The weather reminds me of New England - one minute you are in t-shirt and shorts, the next it is snowing. We have put off sowing until this last weekend, with the exception of the garlic and poppy seeds we planted in late autumn. Yes, poppies. Rizsa, the head ranger at Aggtelek National Park told me that at the first world Boy Scout jamboree in Hungary in 1933, the American scouts thought they were doing a good deed and saving Hungarian children from the scourge of drugs by pulling up all the poppy plants in the area. This may go over well in Afghanistan, but not here where the seeds are used in all sorts of yummy pastries. We planted the seeds in only one quarter of a vegetable bed, but the elements blew the seeds everywhere over the winter. Also strewn everywhere by the wind was the purple lettuce we got from Simon and Dori a few years ago. Last weekend we planted 6 bags (Kondor, Cherie, Laura...) of potatoes - about 300, and 4 types of onions along the edges of all the vegetable and flower beds. We ordered 36 different kinds of organic seeds from Bio-gazdabolt.hu and are hard put to find a place for everything, even with several new beds dug or expanded. At only 180 Huf/package the seeds are a bargain compared to organic seeds ordered from Austria or the UK for 700-900 Huf. The proof of the pudding will be the eating. In addition, there are all those seeds we saved from last year and got from friends. The cabbage sprouts are growing like wildfire, but none of the tomatoes, peppers or eggplant has begun. Outside, we have sown about almost all of our crops: broccoli, pickling cukes, oak-leaf lettuce, pumpkins, butternut squash, zucchini, radicchio, garden rocket, cress, a lettuce mix, broad beans, runner beans, carrots, Swiss chard, rhubarb, coriander, purple basil, green basil, beets, sweet peas, oak-leaf lettuce, climbing peas, yardlong beans, celery, cucumbers, watermelon, kale...We had horseradish in the ground from Marikanéni, but the tractor rolled over it. It seems to have survived but no growth occurred over the winter. Only two of the 5 strawberry plants survived, but the chives did well, as did the mint, peppermint and lovage.  We still have the eggplant and several varieties of tomatoes and peppers to plant from seedlings, but the bulk of the sowing is done. Of course there are the flowers to get in as well (morning glory, dahlia, iris, Echinacea, night-scented stock, gladiolas, lavender...

I was able to arrange the delivery of old hay bales from the national park's hucul ranch. For some reason the truck did not come prepared with tie-ons. We started off with 20 bales and ended up with 15 on arrival. We used about 8 for mulch last year, but it was thin on the ground. The park has changed over from small square bales to huge round ones. But these 2-year old bales are just right for us. I also intend to experiment with a no-dig raised bed by filling in the space between 4 hay bales, bringing the height at least 30cm off the ground. I have to fill it with branches and soil first of course. The hay will eventually decay and add nutrients to the ground, but hopefully I can replenish the bales next year from another source. The rest of the hay will be for mulching.

While the cherry trees, quince and pear trees are in bloom, the plum trees are getting a late start. The two hawthorn trees have also leafed, and I am curious to see what we can make from the berries. For some reason experts cannot agree if there are 200 or closer to 1000 varieties of hawthorn. I did a little research yesterday and a good thing too. The berry seeds contain cyanide and must be removed. The hawthorn berry ketchup recipe seems intriguing.

Neither neighbours nor colleagues have been able to help us with a plough for 10 minutes to loosen up the soil in the new area we cleared by the house. Remembering something I read in John Seymour's The Fat of the Land, I contacted Simon and Dori for some of their masses of superfluous Jerusalem artichokes. Seymour let his pigs roam free in every new patch of land he cleared. The pigs rooted for wild Jerusalem artichokes, loosening the soil and at the same time fertilising it. We got a big basket of the things and started to plant them but the soil is so rock hard after the earth moving equipment went over it removing stumps, and from the lack of rain, we could barely plant 30 out of the couple hundred in the basket. The spade hardly makes a dent. I think it will have resort to the pickaxe.

One of my father's favourite books, and I remember enjoying it 40 years ago, is Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. I recalled this when I saw the as yet unread sequel Farewell Summer on the shelf. With all the dandelions in the garden I thought about trying my hand at making dandelion wine or beer. Kata had other ideas though, and the alcohol manufacture will have to wait for the second effort. Instead, we made dandelion syrup which is supposed to be a good alternative to maple syrup. We now have 4 bottles of the stuff. We tried it on some French toast, but I just taste sugar. The recipe we used said to use 100 dandelion heads - perhaps we should have used more?

At the weekend, the X. Annual Vitezlő Tour(s) was organised by the Szendrő Hiking Association this weekend, packed with horse trekking, cycling, hiking and even canoe tour options at a variety of distances and difficulties. We considered joining a tour, but somehow we got sidetracked by gardening. Kata then remembered one of our colleagues at Aggtelek National Park had mentioned a field of ramsons/ramps/bear garlic not far from the village of Bódvarákó. We had pretty vague directions, but we still easily located the field by the profusion of white flowers. Some people warn that ramps are easily confused with the poisonous but lovely lily of the valley, but while the leaves are similar, the flowers are not. Most importantly, only the ramps have the strong garlic scent. Bódvarákó turns out to be a very nice little village with lots of pretty old houses. The entrance to Aggtelek's Rákóczi Cave is also reached via a turnoff just at the edge of the village.

We picked a basketful, about 2kg in a very short time. On the way home, we paused at the ice cream shop in Perkupa and ran into colleagues on the return leg of one of the Vitezlő horse tours. The dogwood ice cream is highly recommended if they have it. At home, Kata made a batch of 3-onion cream soup (bear garlic, chives from the garden, garlic) while I put some lentil-walnut burgers on the grill. I have never had any luck with home-made veggie burgers, no matter the recipe. I have failed with soy, lentils, you name it. Unfortunately, this was no different. Patrick at the Caledonia Bar has likewise been experimenting for years to try and get a veggie burger on their menu, but has yet to hit on a recipe that does not fall apart. Does anyone have a no-fail veggie burger recipe they could pass on?