The long awaited Digging up Danny’s Potatoes Day
Within a month it was clear who was going to win the Grand Potato Challenge. The challenge wasn’t really a fair test – in the end as we realised that the earth in John’s border was far inferior to the friable soil in Danny’s newly dug potato domain. In fact by doubling the size of our kitchen garden this year we were forced to see how poor the soil is in the original borders. The runner beans have flourished but only because they were planted over a deep trench of semi rotted fruit and vegetables and the water butt watering...
read moreEdible garden update: September 2009
Even though we bought a budget greenhouse that arrived in a long thin box and caused a lot of head scratching and cursing, I love this small haven. I hang out in it all year – I suppose it’s the place where I go to dream. When the seeds start to germinate everything seems possible. Of course growing fruit and veg can be a bumpy ride. The only pests that we were not plagued with this year were aphids. This was down to an explosion of ladybirds encouraged by the June sunshine. This September we are awash with vegetables and fruit. Life seems...
read moreMy best easy recipe for delicious Mango Chutney
Growing up there were a handful of meals that I really liked my mum to cook. One of these was curry. Back in those days curry powder was the norm, with the remains of the Sunday roast diced into the mix. I loved the exotic colour of the sauce but it was the way that she served each plate that intrigued me. Curry on a bed of rice in the middle of the plate and around the edge of loads of little piles of things too cool the curry down. Thinly sliced banana jostled with desiccated coconut, dried fruit, sliced cucumbers, diced onion and glorious...
read moreIt’s my seventh week off work. Discovering great blogs and dehydrators.
I’ve been put on a two week course of antibiotics as the last course didn’t clear the kidney infection and I’ve finally been referred for a scan. Still in bed for most of the day, feeling peaky. I do get up in the afternoons and potter about. So I’ve had the chance to do much more harvesting this year. I’ve developed a new plum chutney recipe, a good mango chutney and a tasty chow-chow (piccalilli). The recipes for the last two will appear on the site shortly. Being home alone has meant that I have been visiting more sites and...
read moreGoodbye Pestle and Mortar
I bought my pestle and mortar about 20 years ago when I was more interested in the kit than the cooking. It lay, a boxed virgin under the kitchen sink for at least ten years. Then Danny released it from it’s brown cardboard tomb. He ground some spices, it took quite a while. He pushed the P&M right to the back of the cupboard – the place where kitchen equipment goes to die. And we forgot all about it. Danny is away in Wales on business. I’m spending my time lounging and sleeping upstairs and developing a new Mango Chutney – recipe...
read moreFlowers from the garden: August 2009
I suddenly realised that it was the last day of August so I had a wander in the garden and found these. I’ve waited two years for this one eachinea flower. It hurt to pluck it but it just had to join this group. It is, after all, a celebration of flowers that you can easily grow in an English cottage garden. Not having bought flowers since January 2007 has forced me to overhaul the herbaceous borders. They are now packed with flowers all summer. By adding plants from wayside stands and garden fetes, the transformation wasn’t expensive. It...
read moreA sleeping life
A year or so ago I visited Celia Hart’s Open Studio – the one and only Magic Cochin of Purple Podded Peas. There on the wall was a wonderful print of a hare asleep in a burrow. “I know that I would sleep so soundly with that hanging beside the bed.” But I was skint and couldn’t afford the print. I often thought about that print. Especially when I couldn’t sleep. Just thinking about it helped me drift off. A few weeks ago a mysterious parcel dropped through the letterbox. Celia had sent me a book and a card. It was a card of the...
read moreZebedee the Houdini hen
When our new Italian hens arrived I divided our long run into two. The old flock of four bantams and one Maran stayed on one side. The Italians took over the other side. This was largely due to the size of Baby. This tiny Leghorn runt needs to grow a lot more before both flocks can safely combined. The Italian hens are very different from our flock. Lazing in the sun, taking endless dust baths and staying up much later to strut on the roof of the Ken Doherty Day Centre. The Min Pins are still fascinated by them and sit in the long grass...
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