Spring Planting Last year was the year of experimental vegetable gardening, not that we don't have many years of experience but very little of that in Canada. We had three excellent raised beds installed for us by Urban Seedling and stock the beds with seedling vegetables or seeds obtained from the same people. [...]
J has two volumes of a cookery book published in 1901 that belonged to her grandmother. Fascinating reading - “The past is a foreign country” really takes on meaning looking through this. So - suggestions for your next dinner party of family meal menu. Three courses, of course: Fish - Cold salmon [...]
Friends have asked and I have been working hard on the methodology as well as doing a course at a pro-bakery. As a result I have revised some old material about making basic and tasty sourdough bread at home. If a simple way to make tasty sourdough breads interests you then you can find [...]
Learning More About Bread I have been making most of our bread for over 30 years. Originally I used to use yeast as the raising agent but since Breadzilla (another post about her sometime in the future) came into my life a decade ago, gifted by an American colleague who really knows her [...]
Meatless Burgers - A Review A Service to our Readers There has been such a lot of talk and adverts for “plant based” faux-meat in the past weeks that we decided to give them a try. Firstly, I need to say that we are not burger eaters of any sort. Occasionally in a [...]
We are in the depths of winter hereabouts so we are wandering off on a parallel path this week to talk about bread instead of gardens. The garden is under a couple of feet of snow and ice and there’s only so much you can say about feeder-birds to engage one’s audience. When I [...]
A Seasonal Service for our Friends That title is perhaps not entirely honest as the shrubs in question are not quite what you were expecting if you come here for gardening news. However, the Winter Solstice approaches, followed by Christmas and the New Year with all the jollifications those three dates imply … and [...]
First week in June and things are going strong. Yesterday was a day of extreme rain and thunder around here so the mosquitoes are about this morning and roaming gangs. All that rain and a bit of heat today though has really spurred plants into growth. The vegetables are sootting up - first lettuces will [...]
This year, being retired folks, we get to visit the garden centres a few days before the big Victoria Day Weekend and so have the choice pick of the plants without the awful crowds. Sheer bliss. It's an expensive way to garden, but the hanging baskets and window boxes are being prepared and the newly [...]
The front garden (on a sunny slope, discretely positioned) garlic patch from this summer has been dug over, doubled in size, stirred and filled with composted stable manure, rained on a couple of times and tomorrow will be receiving its garlic bulbs ready for another bumper and tasty crop next summer. What with the trees [...]