The Cottage Smallholder

I felt a bit of a pig last spring. Danny adores Sungold tomatoes but I suddenly couldn’t find my wallet when I saw the price on the pack – £2.99 for just ten F1 seeds. Feeling a bit guilty I bought one plant in a sale in late June. Perhaps this plant hadn’t had the Read More »

I was very busy before Christmas stocking The Cottage Smallholder shop and making up orders, so I didn’t have time to go to the allotment regularly. In fact I probably haven’t been up there for a couple of months. We’d planned to go down for some Christmas veg but in the end ran out of time. I Read More »

Our allotment neighbour, Mark, has grown a giant pumpkin on his site and lots of little pumpkins and squash. I reckoned that his kids would be carving the monster pumpkin but this evening it was still lying on the ground looking like a vast, beached Humpty Dumpty. The allotment below us has tomatoes and plump Read More »

This year I’m very behind in the garden. Seeds need to be gathered, pelargonium’s are crying out to be dug up and taken to a warmer place, the final lawn cut needs to take place. So yesterday I stepped into the bright autumn sunshine with a selection of bags. The seeds that I was chasing Read More »

I bought some rather swanky British shallots from Tesco yesterday. Hoping that I could plant them to over winter on the allotment. The were Tesco Finest Echalion shallots – the ones preferred by top chefs and foodie the world over. They are sometimes called banana shallots as they are long rather than round. The sets Read More »

One of the key reasons for getting an allotment was to have the space to grow more fruit and vegetables. Energy prices are rising and this ultimately affects the cost of food. By concentrating on growing as much of our food as possible we could eat a healthier diet, cut costs and reduce our carbon Read More »

I used to agree with Gilbert. Courgettes just didn’t appeal. Perhaps it was an overdose of badly cooked ratatouille back in the seventies – the new craze in the UK at the time. “It’s the French method for vegetables.” The hostess would chortle. Back then I was certain that the French would be enraged that Read More »

When I was growing up salad was just a few basic ingredients arranged on a plate. It was the same for Danny. “Sliced cucumber, a quartered tomato and some lettuce leaves.” “Was the lettuce that soft floppy kind?” “Yes, the stuff that bruised easily. And I always seemed to get the bruised leaves” “Did you Read More »

Home grown broad beans are an entirely different ‘animal’ from those wet, hard skinned specimens that were served for school lunches when I was a child. Even the podded broad beans available from good greengrocers and high end supermarkets are not a patch on the pods plucked from your garden and devoured within minutes. Broad Read More »

I invested in orach last year – supplied by The Real Seed Company. The young leaves can be eaten in a salad and the older leaves are a great alternative to spinach. As long as you do not let it go to seed – the buds are delicious steamed – this will produce for you Read More »