Tag: grow your own food
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Mini Apple Turnovers

The mornings are turning crispy. Not only in the air but underfoot too as the trees prepare for their sunset-coloured finale. Meanwhile at the bottom of the allotment garden, the apple tree whispers “pick me, pick me”. Autumn is a fleeting but special season for many and one that I love to celebrate by cooking comforting…
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Minted Pea & Ham Soup

It’s the end of Great British Pea Week, and what better time to celebrate my love for the humble garden pea! Starting life as a shrivelled up wrinkly seed, the first luscious green leaves that emerge are a welcome sight in early spring. Once they start growing, they don’t need much encouragement as they soon start…
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TOP 10 Seed Choices with Suttons

Find out what seeds I’ll be growing as part of the new range from Sutton’s. 🌱
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Tips for Choosing your Allotment Garden

Late winter going into early spring is one of the best times of the year to choose your allotment plot. Annual plants have died back and deciduous trees bare their naked form, giving you an overall blank canvas view of the plot’s potential future as a productive edible garden. You might even glance a few…
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2018 Allotment Resolutions

Happy New Year! I’m going into 2018 with a list of personal allotment resolutions – eek! Let me make it clear that resolutions aren’t normally my thing. To be honest, I don’t see the point in striving for unrealistic personal goals, putting pressure on yourself to live a certain way, only to forget all about…
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TOP 7 Successes of 2017

Overall, 2017 has been a great year for growing and experimenting. I tried new methods to increase plant production, prevent diseases and I also got creative in the kitchen using the glut of the harvests to make new recipes including cakes, cider, chutneys, jams, indian snacks and desserts! Take a look at my top 7…
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How I Made Home Brewed Cider Part 1

Happy Apple Day! Since today is the day that we, in the UK, celebrate the versatile fruit we all love eat, drink and grow, I thought I would share my home-brewing cider process so far.
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September Polytunnel Video Tour

I can’t believe it’s September already and the growing season has almost come to an end! I thought I would do one last tour of the polytunnel (below) to show how the plants have progressed with their new support and water systems in place.
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Allotment Jobs for Autumn
Pune hedges Sow green manure ✅ Prune herbs ✅ Plant Spring bulbs ✅ Remove bindweed (!) Collect leaves for leaf mould ✅ Collect seeds ✅ Sow lupin seeds Pot up strawberry runners Tidy the shed Tidy the polytunnel ✅ Consider sourcing farm manure ✅ Build a hedgehog house Harvest squashes ✅ Remove plants after end…
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Apple Variety Identified!
I was wrong all along! Well…kind of. Let me explain. I got the keys to my allotment in September 2014 and one of the reasons I chose it was for the apple tree growing at the back of the plot. The first apple I ate was sour and must have been an underripe one because…