Category: Fork To Fork

Eat Seasonally

On By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient3 Comments

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It doesn’t come as a surprise to me to read articles like this one, but it shouldn’t really matter that we can’t get produce like this at this time of year. The UK climate doesn’t support growing iceberg lettuces outside at this time of year, but there are plenty of things that do grow well in the UK winter climate. Leeks, kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower to name a few. Add to that things that have been frozen or preserved – beans, onions and a few other things. It doesn’t matter that we can’t get these other crops. Shoppers have got so used to having those things, at a reasonable price, that it’s suddenly news worthy when there are crop failures, and prices go up. They’re not used to looking at the other vegetables that are seasonal, available, and probably grown in the UK.

A Job For The Weekend

On By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment1 Comment

Sow some tomato seeds.

If you don’t have any, go buy some. Sow them in some good compost in either a seed tray or if you don’t have the room for that in a small flowerpot on a windowsill. You need to keep them somewhere sunny and warm, and a windowsill is perfect. A propagator in a warm room would be good too. Give them a little water to get the compost damp, but don’t water them again until they germinate.

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Once they’ve germinated, keep the compost slightly damp, but don’t over water them. When they’ve produced their first true leaves (the seedlings above don’t have their true leaves yet), pot them on into two or three inch pots / modules.

Allotment After The (Snow) Storm

On By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient

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Although our snowmageddon turned out to be a slightly cold and damp squib, we did have enough to make me go down to the allotment to check things out. Snow will weigh down netting and other structures and if there’s enough cause them to collapse or tear. This then means that your crops underneath get flattened.

I’ve got some brassicas still under netting (and enviromesh), so I wanted to make sure all was well.

The snow (which had melted and turned to ice), had push down both cages a little. Not enough to cause them to collapse but enough to pull out some of the anchoring pins that secure it to the ground. I pushed off the remaining chunks of ice, tightened up the netting and re-secured the pegs. Job done.

The forecast at least in the short term is for fine, cold and dry weather. So now more snow, at least for now.