Getting a bit fruity

It's that time of year again where all the fruit is ripe at the same time so you have no idea where to start picking or just what to do with all that fruit you have.

I have several patches of fruit around the garden but my main patch is at the back of the garden by the greenhouse. It really dose get a lot of sun in this part of the garden this is why I originally chose this spot. we have two rows of raspberries two rows of strawberries a row of red, white and black currents mixed up grown as fans, Japanese whine berries growing up the back wall and finally a row of sauvignon blanc grapes.

 The currents have been under the protection of a net for the last couple of weeks as I was not taking any chances this year I lost most of the crop to the birds last year they where not getting them again.

I pealed back the netting to reveal the shiny red, white and back berries the red currents are so shiny you can almost see your face in them you can see why the birds are attracted to them so much.

After a few hours of picking and very red hands and fingers later we have several bowls full of yummy fruit. Now what to do with all this fruit some will be turned into Jam some will be frozen to use to use over the winter. The rest will be made into lots of yummy deserts over the weekend eaton mess and summer fruit pudding spring to mind.

 

From Vines to Wine

 About 10 years ago during our honeymoon we visited Three Choirs Vineyard they had some surplus vines for sale. So I decided to purchase one the one I chose was a Sauvignon Blanc variety it grew well in our old house. So when we moved to where we are now I did not want to leave it behind it had been left to scramble up the fence so was difficult to dig up. Cuttings was the only way of bringing it with us so I took several hard wood cuttings they all rooted this was 5 years ago. As soon as they where big enough to plant out in the new house I set up a frame for them to grow up. But for the last few year they have been all leaf and no fruit until this year when they where covered in lots of bunches of shiny green grapes.

So we decided that we would have to go into wine production now I have never made wine before so had not got a clue. How to get from shiny green berries to the best wine in the county (or at least that is the plan) So after many hours searching on the for recipes and £35.00 on equipment. I looked and sounded like a seasoned wine maker I now own a hydrometer and use words like oxidation and fermentation which I never would have before.



 After several hours of crushing, testing and adding sulphates and sugar we had what looks and smells like wine. I had to leave it about 10 days in the fermentation bucket testing the sugar levels several times towards the end to see if it has stopped fermenting. Once it had stopped fermenting we had to decant it into a demijohn with a air lock on to prevent any bacteria getting in the wine but any oxygen can get out. Now we just have to wait several months before we can sample our hard work and see how good or may be not so good our first attempt of making wine has been.

Greenhouse is beginning to get full

It is at this time of year it dose not mater how much greenhouse space you have you never seem to have enough room for everything. Especially now that the weather has turned cold again can not even put stuff outside for fear of it getting wind burn during the day.

As we pot all the plants up into bigger pots we get to bursting point where there is just no more room. I can not even sow another seed so weather please hurry up and get a bit wormer so we can get planting outside.

January sowings in the Greenhouse

It's cold, wet and there is even snow on the ground but there is still lots to do in the greenhouse to keep the gardener sane. So that is where I have been for  few hours today I needed to do a bit of tidying up of the greenhouse first I haven't been in there for a while. So there was lots of pots on the benches and there was still a couple of pumpkins in there as well that where well and truly past there best.

First on the agenda was Shallots I potted up my 1" shallots into 3" pots using a mix of multi purpose mixed with top soil. These are for the village show in September so fingers crossed they grow well and we get the red card.

Now I missed the boat with the peas and beans last November so I have made a sowing in some module trays in the greenhouse. I should point out that the greenhouse is unheated so they will take a while to come through but they will be good hardy plants when they are big enough to plants out.  I also sowed some big pots with spinach, rocket, lettuce and radish so we get an early crop. I will be sowing lots of other crops carrots, beetroot etc. in big pots over the next few weeks to get lots of early crops from them.

January is also a good time to sow slow growing crops such as Chilly's Peppers and Aubergines although I sowed them in the greenhouse I did move them on to the window sill. To get the heat from the house to help them germinate I will grow them on the window sill until the temps start to rise enough to put them in the greenhouse. It's always great sow a few seeds it encourages you on to get the garden ready for when the whether warms up and we can sow outside it won't be long nw.


The all year round veg

If there is one Veg that has become very fashionable in the last few years that would be Micro Veg they have become loved by Michelin star chiefs.

They also go under the name of speedy veg, sprouting seeds and several other names but what ever you call them they are all grown and eaten in the same way. You are basically eating seedlings they are packed full of nutrients and make a great salad or garnish all year round. Best of all they only take from seven days from sowing to eating depending on the variety you are growing. Where once there was only mustard and cress now there is a multitude of variety's to choose from. Broccoli, leek, alfalfa, beetroot, sunflower, basil and many more. They are all grown in the same way the only difference is the time they take from sowing to eating. To get started chose some good seeds on this occasion I have chosen Suttons seeds. Best to choose variety's that have been specially bread for sprouting as you get much more seed in your packet and also the price. Get yourself a container any shallow plastic pot/tray out of the recycling I have a tray which is split up in to several individual containers.

It had Christmas nibbles in which where very nice and instead of it going in the bin I am re using it for Micro Veg. Place about a centimetre of compost in the bottom sprinkle the seeds on top and give a little water being carefully not to over water as there is no holes for drainage. Place on a window sill and just keep an eye on the watering they will germinate within days of sowing. When they are about 3-4cm tall simply clip them off at the base give them a quick wash and you have a great salad or garnish for your table. For a constant supply sow new batches regularly I tend to just grow Micro Veg through the winter when there is very few other salad's available. They add a bit of summer to the plate which is not needed the rest of the year when salads are in plentiful supply.

Newly sowed Micro Veg

 

One of the biggest fans of Micro Veg is Raymond Blanc I was lucky enough to be able to visit Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons at the end of the summer last year. Hear they have a whole greenhouse dedicated to Micro Veg celery, beetroot, basil etc. are all grown for the kitchen. They have to make a new sowing every day to keep up with demand as several full size seed trays are needed every day. It reminds me of a propagation house except not one seedling will every grow up they are all sent off to the kitchen from 7 - 20 days depending on the variety. I don't know of any other restaurant that goes to this much trouble to get the very best produce for there table. But they are one of the best restaurants in the country they also grow about 10% of the vegetables they use in the kitchen in there own vegetable garden I am going to write a post on the veg garden soon.

Micro Veg ready for harvest

Getting Fruity in the garden

Winter is a great time to plant fruit trees and bushes as this is the dormant season so we can buy bare root trees and bushes. These are generally much cheaper than the pot grown plants that you can buy the rest of the year. But what every plants you go for now is still a good time to plant, You will only get good fruit if you start with good stock so buy the best you can afford. It may seem a bargain at the discount shop when you see a gooseberry bush for £1 but you will generally be disappointed with it's performance. Besides the fact that you don't actually know what you are getting when it is just labelled Gooseberry it could be any old variety. It is always best to go to a specialist nursery whether it be for Fruit or any plant there is one fruit nursery that I would recommend. Is Lubera
 But they are not just a fruit nursery they are also breeders of some of the most modern variety's around. In fact they are they run the largest private breeding program in Europe and have brought to market over 80 new variety's. The company was started by Markus Kobelt and has carried out much of the breeding work at there nursery in Switzerland in very harsh surroundings so you know that the plants you are getting are tough.



Red Love Apple

If there was only one variety that you will know them for it will be the Red love Apples which are your traditional red apple on the out side. But they are red all the way through with fantastic flavour there are many variety's in the red love range now check out there website to find out.

Lubera video talking about Red love Apples

But what ever fruit you are planning on planting this year you need to start with good soil preparation. Dig in well rotted manure and a dusting of Bone meal then dig out a hold much bigger than the root ball of the plant. Before planting dust the root ball with a mycorrhizal fungus such as Root Grow this will greatly increases the root growth of the plant and in turn bumper crops of fruit.
Place the root ball in the centre of the hole making sure that the plant is being planted at the same level as it was in the pot or nursery. Not too high as you can dry out the root ball or too low as you can cause the plant to rot or encourage suckers from the graft to grow. Back fill with soil making sure there are no air holes between the roots then firm in gently with the back of your boot. Depending on what fruit your growing or the size of the plant you may have to provide some support in the form of a stake. Water in mulch with garden compost or wood chip and you will be rewarded with years of fruit.
 

First five days of self sufficency

Well it's been 5 days now since I started the challenge to produce at least one piece of food every day of the year. The 1st started with 3 lovely fresh eggs off our hens you can not beat your own fresh eggs freshly layed in the morning. Day two it was all about the onion you can not beat a home made onion bargee to go with a good curry and the onion was also used in the curry. Day three we turned to the store cupboard for the jam we made at the end of last summer from our raspberry's already looking forward to this summers harvest of raspberry's. Day four was a lovely omelette from our eggs two eggs beaten up with a pinch of slat, pepper and a splash of milk yummy. Day 5 we have turned to the salad patch for the last bit of rocket as the chickens managed to eat the rest to go in my sandwich. I am also going to knock up a batch of scotch pancakes or drop scones as some people like to call them they are lovely still warm straight from the pan dripping in butter.

There has been lots of activity in the garden too lots to prepare for the coming year as I need to get the maximum form every square foot. If I am to be able to feed myself with something everyday of the year. Part of the garden is on a slight slope so I have been making some raised beds. This is to try and level out the soil there will be two beds one above the other. This will make growing much easier as a level surface is always easier to work with than a slop. I should point out that all the wood that I am using is all recycled out of skips the boards are marine ply wood that was used as hording on a building site. They just put it all in skips when the project is finished as they have no use for it else where. The other project I have been working on is fitting a cold frame to the end of my other new raised bed.

The cold frame lid is an old shower door that came out of another skip the bed is just built around it. This will be great to start off early salads use as a melon pit in the summer and then fill it back up with winter salads in the autumn when the melons have finished. I am terrible for sticking my head in a skip but it always amazes me what useful stuff people do put in them and at the end of the day why pay for wood when you can get it for free. I did not quite get to finish it so I will put the last through screws in today and then I need to sow a few early crops in pots in the greenhouse.



The Start of a New Year

As we say good bye to 2014 we enter 2015 and the challenge begins a year to become as self sufficient as possible.

The main Vegetable Garden

The main challenge to produce at least one piece of food every day of the year whether it be from the garden, foraged the wild or from stored produce. I wrote about the challenge back in July but it's not just about the produce it's about living a more sustainable life reducing waste recycling more. Some things will just not be possible as we rent our house changing our heating system etc. to be more efficient. But we will do our best where we can to make our lives a little bit more sustainable and self sufficient in what we us. We will be making regular blogs about our challenge through out the year so do come back and see how we are getting on. You can also keep up to date with on a daily basis over on our facebook page and there is also twitter @pottingshed1. Is anyone else set them selves a challenge for 2015 we would love to hear about it. 

It's Been a Very Beany Weekend

I managed to get out in the garden this weekend which i have not been able to the last couple of weekends. Now Saturday was not a good start to the weekend as it rained most of the day and when it wasn't raining the ground sodden. So Saturday became a right off now Sunday was a completely different day the day started off with the sun shining through the curtains (i don't get up too early on a Sunday). There is always lots to tidy up at this time of the year whether it's leaves or cutting back those perennials or in my case Beans. My runner beans are well and truly over now and the frost we had last week finally finished them off they where looking very sad for themselves. But before i get rid of them there where lots of dry pods full of beans as part of my bid to go self sufficient next year part of that is to produce a lot of my own seed. 

So i have been saving lots of seed this year from various vegetables in particular peas and beans as they are great for the the home seed saver. As most are in breeders which basically means they pollinate themselves before the flowers open but this is not true with runner beans. They can cross pollinate with other runner beans but there are many self fertile variety's now coming on to the market. I have got lots of french beans and runner beans drying in the greenhouse i spent a good few hours shelling them all ready to store away till the spring when we start the growing season again. 

But we don't have to wait till the spring to do a bit of bean sowing November is an ideal time to sow Broad beans to over winter in the outdoors. I managed to get a row of The Sutton in, this is a small podded variety and also dose not grow as tall like other variety's i must admit that i am not a huge fan of broad beans but do insist on growing a row every winter.

Apple Day

Today was spent at Wilson's orchard Apple day in Northampton.Wilson's orchard is run by South Court Environmental who are a local community group who run and maintain several sites across Northampton.

Wilson's Orchard is an orchard filled with old Bramley apples trees well over 70 years old the orchard itself is maintained for the wildlife more than for the fruit. But that dose not mean that they are not producing lots of great apples because they are the trees are left grow old gracefully. The trees are a haven for the local wild life when a tree or branch falls off it's just left for nature to do it's stuff. But today was about the apples the orchard produce and what a great day it turned out to be the sun was shining and i did not even need a coat.

Now i have never been to Wilson's orchard before and of it was not for the directions i would never have found it. Having weaved my way through a modern housing estate it was the last place you would expect to find a orchard but step through the gate and you soon forget that you are in suburbia.

In the centre of the orchard a press had been set up and there where several people busy at work chopping, crushing and squashing apples. To produce some of the best apple juice for miles it's surprising how many apples you need to produce a jug of apple juice. But apples where not in short supply every where you looked there where apples great big Bramley's you had to be careful not to slip on the odd rotten on on the ground.

There was lots going on tours of the orchard, apply talks and lots of juicing going on was a great afternoon looking forward to another apply day next October.

Pumpkins Just Keep Getting Bigger

The Weekend saw the UK Pumpkin record be smashed by the Paton twins at the UK Annual Pumpkin Festival in Southampton.

There winning Pumpkin weighed a staggering 1,884lbs it was only 218lbs short of breaking the world record. It measured 17ft round and was putting on 35lbs a day at its peak and watered it with 100 gallons of water a day to get it to swell. There hard work payed off when they received a cheque for £1000 off the sponsors Thompson and Morgan.

Stuart Patern commented  “ We’ve always been confident of getting the world title eventually and it’s brilliant to be installing  a new greenhouse for 2015 on better soil with better drainage and twice the amount of growing space. We should be all set to take on the Americans and the Swiss.”

Thompson and Morgan have committed to sponsoring the even again in 2015 and should the world record be broken on British soil have offered to pay out £10.000 to the winner.

T&M Horticultural Director, Paul Hansord said: “It used to be said that the world record would never leave the US, but if the Swiss can do it, we can do it. Our seed quality just keeps getting better thanks to the Patons’ selective pollination, and UK growers are upping the game every year. I’ve every confidence the Paton boys can bring the title to UK shores in the near future.”

 T&M will be selling seeds from the Paton twins Pumpkin under the variety name Pumpkin ‘Paton Twins Giant’.  It’s a popular line with amateur growers at just £9.99 for two huge seeds with the genetics to become a record breaker.

If you are wanting to grow a big one next year then this is the seed you need to get your hands on.

Self Sufficient - Lots of Sowing

It's been another busy week trying to get the garden ready for the self sufficient challenge there has been lots of sowing taking place. We have also put in a fourth raised bed made out of recycled materials i am hopping to have enough recycled wood left to be able to build another 3-4 raised beds. Of course it is also dependent on how much soil and compost available to fill them up with. 

Seed packets laid out

We have sowed a mixture of crops salads for late summer and autumn, Brassicas to crop from autumn to spring and over wintering onions.

Veg we have sown in raised beds

Spinach America - Franchi Seeds

Lettuce Mix - T&M seeds

Mizuna - Mr Fothergills seeds

Red Mustard - Own saved seed

Raddish French Breakfast 3 - Aldi

Rocket Cultivated - Moles seeds

Rocket Wild Fire - T&M seeds

Land Cress American - Suttons seeds

Lambs Lettuce verte de cambrai - Franchi seeds

Parsley gigante de napoli - Franchi seeds

Kale dwarf green curled - Mr Fothergills seeds

Cauliflower all year round -  Mr Fothergills seeds

Cabbage savoy January king 3 - T&M seeds

Cabbage April spring -  T&M seeds

Broccoli autumn spear - Suttons seeds

Cauliflower romanesco precoce - Franchi seeds

Chard Rhubarb -  Franchi seeds

Leek Pennine F1- T&M seeds

Leek gigante d inverno 2 - Franchi seeds

Onion Japanese senshyu -  Suttons seeds

Raddish Seedlings 5 days old 

 Thanks to the good warm weather lots of the salad seeds where poking there heads through the soil within a matter of days. So fingers crossed we will be picking some salads from the new beds soon.

Self Sufficient - lots of humping today soil that is

Having set my self the challenge of being able to provide at least one piece of food for the table everyday in 2015. Whether that be from the garden, store or foraged from the wild although i have a big veg garden i have never had any raised bed.

Raised bed constructed.

I have always been one for rummaging through a skip or two and scavenging anything i feel may come in hand. I put it to one side and eventually find a use for it so i have had these boards kicking about for a few years. I don't know why i haven't got them out the shed and knocked up some raised beds before I'm glad i have started now. Why i started today when it was 24oC i don't know but i did stupidity may have something to do with it. The beds are about 1m x 2m why this size the width means i can get to the middle of the bed from both side's and the length well that was the size of the planks. The stakes that are holding them in the ground where 60cm long so we had 30cm in the ground and i just simply nailed the planks onto them simple. The hard work came from humping 10 wheel barrows of soil into them and some garden compost to add a bit of organic matter to it i will add some blood, fish and bone as well.

Finished raised bed 

But the hard work is not over as i still have another two to build that is tomorrows job so as it is going to be just as hot tomorrow i will make an early start. So ill be up before 8 which dose not happen very often on a Sunday but the job must be done. I'll also be sowing a few seed in the raised beds mainly salads Rocket, Lettuce, Mizuna, Mustard and Raddish but i will also sow some Spinach, Beetroot and Carrots.

 these should extend the carrot harvest well into the autumn.