Cauliflower, tomato and asparagus cheese recipe
Being a devoted alpha carnivore Danny’s face always drops when there is the prospect of a low meat meal. My Wednesday plans were kyboshed when he returned home with two fillet steaks for £2.50 from the Waitrose CFC. “As they are rather brown I think that we have to cook them tonight.” So he did. The next day I decided to pull all the stops out for a different sort of cauliflower cheese. We used to make cauliflower cheese over a layer of bacon/ham. Now we add fresh tomatoes to the ham layer. A wicked combination of...
read moreMy Dream Farm got me focused and back on track
Wow. I’ve just been watching last night’s episode of Monty Don’s “My Dream Farm.” Thank you Peter for tipping me off about this. Although we stopped watching telly regularly a few years ago, I can catch up on my laptop – as I’m usually asleep by eight at night! The programme was inspiring and I realised that even a little gate side stand could potentially become the heart of a new business. I also recognised that I’ve been treating ours as a bit of a hobby. I had been planning to sell the flowers in bunches of five for...
read moreFlowers for a summer gate side stand
My mum gave up driving some time ago. Now she walks or takes a taxi – there aren’t many buses in her part of Cambridge. She rang me last night to say that she had had a taxi ride with a retired commercial flower grower who had given her a list of the flowers that are popular and last well in water. Apparently he said that you can’t grow enough Sweet Peas. Asters and Pinks are good sellers and of course Sweet Williams. I’m growing Cosmos and Zinnias as both last well in water. My mum added two of her own pet choices that keep going...
read moreDukes Teal au Vin or Tippled Teal in Cider recipe. Contributed by Duncan Lang
Photo: Copyright Hanna Zabielska Teal – wild duck – is a lot gamier than ordinary duck and far more compact. We occasionally find one on offer at Waitrose and pop it into the freezer for a special occasion. So I was delighted when Duncan sent me this recipe. “I first cooked it about six years ago and it was yummy I was then asked by a friend for ideas on how to cook Teal for Valentines evening, so I gave him this recipe.” Duncan explained. “He did the cider variation and it met with great success by all accounts. I decided that...
read moreThe Cottage Smallholder’s Reader’s little book of Recycling tips and Pest defence tricks for the garden. Compiled beautifully by Ruthdigs
The February CS gardening competition was a great success and the entries provided an amazing amount of practical tips. Unlike forum comments these can be hard to find through a search engine. So Ruthdigs has compiled them all in a booklet that is beautifully laid out and the file can be printed on your own printer at home. She has mentioned this book briefly on the forum and in the comments section of the results post of the competition. Just in case you missed it we have uploaded the file to our server so you can download the PDF file...
read moreHalogen oven recipes: Making brunch with Andrew
“What do you think of breakfast?” “It’s not nearly as good as yesterday. Are they the same sausages? They taste cheap.” We’ve had Andrew around for a few weeks now. He always makes us weekend brunch with delicious results. This morning he was busy defrosting a chicken so I had to use the conventional grill (broiler) on our old oven to prepare the sausages and homemade bacon. It was a palaver – I had to keep on pulling out the grill tray to turn the sausages – in Andrew you can see what’s going on in the giant glass bowl,...
read moreSweet mango and apricot chutney recipe
Making homemade mango chutney can be expensive unless you live in a country where mangoes grow, . We sell a lot of it on the gate side stand and it sells for 50% more than most of the other jars. I found some mangos in the market before Christmas – they were rock hard but gradually ripened on a sunny windowsill. By adding apricots I padded out the mangoes and the result is a great fruity chutney with just a bit of kick. This version of the recipe needs much more vinegar so that the dried apricots can swell. It’s a tasty and much more...
read moreLynn Keddie came to stay!
Back in September I received this email. “Hi Fiona I am a freelance garden photographer with features in mostly National Press. I happened across your site and would be very interested in coming down and photographing you, Danny, your animals, vegetables, flowers and other produce…” I was thrilled, Lynn Keddie was interested in photographing our garden. She had found us whilst searching for a pickled nasturtium seed recipe – thank you Duncan! I took some photos of the kitchen garden to give Lynn a better idea of what she would...
read more
FD