... and the Winner Is –

Dear All

Remember the Sunflower Competition that we kicked off at the Oban Charities Day in June 2010?
Well, the winner has now been officially identified based on photographic evidence and we can name him as

Conor McPhail

a young boy from the Oban-Glencruitten area.
His was sunflower no. 8, and he will be given a cash prize of £10 shortly. Well done, Conor, congratulations!

Here's the link to a clip showing the winning sunflower as it looked on sunny 8th October 2010 (apologies for your having to view it sideways – I wasn't thinking when I recorded this with my wee digital camera):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwQNNyXZTGM&feature=&p=D155929C3AA2DE21&index=0&playnext=1

Competition was very stiff, with a few contenders doing well later on, which you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJZZtNByi6k&p=D155929C3AA2DE21&index=5&playnext=2
and here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwQNNyXZTGM&p=D155929C3AA2DE21&index=6&playnext=3

Sadly, some people have no respect for plants and several of the participating flowers were decapitated. Also, the recent storms blew rather too strongly for the thin poles helping the sunflowers to stand. So things look a bit bedraggled just now. Some flowers are still in bloom, however.

More news soon, hopefully! Cheerioh for now – enjoy the gorgeous autumn colours.

Autumn in the Garden

Autumn has officially begun. A few visual impressions:

Artichoke flowers.
The artichoke is a perennial plant and produces delicious flower bulbs.

Recipe for steamed artichoke (one fist-sized bulb serves one):
Clean the bulb, snip off the prickly tips of the outer leaves, cut off the stem and base of the bulb. Place upright in a steamer or in steam tray in saucepan. Add adequate amount of water (we don't want to destroy the pot or pan, now, do we?)
Squeeze juice of half a lemon over the artichoke. From other half of lemon, cut a few rings and place on top of artichoke. Put lid on and steam gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool down before starting to remove outer leaves.
While the artichoke cools down, prepare the vinaigrette: two table-spoons of freshly-squeezed lemon juice, a pinch of salt, some chopped or scissor-snipped fresh herbs (anything that comes ot hand including parsley, chives, thyme, a little mint or sage, oregano or marjoram), four table-spoons of extra-virgin olive oil.
Eating an artichoke is a hands-on affair, so make sure your hands are clean before you start:
Dip bottoms or fleshy part of leaves into the vinaigrette. Place fleshy part of the leaf between your teeth, holding on to the tip, and pull. Allow time between morsels to catch the typical artichoke flavour to rise from the back of your mouth.
When you've pulled off and enjoyed the flesh from the leaves, take a very sharp knife and slice off the cover of hairs inside (which would grow into the actual flowers) to reveal the "heart". Pull out any stringy bits left of the stem and make sure none of the "hairs" are left on the heart. Cut it into small pieces and toss into the vinaigrette. Eat slowly, piece by piece.


Zucchetti flower. They're still going strong but the near-frosty nights aren't terribly good for them.

One of the sunflowers in the Sunflower Competition. Not necessarily the tallest but it's got a beautiful flower.