An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

Quick post today as I am off to Robert's Cove.Harvest from the plot yesterday was colourfull and tasty! Lots of tomatoes & courgettes (still)! Tomatoes ripening on the vine is almost a novelty over here as we have had so many cold wet summers with so little natural sunshine and heat. Star of the show has to be a big boy beef tomato, weighing in at 400grms and this is not the biggest one there are 2 more to ripen. French beans are still being produced by our 3 plants. Blueberries, coming to the end of their harvest and the foliage on the bushes has turned a beautifull shade of red.Look closely and our first and only blackberry from our thornless blackberry bush is in there too.There are more to ripen and I also noticed our autumn fruiting raspberries have fruit set to ripen. Our first globe artichoke was ready to pick and was dispatched for supper.I think these really need to be eaten home alone!I just steamed the whole head and pick off the leaves one by one and dip in butter, ...

Our sweetcorn, there are at least 2 large cobs on all the plants and 3 on most! The size in relation to my hand, don't look at the nails!Lots of heat and sunshine would be good to ripen them but today it is raining, hopefully moving away this evening The sweetcorn bed which has 12 good plants and one which though growing has never caught up with the others.We had a visitor to the plots on Mon.who showed us how to check if they are ripe enough to pick by peeling back the leaves and 'popping' a seed with a nail, a milky white liquid shows they are ready but the one we tested was still quite clear.The tassels are turning brown which I thought showed they were ready to harvest. Our experimental bed with dill, coriander and celeriac.I have been using the dill and the coriander is producing seeds. We tried to save the seeds last year but it was so wet they rotted .A word of mouth recipe for stuffed tomatoes with pureed courgette, breadcrumbs and some coriander green seeds. Close ...

Visits to the plot are wonderfull bringing home lots of produce and not a lot of work just keeping things in order.I took my camera around the various plots to show what is providing colour and interest and not a little curiosity!A picture tells a thousand words so lots of pics and few words. Our own artichokes have finally started appearing Japanese wineberry, looks like a strawberry but tastes sweet and juicy. Some artichokes allowed to continue in to flower Apples on one of the 10 new trees which Zwena planted last year in a new orchard area. Our own pumpkin. View up the path of the new plots showing some of the flowers. Lots of sunflowers, competition will be fierce for the winners this year! Rosie's well ordered plot Pears on Rosie's 2 year old tree. Rudebecka and fennel flowers make a striking scene Zwena's 'famous' Kiwi tree after being cut back and pruned to allow light and space. Greengages on Zwena's plot. Plum tree is also on Zwena's plot, the bra...

Mark,one of our fellow allotmenteers emailed this recipe with step by step photos for anyone with a glut of courgettes.Anyone with 2 or more plants is probably in that category so I am sure he won't mind me posting it for everyone to enjoy, it seems simple and straightforward. Slice courgettes into 2-3mm slices Put into a dish and sprinkle with Olive Oil Heat a griddle pan ( any heavy based pan) to a high heat, when smoking place slices on By the time you lay the last piece onto the griddle, begin to turn them over in the same sequence to get the nice caramelised ridges When all turned over, drop them into sterilised Kilner jars. Pour in a little balsamic vinegar and cover with olive oil. Leave some headroom and seal the jar. Put in a dark cool place and sample in a few days. These are a nice addition to a salad or even on a piece of fresh focaccia. Remember Mark? Obviously not just wasting his time sunbathing, he was planning recipes for the fo...

I have been busy making rhubarb jam and chutney as we have a glut of rhubarb on the plot and it seems a shame to just leave it unused. I made chutney with a recipe from Nic at Nip it in the bud blog. I am not a lover of chutney, I made beetroot chutney last year and gave it away!I have to say this tasted lovely even just after making so I am looking forward to using it in a few weeks when it has matured. My sister Kathleen's late mother in law used to make rhubarb and fig jam which we always looked forward to getting a sample of.It is not available commercially and I think I now know why....the price of dried figs in this country!I shopped around various supermarkets and health food shops and the figs were working out nearly 14e per Kilo! I eventually bought them in the English market, the 4 lbs needed for this particular recipe cost 23e. This jam is more fig and rhubarb than rhubarb and fig but tastes delicious.There are lots of recipes online, the one I used is on the Times websi...

All of my pics of our day out at Bloom Flower & garden Show set to music, it is the silly season after all!

I have been in Robert's Cove in the mobile home since friday,these are some random pics from there and the previous weekend when we had a family BBQ.This is Callum & Katie investigating sand and seaweed. Because of our proximity to the Gulf stream which comes close to our southern coast we have an abundance of wild flowers growing wild along the roadsides, here are crocosimia and fuchsia near Robert's Cove and blackberries are ripening already to what looks like being a bumper harvest. When I was coming home yesterday I thought I would take some photos to show the area around the cove, this is looking down on it and the caravan park is nestled to the left under the shade of the headland where it is protected from the winter storms . I climbed up on the ditch to get the cows in the photo! A close up of a ditch full of colour,some one has replanted lots of these all along a roadside in frontof their house. Because of the profusion of fuchsia it has been adopted as the symbol ...