Displaying items by tag: home grown

In the Independent at the weekend - ' How realistic is the 'good life' dream? Can the seemingly insatiable public appetite for fancy foodstuffs offer hope to a legion of disillusioned city slickers seeking a way out of the rat race? And how many trendy niche food-stuffs can one economy sustain? Given global financial pressures and the sheer number of artisan products already on market, the luxury-food industry could be in real danger of eating itself...

Too late for my hand-fried crisps with hot sauce idea then? 

This must be a great year for Walnuts, look at these booties. Did you know there are 50 varieties, so my Dad tells me, and according to scientists they are the healthiest nut of them all.

It's growing in my garden for the first time - after a year of picking off caterpillars, spraying, looking, poking and wondering if it was worth it,  it has finally produced loads of delicious sprouting heads that are almost as good to eat as asparagus, which is good timing because now I need the space for some new plants.

My links with the Caribbean dictate that I have to have goat meat every now and then and now we have a supplier - the most delicious barbecued chops I have ever had jerked in England! Forgot to take a picture though.

Vegetarian week is over but there is still nothing better than a new potato from your own garden with a big knob of butter.

Found out that we can buy fresh local blueberries right on our doostep here in West Suffolk. Jo Garden grows them at Hepworth www.gardenberries.co.uk and makes the best blueberry jam there too. She also sells the bushes ( currently on a special offer) if you want one in your garden to sprinkly a few on your cereal every day. Of course you can buy blueberries cheaper in supermarkets but it's a bit like blackberries - why would you buy them from a supermarket when you  can get them from a farm or a hedge near you?

Here is my sad looking vegetable patch now that we are heading into the colder weather. A few swede and some celeriac for later, one row of carrots for the odd stew and some chard left. Everything else has gone - but at least I haven't had to buy any vegetables for the whole summer. 

A chance to taste those varieties that supermarkets don't stock and may be even buy a tree. I have a  Pitmaston Pineapple in my garden, from Crown Nursery Apple Day  two years ago. It has small but definitely pineapple-tasting sweet yellow russet apples. On Saturday I stopped at my favourite community cafe for a few pounds of theirs on their Apple Day, and a bottle of juice...and two great big slabs of apple cake which I should have made myself!  www.crown-nursery.co.uk is near Woodbridge.

Have you noticed? Unlike asparagus and strawberries now these are truly seasonal and grow like weeds. I dug these up before the ground got too hard and made a delicious lunch with a grating of Lincolnshire Poacher cheddar on top. Mmmm...