no dig gardening, seasonal cooking, permaculture, preserving, foraging, storing, crafting, home life
This week began with the Autumn Equinox, the festival of Mabon, which starts on September 21st
I am really looking forward to getting into to the swing of spring sowing, but as this morning’s weather demonstrated in no uncertain terms, it is still very much winter!
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.
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.
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.
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.
The sun is shining (some of the time!), everything is growing fast! When I am not sowing, planting or weeding, I’m thinking about what I’m going to be doing next and even dreaming about my garden at night 🙂
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.
Here in Somerset and across much of England comfrey grows wild, providing an important source of food for bees feeding from the clusters of droopy flowers and other wildlife including moth caterpillars and ladybirds. The large hairy leaves can be spread as a mulch, added to the compost heap (make sure there are no seeds otherwise it will invade everywhere), dried for winter use and made into an excellent plant food. Comfrey is a key element in making more of fertility for the garden at home.
Comfrey roots which reach deep into the soil, it is rich in minerals and healing properties – one of it’s traditional names is ‘knit-bone’. I make comfrey oil from the root and shall blog the recipe when I make it soon.
The plants growing in my garden and allotment receive an annual mulch of an inch or two of well rotted compost, either homemade or manure, which provides them with enough food for the year and they don’t need any addition liquid feeds. I use comfrey in the compost heap and to make a potent feed for plants growing in pots and will be exploring ways of using it more widely as I try to make most of the fertility needed at home in the back garden.
As well as comfrey, nettle and dandelion leaves are good additions to this potion – make sure there are no seeds though!
The usual method of soaking comfrey leaves in a bucket of water for 2 or 3 weeks works well but the resulting liquid is notoriously smelly. You simply put leaves in a bucket, cover with water and put a lid on, wait for 2 weeks, strain and use.
Another way using no water makes an intensely powerful brew but without the smell and is very easy.
You will need one or more containers with holes at the bottom – plant pots are good – and a bucket.
Stuff the pots with comfrey leaves (plus nettles etc if you are using them).
Put a brick in the bottom of the bucket for drainage and stability. Add your first pot and squish the leaves down.
Add the other pot/s.
Store somewhere dry and safe. I usually put a lid on top of the uppermost pot.
After several weeks, the leaves will have rotted to produce a dark liquid. Store in a sealed bottle or use immediately. Dilute in a watering can 1 part comfrey liquid to 20 parts water.
(These photos were take a couple of years ago at Charles Dowding’s garden, Homeacres, for an article I was writing for Permaculture Magazine)
Hello, I’m Steph, welcome to NoDigHome.
In this blog I’ll be sharing experiences as I work towards transforming my home and garden. I’m exploring different ways to make life as healthy, abundant, self sufficient, low impact and thrifty as is realistically possible for me. Homesteading on a very small scale!