stir a craving for a bit of earth and garden 😉 Love these mushroom crumbles – so cute and they sound so tasty. Thanks so much for sharing with Made with Love Mondays and welcome to the series! I’m so glad you discovered it…
Thanks – I’m happy to have found Made with Love Mondays, and your blog too! Looking forward to trying some of the recipes.
There are ways to deal with moles, but none of them are gentle…
I think that mushroom dish is going into rotation this week – Angel loves mushrooms as much as her Grandad and I do!
I was hoping to move the mole along, rather than get violent! But maybe that’s being a bit optimistic – I may get back to your for advice on the less gentle methods! Hope you enjoy the mushrooms – wish I could get my daughter to eat them…
Wow I love mushrooms and these crumbles are just great. Also, I could prepare them ahead of time, always a good thing. A mole in your garden cannot be good for your vegetable patch so I hope you find a way of moving it on!
The mushrooms tasted just as good re-heated the following day, so preparing them ahead of time would definitely work.
Beautiful hellebores. I miss them from my last garden, but they would have been destroyed in the gales here over the last few days, which would have made be very unhappy! Not sure how to respectfully deal with the mole – I’ve never had a problem with them before and we don’t get them at all out here. Best of luck with that and hope he’s not joined by some badgers for some serious earth-moving! Lovely mushrooms – I do enjoy them with a herby crumb crust.
Badgers!!! I’m struggling with the mole and the rabbits as it is – this gardening for wildlife is all very well as long as it only attracts ‘nice’ wildlife!
Sorry, didn’t mean to alarm you. It could be worse. I opened my bedroom curtains the other morning to find a royal stag (red deer) staring at me 3 metres from my window, in broad daylight. He wasn’t in a hurry to leave either!
You get some impressive wildlife up there! Puts my struggles with a mole into perspective – but I still don’t want badgers too!
You won’t get rid of the moles until they have eaten all your worms – they soon get fed up and move on. Love your mushroom crumbles I have made these myself as a starter and really enjoyed them.
Really – all the worms? Looks like the mole might be here to stay then, there are a lot of worms! I’ve started making the best of having a mole and am using the soil he pushes up in compost mixes…
Kniow what you mean about a soggy garden and very impressed you’re getting out there weeding daily. Beautiful hellebores. And the mushroom crumbles look great.
Please don’t be too impressed by the weeding – if you saw the state of my garden, you’d understand why a daily attack on the weeds is necessary!
What gorgeous flowers for this time of year, and lovely photos as ever. I have a mole that invaded my veggie patch last summer. Mr Mole annoyingly earthed up a couple of rhubarb plants and all but one of my globe artichokes, plus a few brassicas here and there. No idea of what can be done, but I’d rather chance it he’ll eventually move on than instigate anything too brutal!. Loving your mushroom crumbles, they look like very tasty little numbers 🙂
I’m hoping the mole will discover that next door’s garden is much nicer than mine and move across!
I have to admit kind of liking the idea of a mole in the garden…well at least from the position of never having to have one. Its very Wind in the Willows, do you have toads? Badgers? I suspect most of these creatures probably seem more romantic from a distance…???
Toads yes, badgers no – from what I hear they can do more damage than moles, so I’m thankful we don’t have any in the garden. I have a feeling that moles in real life are probably as much like the Wind in the Willows character as kangeroos are like Skippy!
For what it’s worth; 1.Mothballs down the mole hole. 2. lay brambles (carefully covered over) along tunnels. 3.use a pesticide to get rid of grubs, which moles (apparently) love. When the grubs go, hopefully, so will the moles.
I’ve heard of using mothballs to protect plants against hungry deer, but not for moles – maybe I should try it… Thanks!
Moles hate the smell of mothballs, so I’m told. Good luck!