Landscape Jan / Feb 2015

LandScape - Life at nature’s pace

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Life at nature’s pace

£4.25

Jan / Feb 2015

Winter trees | Cyclamen coum | Beef | Pancakes | Handmade books | Windsor chairs | Frogs | Northern Lights | St Agnes heritage coast

Winter’s sun captured in ice Hearty soups to warm and nourish An island’s festival of fire

Jan / Feb 2015

Issue 20 | Jan / Feb 2015 | £4.25

NATURE STIRS

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Naked beauty Standing stark against the horizon, the winter tree’s silhouette, buds and bark are all clues to its identity

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Stalks of grasses such as sedge are weaved into a basket to echo the verdant stems of snowdrops. The display is completed with pine cones arranged at their base.

flower nests

A container covered in moss cups the delicate blooms of Christmas roses, Helleborus niger.

Items from the forest floor make attractive natural containers to display early flowers 19

A cut above Different cuts of beef are the main ingredients in these full-bodied dishes

Salt beef with beetroot relish Serves 6

1kg piece of salted brisket 1 large onion 2 sticks celery 2 bay leaves 2 sprigs thyme 2 sprigs rosemary 4 sprigs parsley 2 large beetroots 4 large gherkins 1 tsp golden caster sugar 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar salt and pepper Place the beef in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Cut the onion in half and thickly slice the celery. Add the onion, celery and herbs to the pan and bring to the boil, skimming off the froth that comes to the surface. Simmer gently for 2½ hrs, skimming as necessary, until the meat is tender when prodded with a fork.

Wrap the beetroots in foil. Cook for 1 hr in a preheated oven at 190°C/gas mark 5, until tender when pierced with a skewer.

Allow to cool then peel and coarsely chop.

Chop the gherkins and mix with the beetroot. Mix the sugar and vinegar until the sugar has dissolved. Stir the sugar mixture into the beetroot and gherkins, and season.

Remove the beef from the liquor and place it on a board. Leave to rest for 5 mins, covered loosely with foil. Carve into thick slices. Serve with the beetroot and gherkin relish.

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Beef and anchovy casserole Serves 4 650g braising steak 3 anchovies 2 tbsp rapeseed oil 1 large onion, roughly chopped 75g diced bacon 2 cloves garlic 350g carrots 500g leeks 2 bay leaves 300g large tomatoes 3 tbsp plain flour 600ml beef stock salt and pepper 100ml single cream

Cut the beef into large chunks. Heat half the oil in a shallow, heavy-based pan and fry the meat in batches, browning all sides. Remove the meat with a draining spoon and set aside.

Finely chop the garlic and anchovies. Peel the carrots and chop. Wash and chop the leeks. Cut the tomatoes in half.

Add the remaining oil to the pan. Cook the onion and bacon over a moderate heat until the onion starts to soften and the bacon begins to crisp. Stir the garlic and anchovies into the pan. Add the carrots and leeks. Continue cooking till the leeks are lightly browned then add the bay leaves and the tomatoes. Return the meat to the pan with any juices. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 mins. Pour in the beef stock and season to taste. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and cover. Leave to simmer gently for 1½ hr until the meat is tender. Stir the cream into the casserole just before serving.

joints with flavour The tenderness of a cut of beef depends on where it comes from on the animal, and how much work it did.

Cuts from the legs and neck that are moving a lot develop more fibre and sinew than other cuts. Longer cooking breaks down the dense fibres in these cuts, creating tender meat that is full of rich flavour. Brisket, braising steak, chuck, cheek and oxtail all benefit from long, slow cooking. Silverside is a large, lean boneless cut with little fat marbling. The name comes from the shiny silvery membrane covering the internal surface.

Silverside comes from the leg, so can be tough. It is best pot roasted, or roasted in the oven.

Fillet is an extremely tender steak muscle which comes from the lower middle of the back. The fillet muscle does little work, so is tender. Little fat runs through it, making it a very lean cut.

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frozen fire A slice of orange replicates the sun sealed in a circle of ice.

ice dancers Suncatchers made from frozen rainwater light up a frosty morning

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anging discs and rectangles of ice catch the early morning light of a winter’s dawn. These crystalline suncatchers glow in the shadows beneath the branches they are suspended from. Seeds, leaves and fruits sealed inside add colour to a monochrome landscape.

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Captured in crystal The beauty of seed heads, flowers and leaves is encapsulated in frozen frames. The low winter light gleams through the transparent ice.

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POM-POM BLOOMS Niamh, Frankie-Alice and Freddie-Ray use leftover yarns to make soft woollen flowers

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carving a seat with history No chair is as comfortable as a Windsor chair, says the craftsman who employs traditional tools and techniques to make them

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Amphibians AWAKE The common frog is one the earliest creatures to emerge from hibernation

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At approximately seven days, the external gills are formed. At this stage the tadpoles are ready to hatch.

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pair oF protruding eyes breaks the surface tension of a pond, sending ripples to the faded drifts of reeds around the water’s edge. It is January, and there are few other tangible signs of life on this rough pastureland leached of colour after a long winter. For the past three months, the frog has lain dormant under a layer of mud and decaying leaves at the bottom of this scrape of shallow water. He has absorbed oxygen through his olive-green skin as a full season of ice and winter winds played out overhead.

Soon other males will emerge from the silt to call females from crevices in the surrounding network of lichen-clad stone walls and from under the dense tussocks of dead grass.

Within a few weeks, the pond will be a cauldron of new life, the torpor of winter forgotten amid a jellied mass of frogspawn.

Spring migration The common frog, Rana temporaria, rouses from winter dormancy as soon as night-time temperatures regularly rise above 5°C. Precise timing depends on local weather patterns.

In the south-western tips of Cornwall and Wales activity typically begins in January. Further north and east frogs emerge in February. In the most easterly counties and on higher ground it is later still.

The common frog is most visible during this first surge of activity. Normally a shy, solitary creature, its natural instinct is to remain hidden. This is now overridden, however, by an urge to migrate to water to breed. In most cases, it returns to the pool of water in which it was spawned.

Many adult male common frogs overwinter in the breeding pond. The females are more likely to lie dormant in a damp, frost-free nook under a log, stone or decaying plant matter, up to half a mile away. They journey to the pond on damp, still nights, drawn by two things. One is the scent of glycolic acid produced by the pond algae on which their tadpoles will eventually feed. The other is the croaking of a congregation of males. Only the males croak, producing the call by inflating the throat with air, and exhaling.

A female’s arrival is greeted enthusiastically. A male immediately jumps onto her back, wrapping his front legs underneath hers in an embrace termed amplexus. His grasp is secure, his grip enhanced by hard, black swellings known as nuptial pads on the innermost digits of his fore legs. He may be carried for days – even weeks – in this position before spawning takes place. Competition is ferocious when males outnumber females. Unattached frogs grapple with pairs already in amplexus, turning the pond into a seething sparring ground.

The smaller male rides on the back of the female for days. The larger the female, the more fertile she will be.

Moon-induced egg laying Spawning takes place during the hours of darkness around the time of a full moon. All females in a pond lay their eggs over the course of two or three nights. Within a few seconds, between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs are released from the female’s cloaca. This is a cavity between the hind legs into which the digestive and reproductive canals open. Each black egg measures 2-3mm in diameter and is encased in a transparent gelatinous capsule. The male releases sperm simultaneously, fertilising each egg before its coating of jelly absorbs pond water. The egg swells to a diameter of 8-10mm and rises to the surface. The accumulation of sticky frogspawn forms a dense clump. This stabilises the temperature of the eggs.

It is a spectacle that occurs across the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland. Although shallow ponds offer the ideal breeding habitat, the common frog also makes use of ditches, lake margins and canals. Highly adaptable, it lives wherever a combination of water and damp land occurs. This may be in gardens, farmland, parkland, woodland, moorland, marshland and even mountainous areas up to a height of 3,300ft (1,000m). ›

Eggs Adult

Juvenile

The life cycle of the common frog

Embryo

Tadpoles External gills develop The tail grows

Tail disappears Hind legs develop

Front legs grow Tail starts to be absorbed

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Fiery

drama

A fearsome dragon-headed ship leads a torchlight procession as Shetland Islanders embark on a magnificent winter spectacle of fire and feasting

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n the depths of a long, dark January night, the skies over a Shetland town glow with firelight. A grand procession of over 1,000 men carrying flaming torches wends its way through the streets of Lerwick. This is Up-Helly-Aa, a celebration that for 134 years has marked the end of the Viking winter.

On the last Tuesday in the month, the people of the island’s capital come out in force. They hope for a calm, still night, but are not deterred by raging storms or blizzards, as they cheer on the torchbearers. Swirling snow adds to the atmosphere as the night builds to its spectacular fiery climax. This is the burning of a replica Viking longboat as 1,000 torches are thrown into it.

A year’s work Each year’s event takes meticulous preparation. A new Viking longship or galley has to be built and brightly painted.

Costumes, including decorated shields, are designed and made.

All this work is done in great secrecy, as each year the boat builders try to outdo their predecessors.

When the festival started in the 19th century, the first galleys were either made from light timber covered with canvas or from old boats that had ended their useful lives. Being used as the galley was seen as a fitting send off for these old vessels. In the 1920s, they were built by a team of young men, known as the dock boys, who worked at the town’s dock yards. It was regarded as a great privilege to be included in the team.

Today, the galley is built to specific measurements each year.

The length of the boat will be slightly over 30ft (9.2m), the ›

festival origins

The word Helly derives from an old Norse word for party or gathering. Today’s fire festival grew out of older tar barrelling celebrations.

The young men of Lerwick dragged burning tar barrels through the streets in a dangerous and noisy celebration to bring in the new year. This practice was abolished in 1876, and new ways of celebrating were sought. In 1881 the torch procession was introduced. In 1889 the first Viking processional galley was built. The only interruptions to the event since it was established at the end of the 19th century have been for the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and during the years of the two world wars.

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spring flowers IN A a hillside gardeN Mar/Apr on sale 28 January

Coming next issue

desserts with a taste of citrus

the elusive bittern A message to new

readers from the Editor

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Photography: Nicola Stocken; naturepl.com; Shutterstock; Stockfood

bells of fritillaria