29 days ago
You might be starting to think that I have become a sort of hybrid of Bobby Kennedy Junior and the late Dr Michael Mosley. I am utterly convinced that part of the terrifying decline of the West is down to obesity and being fat. Governments chuck ever more cash they do not have at healthcare, at overpaid doctors and drug companies charging vast sums for ever more pills supplied. But the health of Western populations just gets worse and worse.
47 days ago
The last tomatoes were literally rotting on the vines. So the kids and I gathered what was not rotten and ripped up the plants putting them in the bulging compost heap. All together we had 2.5 kg of green tomatoes. At this point I apologise to my late uncle Christopher Booker whose birthday it would have been on Monday. I am sorry but the scales here are metric.
58 days ago
It has not been a great crop for either. I blame the weather. But the first pepper was harvested and joined home grown tomatoes and bought in minced pork and cheese in a home grown stuffed marrow for supper. The green chillies are from just one plant and on their own will be enough to support my cooking and also the Indian meals the Mrs prepares up until Christmas. There are more plants to harvest if it ever stops raining
63 days ago
The six children and step children of my late father are this week swapping emails about the annual pre Christmas meal and present swap we have with many of our kids in Shipston where Dad and his second wife Helen live and are buried. All will smile as I mention tomatoes and Dr Tom Winnifrith.
212 days ago
Though health issues leave me behind schedule in the garden I saw last night that my peas, garlic, shallots, onions and radishes are all poking through and are on track. There is no sign yet of the early spuds or beetroot and this week the kids and I plant leeks, carrots and a second helping of peas. The strawberries and fruit bushes look set for another bumper crop and we already have a glut of rhubarb. However, the annual humiliation has hit me again.
518 days ago
My pal Chris came aroud to pick a stack of our glut of strawberries. He, and his daughter, took a trug home with a couple of lettuces after supper but we still have stacks more to pick. Meanwhile on the production line:
528 days ago
The first three and a half litres of home made ginger beer should be ready within 24 hours. The ginger beer bug plant is bubbling away and the next batch will be ready for bottling a week today. Meanwhile, the elderflower bush at the top of our upper field by the churchyard is in full flower, flowers we picked on Saturday afternoon.
766 days ago
Last night it was rhubarb as you can see below. This morning it was a sheet of the last green tomatoes, sliced. Tonight more of the tomatoes. And so it goes on day after day, until there will be nothing left to flash freeze.
772 days ago
The fried green tomatoes continue to win rave reviews from the Mrs and myself and so we enjoyed another batch yesterday after the arrival of two large bags of “old fashioned cornflour” with a big picture of what used to be known as a Red Indian on the front of each. I suggested that the flour might have been produced by Native Americans but the Mrs, a woman once known as the deluded lefty, gave each bag a dirty look, suggesting that – like the Washington Redskins – a makeover was needed for these enlightened times. I think I shall order some more bags to ensure we have a lifetime’s supply with the current design. Meanwhile, I have more of the green tomato glut to deal with, without resorting to chutney as we already have more than one winter’s supply of apple chutney.
875 days ago
Much to my surprise, all 12 tomato seeds have taken. Thus, I worked late into the night on a small patch of the jungle, bringing it into life as a tomato bed. In addition to the ten plants I was given by a friend, I hope to be drowning in tomatoes by autumn. We shall see. It was about nine when I finished. I leant on my rake, pondering the last roped-off patc
