In my garden a bright jungle of colourful nasturtiums are rejoicing in the surprisingly warm sunshine-y October weather. After a summer of taking their prolific spiciness for granted, I’m keen to preserve what I can before the weather turns colder….
autumn/back garden/blog/Bruton/featured/gardening/Homeacres/homesteading/kitchen garden/no dig gardening/No Dig Home/no hungry gap/organic/permaculture/polytunnel/recipes/seasonal cooking/summer/The Creative Kitchen
September sowing, sweetcorn harvests and recipes
As summer mellows into autumn, the allotment and garden is full of ripening vegetables and fruit.
Courgette, coconut and lemon basil muffins
It’s that time of year again, the days of delighting in the first few courgettes have transformed into a bewilderment of abundance. As fast as I pick them, more are growing – it’s wonderful.
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Two Summer Salads – Virgin Mojito Cucumbers and Roast Fennel with Beetroot
The vegetable gardens are filling up with gorgeous summer abundance, almost every day it seems we are welcoming back another seasonal delight.
allotment/art and crafts/back garden/blog/Bruton/countryside/featured/Homeacres/No Dig Home/No Dig Organic Home and Garden/potions/preserving/recipes/summer
Elderflower extravaganza!
The hedgerows are filled with creamy elderflowers. It’s time to forage! Choose elderflower heads that are in full blossom and at their most fragrant to make delicious drinks, skin care and preserves.
I’ve been busy in the kitchen making elderflower champagne, liqueur, vinegar, sugar, oil and dried elderflowers too. Here are the recipes.
allotment/blog/Bruton/featured/Garden visits/gardening/Homeacres/homesteading/kitchen garden/mulching/no dig gardening/No Dig Home/no hungry gap/organic/permaculture/polytunnel/preparing the soil/recipes/seasonal cooking
A quick update with a deeply chocolatey vegan rhubarb cake recipe
May is always a busy month for gardeners and it feels even more so this year here – is that the same for you?
Guest Blog for Mr Plant Geek
Michael Perry, aka Mr Plant Geek, saw some photographs of the seasonal, plant based food I make on Twitter and asked me to share some recipes on his website: here they are.
I have selected recipes which make the most of fruit and vegetables currently available in the UK – either cropping now, or home stored from our summer gardens and allotments – and included a deliciously filling autumnal muffin recipe. Ideal for chilly days on the allotment, harvesting, mulching or planning 🙂
Michael has been interested in gardening since he was a toddler, has a passion for plants and an interesting range of unusual t shirts! Find out more about him here:
Roasted beetroot, carrot and onion hummus recipe
Beetroot grows in my garden from April right through to the end of autumn, some in the polytunnel over winter too. This tasty root vegetable stores so well that I can make this hummus at any time of year, but there’s something especially autumnal and satisfying about the combination of roasted beetroot, carrot and onion.
Spiced Elderberry Whisky Liqueur
A deep red, warmly spiced drink which tastes delicious drunk neat in tiny glasses (it is strong!) or as a nurturing hot toddy if you are feeling under the weather during the winter months. It makes a great cocktail too, try mixing with ginger beer.
blog/featured/homesteading/No Dig Home/No Dig Organic Home and Garden/organic/recipes/seasonal cooking/summer
Thai influenced golden raw summer vegetable salad
This gorgeous bright seasonal salad is almost a meal in itself and can easily be adapted to include other summer vegetables in your garden (and winter root veg later in the year). It is a zingy, delicious, colourful way to use up gluts.
Crunchy Courgette Gardener’s Muffins
I’ve been trying out a few variations of this seasonal muffin, using our course people as guinea pigs! Low in processed sugar, these satisfying baked treats are great to nibble on for an extra boost of energy when gardening. They also make a great breakfast muffin.
blog/featured/homesteading/No Dig Home/No Dig Organic Home and Garden/recipes/seasonal cooking/summer
Seasonal summer frugal feasting
Regular readers of my blog will know that one of passions, and fortunately work, is harvesting seasonal homegrown vegetables, fruit and herbs and delicious food. For our no dig gardening day course at Homeacres on Saturday, I made lunch for 17 (including Charles and myself) using Charles’ gorgeous vegetables (plus some bought ingredients, things we can’t grow easily which I’ll explain later) for around £1 a head, including muffins.
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A cornucopia of summer soft fruit … with recipes for homemade cassis and blackcurrant wine
Perennial fruit bushes play a key role in my garden, producing an abundance of delicious berries during summer months. These I preserve, to enjoy year round: jewel coloured jams, cordials, liqueurs, chutneys and other delicious additions to my homegrown larder.
Potion making podcast
Last weekend I gave two talks at the South West Permaculture Convergence, the first on No Dig Gardening and the second about making potions for the garden and home using plants we can grow and forage for in the UK.
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Exciting times!
Friday 21st April was uniquely special for Charles and myself. Two very exciting events happened quite by chance on the same day: our book arrived at the publishers and Charles was featured on BBC Gardeners’ World. Life has been so busy since that it has taken a week to be able to find the time write this post 🙂
Our publishers, Permanent Press, released gorgeous photos on social media of our book. It was quite a challenge focusing on other tasks over the weekend, with the anticipation of delivery on Monday, wondering what it would look like ‘in real life’ and looking forward to holding a copy.
Meanwhile, Gardeners’ World were busy promoting the evening’s programme on Twitter, with the help of Monty’s dog Nigel. We were delighted to read the BBC describing Charles as “legendary”!
Neither Charles not myself own a tv, so we had arranged to visit a friend to watch the programme. Charles’ part was filmed at Homeacres on 10th August 2016; we were looking forward to seeing how they had edited a whole day’s filming into around 6 minutes.
We thought it was great – loved Monty’s introduction, calling Charles a “guru” (!!) and afterwards, explaining that he has been convinced by Charles’ work. The programme included footage of Charles with Geoff Hamilton back in the 1980s, when a whole episode of Gardeners’ World was filmed from his then garden, an 8 acre organic no dig market garden. Fun to see Charles as a young man, too! You can see the programme on You Tube here.
The feedback has been fantastic: lots of discussion and a massive increase in people wanting to find out more about no dig. I had the briefest appearance on the programme too, captured here in a screenshot by my daughter. There’s been a lot of interest in this little bed, people wondering whether it was made just for the programme and then removed. I’m happy to say that it cropped until mid-winter and recently we planted potatoes in it. Charles and Ed made a video about creating and planting the bed here.
We were thrilled when the courier arrived on Monday afternoon and we could finally see the result of all of the work done by ourselves, the editors, proofreader, designer, indexer, etc. The book was much bigger than we’d anticipated (it is so full of information, photos, ideas…) and looks lovely.
There were a lot of boxes, we were so glad it was a dry day!
After carrying all of these boxes into the conservatory for storage with the help of Finn, Charles’ helper who took these photos, it was time to start signing copies for all of the pre-orders and package them, ready for the post office the following morning. The envelopes Charles had bought were a fraction too small which created a bit of a problem initially, solved when we worked out a way if making larger envelopes using the existing ones and packing tape. (Larger envelopes have arrived now!)
piles of signed books
making new larger envelopes
some of the books
inside the book – some recipes
my polytunnel
potions
step by step guides
By 6 pm, our hands were getting tired and the champagne was calling us – also, we hadn’t properly looked through the book yet! So we drank champagne and have a first real look at our new book. We love it 🙂
No Dig Organic Home and Garden has received some really wonderful feedback, I’ve hardly stopped smiling all week thanks to the many kind, enthusiastic responses to our book. It was a best seller on a certain online store one day after being published and today is also #2 in Organic Gardening (#1 is Charles’ Diary) Copies has gone to the distributor in America, we have been sending them worldwide too. We are so delighted with the sales, it is fantastic.
The best way to support authors is to buy direct so if you would like a copy, please consider buying from Charles’ website here. We can sign it for you, too! Alternatively, the book can be bought from the publishers. Both ways support everyone who has worked to produce the book. (Some online retailers have policies which means that they get most of the proceeds.)
Roasted squash and Czar bean hummus
Over the past two weeks I have been busy with our courses, my garden, picking salad at Charles’ garden and doing the final edit of our book No Dig Organic Home & Garden. We are both really happy with the way it is looks – so colourful! Signed copies can be pre-ordered from Charles’ website here. Publication date is very soon – April 10th 🙂 I have included many of my recipes in the book: for potions, drinks, preserves, cosmetics and of course seasonal food.
During the winter months I regularly make variations of this hummus for our gardening courses. The choice of squash varies – this winter I have used Uchiki Kuri, Crown Prince and Marina di Chioggia with either homegrown Czar beans or chickpeas. It is delicious – thick, rich, full of flavour and a beautiful golden orange. Later, I will use early broad beans with the last of the winter squashes to make this adaptable tasty hummus.
I’ve been asked for the recipe so many times that I promised to share it here.
The Czar beans are a type of runner bean, very easy to grow and dry.
dried beans – Czar is the first on the left
cooked Czar beans with herbs
Uchiki Kuri squash
This recipe makes quite a lot of hummus. It keeps well in the fridge; I also freeze small portions for another time. You’ll need:
2 cups cooked Czar beans or chick peas (soaked overnight and then boiled until tender) – plus more for topping (optional)
2 cups roasted squash – a sweet, nutty variety tastes best
1/2 cup tahini
2 cloves garlic, chopped
juice of one lemon
water or reserved chickpea cooking liquid
1/4 cup olive oil plus extra for drizzling
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
a small bunch of fresh coriander and/or parsley – plus more to sprinkle on the top (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
smoked paprika (optional)
A food processor – mine is a Magimix – or blender, or a stick blender
Put everything except the smoked paprika and water/cooking liquid into a food processor and whizz.
beans and squash in the blender
adding tahini and garlic
Drizzle the water carefully through the spout in the lid as the ingredients are blending, until everything is thoroughly processed and it has the consistency that you want. Some people prefer a thicker hummus, others a smoother one.
Spoon into a dish…
The hummus is tasty straight from the food processor, but I like to decorate it too. Here, I have topped the hummus with more cooked beans, finely chopped herbs, smoked paprika and a final drizzle of olive oil.
top with more cooked beans
add some chopped herbs
sprinkle on smoked paprika
drizzle with olive oil
If you have a less flavoursome squash, add more spices to increase the depth of flavour – cinnamon, turmeric or chilli powder.
Enjoy!
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Tomatoes! with a recipes for upside down tomato tart
This has been a brilliant summer for tomatoes, I’ve harvested so many and they are still ripening even though the polytunnel plants have now been affected by blight. I remove the blighty leaves and any damaged tomatoes – these are composted, it is fine to do this in the UK.
August fruition and Summer Abundance Salsa
My August back garden is full of dazzling fruit, thanks to the warm and sunny weather we have been enjoying in Somerset. (Today the weather is quite different: grey skies, wild wind, rain – but the sunshine is set to return.)
I grow fruit in the ground and in pots (see this blog), in the polytunnel, up walls, across fences. Some are old established trees which were already very mature when I moved here 14 years ago, most were added during the past eight years, others are new this year.
Basil flower tips and recipes
Basil flowers are beautiful to look at, smell gorgeous and attract bees and other beneficial insects. It is tempting to leave the flowers on because they look so pretty, but removing them encourages the plant to put its energy into continuing to produce abundant leaves for longer – for salads, pesto, preserving and summer cooking.
Edible flowers and a rose vinegar recipe
On Friday I harvested the first of my roses to dry the petals. The edible flowers here are beginning to bloom in abundance, adding beauty and colour to the garden and food, with the added bonus of smelling amazing and feeding the bees. My article on growing and using edible flowers, including many recipes, is in the current issue of Permaculture Magazine (International) and the new publication, Permaculture Magazine, North America.