Raspberry vinegar recipe
My friend Teresa introduced me to raspberry vinegar. She had made a dressing for a hot goat’s cheese salad using olive oil, raspberry vinegar and honey. It was out of this world – sweet yet tart. A raspberry lover’s dream dressing. The dressing had me searching the shops for raspberry vinegar the next day. As far as I remember it was quite expensive. And after an extended period of over indulgence in warm soft goat’s cheese salads it fell out of favour and got lost on the shelves in the larder. Following the success of the...
read moreSeville Orange and Quince Marmalade recipe
After discovering that Seville orange marmalade wiped quince marmalade off the map I was intrigued. I love the taste of quince jelly and quince marmalade might be good. I had 700g of quince pulp left over from making jelly. Rather than make Membrillo I thought I’d experiment with combining Seville oranges and quinces in a rich marmalade. As there was no recipe to tell me how to do this I had to invent my own. Quinces are harvested in September and Seville oranges appear in the shops in January in the UK. But with the help of a freezer you...
read moreAnd the winner of Maria Thun’s The Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar 2010 is…
I’m so pleased that we ran this competition as there have been so many helpful hints and tips and I’ve learnt loads! But the flip side is that it has been incredibly difficult to judge. If you didn’t win this time don’t despair – we are going to be running a competition twice a month for the foreseeable future. I’ve been looking for sponsors and have already found two for the month of February. I totally agree with Carole who left the first comment. Don’t but cheap seed. I did this one year and the harvests were poor. I...
read moreSowing Sweet Peas in January
“My grandfather always grew Sweet Peas in an arched walk. I visited him a lot as a child and can still remember the smell of them now.” Melanie mused. This was years ago when I was starting to design the garden here. I could see the scene in my mind’s eye, a little girl in a summer frock suurounded by flowers. Since then I’ve always fancied a walk or even just an arch of sweet smelling Sweat Peas but I’ve not been very lucky with this pretty scented flower. I grow a few each year to scramble amongst the beans and encourage...
read morePotato plans for 2010
“What do you think of my new bag?” I could see that Danny was fumbling for a polite response. “Well it’s ethnic…” In fact I was modelling a potato bag . Our local garden centre had them on offer 3 for the price of 2 so I snapped them up. Danny will be growing potatoes again this year. He’s organised to get seed potatoes from a farming friend. But these will be main crop potatoes and I have a yearning to grow some first earlies. I chose Swift – these can be ready to eat in just 7 weeks. These will be followed a blight...
read moreYesterday marked six months of being laid up
It’s been a strange life changing experience. My life was always a rush in the past. It was busy, stressful with very little time to pause and think. I was happy but, looking back now, I realise that I wasn’t content. I was running too hard to keep up. And keep up with what? I have no idea when I think about it. All I can remember is the pressure. There are new pressures now. Finding ways of making a living from home is the main one. I had no idea when I doubled the size of the kitchen garden slowly over last summer that I would be...
read moreUpdate on the pine needle vinegar
Unless you are a truly dedicated reader of the blog you will have forgotten Hunky, Nirvana and Anne. These were the names for the three different types of pine needle vinegar that we made back in November. Apparently a good pine needle vinegar can taste similar to balsamic vinegar. This vinegar has been maturing in the barn since then. Last night we decided to sample it so I pulled on my boots and searched the preserves shelves with a torch. The first we tried was Hunky. Aptly named as it took Danny a good ten minutes to open the metal...
read moreWelcome home Black Tuscany Kale – all is forgiven
For years I was not very keen on eating vegetables. Danny adores them but I was generally unimpressed. Until I started growing our own. Home grown organic vegetables have far more flavour than shop bought ones as they are ultra fresh. Vegetables that I’ve avoided for years – such as cabbage and Brussels sprouts – have become firm favourites as they taste completely different straight from the garden. And we are saving money too. I had a longing for ultra fresh vegetables last night so I pulled on my snow boots and grabbed a large...
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