We love to grow fruit and veg. After converting our garden to a kitchen garden many years ago, we also look on a local allotment plot in 2010.
Harking back to early autumn, look at this little fellow we spotted fast asleep in our back garden one morning in late September. We replaced the bathroom window (downstairs, at the back of the house) with a clear glass one last year, as we’re not overlooked, so Pete spotted our visitor first thing and quickly ... Read more »
I love autumn – the early half, when the leaves on the trees create a riot of my favourite colours and there is still a good chance of sunny days that are chilly but not freezing cold. And it’s apple season too. As I discovered recently, the apple isn’t a native fruit, but it’s become ... Read more »
As usual, time ran away with us down at the allotment and the thickly sown rows of beetroot never did get thinned out or weeded. That resulted in a harvest of lots of teeny tiny beetroots which we were determined to use, as they were our very first home-grown. Pete roasted them in their skins ... Read more »
As you may have gathered from my enthusiasm about visiting the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale recently, I am a big fan of apples and love to enjoy British apples in season. We planted a Cox’ Orange Pippin in our back garden a few years ago, and inherited a Bramley (cooking) apple and what we ... Read more »
Even before our guide Mike Roser took us through the origins and history of apple cultivation, I had it in my head that the National Fruit Collection (NFC) at Brogdale was about collecting and preserving traditional British varieties of apples, alongside other fruits such as pears, plums and cherries. I was wrong on at least ... Read more »
I love home-made ketchup, and it’s even more satisfying making it from home-grown tomatoes. In the past, I’ve made several batches with red tomatoes and a couple of batches with green ones but this is the first batch I’ve made with beautiful orange sungold tomatoes, a variety we’ve been growing for the last few years. ... Read more »
Serendipity and silver linings. That’s how Edible Ornamentals came into being. Joanna Plumb, who runs the business with her husband Shawn, told us the story. Many years ago, her parents (who were commercial cucumber farmers) were approached by a national DIY store to grow 3000 chilli plants for their shops. Unfortunately, the DIY company ... Read more »
I’ve blogged about wild garlic aka ramsons aka allium ursinum aka bear’s garlic before. A wild relative of chive with a strong garlic flavour, it’s native across Europe and Asia. The ursine botanical name and nickname come from the brown bear’s love of the pungent bulbs, though there are no such bears in my favourite ... Read more »
There’s something magical about seedlings. After a cold winter – one that is reluctant to give up it’s hold, pushing snow and biting winds into April – even the smallest signs of spring are warmly welcomed. Pete’s been sowing seeds in our heated propagator but has moved two trays of seedlings onto the bathroom windowsill ... Read more »
Tools For Self Reliance Cymru collect old and unwanted hand tools, mostly those used by gardeners, and their volunteers clean, repair and sharpen them. They send their refurbished tool kits to grass roots community groups in Africa. As they explain, "Tools mean work, and the chance to shape their future, just as important to a ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]
Landed in beautiful, crazy, hot, humid, hectic Bangkok this afternoon. Follow along via #kaveyeatsthailand. We settled in to our all-suites hotel, freshened up and headed out for a very… [more]
