IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN – Growing under plastic
Monday, April 30th, 2012
What can you say about June – well it’s normally the month when we all begin to reap the benefits of our backbreaking effort to return the plot to some kind of productivity, but with many of you working under the weight of a hosepipe ban, it’s going to be a little more difficult, but hopefully not impossible. The show must go on, as they say. Jayne Neville in Veg Talk and Andy McKee and Mark Gatter in Gardening Under Plastic are all concerned about keeping on top of the plot and its tendency to get out of control as summer takes hold, and it’s all good advice. With water scarce focusing it on where it’s needed rather than sharing it with the weeds is sound advice. Concerned about those pesky weeds Jayne even gives a rundown of hoes available to help you banish them from Room 101. This month Terry Walton deals with growing soft fruit, so it’s strawberries, raspberries and black and red currants, featuring a range of his own personal favourites. And finally, for the lazy (sorry, that should have been more laid back!) but ecologically concerned gardener we have a feature on creating a hay meadow. If I heard someone say ‘I haven’t got space for a plot, let alone a meadow’ then let me tell you that this will work in a garden, as contributor Penny Bunting’s dad discovered when he neglected his own garden for a little while – yes, you did hear right, this one requires you to spend a little more time in a deckchair with a nice cold beer rather than days bent over a spade. That’s your kind of gardening? Then please read on…
Tags: Jayne Neville, Mark Gatter, Penny Bunting, Terry Walton
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With billions of pounds worth of food wasted in the UK every year ‘food magician’ Richard Fox has taken on the challenge of tracking down mouth-watering recipes for all those ingredients which lurk anonymously at the back of our cupboards and in the darker recesses of our fridges – cheese with a little mould on it (what else is cheese really?), carrots with a darkening surface (peel them, man!) and even a Pot Noodle, possibly left behind from just before your offspring got their first flat. Check out his recipes; we have and they do work. Sometimes being a guinea pig can be fun! And on a more conventional note (if ever Mel can be accused of being conventional) the Jammy Bodger has gone scone mad and produces a range of savoury and dessert scones to delight any fans of high tea, or any tea for that matter. I challenge you not to be tempted by her Parmesan and bacon scones, or her normal scone, made and served in Mel’s own unique way. And what can I say about Andy Hamilton? Well, for anyone less than perfect, mistakes happen, and Andy sets out to look at some of the more common mistakes in home brewing and how you can correct or avoid them, and to celebrate eliminating mistakes he creates a simple elderflower champagne with a difference. Cheers! Hic!
Poultry and bees are the order of the day with Clare Beebe hunting down the range of different housing available to today’s chicken keeper as the traditional medium of wood is challenged by a range of newer materials which could theoretically last forever without maintenance, boast an easier cleaning regime and a likely reduction in the dreaded red mite. Janice Houghton-Wallace checks out those slackers among your flock who don’t lay and tries to find out why and we also welcome Karen Pimlott to Home Farmer as she places your chickens on her psychiatrist’s chair to get just an inckling of what makes them tick as they go about their daily business as ‘ladies who lunch, and lunch, and lunch… Claire Waring brings us a little more on avoiding swarming in your bee colonies together with tips on preparing for your honey collection and finally, a new look at the old as Dot Tyne sets her gaze on the man who probably most motivated John Seymour, William Cobbett. Perhaps one of the most colourful and fascinating figures England has ever produced, 2013 is the 250th anniversary of his birth and Dot looks at his life and work on self-sufficiency, Cottage Economy in the first of a series exploring how appropriate this work is for the 21st century self-supporter.
We have a stowaway on board this month as Dave Hamilton moonlight temporarily from his usual garden spot to feature the garden shed, with tips on getting one and a great step-by-step method of making a basic one with instructions that can be adapted to whatever role you might require of your own, from tool shed or potting shed to sanctuary and escape. We’ve also got regular special projects operative John Butterworth on an ideal project for the summer months as he covers the task of pointing your stone or brickwork, Simon Dawson on the subject of quad bikes, Josephine Roberts on the subject of holidaying on a tractor in Wales and Ruth Tott (with a little help from Julie Moore of Mumbleys Farmhouse) on the topic of training courses.
In the kitchen garden May is a month of frenzied activity as weeds compete with your veg, and Jayne Neville is on hand to provide all the essential info on what to plant and what to harvest, with additional tips on growing herbs and using a traditional scythe to keep those invasive weeds at bay. We also have lots on the subject of water too (or lack of it) as Dave Hamilton and our polytunnel experts Mark Gatter and Andy McKee cover the topic of feeding your plants. Dave gives tips on making the most of the water you have, including how to create a wicking bed, apparently popular in Australia where they know a thing or two about drought. Mark and Andy’s concerns are getting the water to your veg with a minimum of waste and the legalities of irrigation during any hosepipe bans, and Marks’ idea for using a toilet cistern to fill a watering can in seconds is an absolute gem! But that’s not all… for the icing on the cake we have Terry Walton sharing his tips on growing tomatoes, Elizabeth McCorquodale on growing nuts (and cooking with them too!) and (cue drum roll!) the UK’s foremost family for growing giant veg, the Forteys, with Kevin Fortey explaining how, thanks to their dad, they ended up as the First Family of voluminous veg. Oh yes, and he shares his tips for success, too, so there may still be time to steal the crown at this year’s village fête.
This month we excel in elegant recipes, with Beth Tilston continuing a long tradition of cooking with edible flowers which add both colour and refinement to many dishes. Just check out her recipe for daylily fritters stuffed with goat’s cheese and chives and you’ll understand what I mean. But it’s not only Beth championing refinement this month as Ruth Tott translates her five-minute bread to cinq-minute pain with a rapid brioche dough and its many varied uses from bread to pastries, which leads us to the Jammy Bodger and her desserts. This month she’s making rhubarb and custard parcels, rhubarb and meringue roulade and chocolate banana brownies – all in the cause of securing your five-a-day! Then to wash it all down we have Andy Hamilton with a basic beer recipe and a rather more refined nettle and ginger beer – well, we’ve all got nettles, so get brewing!
Perhaps most important for the serious self-sufficient this month is Dot Tyne’s tying up the different strands of all her articles over the last year to create a checklist for anyone wishing to further their aim of achieving a self-sufficient life. With her usual eloquence and incisiveness Dot targets the potential shortcomings of many ventures and provides the ideal blueprint for anyone wishing to improve matters. On the ever-present poultry front we cover two very different but equally important matters in the shape of food and drink for the chooks and food for us in the form of eggs and the recent EU battery cage ban. So what’s been happening, are we all conforming and how do we best make sure that all the eggs in all the different foods we eat were produced humanely – Janice Houghton-Wallace is on the case, and Clare Beebe examines the way we feed our poultry by checking out the feeders and drinkers on the market today. It’s a wide range, so do I buy metal or plastic, and as chooks are all pretty messy eaters, how do I reduce waste which attracts the vermin – Clare’s on the case, so the info is all in this month’s Home Farmer. But it doesn’t end there; Heidi M. Sands covers the subject of rearing a runt and Claire Waring in her bee-keeping column deals with the subject of swarms and how to prevent them.
One of the all-time great smallholder tools is a reliable and eternally sharp knife, and preferably one which feels comfortable to hold. Anyone who has struggled with a bag of layers’ pellets and tried to open them using the mysterious string pulling method will certainly agree. You might want it to open feed, to prune an infected twig or simply to whittle after last month’s feature, but whatever your motive (within reason), John Butterworth has it covered as he makes not just one knife but two. And I’m sure that one of those knives would come in useful if you were selling at a farmers’ market as a result of reading Simon Dawson’s intelligent and insightful article on how to go about it – perhaps to cut off a sample for a customer or to slice up an apple for your lunch. I have no doubt too that Ian Burnett, who completes his three part series on ‘pest control and providence’ in this month’s issue always has one close at his side, although the airgun probably remains his main form of pest control.
This month we also catch up on a topic which proved popular over two years ago, and about which we are still asked questions. Can you clean your clothes and your home without damaging the environment and your own long term health? Of course you can, and often using nothing more than natural ingredients which may be lying idle in the darkest recesses of you kitchen cupboards or in a fruit bowl in the case of the marvellous lemon. You could even save some money too in these hard-pressed times. Mike Rutland checks out the available options for washing your clothes and doing the dishes, with other aspects of home hygiene to follow next month.
Terry Walton gives sound advice on serving up that mainstay of the vegetable garden, beans, all year round and Dave Hamilton comes up with a couple of alternatives to that other mainstay, the potato, in the form of oca, Chinese artichokes and Japanese yams. Andy McKee and Mark Gatter give help with the layout of your tunnel and unwanted intruders, Elizabeth McCorquodale combines colour and veg to create real beauty in the garden and Jayne Neville sets out the April schedules for perhaps the most important month in the vegetable garden.
Our own Jammy Bodger Mel has updated a couple of traditional creamy desserts to suit a modern palate and Andy Hamilton has picked a bunch of flowers to was it down as in true alchemist fashion he turns dandelions and rose petals to drink. Bread and cheese feature prominently too as Ruth Tott checks out a very versatile five minute bread recipe and regular Marjorie Kimber lets loose the enzymes as she makes a range of delicious cream cheeses.
Well we don’t have cows and goats, but we do have chickens, geese, sheep, pigs and bees as Clare Beebe spring cleans the chicken house and offers up a real gaggle of geese as she covers many of the breeds available. Dot Tyne completes her three part series on sheep with a run down of the meat, fleece and dairy potential of this essential beast, Heidi M. Sands covers that characterful and co-operative smallholder favourite, the Berkshire pig and Claire Waring gets set for the bee-keeping season and explores the option of buying second hand equipment.
It’s a bumper feast for project fans in this month’s Home Farmer as we put last month’s ‘bodger’s shaving horse’ top the test to make a small table and a milking stool and Dan Watson and David Alty of Woodlands.co.uk treat us to two introductory steps into the world of whittling – and if you need any help getting your wood for either project Stephen Chilcott is to hand with part two of his thorough guide to safely using a chainsaw as he covers technique and general maintenance. But it’s not all wood this month. Claire Boley introduces us to the traditional art of using a drop spindle and provides details of how to make one and Ian Barnett moves from the field to the kitchen as this month he prepares and serves up rabbit dishes.
And finally… your very own show guide for 2012 to help you appreciate the very best of rural practice and tradition, with everything from local shows to the regional pride of county and regional events. So use it as you plan out your summer schedule and draw inspiration from the very finest the UK has to offer the nation’s home farmers.
Clare Beebe winds up her two part series on incubation with a timely article on rearing your newborn chicks and Janice Houghton-Wallace sets out the rules for a home-reared Christmas turkey dinner. Meanwhile Claire Waring is preparing her bees for spring, Dot Tyne covers lambing and shearing your sheep and Heidi Sands pays tribute to the proud history of the Clydesdale horse.
Our kitchen garden section is headed up by Veg Talk where Jayne Neville goes through the essential jobs for March, sets up a herb garden and gives some great tips for finding real bargains at local farm sales. We also have a wealth of inside knowledge on growing year round carrots from Terry Walton, the welcome return of our polytunnel experts, Mark and Andy, who deal with siting a tunnel on uneven or difficult ground, and tips from Dave Hamilton on using your waste heat indoors as an aid to propagation.
We have an Eastern and Oriental flavour this month as comfort food investigator Mike Rutland hunts down the deepest secrets of those delicious takeaway treats we all enjoy, and Marjorie Kimber shares her Indian sweet recipes. And for all the non-meat eaters (and for the adventurous meat eaters who like a new culinary treat) Marjorie cooks up a range of delicious tofu meals, ranging from burgers to stir fries flavoured with ginger and sweet chilli and garnished with fresh spinach – absolutely delicious on a bed of basmati rice! Oh, and Andy Hamilton is drinking the nation’s trees and invites you to try out birch sap wine and beer and a traditional oak leaf wine. Why hug a tree when you can drink it instead!
I’m sure you’re all familiar with a ‘bodger’s shaving horse’… OK, neither was I, but it’s the mediaeval equivalent of a Black and Decker workmate, and John Butterworth shows you how to make one. For anyone who likes traditional tools and enjoys basic woodworking, it’s the perfect way to work your wood, and far more enjoyable than either Wii woodworking or mediaeval carpentry for the X-box. And it comes with a seat too! And together with the first in a new series combining pest control, air rifles and foraged wild meat and some useful tips on using and maintaining a chainsaw safely
John Butterworth is so proud of his plastic recycling boxes that he’s built a shed to keep them dry in and he shares the plans with Home Farmer readers, the less obsessed of whom might just want to keep them tidy and out of sight. We’ve also got advice for anyone thinking of moving to a rural idyll north of the border, Stephen Chilcott on hedgelaying as they be doing it in Devon, Jackie Hughes on saving money by emptying her freezer and bartering and Ruth Tott on the steps you may need to take to turn your hobby into an ‘earner’.
Clare Beebe sets out the next level of chicken keeping after taking on a couple of garden hens as she covers the subject of incubation and the latest equipment available which pretty much removes the uncertainties of bygone eras, with fully automatic options for those of us who aren’t around all day to turn eggs by hand. Janice Houghton-Wallace caters for the competitive and proud chicken keeper as she covers the show circuit and Dot Tyne turns her attention to keeping sheep in the first of a new three part series in the Viable Self-Sufficiency series. And our ongoing series on bee-keeping looks forward to the new season as Claire Waring checks out and revitalises the essential bee-keeping equipment for the forthcoming season.
Home Farmer regular Mike Rutland (“The name’s Rutland, Mike Rutland”.) braves US defence systems to seek out what produces the precise delights of a very well known (and well guarded!) southern fried chicken recipe and offers up his microfilm to Home Farmer readers (Read and burn, or else!). And then elsewhere in a kitchen in lovely Dorset Mell Sellings (aka the Jammy Bodger) offers up a range of marmalade flavoured desserts from a sponge pudding to a Jaffa cake which you can bake to your own specifications and (OMG!)… size. Marjorie Kimber has not been idle either and whips up some high tea treats including a tiffin to treasure (die for seemed too strong here), Joanne Brannan demystifies sourdough and Andy Hamilton knocks up a brew that kept Alcatraz rocking as it partied away into the night.
Terry Walton’s back and he’s already way out in front as he hits the ground running with his contribution this month on growing your own spuds, whether you have some land or just a couple of containers, and he’s also included a list of his own personal favourites. We’ve also got regulars Jayne Neville on seasonal planting, harvesting and special features on growing your own livestock feed and your own willow, Dave Hamilton on sowing seeds in February, Elizabeth McCorquodale on slugs (well, you should now your enemy!) and Richard Whincop tells us just how the mediaeval home farmer went about it and what they saw as their essential veg.
Best seasonal tips, advice and projects for the kitchen garden and a special look at the requirements for producing veg that will win the ‘best in show’ award. We look at the ancient but effective system of growing in hotbeds and give plans on making your own and examine the do’s and don’ts of moving shrubs to ensure happy and stress free planting for both you and the tree.
It’s January and far as the Jammy Bodger is concerned that can only mean one thing – MARMALADE and lots of it. Meanwhile we have recipes for making haggis and giving your dog the ‘home farmer’ make over with making your own dog treats. Plus recipes for energy-packed ways to start the day including Apricot and Hazelnut bread and Ben gives a run down on his worst home made wines – ever!
The third and final part of our series on keeping pigs looks at produce including curing bacon and making sausages. We consider the benefits of keeping rare breeds, start a new quarterly series on keeping geese and have plans for building your own multi-purpose coop.
We look at the advantages of buying up a bit of woodland, meet up with a couple who chucked in the 9-5 to go walking with Alpacas and another couple who have risked everything to bring back a local green grocer to their village. Plus we ask what is the meaning of The Good Life in the second decade of the 21st century.
Making perfumes, bath bombs and fizzies along with making moulded and rolled beeswax candles and home make Christmas tree decs. We feature the ultimate DIY project with a self-build Hobbit House built by the Dale family for £3000.
The second part of our series on keeping pigs considers options for dispatch, we check out the benefits of owning a pony, a reader tells of how her dream of keeping goats in her suburban garden has at last become a reality and we round up best gifts for your chickens and your chicken lover friends this Christmas.
It’s winter and our resident wine making champ needs to clear out the freezer and comes up with a delicious Tutti-Frutti wine with the produce from his freezer forage. In the kitchen we make butter tablet and vanilla kipferl as well as fruit leathers and mulled wine jelly.
We round up best seasonal advice and projects for your kitchen garden including planting native hedges and planting and pruning your fruit trees. Our growing under plastic series comes to a temporary end when we consider preparations and impact of a polytunnel on neighbours and an article on the cultural history of veg.
In October 2011 issue of Home Farmer Ben Hardy turns his hand to making another classic forager’s wine, which he forages from within his own garden, and drinks as soon as it has been bottled.
Though our tree is small, it produces over 30lb of fruit a year, and even for a triple batch of wine I need fewer than half of these. The rest I will give away to friends and strangers, or they will be used by my wife to make jelly. Crab apple jelly is fantastic. It has a glorious red colour, and is pointed enough to cut through even the fattiest of pork. Last year my wife experimented by putting in a (relatively mild) red chilli, and this was a revelation. The resulting jelly was both sharp and hot, and I foresee that this will become a regular way to use up any spare crab apples.
In October 2011 issue of Home Farmer Ben Hardy turns his hand to making another classic forager’s wine, which he forages from within his own garden, and drinks as soon as it has been bottled.
A crafty issue with making beeswax polish and cream as well as a step-by-step guide to making candles – and a crafty way of recycling your old tea lights plus we look at spinning and knitting with British Wool. We also have a series look at the solar PV options and work out the financial benefits and real costs.
Making Vintage spiced beetroot wine is on the wine menu and we make Pumpkin Glutney as well as mulled wine, the ‘As you Like It’ Christmas cake and a novice forager goes forth on a training course to learn what you can it, what you shouldn’t eat and, to be honest, what you can eat but why would you want to - it tastes horrid!
Expert Advice on putting your plot to bed and protecting the soil over winter, growing under plastic and harvesting seasonal produce and following no-dig principals for a more relaxed attitude to your garden.
Terry Beebe goes through step-by-step, the art of the chicken manicure and advice on keeping your garden chickens on the right side of the law. We also have sound, common-sense tips on helping your livestock survive the winter plus we start our new series on keeping pigs
With darker, earlier nights our thoughts turn to craft stuff…for your entertainment we have Extreme pumpkin carving, no chemical soap making in the kitchen and instructions on making ceramic buttons that will give that old cardie a new lease of life.
Your chickens and chicken housing are given a complete MOT in preparation for winter and we discuss the real cost of keeping chickens. Plus seasonal advice on beekeeping and a lovely feature on keeping a home farm cat.
We look at what vegetables and fruits you can dry and the best methods used. We make butter, ice cream and other dairy products and introduce tips from a bee keepers wife who shares her recipe for honey rice pudding and Elizabethan Flan. Our regular wine making spot has Ben Hardy making Crab Apple Wine and the Jammy Bodger gets us out of the glut rut with her jams and chutneys.
With winter round the corner we winter proof the greenhouse and protect our outdoor winter veg, make leaf-mould and collect seeds and save them for planting next year.
We have the round up of jobs in the garden for September including the wonders of winter squash and why you should consider growing willow. We list the top 50 thrifty gardening tips – ever and plant for the last quarter of the year. Our lovely feature ‘Winter Hadeaways’ shows a range of des res winter options for the good guys of the garden like the bees and the ladybirds to keep them save over the winter.
Elderberries are everywhere now and we make that all-time classic end of summer Elderberry wine as well as looking at other forager brews. We start a new series looking at what is now being called street food but traditional ‘take away’ food to you and me – kick starting with fish and chips. We make sweet and sour chutneys as well as cheese and pickles.
We have tried and tested treatments to get rid of red mite quickly – before it takes over and look at plants in the garden that could be poisonous to your chooks. Seasonal advice on beekeeping including keeping their feed stores safe from robbers, caring for the house cow – calf and the working farm dog.
This month our DIY weekend project is to make a wormery out of an old plastic ‘dalek’ compost bin and install a DIY solar powered system for lighting your hen-house or shed. Plus 7 ways to use a large plastic barrel, from a water-butt to a chicken house.
Mike Rutland’s new series shows how to make your own and slash ££££££s off your weekly shopping bill as well as making food for your family that’s better for you. We start off with the most important meal of the day; breakfast, where we make significant savings on bacon, bread, cereal and sausages. The Jammy Bodger makes fruity and frugal jam, Piers Warren starts a new series on preserving food – this month gives great freezing tips for all your garden produce, and Ben Hardy bottles up blackberries (not fruit, not the phone ha ha!).
It’s still not too late to plant seeds now to give you salad stuff for your August BBQs says Elizabeth Arter. We continue our series on maximising your polytunnel and have some great ideas for making the most of the inevitable summer green tomato glut. Plus Claire Boley invites us into her garden where she grows plants expressly for dyeing her home spun yarn.
Feather loss, foot problems, leg trouble, breathing difficulties? Our round up of common chicken ailments helps you to spot problems early and deal with them quickly. We also consider keeping quail in the garden and look at the fascinating area of chicken behaviour so we can spot whose boss and get to know our chooks better. Plus housing for house cows, bees in August and storing livestock feed
