Living The Dream in North Devon
Seeing mistletoe in the shops at Christmas reminded me of some mistletoe I grew a few years ago. When I moved from my previous house, the mistletoe had sprouted on an apple tree I had seeded. However, I was not there long enough to see it grow any bigger than a few leaves. With...
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I have a bumper crop of nectarines this year. Not ready to pick yet, but require a bit of attention. You may remember me fertilising the flowers back in early March, well now it is time to thin the fruitlets. To encourage bigger fruit and prevent overcropping, which can result in biannual crops, it...
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The best soft boiled egg I have ever had! Big, creamy and delicious, and yes it did require big soldiers. I had to toast more soldiers as the yolk was soooo big the first slice of toast mopped up only a fraction of the yolk. So, if you haven’t worked it out, this big...
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This beautiful yellow Witch Hazel is still flowering away in the garden. You wouldn’t think that something so beautiful blooming in winter is also useful. The bark and the leaves have anti-inflammatory, and anti-viral properties often used as a tincture for skin treatments. The tincture is made by boiling the bark and leaves in...
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We still have plenty of different varieties of cabbage growing. At this stage in the year, probably too many. So I thought I would give a go at making Sauerkraut or fermented cabbage. This proved really easy to do. I followed the recipe in the River Cottage Veg Everyday book. Buy or find out...
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Although the winter has been warm so far, today it is cold outside. It is quite interesting to walk around and see what does survive the cold and appears alive. Garlic is one of those interesting plants that I plant in October, and puts on spurts of growth during the winter months. Although often...
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It might be cold outside and the North wind today is rather cutting, but I’ve been busy pruning and taking cuttings. Here are rows of grape vine cuttings and elder flower. Almost fool proof and easy to do. Just cut above a bud at the top, and just below a bud at the bottom. ...
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I’m not saying we are nuts. I don’t think we are extreme. However, I like to think in the commercial world we live in, we try our best to live a modern life and continue to improve. Improve …… look for better ways to live and reduce our impact on the environment. I believe...
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Beeswax Wraps seem to be the latest environmental solution to the reduction in the use of plastics. While it appears there are a lot of people trying to reduce their use of plastic, environmental alternatives are not yet readily available. We stopped using clingfilm a while ago and use baking paper in the kitchen...
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We have just prepared 25 litres of apple juice to make cider ..... well apple wine. On a damp day Barbara gathered up the windfalls from the old apple trees in the garden, then with a little help we crushed and pressed these to make 25 litres of juice! A mixture of cooking and...
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