An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

Scott was all of 1 years old today. A bit mesmerised by all the excitement and when everybody gathered around and sang a very loud Happy Birthday he cried, not with happiness but terror! From the expression on his face I am sure he thought we were all mad, but a few minutes of cuddles from his Daddy he recovered enough to smile and forgive us for scaring the daylights out of him. We had a great harvest yesterday from the plot, 2 cauliflowers, courgettes,white turnips,parsley, broccoli (enough to put in a stir fry), some rudely shaped carrots, these were ones Kathryn was trying out they are supposed to be small and fat but were put into the ground in peat pots and I don't think they liked it.Lots of spuds these are Home guard still. We are coming to the end of the first and second earlies in this bed and next move on to the main bed with British Queens and Kerr's Pinks which so far have escaped any blight Summer 2009 is continuing to be a total washout and in the process of evol...

We have not been out to the allotment again for a few days due to the weather. Yesterday we went to Robert's Cove as we had a few hours of sunshine, we had just landed when thunder and torrential rain found us.It did clear for a while so the kids got a couple of hours on the beach searching the rock pools for crabs!On the way home I had to drive through a thunder storm with lightening flashing and hail stones battering the car! I had made this frittata a few days ago using some of the smaller new potatoes and of course some courgette!They are being sneaked into everything lately. I also used half a head of the red cabbage and cooked it with oil, white wine vinegar,an apple,red onion and brown sugar.It was not an earth shattering taste but OK. I reheated it the next day adding another dash of the vinegar and it had a better taste.I notice my photography is getting a little shakey! The frittata ingredients cooking in oil. Chopped new potatoes,courgette,peppers and onions. The beaten...

While going through old boxes of photos and papers I came across an old bundle of letters and cards.I wrote to a girl in New Zealand as a pen friend many years ago when we were both young mothers with small families.The photo is of Peter and Daryll Moore and the address on the letters is Taranaki,New Zealand. Pen friends were popular back then in the days before the world became smaller through the computer age.Seeing the post man arrive with a letter or package was always exciting. The letters began in July 1970 and the last one I have is dated April 1974, they began all of 39 years ago!Daryll had 4 children at the time, Cathryn who would be around 43 years old now, Jennifer who would be 41 and twins Bruce and Brendan who would be 39 probably with families of their own now. We exchanged letters, cards, knitting patterns and small souvenir gifts of our respective countries.I have moved house a number of times since then and maybe Daryll has too. I know some blog readers from NZ stop by...

What excitement on the plots this morning when we learned that TV Chef Richard Corrigan and his film crew were going to pay us a visit!Saturday mornings are usually one of the busiest mornings on the allotment at this time of year as plotters tidy up and take home any produce that is ready for the weekend.It rained heavily but we had sunshine between the showers and when the film crew arrived the sun stayed out as if by magic so the plots looked their best.Daughter Kathryn and myself with Richard who is holding a cauliflower from Brian's plot which he was taking away to cook this evening. I must say he is a very pleasant man and dare I say it not a bit like his TV persona! The film crew with Zwena, they walked through all of the plots and Richard was very interested in what everyone was doing.They spent over an hour with us but this will probably be condensed down to a few seconds for TV. Corrigans City Farm which is about fostering allotments and growing your own food will coming...

Kevin and I spent about 4 hours out on the allotment today, we were the only ones out there until late afternoon when Mike and Christy came along.The veg harvest for today was potatoes in the bag, I think these are the Homeguard.5 courgettes,2 cauliflower,2 globe artichokes,Kevin's crop of onions and thinnings of carrots and white turnips, not a bad days bounty!His Mom cooked one of the cauliflower for dinner and was singing the praise of organic veg.I know by now that what we grow tastes so much different from what we buy but the cauliflower is a real eye opener as to what fresh veg should taste like! I did not put in too many plants ,not wanting all of them to produce together but so far they are developing two each week which is fine. Kevin with his crop of onions which he is very proud of, he has better onions than I have! I showed them how to put in one onion set and the kids did the rest themselves. Aoife's pumpkin the biggest of them on the pumpkin patch so far.All of th...

Little or no gardening done this week or blogging either and for a very good reason, a new grandson arrived on Friday 17th July. This is not so little Jack Brandon White on fri evening just a few hours old. He weighed in at 9 lbs! Jack after arriving home yesterday, a very good baby who eats, sleeps and smiles at everyone when he is awake. The three amigos,big brother Kevin,Scott and new brother Jack.

Our internet provider Eircom was the butt of a hacker attempt over the weekend.I thought it was my computer because on two evenings I had tried to visit blogs and they were taking so long to load up I gave up.It then became public that a hacker(s) had targeted Eircom.It is a mystery to me what satisfaction these people get from making our lives a misery with their games. Some people are housebound and their Internet is their means of communication and small businesses who work from home are also affected by it. The weather was not the best so we had not been out to the plot for a week!I did not intend going today but coming home the sun was out so we headed up to see the damage from the wind and rain.I had not taken my camera so photos were taken when I got home. We had a glut of fruit and veg to gather.A bucket full of spuds from 3 Charlotte tubers, I am definitely going to put down a lot more of these next year,great taste and no slug damage or blight.5 courgettes, 2 of which were a ...

We are rapidly going under with rain, rain and more rain!What has happened to Global warming?We had one beautiful week of summer so far this year apart from a few odd days here and there. On Saturday last we had 40 to 50 mls of rain fall on us, the ground is sodden and sports and festivals have had to be cancelled.I took my camera as far as the door to take these photos of my hanging baskets, they do not really show the curtain of rain falling. On sat evening we had some very strong gusts of wind also and my two mini greenhouses blew over,one forward and one to the side, minimal damage done to the tomato plants as I heard them going so braved the elements to get them upright immediately.We have not been out to the plot so the slugs must be having a field day unmolested in ideal weather for them!The weather forecast is more of the same for the coming week.Its a great little country if we could only put a roof over it! No gardening so I tried Kathleen's Chocolate Brownie recipe.I was...

Our harvest from yesterday,3 cabbages which the slugs had chewed through the outer leaves, I would not normally pull 3 heads at the same time but if I didn't the slugs would have had the lot!Another 500grms of raspberries and I dug the first of the Charlotte potatoes which looked slug and damage free What a difference a year makes!Last August we cleared all the high grass and nettles behind the greenhouse and discovered this old cold frame there. Same view this year!All the teazels have been cleared and the cold frame has been planted up with our courgettes and sunflowers Our sweetcorn bed after I weeded and replanted some corn yesterday. I grew what I thought were squash from seeds in the seed swap but from the look of some of the plants most of them are courgettes and maybe 3 which look different. We are going to have courgettes coming out our ears, I better start Googling some recipes for them! I bought these sweetcorn in Mahon Point market yesterday. Some of our original plants...

I did a post on Mahon Point Farmer's market when I began blogging and decided to visit again with my camera. This market is held every Thursday from 10.00am to 2.00pm it has been voted among the top five markets in the country by the Bridgestone Guide 2009. I go from time to time and it is always packed and some stalls sold out later in the day, so I was there today at opening time.This is a view of the market from the Tesco carpark on the upper level The market was getting busy with the serious shoppers who knew what they were buying O'Driscolls of Schull in West Cork. The queue built up fairly quickly, this is one of the stalls that is usually sold out if you come later.All fish is caught locally around the coast, no imports here! The smell of fresh strawberries was overpowering from Rose Cottage Produce,Co laois Brehenys Bellish Ltd,Conall Breheny on his stall selling home produced, soups,relishes and sauces and dressings, his Lemon Oil dressing has won a Gold Medal at the ...