Overhauling our ponds: part one – how we got to this point
We have two ponds at the cottage. One circular six foot pond that is called imaginatively “The Small Pond”. I actually installed this pond myself with the help of John Coe – he bedded it on sand as my attempt was a bit wobbly. The other pond is a semi circular pond 28’ by about 14’ at its biggest point. No prizes to guess its name – it’s called “The Big Pond”. This was made when I’d been living in the cottage for about a year. Before I moved here I wasn’t very keen on ponds but there was a small pond in the garden. I...
read moreDeluxe macaroni cheese recipe
Well I wish that I’d put my tiny foot down years ago and insisted that Danny tried macaroni cheese. All those years spent out in the wilderness without my comfort food. “Why it’s just like cauliflower cheese, with macaroni instead!” He had three helpings. I did have to work on my cauliflower cheese recipe though, before he’d admit to enjoying that meal. It took a good six months but I was determined to burrow under the apprehensions and the stalwart status quo. It’s very easy to ask people to be a bit more flexible if it’s...
read moreI need my comfort food
Years ago Seraphina and I used to go to Greece for a few weeks in the summer. Back then it was virtually undiscovered and extremely cheap – particularly on the islands that were furthest away from the mainland. I loved Greece, in all its glories. I even enjoyed drinking retzina. The one drawback, for me was the food. I’ve never been keen on baked vegetables and sometimes ate meals with unusual and mystery ingredients. One evening there was much jubilation at our favourite local restaurant. Something had been slaughtered on the island...
read moreIncan irrigation and hotbeds could transform our polytunnel and greenhouse woes
There was a fascinating article in Permaculture magazine (no. 66 Winter 2010) using an Inca technique to self water a greenhouse. Basically, water is harvested from the roof of the tunnel or greenhouse into a central semi lined gulley. This seeps in between small stones beneath raised beds and waters the plants from below. The soil on the top remains dry – so is no longer a nirvana for slugs and also counteracts the nasty problem of moulds. The gulley has a wooden slatted walkway above that forms the pathway through the tunnel. I got very...
read moreUpdate on our five new hens. One week on.
So how are the five new maidens settling in? It’s been just over a week now and there are still two definite camps. The four older residents and the five new girls. With little fraternising as yet. Zebedee (Roman Empress style chicken) and teeny Beatyl the cockerel have a pretty secure “ancient style republic”. Chickens are not keen on even a whiff of democracy. There have been some surprises. The new gang like to stand on one leg? This bemused me for a while, epecially when they were all standing in a line one one leg. The...
read moreFree planting vessels or state of the art equipment. CS is experimenting with seed germination devices.
As someone said on a forum – root trainers are the marmite of the horticultural world – you either love them or hate them. I’ve been thinking about testing out root trainers out for some time. The price put me off initially and then I reckoned that if we get better sweet peas and beans I’d soon recoup the cost, especially as they are reusable. I must admit I was a bit disappointed when they arrived. They seemed awfully flimsy. But once that are packed with compost and placed in the rack they seem quite sturdy. On another forum...
read moreRabbit and chorizo casserole recipe. Cooked slowly in the slow cooker/crock pot.
I discovered recently that one of our local butchers sells rabbits that are shot on the local studs. They are cheap too – at £5.00 a pair. Apart from pigeon this probably the cheapest, happy meat that you can buy in the UK. We used to eat a lot of rabbit when I was growing up. A traditional rabbit stew with vegetables. Then I didn’t eat rabbit for years and I know the reason why. Skinned rabbit looks to me a bit like a small, skinned dog or cat. Over the past year or so, I’ve put aside this silly nonsense and discovered the delights...
read moreFive young maiden hens have joined our flock
S has been chivvying me for some time about getting more hens. The demise of Carol finally left us with just two laying hens. And service on the egg laying front has been very intermittent this year. We had the space to restock for ages and finally I decided to go for it. So yesterday The Chicken Lady, S and I ate an enormous, delicious, waist expanding lunch. Then we piled into their car and shot off with a heavy wooden crate in the boot and hats at the ready as it was raining. Our destination was Cambridge Poultry. I’ve heard a lot of...
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