I can hardly believe it is January already. What happened to the long, quiet winter I was expecting? Once we finally did a big garden clear up (November) I was expecting to spend quiet Sunday afternoons dreaming about the year past and contemplating the growing season to come. Well, now it is a new year and with no snow in sight I am beginning to feel the need to decide [...]
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We had roast chicken for dinner the other day. We love buying a full chicken, roasting it and having plenty of chicken for a tasty dinner and enough leftovers for sandwiches. Adam has introduced me to the idea of making chicken stock with the finished chicken carcass. I love that this makes it even more economical and we get some really tasty stock for our freezer. The only problem is [...]
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Well, we tried. We have tried to make compost on our roof terrace by putting it in a tub and maintaining it. I tried to balance the wet with the dry, to air it regularly and to mix it all up every week or two. But we opened it yesterday after being on holidays for two weeks and the smell was quite overwhelming! Sadly, we have had to do away [...]
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I hate to admit this, even to myself, but after waiting months for our tomatoes to ripen, after nurturing them from seeds up to four impressive plants, after driving 20 miles with them tucked up in the back of the car and carefully moving them into their new home, after all the love and affection we have poured on them… we are both pretty much tired of eating them already! [...]
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Just look at this amazing cauliflower we bought today! We were in Lancashire this weekend and we dropped into Booths supermarket. I must say, it is a fantastic supermarket with a great looking vegetable section. This beauty, a Romanesco cauliflower, caught my eye and it was love at first sight! Funny enough, when I did an internet search for recipes the first hit I got was Miss Thrifty, who also [...]
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I must admit that I am very pleased with the success of the potatoes so far. After only four weeks the first crop have shot away and they are massive. They were practically falling out of their bags this morning so I rolled up more of plastic added another few inches of compost to each sack, after taking this photo. The second crop are also coming along very well. Everything [...]
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Recently we have started making our own muesli and it has been really easy and really tasty. The main reason to make it, for me, is the cost. Muesli can be expensive to buy from the supermarket. I think the main reason for Adam is probably for health. Muesli in the supermarket often (but not always) comes with a lot of added sugar and/ or salt. Another good reason is [...]
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Well OK, not a party so much as an hour or so spent making all sorts of basil concoctions! Look how full of basil our kitchen window has been for months! It has been great, we have had fresh basil all through the summer and we already dried a batch which is almost used up by now and also made a batch of pesto. But the end has been in [...]
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On Thursday evening when I went outside to water all the vegetables I found this little mushroom popped up in the carrot container. I have no idea where it came from or how they spread but it seems to be happily tucked in next to the water pipe. The next morning I went out to see how it was and it had another little friend in the middle of the [...]
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I have mostly been blogging about growing the vegetables so I thought I should write something about eating them too! Recently we have been reaping the fruits of our labours and finally getting a regular supply of food from the garden. Since the courgettes started in August we have had either courgette, French beans or tomatoes every few days and it has been great! We have also eaten pea shoots [...]
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