Months of preparation are beginning to pay off as the first real crops are maturing at the allotment. From the time when the tiny seeds were planted in seed trays and tended daily to see how they progressed, to planting them out in raised beds or their specific areas at the allotment, it has been a journey with both triumphs and failures and lessons learnt for next year. Growing your own vegetables is at its most rewarding however when you can begin to pick your crops and enjoy meals made up of your own fresh homegrown fruit and veg.
The Green Village Blog for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Homegrown Goodness – The Start Of The Harvest
Lily The Goat Was Just Kidding After All
So after months of wondering, waiting, trekking up and down to the farm where the troublesome trio spend their days frolicking in the field, it turns out that our lovely four year old pygmy crossed with toggenburg goat Lily was just kidding all along.
We took her off to be serviced in November last year and have been keeping an eye out for signs of the impending pregnancy for the last few months as we didn’t know whether she would have been serviced by the billy goats early on or towards the end of her time away from home. We had been hoping to get Lily in kid, become proud parents with one or two beautiful baby goats running about in the midsummer sun and the opportunity to milk mother goat, potentially providing us with the main ingredient needed to make our own homemade goats cheese.
Bake With Compassion Cake Sale Was A Roaring Success!
The efforts to bake yummy cakes and encourage my work colleagues to join in, crack open some free range eggs and do some free range baking with compassion themselves were a success in the end. I’m both pleased and proud to say the collective figure raised by our efforts was a respectable £58.28 which I hope Compassion in World Farming will be able to put to good use in campaigns to promote free range and putt an end to battery egg production.
Throughout the week we had lemon drizzle cakes kicking the fundraising efforts off. The homebaked goodies on offer continued with cherry and chocolate cupcakes, cherry and ginger loaf cake (which sold out very quickly!), mars bar slices, chocolate and walnut brownies (a definite crowd pleaser), chocolate and courgette muffins, coffee muffins with optional rum icing, and to round the week up, chocolate and vanilla cup cakes.
Busy Baking With Compassion
I have to say I’m glad it wasn’t has hot in my kitchen as it has been all week, otherwise I may have found it a little harder to bake with compassion this afternoon! While Chris was busy watching the men’s Wimbledon final, I slaved away in the kitchen preparing my cakes to sell to colleagues in order to raise money for the Compassion in World Farming Bake With Compassion campaign (well I say slave but it was fun really!) and put my super duper mixer to the test creaming and beating and sounding like it was about to take off.
I settled on a cherry and ginger loaf (delicious recipe courtesy of Chris’ grandma) and some choc and cherry mini muffins. I had to try a sample of each to check they were OK, and I can confirm both are very tasty, even if I say so myself! Should sell like hot cakes to the office tomorrow.
Down At The Pond – The Tadpoles Are Growing!
After sitting surveying the wildlife visiting the garden as part of the RSPB ‘Make Your Nature Count’ week, I decided it was about time to see what progress the troops of tadpoles were making in the pond. I was really pleased when I peered into the water to see the surface being rippled by plenty of tiny little bodies, indicating that most of them seem to have survived, and not only that, but they are becoming more frog-like by the day.
As well as having little angular bodies, the tadpoles now have two pairs of tiny little legs, the back legs either side of their powerful tails that are still as long as they ever were. Whenever I’m wandering the garden and see troublesome snails creeping across the patio or lurking on the fence panel, I take great pleasure in relieving my plants from their jaws and dropping them into the pond to provide a tasty meal for the growing family!
Bumbling Around The Garden
Whilst collecting the eggs and feeding the chickens this morning and enjoying a few rays of sunshine (a rarity this week, and that of course did not last!) I was very pleased to see four bees hard at work trooping between the various plants and flowers in the garden. A little bee almost like a miniature bumble bee was enjoying itself on a purple-blue comfrey flower; two honey bees were navigating their way around the aquilegias, and a fourth fellow settled himself for a rest on a lilac leaf, no doubt glad of the sun as I was!
Has The UK Gone Off The Rails?
I was talking with my mum earlier this week and she was telling me about a trip to Birmingham to visit the National Trust Back to Backs Exhibition, which in itself was a fantastic day out showcasing a row of terraced houses each depicting a different era, including a wartime house complete with Dig for Victory garden. But that’s not the reason for my post!
Gone To Seed
I always think there is little more satisfying than planting a seed in a pot of compost, nurturing it with warmth and water, and waiting for the day when the tips of those two first little leaves poke their way through the soil into the light. Every day when returning from the office, I make my way down the alleyway like a child at Christmas to see how much the little family of seedlings has grown, and whether there are any new plants making their tentative first look at the world above the compost.
Only having a small garden, and being lucky enough to have an allotment, this year we’re raising most of our seeds at home before transplanting them into their designated beds at the allotment. The only exceptions are root veg, such as carrots, parsnips, swede and beetroot, which will go directly into ‘the root bed’.
Come on America – Face up to Your Green Responsibilities
Watching the antics of Ethicalman on this week’s Newsnight programmes as he journeys across the USA on his mission against global warming, I found myself wondering how the American government can feel happy to be taking minimal steps to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint. Although there have been claims that America will lead the world in tackling climate change and setting the example for reducing carbon emissions, one interviewee that Ethicalman, Justin Rowlatt, was speaking to advised that the steps America takes may not be quite what December’s Copenhagen Climate Summit may be looking to impose. How can a nation as rich and with as many resources as the USA even contemplate such a poor response? So ok, the Environmental Protection Agency have committed that if the government doesn’t act, they will, declaring climate change to be a threat to human health, which does give some hope. But it shouldn’t have to be that way.
Down At The Pond: Tadpoles On The Move
With each new day our little pond is getting ever livelier. The frog spawn became a population of tadpoles a couple of weeks ago and they’re really travelling now, straying away from the familiar edge where they began life and exploring the whole pond.
What started as little glossy black dots with wiggly tails are becoming mottled with more angular backs, and the speed their tails are now propelling them along at is quite amazing. I can’t wait for the day when I go outside, crouch in the longer grass surrounding the mini haven and see teeny legs starting to sprout from their bodies. There must be some 30-35 of them happily browsing their world. I just hope the local cats don’t manage to get too many of them.
