The Spork™: a review
“Every year you need to lightly fork over the herbaceous borders in spring. This loosens the soil and gives the plants a better chance to soak up any nutrients.” My mum explained 18 years ago. I had just moved into the cottage and she had come to stay to help me the garden. It was more of a field with long thin borders down the sides. There were infestations of ground elder on one side and a lot of buttercups on the other. I only had one trowel and one hand fork and as far as I remember we took turns to use the fork as it was far more...
read morePropagating fruit bushes by mistake
Last year I used the prunings from my gooseberry and currant bushes as pea sticks for my overwintering crop of peas. Those six inch pea shoots were guzzled over a matter of just a few days by mice during the freezing winter weather. The mice had everything going for them as the wooden mouse traps froze too! This spring when I pulled away the cloche half of the ‘pea sticks’ had rooted. I had no idea that fruit bushes germinate so easily. All I did was push them into the soil around the peas. The only problem is that I’m not sure...
read moreKale buds, cabbage buds and Lucky (our dehydrator)
I had no idea that you could eat kale buds until Margaret Thorsom who writes this blog alerted me to the fact on a comment on my latest purple sprouting broccoli post. They are absolutely delicious and we are mixing them with our PSB. And Margaret Thorsom’s blog is pretty good too – she is a weaver and crafter and her husband is a vegetable farmer using hoop houses. I’d love a hoop house – they are really nifty. I’d also like to make rag rugs in the future when normal energy returns. Yesterday I spotted that a lot of the cabbages...
read moreStore cupboard recipes: spaghetti and veal meatballs in a light tomato sauce
I had a yearning for spaghetti and meatballs yesterday. I have no idea why as I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten this dish in my life but somehow the combination appealed. I spent a morning in the kitchen creating the sauce. My challenge was to use as many dehydrated ingredients as possible and some of our home bottled/canned tomatoes from the autumn. Incidentally these are delicious and I will be making much more this year. The meat wasn’t dehydrated – I haven’t tried doing meat yet – but I had found and defrosted some...
read moreDe Wit garden fork and spade: a review
My De Wit ladies fork and spade arrived this week. Yes I went really wild and ordered a spade too. And I am thrilled with them. Having broken yet another fork I’d decided to invest in some deluxe tools. As I generally like to handle tools before I invest I was a bit concerned that they might not suit me. I liked the look of the T handles but would they be difficult to use? As Crocus has a good returns policy and these tools are not available locally I took a chance. I was so pleased that I blogged about the possibility of investing in a...
read moreGarden update: April 2010
“We regret to inform you that we have to put off delivering your order until the end of May….” “Great!” I thought. “Thank goodness for that.” By the end of May things will have quietened down in the garden. At the moment I’m feeling just a bit overwhelmed. As you can imagine I am working flat out in the garden – when I’m not resting on Danny’s wonderful swing seat. Hence the rather bumpy transmission of service. Many apologies. We are sharing our garden with hundreds and hundreds of plantlets. The green house is...
read moreRhubarb: memories and plans
Stock photo by Ayla87 As a child I remember being given a stick of raw rhubarb and a saucer of sugar. The trick was to dip the rhubarb in the sugar and munch. The sharp acidic taste of the rhubarb remains with me still. I can still see me and Seraphina sitting on the grass in the sunshine wearing smocked summer frocks and Startrite sandals (big enough so you couldn’t feel your toes in the shop) . The awsome privilege of being allowed to take china saucers outside. The love hate marriage of the rhubarb and white sugar crystals that...
read moreHomemade Christmas marmalade with whisky
Last year I happened to meet someone who supplies citrus fruits to one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK. “How come their fruit and vegetables don’t last as long as those from Waitrose and M&S?” “Ah,” he said, “it’s all a matter of storage temperature. They keep the produce in vast stores with the temperature set very, very low. This means that they can store perishables for a considerable time. Once they come to room temperature they will fade far more quickly.” Fascinating stuff. The temperature in our barn...
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