Sowing 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...
read moreGoing to the sales
I went to the sales this afternoon. To buy night clothes. These have become day clothes for me over the past six months. I needed pyjamas and a bed jacket – or as they are now known, a cardigown. I’d been haunting TK Maxx waiting for the prices to drop beneath the red sale sticker stage and today found a gorgeous Janet Reger teddy bear coloured bed jacket and a pair of Lady Selina pyjamas for just £7.00 each. Happiness. “Wow.” Said the lady at the cash desk. “These are great buys. If you are patient you can get some real bargains...
read moreCalves liver with a delicate Puy lentil sauce recipe
Years ago Danny and I had an unforgettable meal in a Soho restaurant. As far as I remember we were the only customers that evening but the restaurant was designed so that we sat in our own little section – the atmosphere was intimate and the food delicious. The star dish of the evening was calves liver with a sauce of puy lentils. The combination was astonishingly good. Melt in the mouth liver combined with the texture of the lentils was a perfect partnership. I’ve tried to recreate the lentil sauce many times since that memorable meal...
read moreGeo Watkins Traditional Brown Sauce. Treats for under £1.50
I’m a big fan of Geo Watkins’ sauces. I use the anchovy sauce and the mushroom ketchup a lot. A few weeks ago I spotted there was a new (probably just to me) sauce on the supermarket shelves – Traditional Brown Sauce. So I popped it in my basket to put in Danny’s Christmas stocking. Could this be the perfect relish for his famous weekend brunches? I’m not a brown sauce sort of girl. I grew up in a house where brown sauce didn’t make an appearance. When eventually tasted it – in a greasy spoon café with sticky plastic...
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