A quiche in tart’s clothing. Tasty Spinach and Cornish Yarg Tart recipe
“I do hope this quiche is tasty,” I carelesly remarked as we sat down for lunch. Danny was just about to sample my concoction and paused fork in air. “You said it was a tart.” “Well, yes. It is a tart.” I had slipped up. Danny won’t eat quiche, but he’ll wolf down tart. “Isn’t a quiche supposed to be bland?” “Of course not. People wouldn’t eat them if they were bland.” “Well most men don’t eat them. This is definitely a tart.” He cut himself...
read moreHow to move a hive of bees
At lunch time I stood and worked out the logistics of moving our new colony. It’s sitting on top of the old colony at the moment. The flights of the worker bees distracted me and I watched them flying in and out of the hive. Imagine the biggest airport in the world and then multiply it by 100. Without the help of Air Traffic Controllers, groups of bees are taking off and landing constantly. There are no mid air collisions even when there are new worker bees bobbing up and down in front of the hive. This first flight of worker bees is...
read moreNon alcoholic drinks: Elderflower and Pink Grapefruit cocktail recipe
Danny was working in the garden yesterday afternoon. Studying the Sunday papers rather than waving a spade about. He wandered into the kitchen. “What sort of drinks do we have to dilute with water?” I pointed him in the direction of the Lemon Barley Water. Refreshing – they serve it at Wimbledon after all. Then I remembered a girlie lunch last summer. The hostess served jugs of a delicious drink. It was a mixture of elderflower cordial and pink grapefruit juice (Robinsons) diluted with water. No one could guess what the...
read moreMoorish, more-ish, moreish, morish. Which do you use?
At the end of a long day, defrosting the freezer and scrubbing the larder floor Danny and I eventually fell out. He had been engaged elsewhere, sorting the clothes from the eight foot pile in the bedroom. Finding matching socks. Some hope. After a few hours we were both feeling like slaves. I could sense the possibility of a humongous row looming so I drove off to do the weekly shop. This valiant and selfless action seemed to put things on a more even keel. I got home, spent an hour in the garden and then wrote the post for the day. Danny...
read moreHow to breed any fowl using a broody hen: preparing a safe environment
Last weekend, Sara from Farming Friends generously offered us some Guinea Fowl eggs to put under our broody bantam hen, Mrs Boss. This would be an inter blog breeding event, a joint event hosted by Farming Friends and Cottage Smallholder. We took up Sara’s offer. We would love Guinea Fowl in our garden. Why not give Mrs Boss a break? Having made up our minds we ventured into Sara’s Guinea Fowl gallery and were introduced to her regally named flock. With the imminent arrival of guinea fowl eggs from the North, I left work early the...
read moreFrozen peas
Every year we grow peas. With very limited success. Sometimes we crop more than 15 servings. Generally we don’t and I find myself flying down to Newmarket to buy frozen peas for 46 weeks of the year. I always bought petit pois. My French is bad but I always felt good buying them as I actually understood what petit pois meant. I could also feel the tiny peas through the pack and imagined them, small and green and packed with flavour. Having been brought up on Birds Eye commercials with the only the smallest peas getting through, I...
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