July 2023 - Fleet, Hartley Wintney, Odiham McCarthy Holden Estate Agents

Pauline Cox’s carrot and apple muffins

July 7, 2023 by John Holden

“These muffins are naturally sweetened by the grated carrot, apple and cinnamon,” says functional nutritionist Pauline Cox.

“This fibre fest will keep you feeling full and satisfied without a blood-sugar spike.”

Carrot and apple muffins

Ingredients:

(Makes 12)

90g coconut oil, melted, plus extra for greasing

5 eggs

375g ground almonds

150g sultanas

90g walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped, plus a few extra to serve

3tsp baking powder

3tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp salt

375g carrots, grated

375g apples, grated (green apples for a lower carb content)

Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon

Coconut or natural yoghurt, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan and grease a 12-hole muffin tin.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and combine with the melted coconut oil.

3. Add the ground almonds, sultanas, walnuts or pecans, baking powder, cinnamon and salt to the liquid egg mix, along with the grated carrots and apples and mix together to form a thick batter. Add in a quarter of the lemon juice (use the rest in drinking water) and half of the lemon zest.

4. Spoon the thick mixture into your greased muffin tray. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

5. Serve with a dollop of coconut or natural yoghurt, a pecan or a walnut and sprinkle with the remaining lemon zest.

Market Insight – June 2023

July 7, 2023 by John Holden

High levels of contracts exchanged on house sales in June

June was a bumper month for house sales going through to exchange of contracts, which is good news because during every month in 2023 when we start to write a quick blog about the house market, we expect to be reporting a house market in trouble because of the relentless UK media reporting of house prices falling and interest rates rising. The facts and experience from the shop floor is of a house market showing remarkable resilience half way through 2023.

House Prices?

It is clear from the volume of house sales going through to exchange of contracts that we have buyers and the market is in better shape than you would perhaps think.

Yes house prices have levelled off and in some sectors there has been a small reduction in values, however this is minimal and the buyer demand remains very good. House sellers are now more realistic on price if they are serious about moving home, so we have a more balanced market with buyers and sellers more aligned on pricing, which in some part has impacted on the fact that house sales productivity at McCarthy Holden are performing better than last year.

The Wider Picture

When the Nationwide recently reported the annual rate of house price growth as -3.5% to end of June, the lead their report with the heading ‘House prices relatively stable in June’

We need to remember that these sums represent the UK wide position, so in our area of operation in the Hampshire / Surrey / Berkshire borders house prices have held up well with some sectors only slightly lower compared to a year ago.

This resilience in the market is no doubt underpinned by the labour market conditions, which remain solid and also household balance sheets appear in relatively good shape because we get few if any house sales occurring because of financial stress.

The residential letting market is in very good shape with plenty of tenant demand, especially around the £4,000 p.c.m. price point where properties are being snapped up by eager tenants. If you need market insight at any time in 2023, just go to our web site and ask your nearest branch for a free no obligation house price appraisal.

Pauline Cox’s Roquefort, rocket and pink grapefruit salad

July 4, 2023 by John Holden

By Katie Wright, PA:

“As colourful in nutrients as it is in appearance, this easy-to-construct salad is a powerhouse of goodness!” says functional nutritionist Pauline Cox.

Roquefort, rocket and pink grapefruit salad

Ingredients:

(Makes one salad)

90g rocket

100g Roquefort (ideally raw), cut into chunks

1 ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and sliced

2 pink grapefruits, segmented

A drizzle of raspberry blush vinaigrette

A handful of chopped fresh coriander

A handful of pecans, chopped

A handful of sunflower seeds

For the vinaigrette:

100g raspberries (10-12 juicy raspberries)

60ml extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lime

20ml balsamic vinegar

20ml beet kvass (optional, but ideal)

1tsp salt (ideally beetroot salt)

Method:

1. To make the vinaigrette, add all of the ingredients to a blender and combine. Transfer to a clean glass jar with a lid, keep in the fridge and use within three days.

2. Lay the rocket leaves onto two plates, adding chunks of Roquefort, slices of avocado and pink grapefruit segments, and drizzle over the raspberry blush vinaigrette.

3. Sprinkle over the chopped coriander, pecans and sunflower seeds.

Hungry Woman by Pauline Cox is published by Ebury Press, priced £27. Photography by Luke Albert. Available Now.

The best scented plants to enhance your balmy summer evenings

July 4, 2023 by John Holden

Now that many of us have given our barbecues an airing and are enjoying the longer evenings, it’s wonderful to take in the variety of scents which pervade in the garden when the sun goes down.

Many plants actually increase their perfume production at night to attract moths to pollinate them.

Choose your plants carefully, and you can have a wonderfully scented garden for much of the summer.

There are many shrubs – mock orange (Philadelphus), shrub roses and lavender – which are all easy to obtain, along with fragrant annuals, which make great additions to patio pots and raised beds.

Even if you only grow some traditional sweet peas to cut and place in a vase on your outside table, guests will be able to enjoy a whiff of their heady scent.

Here are some of the best fragrant plants for enjoying as the sun sets…

1. Night-scented stocks (Matthiola)

These pretty, old-fashioned annuals reach their fragrant peak at twilight, where they become moth magnets. Reaching up to 60cm in height, they produce small, four-petalled flowers in shades of white, lilac or pink and are ideal at the front of an informal scheme or added to container displays. They like full sun in a sheltered position and moist, well-drained soil.

2. Evening primrose (Oenothera)

If you’re a wildflower fan, these fragrant bowl-shaped yellow flowering beauties are excellent for pollinators, and also produce their optimum scent in the evening.

Depending on the variety you choose, they can grow to up to 1m, ideal for the middle of a border, or to just 30cm, better for a container. Grow them in full sun or semi-shade. They don’t require much attention apart from watering during prolonged dry periods, and should flower from June to September

3. Mock orange (Philadelphus)

This is among the most fragrant of flowering shrubs, ideally given plenty of space to spread out, where its white blooms can emit their delicious scent reminiscent of orange blossom – which will pervade the whole garden on balmy summer evenings.

Single-flowered varieties are great for bees and butterflies and you can also get types which are suitable for large containers, such as ‘Manteau d’Hermine’, ideally placed near a window or door on the patio. They are easy to grow, withstanding poor soil and wind, but generally not shade.

4. Nicotiana (tobacco plant)

Hanging their flowers sleepily during the day, especially in really bright sunlight, the old-fashioned varieties of these annuals come to life in the evening when their blooms open to emit a sweet scent – so make sure you place them in containers near where you are sitting.

Some, such as Nicotiana langsdorffii, will grow to 1.5m so may be better in the border or secured to a garden trellis, while others, such as the beautiful ‘Lime Green’, grow to around 60cm and are ideal for a pot. If you want flowers which open up during the day, go for the newer strains, but the old-fashioned ones will give you more perfume.

5. Lilies

These are guaranteed to give you fragrance from mid-summer onwards, whether you want a dazzling splash of colour on your patio with showstopping varieties like the pink oriental ‘Stargazer’, which likes full sun and will need staking. Or more subtle hues which pack a fragrant punch, such as Lilium longiflorum, with its long, white, trumper-shaped flowers.

This one is best grown in large pots (it grows to 1m) as it is not totally hardy. Or try Lilium regale, a trumpet lily growing to 1m, which lights up a summer border

Where to place them

Perfume is most apparent in calm conditions, as wind will carry the scent away in the air, so it’s best to plant fragrant climbers in a sheltered spot or on a partially enclosed patio.

Consider combinations

If you want fragrant perennials in your borders, go for combinations of those with scented flowers and those with fragrant foliage to complement each other.

Some scented plants are not spectacular but will bring out the best in a border when planted with colourful non-perfumed plants. Try growing lemon-scented verbena and pineapple sage (Salvia elegans, whose foliage releases a pineapple-like scent when you brush past it) in the border amid unscented blooms, and you will have the best of both worlds.

Locate leafy scents

Plants with scented foliage include scented leaved pelargoniums, Achillea filipendulina, catmint (nepeta), Monarda didyma and the lemon balm Melissa officinalis `All Gold’, while those with perfumed flowers include Iris unguicularis, Phlox paniculata, Hosta `Honeybells’ and many varieties of dianthus.

Of course, plants with heavier scents may dominate, so keep richly fragrant roses, lilies, lavender and other strongly aromatic plants separate from those with more subtle perfumes.

Pretty garden plants you didn’t know you could eat

July 4, 2023 by John Holden

By Hannah Stephenson:

Garden designer, grower and social media star Lucy Hutchings, of She Grows Veg fame, has been showing followers the prettiest vegetables to add colour and form to ornamental borders.

“The best way to approach edibles within a planting scheme is to stop thinking of them as edibles and approach them as you would any other plants in your border. Look at height, colour and texture and vary that through the border,” says the designer, who has 171k followers on Instagram.

“You might want some frilly things, spiky things, architectural things, broad-leaved things – and you can achieve all of these textures and looks through edible plants as well.”

At the recent Gardeners’ World Live event, Hutchings launched She Grows Veg, a fully female design company. In The Secret Homestead show garden, she demonstrated how easy it is to integrate flowers and edibles and still make everything look beautiful.

With a background in fashion design, Hutchings explains: “Grow your own is almost always portrayed in a homespun, traditional, quite humble and slightly apologetic way. My interest lies firmly in edible plants and I never understood why there was this divide in approach.”

She aims to show people who love flowers and beautiful borders how to embrace the idea that veg can also be gorgeous.

Her show garden was filled with popular ornamental plants mixed with food crops which people might not realise are edible, including hostas, roses, cannas, dahlias, Oxalis triangularis and colocasia – which are traditional food crops in other parts of the world.

Here she suggests a selection of edible plants which will provide colour and texture to any ornamental border.

Striped japonica corn

Ornamental varieties of vegetable which blend in beautifully with a flower border include striped japonica corn (which can be used for popcorn), with candy cane striped foliage. “Popcorn is such an easy snack and you can get a lot off a plant,” says Hutchings.

Hostas

“These are very popular in East Asia, where people eat new shoots as they emerge. Take them from an established crown and give the plant a chance to bounce back. They taste similar to asparagus and you don’t get the woodiness.”

Japanese flowering kale

“Japanese flowering kale is sometimes referred to as ornamental kale, but you can eat it. It looks like a big purple flower, with white/green around the outside, fading to pink and bright vivid neon purple.

“All kales are really hardy and you can harvest it year round, sowing it twice a year, once in late summer to grow through winter and again in early spring to grow through summer.” Serve it as you would other green veg.

“I have kales spaced through the border, almost treating it like a great big flower as opposed to a foliage plant.”

Red orach

“This featured in quite a lot of the gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show,” Hutchings observes. “It’s commonly seen in borders and is sometimes referred to as French (or mountain) spinach. You eat it in exactly the same way as spinach despite the fact that it has really vivid purple leaves.

“Add colour through foliage and stem colour as well as flowers. Your greens don’t actually have to be green. Red and purple vegetables tend to be better for you because the red and purple colour is from an antioxidant called anthocyanin which is the same antioxidant that makes blueberries a superfood.”

Colocasia (elephant’s ears)

“A lot of people grow Colocasia as houseplants, but very few realise that it is actually taro, a starchy root you often get in Chinese restaurants – in Asia, it is very commonly eaten.”

Oxalis triangularis (purple shamrock)

“Again, this is a popular houseplant, but the leaves are really delicious, with a sour apple flavour. It’s a beautiful plant which is easy to grow and the leaves can be added to salads for a fruity taste. I’ve also seen it as a garnish on desserts.”

Dahlias

“These are a root crop, originally imported from Europe as a starchy food crop. If you lift them at the end of the season, use some of the tubers for eating. Cook them as you would a new potato – they have a slightly lemony taste. Flower petals of dahlias are also edible.”

Sunflowers

“These give you a lot of bang for your buck. Not many people realise how many ways you can eat a sunflower. They think that you just have to roast the seeds and they’re fiddly. But you can also eat the unopened flowerbuds as you would an artichoke head.

“If you harvest a sunflower head when the seeds have swelled but before the seed coating hardens too much, you can roast and eat the heads like you would corn on the cob.”

WARNING – This article was supplied by the Press Association. Check the facts / information and make sure a plant is edible, please consult an expert.

Pauline Cox’s carrot and apple muffins

Market Insight – June 2023

House Prices?

The Wider Picture

Pauline Cox’s Roquefort, rocket and pink grapefruit salad

The best scented plants to enhance your balmy summer evenings

Pretty garden plants you didn’t know you could eat

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