Grow Your Own - Update

Growing in my garden right now: Broad Beans, Peas, Rainbow Chard, Lettuce, Garlic, French Tarragon, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Ruby Pak Choi, Chives, Thyme, Rosemary and Sage.

Seeds that arrived from the Heritage Seed Library yesterday: Carrot (Beta III), Pea (Clarke's Beltony Blue), Leek (Coloma), Pepper (Nardello), Lettuce (Bronze Arrow - particularly resistant to slugs, I'm told), Tomato (Auntie Madge's), and last but not least, my lucky dip packet: Tomato (Salt Spring Sunrise).

I'm hoping we'll eat very well this summer

In my garden

In moving to Cornwall I have had the good luck of obtaining a garden. I like to call it (albeit affectionately) 'The Scrubland'. As you can guess from such a name, much of it is bare earth right now, with some plants, some herbs, and an on-going battle with the local weeds (of which there are a variety). It's been really exciting to get a relatively large patch for a new-comer such as myself, and of course, because we're only renting it's always hard to weigh up the cost and effort required to make it really nice with a wonder of how long we'll actually be there. But y'know, it's going well. It's blessed with amazing soil, as has been the local compost dumping ground for the surrounding flats for the past few years. Already I seem to have a few friends doing well, and I'm pleased to say that the bees seem just as keen as I am.

Already from this I have managed to make two batches of herb and ricotta ravioli, to remind me of sunnier times in the winter, plus we're now enjoying our own salads regularly. I'm hoping I might even get some fruit and jam out of it next summer. Wish us luck, I'll keep you updated.

Echium
(if all goes to plan, when this flowers next year it could be up to 15ft tall!)

Dig for Britain

Having a garden is obviously a bonus here, but in the meantime I shall dream of the things I might grow from here. Quite like the sound of starting a seed circle, too...

Tomato update - 15.09.08

This is my last tomato update of the season - let's face it, there's only so many blog entries you can get from growing something that's as easy as tomatoes are!

Still, if fortunate enough to have a couple left, why not keep some of the seeds and store ready to sow in January or February? All you need to do is put them into a metal sieve and rub under the tap until the jelly has come off around the outside of each seed. Once you've done this leave to dry before labeling and storing for next year.


These ones here actually came in my veg bag - really lovely plum tomatoes which I always think are quite hard to find in the shops. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out next year!

tomato update - 15.07.08

Today we finally got to eat the first ripe tomato, and let me tell you it was bloody good. Unfortunately it's not displayed in this pic, as we were so eager to get stuck in and I didn't think to take a picture of it until it was gone :(

Next year, I hope to grow more - two plants isn't enough!

Tomato Update - 28.06.08

Tomato Update 20.06.08

Grow your own

The idea of growing your own fruit and veg seems to be one of the big things over the past couple of years, what with an increasing demand for allotments and an ever expanding desire to be 'self sufficientish' - encouraged all the more by the Guardian's current marketing ploy.

Of course I'm no different, but my complete lack of a garden for the past couple of years has obviously curbed such desires - until now. We're not entirely sure how it will work out yet, but there has been talk of building some kind of platform that sits on our roof, reached and tended via the skylights. How practical this is I'm not yet sure, but I have already got four fine 'Gardener's Delight' tomato seedlings growing (one of which pictured above) and have even managed to germinate one of my 'Alpine Strawberry' seeds, which are apparently quite a tricky. She is also pictured above in the bottom right hand pot, although yes, you may need a magnifying glass to spot her at the moment.

For the more adventurous amongst you (and not to mention, those blessed with a garden) there is a post on Woodlands.co.uk about how you might go about growing your own truffles - which would certainly trump the home-grown lettuce card at a dinner party.


I suppose ultimately I find it quite exciting... even when nothing seems to be happening, much the same as I'll try my hand at homemade ginger beer, or pickled onions. It's all one big science experiment to me, and ultimately, there is a satisfaction derived from eating something you've had a considerable hand in producing that you just can't buy, no matter how delicious. God, don't I sound smug?

NB. alpine strawberry has since taken leave (ahem, excuse the pun)... may have to wait until I get a garden for that one.

Bake your lawn

(pic. courtesy of The Cornish Mill and Bakehouse)

I really like this. A chap called Andrew Whitley (baker and all-round organic food champion by the sounds of things) has started a campaign called 'Bake Your Lawn', encouraging people to start growing their own wheat at home. Sadly, as pointed out in the article, if most people were to grow enough to cover the average family's bread requirements they would require 297 square meters - still, it's a step in the right direction, and I never heard of anyone not growing vegetables because they wouldn't be able to cover the entire year's worth.

I'm not sure if I've blogged about this before but I've been making my own bread now for a while, and it certainly does taste better and takes sandwiches to a new level of comfort-eating. I dream that at some point in the future I will have enough land that would enable me to do something like this, but for now I'll stick to using flour from Shipton Mills, or The Cornish Mill and Bakehouse.