Fantasy Gallery
Print Gallery I’ve always been interested in art. Our summers as teenagers were not spent on the beach – but in Paris. Where we spent most of our holiday in galleries. Trips to London would include time spent in The Academy and the National Gallery. When I lived in London I’d regularly visit galleries – The Tate was a particular favourite. Deep down inside me was a gallery director wanting to get out. Now with the power of the internet I can create a virtual gallery. A collection of works of art from all over the world. Over the...
read moreHome cured Christmas ham
I love ham, bacon, salami – well most processed meats actually. They get the thumbs down from the nutritionists due to their high salt and fat content. Having found out how easy it is to cure bacon at home using far less salt than traditional cures I decided to have a go at curing a ham last Christmas. We bought some local free range pork and used our wet cure for bacon recipe as the soak. The recipe is here the only difference in curing a loin of bacon and a leg is time. The leg was soaked for three weeks in the fridge submerged with...
read moreFlowers from the garden: November 2009
Today is my mother’s 90th birthday. She was born at home in a lovely old house in Kentford. When ever I drive past this house I look up at the large bedroom window and imagine her opening her eyes in that room back in 1919. The window overlooks a walled garden. Were the birds singing or was it dark outside? Were there flowers in the room where she was born? So this little posy is travelling over to Cambridge this afternoon. A bunch of country flowers for her bedroom. Picked from a garden that she helped to create. Just a few miles from...
read moreSoft fruit, chickens and rose petals
“Wow £4.19 for 15 strawberry seeds. Is it really worth buying these?” Danny shook the seed packet pensively. “We couldn’t buy 15 plants for £4.19. Even at the church fete. I want to grow enough for wine and jam this year.” “Won’t we get enough from the 12 plants that arrived yesterday?” I am deeply into getting a good harvest of strawberries next year. Today I am planting out my new strawberry plants in the overhauled soft fruit bed that sits beside the chicken run. I know that the chickens will stand patiently...
read moreQuick piquant turkey stir fry with Romano peppers and button mushrooms recipe
My food dehydrator is turning out to be a winner. For years I’ve often had the frustration of running out of an essential ingredient and having to adapt my cooking plans. I now have access to a large range and choice of ingredients. I can do off the cuff cooking which is fun. As long as I remember to bung them into the slow cooker for an hour to rehydrate I can throw a meal together in minutes as all the chopping and preparation has been done prior to dehydrating. My dehydrated fruit and veg are stored in ziplock bags in a vast carrier...
read moreMud
Working in the vegetable patch is muddy. There is also a long grassless path straight down the lawn – this is where the Min Pin gang pounds up and down. It’s the most direct route to the mouse hole village in the pond garden. They peer into the small round front doors and sometimes try to dig out the mice. This gets them filthy in minutes. We do have a large Turtle Mat beside the back door for mud encrusted Min Pin paws. And this is where we take off our wellies. I wear rubber sailing boots for gardening. They are easier to get...
read morePine needle vinegar update on the making stage
I dragged in the thoughtful gift from Anne Mary’s Caledonian pine tree and started to pull off the needles. They came off reasonably easily but they had a little brown husk on the ends that attached to the branch. As far as I could remember Robin Harford’s pine needles were green from tip to tail. So I shot upstairs to the laptop and examined his photos carefully. Not a dot of brown husk anywhere. The Sherlock Holmes in me detected that he’d probably cut the pine needles off the branch with scissors. I eventually unearthed our...
read moreDriving with bees
One of my earliest activities as a novice beekeper was also my scariest few hours. I had been helping out on the Cambridge Bee Keeping Association stall at a country fair. One of my co-helpers suggested that I might like to collect a free new colony from his apiary after the fair. “That’s if you are ready. With all your frames built?” I was both thrilled and terrified. I had completed the long CBKA course, built my hive and bought my bee suit. All I needed were the bees. If I took these I would be one of the first in my class to get my...
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