How many of you have heard of Jerusalem Artichokes? Not the Globe Artichokes that you can easily buy in the supermarket, but Jerusalem Artichokes? No? No-one? Well you’re not alone. I hadn’t heard of them either until we were researching perennial vegetables.
Tag Archives: GYO
The last of the Fruit Harvest (thank goodness!)
If you’ve been reading our blog you’ll know that we are self sufficient in fruit. That is unless we decide we want a banana or pineapple which struggle in the UK climate. All of our apple trees can be found in the field where we keep our chickens so we make maximum use of theContinue reading “The last of the Fruit Harvest (thank goodness!)”
I love HOT chilli sauce!
It’s true! Hot sauce is amazing and thankfully Hugh grows lots of chillies for me and every year grows a new variety that he’s never grown before. 3 years ago it was a yellow variety with a lemony, hot flavour called Lemon Aji. Last year it was a variety called Red Basque. This year heContinue reading “I love HOT chilli sauce!”
Who Knew Parsnips Are So Versatile?
The humble parsnip is a vegetable that only EVER was roasted in our home before we started our smallholding lifestyle. Like most things in our home we use the phrase “Waste not, want not” every day so we do much more with parsnips now.
Blackberry Bliss
We have a large fruit cage in our field where we grow raspberries and blackberries. I appreciate it’s not pretty, but who needs pretty when we really need fruit. It’s very productive with early golden raspberries, late red raspberries and right in the middle of the summer we have lots of glorious blackberries.
Our Cheap Fruit Cage is Paying Off!
Over this last winter here in the UK we were required by law to keep our lovely chickens either indoors or in fully netted enclosures due to Avian Influenza Restrictions. We bought three 3m x 6m polytunnel frames that we connected up and covered with bird netting. It was much less space than they wouldContinue reading “Our Cheap Fruit Cage is Paying Off!”
Strawberries Everywhere!
I love strawberries. I really, really love strawberries. To feed my love of these fruits we’ve planted 300 square feet of them in our field. At this time of year we spend LOTS of time picking them and processing them so that we (OK, I should really have said “I”) can enjoy them all yearContinue reading “Strawberries Everywhere!”
A Good Year for Fruit and Fruit Wine
We grow lots of our own fruit here on the smallholding. We preserve it in lots of different ways so that we can enjoy all year round, but in season we get to eat it fresh and straight from the tree or plant. I’m getting excited because our fruit is forming and it’s going toContinue reading “A Good Year for Fruit and Fruit Wine”
A delayed growing season and LOTS of weeds!
There are reports that the weather in May in the UK is on track to be the wettest on record and the coldest in 25 years. We grow as much of our own food as possible here on the smallholding and the growing seasons are dictated by the weather so we’re having to adapt! InContinue reading “A delayed growing season and LOTS of weeds!”
A Sustainable Closed Loop Eco-System (or The Cycle of Poop!)
We try to live as sustainably as possible. We make use of as many things produced on the smallholding as possible and that includes all of the poop that the chickens produce. We like to call it “Black Gold”. Yes, that’s right….chicken poop is an asset for a sustainable smallholding. We were recently asked whatContinue reading “A Sustainable Closed Loop Eco-System (or The Cycle of Poop!)”
English Country Life 