Jun 14
Dear Weather,
What the hell is going on? Seriously – have you lost your mind? Snow in May? Frost in June? Monsoon rains in Lithuania?
You are playing HAVOC with my vegetable growing endeavours and I am not pleased.
Allow me to explain … Read more
It never rains but it pours. It’s a phrase that has both literal and proverbial meanings, both of which apply to my life at the moment. After a total drought in May and just 10 days rain at start of June, the countryside was beginning to look a little parched and my vegetable beds were rock hard. Buckets of water were no longer enough – it was time to unravel my hose and do some deep watering, biceps bedamned. Read more
My first courgette (zucchini) flower of the season. Pure beauty. Read more
On my recent trip home I got to catch up with some old friends, but I also got to meet new people. I love meeting new people, especially in rural Ireland where they seem so characterful, so full of laughter and stories. Meeting new people invariable results in being asked two questions – where do you come from and what do you do. These seemingly innocuous questions always fill me with dread – because I don’t have a straightforward answer to either of them. Read more
What a joy it is, a vegetable grower’s delight. Take some seeds, put them in the earth, tend to them, nurture them; watch empty spaces become dots of green, watch tiny leaves unfurl and grow, watch flowers, heads, roots and fruits emerge. It’s August and my bones are tired from weeding and watering, but the beauty of the ground beneath my feet makes it all worthwhile. Read more
It’s feast or famine with this self-sufficiency malarkey. For months on end you produce hardly any food at all, then come the end of August you have fruit and veg coming at you from all angles. There are wild mushrooms to be foraged, apples and damsons to be picked and vegetables to be harvested. Read more
My Food Odyssey 