Author: Carl
-
Food for your ears: podcasts
It’s been a while since I’ve written here. The first half of 2014 was pretty full on finishing design & proofs for my book, then its launch and aftermath. Home and garden deserved and needed some proper attention. So writing took a back seat from the summer onwards. My return was a tad delayed when…
-
Summer sunflowers
Sunflowers induce a smile on my face. Outwardly simple, they shout “Summer!” even if the rain is pouring. And this year, they’re having a ball in our gloriously hot summer. We plant lots and save seed too. On the right is part of my friend Carla’s garden near Roma, Italy. The tall sunflowers are from…
-
Garlic scape pickle recipe
Here at Legge Towers the weather has been just gorgeous since May. Which has made up somewhat for the slow and cold start to the year. We had to resow courgettes when the first lot sown in early March on heat succumbed to the less than stunning early May temperatures. So we’ve worked really hard…
-
A Change of Appetite: where healthy meets delicious by Diana Henry – Review
A Change of Appetite: where healthy meets delicious by Diana Henry – Review This was a book I needed. And I don’t mean ‘need’ in that “I’ve been a good boy and deserve a treat” sort of way. However I didn’t know it met my need until I read it. I bought it because I…
-
Mustard greens, fermented and more
I wish I’d got to know mustard greens (and reds and goldens) much earlier in my growing adventure. They are such a tasty, versatile and good-hearted vegetable. And some of the varieties are great green manures, ground cover and biofumigants. Here at Legge Towers we sow them in mid to late summer so that we…
-
Hanging baskets from recycled poultry feeders
Sometimes the most obvious solutions are at my feet. Which is ironic, as I was after a high-level solution. We’ve grown tomatoes in the Big Polytunnel for a few years now. They take up quite a lot of bed space and we felt we could use the bed space more productively. But we like tomatoes…
-
Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs – Emma Cooper Interview
I had a lot of fun yesterday when I interviewed Emma Cooper about her new e-book, Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs as part of Emma’s virtual book tour. Update 21st April 2015: I’m delighted Emma now has a print version of Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs that you can buy from Amazon. Emma’s book is…
-
How to grow beer
All you need is a few hop plants (humulus lupulus), some malt and sugar, water and the help of Andy Hamilton. At the end of the summer, we had loads of the female flowers which are the hops on our plants. So we stripped them and dried them on a rack on top of the…
-
Wild garlic slaw recipe
Spring is a joy not least because of the re-emergence of the wild garlic. There’s lots of publicity in the UK at the moment about eating more vegetables. I’ve been having fun concocting meals where I replace the normal carbohydrate element (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) with tasty veg. In this recipe, I added a big…