Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

    As if there wasn't enough to worry about in the world of food already, with supermarkets filling our heads with the need for special offer junk, sugar in absolutely everything and multi-national companies tampering with whatever takes their fancy, GMO OMG has planted the seed of nightmare killer corn and chemically engineered soya. I thought I was doing my bit by being a vegetarian, growing my own fruit and veg and forcing it on my kids instead of feeding them McDonalds, but "no!", the scientists have been at my seeds. When I first got my allotment there was an enormous parsnip growing happily there that went to seed and I was warned against collecting the seed because my parsnips "wouldn't come true". I nodded wisely, thinking "poppycock" in my head and collected the seed anyway. But what was in this whole "not coming true" business? Should I be scared of my hundreds of seeds that I got for free? Basically a F1 hybrid seed invol...

There's something about a list that just helps you get things done,especially if you put it out there for all and sundry to read. That added pressure of knowing that people might actually wonder whether I manage to stick to my plans was a real incentive to tick tasks off one by one (especially once I knew my friend Michelle was watching). Sherlock and I even made it to the allotment, twice.   Yes I was distracted by the roses that needed dead heading (ignored), the possibilities for reusing the metal frame from my old greenhouse (impossible to ignore hence the second trip to the allotment to build a frame to protect my cauliflowers from the pigeons) and the housework (easily ignored).   I do like moving the lawn, it's like an instant garden tidier. Foxgloves remind me of our annual trips to the Welsh mountains as a child. I wouldn't be June without Foxgloves, I do love them so. The first rose on the bush that I bought for my husband for Valentine's day was a bit to...

It's been quite a busy morning so far and it's only shortly after 9am. I never dreamt I would be so domesticated when I was younger. I used to watch my mum busying around with her home making and wonder whether there wasn't a million things she'd rather be doing. "I'm going to work when I'm older," I'd think to myself, "you won't find me tidied to the kitchen sink!" It's funny how we change our opinions as we grow up. I'd much rather stay at home than go to work any day and there a quite a few things that I observed my mum doing that I quite enjoy. For example I love cleaning the windows, especially on bright spring mornings purely to see the grime removed and the sunlight streaming in. (I might do that later). So far today I've walked Sherlock, taken him to the allotment to water the kale I planted last night, checked and watered all the seedlings in the garden, put on a load of laundry, made some bread dough for our pic...

It's that time of year where all the digging, weeding and watering finally pay off. Each trip I make to the allotment,  results with my bike being so laden with goodies that I have to cycle home at a snail's pace.   I love the idea that the majority of ingredients for a recipe have been homegrown and have a huge amount of fun inventing new recipes to match my supplies. It's like the opposite of buying the ingredients for a recipe.    This year has been totally fab for tomatoes, despite being a little later than usually I now have a bumper crop. The simplest way to make a tomato sauce is to roast them in the oven, with a little chopped onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.  If you are fussy about tomato skins, let them cool and peel them first but I just give them a blast with my hand blender, straight from the oven.   Next thinly slice a courgette (once again it has been an excellent season). Chop and wilt some...

Every year I plant purple sprouting broccoli and every winter whilst it's far too cold for me to be heading off to the allotment, great big fat pigeons eat it. I finally brave the bitter wind and try to net the plants with the shabby bits of net I've got and they sit on top of the net, which has usually collapsed under the weight of snow and eat the sprouts of broccoli again. Eventually I get the whole net thing sorted on a warm spring day and the sun causes the plants to go to seed. I have long been envious of all the fabulously sophisticated looking brassica protection that are pride of place on other plots at the allotment. Beautiful structures filled with perfect cabbages and untouched plants. I have dreamt of my own steel and net weapon against the greed of those birds. And now at last I have my own fruit cage to love and I have such plans for it. From now until late spring it will keep the pesky pigeons off the purple sprouting broccoli, as they can strip a plant of ...

In 2008 I got my first allotment and I loved it, I really did. Over the past 5 years I have spent hours and hours there, sometimes with the children but most often by myself. It's a quiet and peaceful place, plants don't tend to ramble on and on about nothing. They are happy if you look after them, suffer a little if you don't but generally they just grew. Josie was four and Charlie just a year old when we got the plot and there has been a lot of muddy puddles, worms and tasting of homegrown goodies. It has a place where I have truly been happy, thought through the tough and sad times and celebrated the beautiful and diverse natural world.   But now we have moved and I have a vegetable plot in the garden, I no longer need both my allotments. My second plot is bigger, backs onto the river and has alot more character so there wasn't really any question about which one I was going to give up. It's never easy letting go of something you love but times and l...

At last the sun is out. It's not sunbathing weather but it isn't snowing so for the first time this year, I managed to get up to the allotment. I have a couple of rather good reasons for not having dug my way through the early part of 2013. Firstly I went swanning off to Australia, sunning myself on the beach and having a rather fabulous time. Next we moved house which kept me busy for a few weeks. The allotment pretty much looked after itself though and leeks, kale and chard were all ready to be picked this afternoon. Perfect for a really simple and delicious recipe. Just chop up all the veg and sauté it in a wok. Serve with a sprinkling of grated cheddar and a cold beer.     Posted with Blogsy

This morning I have had a cooking disaster. I was thinking about my blog school homework and how wonderful it would be to blog about a delicious recipe each week so I tried to make a healthy Halloween style recipe. I do already know that replacing baking powder with bicarbonate of soda in a recipe will only end in tears but that did not put me off giving it another go. It was my husband after all who when making my birthday cake a couple of years ago, discovered just how revolting the finished product tastes. I was so excited and had my new skull and pumpkin silicon muffin mold but I did not have any self raising flour or baking powder. Please let this be a lesson to myself .... Do not ever, never ever use b icarbon ate of soda in stead of baking po wder ev er , ever, ever ag ain. I even made some little mini ones with olives as eyes and extra cheese. They look delicious but sadly they are completely disgusting. I have wasted my time, ingredients and morning and now have no...

 I'm getting the hang of this growing flowers business now. For years I have watched Gardener's World and wondered just how these gardeners manage their succession of flowers. Their gardens always look spectacular all year round. The amount of time this must take. The planning, the planting and the reviewing of successes and failures has always been completely perplexing. When I say, I'm getting it, I actually mean that I have flowers to pick for a large chunk of the year which is not quite the same as a stunning garden / allotment but flowers make me happy so I'm pleased. As the sunflowers fade at the allotment, my dahlia collection is glorious in my garden (albeit a touch bedraggled today) but I am waiting for the chrysanthemums. I love how they take just seem to take forever. I have lots of chrysanthemums all over the place that I have grown from cuttings and they all have tiny little buds. November isn't really known for it's abundance of garden flowers ...

There are those who are rule makers and those who are rule breakers. I would almost definitely say that should anyone ever put me in the rule maker box, they have in fact missed the essence of my personality. Not that I don't ever pay attention to rules but really I work in education and how much of what we are supposed to do, actually really matters? Could it really be coincidence that on the very same day, that we go to see The Lorax at the cinema, a kindly lady posted a newspaper article on our WI Facebook page about the EU and their health and safety warnings about reusing jam jars? Health and safety legislation has done a fair amount of good; the rule about zoo keepers not going into the enclosure with the tigers at Howletts for example is a good idea because zoo keepers got killed by the tigers there. Perhaps my notions of world jam domination in my recycled jars with homegrown raspberries needed some curtailing? Maybe after the success of my first jam school, my ideas of ...

Last week I broke my spade trying to dig over my allotment, the ground was so hard but after a week of rain, I've managed to get almost three areas, weed free and ready for next season. There is always something that you need to be thinking about way in advance with an allotment or in fact growing anything. So with the autumn sun shimmering through the leaves of the trees, I picked a spot which is currently shaded by sunflowers but in the winter months will be in pretty much full sun and planted my daffodils ready for the spring. Although I usually have my plot completely to myself apart from the birds and insects, over the past couple of days, I have being sharing my little spot of nature and sharing what I have learned. I think that it is my leeks that I am most proud of because there is not a single moment in the year that I don't have leeks on my plot in whatever stage of their life cycle they are in.  I truly get a sense of pride when someone else digs up one of ...

I inherited a large patch of raspberry canes with a rotten old wooden frame around them that used to be a fruit cage when I got my first allotment a few years ago. This was followed by a whole barrage of advice from the old boys about what I should do with the plot. "I could burn all that wood for you" said one, "Dig 'em all up and start again" said another and "I saw a rat the size of cat run through there the other day" (I don't think this was advice as much as a test to see whether I was really the kind of person to have an allotment). Like most advice that I have been given by this gang of boys with a wealth of knowledge, I have left them be. I chop them a bit in the spring, try my best to prevent them from becoming too over grown and have had more raspberries than I could ever pick every year. I let the birds help themselves, I drop plenty and today I even had a lovely grown up friend to help me (I tend to find my younger helpers eat as many ...