Showing posts with label Away from the VegPatch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Away from the VegPatch. Show all posts

8 Apr 2010

Visiting Prospect…


It seems, quite justifiably, that the garden at Prospect Cottage is a dream destination for many gardeners but likely to remain on many wish-lists because of the distance involved in travelling and the logistics of overnight accommodation.  I can possibly offer a solution.

By chance, I mentioned to my sister (who lives in the Midlands) that I was going to Dungeness.  "Oh! I've been there; that's the place with those funny little cottages at the end of the railway line."  Er, yep.  That's the one.  You need to know that my sister is not interested in gardens, neither is she likely to suddenly take off to the south coast on a whim, so I asked how she came to be in Dungeness.  She had wanted to find a means of enabling our extensive family to visit my lovely niece who lives in Kent and had booked a Sun Holiday (the cheap £9.50 per person variety) at a holiday park in Dymchurch.  As a means to an end, she thought the weekend spent in a seaside holiday caravan (self-catering) was not too arduous, despite the weather being typically out-of-season dreadful.  She hadn't known about the existence of Prospect Cottage but took a trip on the Dymchurch to Dungeness steam railway as a treat for her little grandson.


So, while it may not be to everyone's taste,  if you want a cheap way of visiting Prospect Cottage, it may be worth your while to book a weekend caravan at Park Holidays New Beach and let the train take the strain. Once you arrive in Dungeness, the Britannia Inn serves delicious fish and chips and there are other local attractions such as the 'acoustic ears' and lighthouse to visit.

I think the Sun Holidays offer comes round about three times a year but is cheapest in the Spring and Autumn - I'm not a Sun reader but I know a man who is!

(Not drowning, but waving…)  
One of Derek Jarman's stone circles in front of Prospect  Cottage.

1 Apr 2010

Prospect Cottage … (part 2 of my Perch and Prospect Day)

I had a long held wish to see the seaside garden created by film-maker and artist, Derek Jarman, on the shingle at Dungeness in Kent.  A short(ish) drive south-east from Perch Hill via Rye would bring us to Prospect Cottage and, with great excitement, that was added to the plan.  Strangely, given the fame of its creator, on arrival (through wind and rain) we found that the cottage and garden is now a private residence - I half expected that it would be kept open as a place of interest - a handwritten note on the door asks that visitors refrain from peering in the windows and taking photos without prior written permission. Oops, I hastily backed away.


The cottage boundaries are not marked by fences so it is possible to walk around without trespassing.  After a reviving thimble of tea (I forgot the mugs and we had to drink from the lid of the flask), - and a delicious cream slice thoughtfully provided by my co-conspirator, Leigh - I circumnavigated the black hub of the cottage from a distance, spiralling my way inwards as it seemed that (with great good fortune) nobody was at home.  I didn't want to get too close but every angle of the garden revealed fantastic treasures, even at this time of year and in this harsh windswept environment.


Derek Jarman wrote about the evolution of the garden in his book 'derek jarman's garden', worth looking at for Howard Sooley's photographs and packed with wonderful stories.  I empathise when Derek Jarman writes, "I can look at one plant for an hour, this brings me great peace."


In his lifetime, the garden was filled with vegetables and herbs - grown in raised beds so that the roots wouldn't absorb any waste from the nearby power station.  Plants were tested for survival with poppies, sweet peas, sea-kale, viper's bugloss (native to Dungeness), pinks, night-scented stock,  nasturtiums and wild flowers like Nottingham catchfly and pea vetch doing well.  Lavender also thrived.  Sea-ephemera was added between the plants,  brought back after long dawn walks along the beach, especially when storms (frequent) had shifted the shingle.


The corkscrew poles supporting sweet-peas were originally fence posts driven into the shingle during the war to support anti-tank fencing when it was thought England might be invaded.  I must go back in the summer to see if sweet peas still grow there.  For now, in its winter guise, the garden is silver-green and brown; the santolinas (cotton lavender) flourish, as does the gorse, but little else has sprung into life - which makes the sudden sight of lime-green euphorbia or a lone daffodil (surprisingly!) so stunning.


This garden for me was the cherry on the cake of my day of garden visiting; Perch Hill was inspirational but, before I lived in London, I mostly lived by the sea and am a beach-comber at heart.  I have driftwood art and boxes of hag-stones, glass jars of sea-washed glass and sweetshop jars of shells and beach stones, matchboxes filled with fossils of shark's teeth and an old sailor's chest filled with the flotsam and jetsam of beach walks (rope, driftwood, crab shells).  I quite simply fell in love with Prospect Cottage and Dungeness.  Life on the beach (even in the shadow of Europe's biggest nuclear power station) must be very uplifting, if slightly surreal and solitary. Eventually the weather clamped down again over Dungeness,  hiding the enormous power station and, buffeted by strong winds, we drove off through the drizzling mist.  As they say in the movies: I'll be back. 

Here, though, are a couple more of my favourite photos from the day:



And, finally, perhaps more apt now than ever, John Donne's poem fixed to the West wall of the cottage:


The Sunne Rising
Busie old foole, unruly Sunne,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide
Late schoole boyes and sowre prentices,
Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride,
Call countrey ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knowes, nor clyme,
Nor houres, dayes, moneths, which are the rags of time…
Thou sunne art half as happy as wee,
In that the world's contracted thus.
Thine age askes ease, and since thy duties bee
to warme the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls thy spheare.

 (Santolinas)

15 Oct 2009

A matter of priorities …


October Peppers - still growing!

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone since Saturday's jaunt to Camden's Good Food Day, what with the arrival of our first fruit trees on Tuesday and Wednesday (on which topic, I think enough has been said), plus we've had a couple of beautiful sunny, fresh autumnal days so, obviously, back out into the Veg Patch for some happy time, and a chance to look around the place with my camera lens. Sometimes there's so much good stuff going on you just don't know where to start …



Ooo… lucky D.  What a stunner! 

But first, a quick update on Saturday's event.  It was quieter than I anticipated - but hopefully lots of people went along later because there was some good stuff there: inspiration and education for food growing, advice about healthy eating and food waste, food co-ops and the seed exchange.  I chatted to a variety of folk doing sterling work in the community; hopefully a few of you will click through to their websites, below, and be inspired by the good they do - or maybe you already have something similar in your part of the globe.

Let me just say this - Real Bread making skills are back on everyone's agenda (as part of a community food project and as a free workshop on the South Bank on 24th Oct - more details nearer the time)  and I'm pursuing a line of enquiry about making huge baskets for plant growing - see Global Generation below, and I've made simple recycled plant markers from a top tip on City Leaf's website. (I also made some of my own which I'll show with a tutorial - mine are also recycled, but prettier, naturellement.)  Utterly F.A.B.

And, as they say, last but certainly not least:  Pumpkin progress.  We're watching this one.  Only 2 weeks to go before (say it quietly) … snip, snip, snip.  (Ouch! I feel so mean saying that.)





Here are a few highlights from Saturday:

Sustain - loads on their website about food, the environment, urban agriculture, workshops, training and grants.  Recommended! 

FoodWorks - Cooking and redistributing surplus retail food overstock as nutritious meals to needy people in the local community.  (Inspired by the Campus Kitchens Project in the U.S.A.)

Global Generation, engaging with younger generations to promote change in both the community and business.  (Take a look at their website; I was inspired by the large baskets they made to grow veg in at a local school, especially good if you only have a concrete patio, balcony or rooftop at your disposal.)

City Leaf:  Helping would-be gardeners make the most of their growing space (however small).  The website has some interesting tips and advice for gardeners - even if you're not local to London!! (Yayy, something for the non-London readers!)  …  I would, however, take them to task with their by-line "Grow Food Not Flowers".   For shame, guys!  Flowers are edible (nasturtiums, violas, lavender, marigolds, sunflower seeds, for heaven's sake!) … and companion plants … and pretty up your growing space to make it even more inviting.  Okay, I rest my case.  Point made.  Getting off my soapbox (for now).

10 Oct 2009

Seedy Saturday …



 Share the Love…  
Butternut Squash seeds (I hope you don't throw yours away!)

Have I  mentioned that we're in the Borough of Camden (yes, reasonably close to that Market/tourist magnet -  more info here).  Far more interesting though, I've just heard that today is the launch of Good Food for Camden with various events being staged across the Borough, including Apple Day (with prizes for the best Apple Cake!), tours of growing spaces and my nearest event a seed and produce swap (with food tasting and plants to take home) at Somers Town (round the back of the British Library).

Gosh, I do love the fact that we have all this great stuff going on.  So, spur of the moment decision, I'm off to flaunt my wares. Don't look at me like that.  I'm talking about my veg - as you well know - and possibly a few swopsy seeds in my little seed packets.

I'm going with my Investigative Reporter hat on, and camera, and will report back on Monday.

Thrilling times, folks, thrilling times. 

If you can get to this event, check out What's On in Camden for times, etc. (the map's wrong, go by the postcode).

6 Oct 2009

From Plot to Pot …


 (Photo courtesy of BBC Dig In Recipe booklet)

Here's a little something you gardening cooks might enjoy… a little pdf booklet of simple vegetable suppers from Nigel Slater (well known TV chef in UK).

His recipes are inspired by the vegetables grown from free seeds distributed as part of the BBC's Dig In project, for example - Carrot Fritters, Stove Top Squash with Toasted Crumbs.  As Nigel says, "Growing your own grub is the best seasoning your food can have."  (Er, Nigel, let's just keep it real. Home grown might taste better but nothing substitutes for salt and pepper in my book.)

See what you think.  Download the booklet from the BBC website here.  (And enjoy the rest of the site while you're there … there's a little blog about the project with some good tips for winter veg.

9 Sept 2009

Inside The White House Garden…

(Screen grab taken from 'Inside the White House Garden' video.)

Yep. Inside the White House garden - and not manicured lawns but the little Presidential Veg Patch which has been supplying salad to state dinners these past months.  First Lady Michelle Obama talks about her beliefs in the benefits of home grown food, the tangible effects of this in her own family, and re-educating our children about food and diet so that the message is passed on for generations to come.  I love the fact that she's getting behind this message as the First Lady of Fast Food Nation - and not just talking, but doing

The video is also worth watching if only to see how they prepared their patch for planting (covering the essentials of soil testing and re-fertilizing), and a brief history on the Victory Garden which Eleanore Roosevelt had there during WWII and Thomas Jefferson's heritage seeds.
 
If you've got a few minutes (actually, 7.44 minutes) to spare, take a look.  I hope you'll be glad you did.  And I hope you'll be inspired to go out to your garden/balcony/windowbox/planter and sow a few seeds yourself. You'll be in good company.

7 Sept 2009

I am humbled…

   Beautiful fig image found on Flickr here and used under Creative Commons Licence - thank you!

I don't usually run an entire gamut of emotions on a Monday morning - especially before 8 a.m. But this morning this is how it went:
  1. Check Little Blog Awards. (Anticipation) 
  2. Curiosity - Have I slipped further down the list? 
  3. Satisfaction - still holding at 4th place.  (No real glory there, it's only the 7th of the month, but please Keep Voting, people!  Motivated.)  
  4. Curiosity - Glance back at Dorset Cereals home page where they have a daily feature called 'Simple Pleasures' - and what is having an Urban Veg Patch all about if not to indulge in same?   
  5. Pleasure (see, it works) - today's feature is Figs!  I love figs.   
  6. Nostalgia - remember delightful figgy moment in South of France some years ago (it involves pie. And that's all I've got to say about that.)
  7. Inspired and Relieved - struggling a bit up to this point about what to write today, previous jottings for post not really wowzy enough. (wowzy? did I just make that up?)   Possible solution now found.
  8. But, as we're choosing fruit trees (anticipation) for November planting, decide to add this to the order. Optimism.  Check 'About Figs' link for research purposes…  
  9. Which took me through to BBC Food website.  This course of action is not recommended before eating breakfast, you are liable to eat more toast than you had planned. With extra marmalade. And butter.   (and leads to Hunger - not really an emotion, but I do get quite emotional around food, usually along the lines of love, goodwill, pleasure.)
  10. And this is what awaited me: (read slowly) "Figs… At their freshest, ripest best, they are lush mouthfuls of soft pink flesh, fragrant and undeniably sensual… "  … uh… more tea, Vicar?
  11. Determination - to find an apt photo for forthcoming posting (er, actually, this one.)  Not having grown any fig trees ourselves yet, and being reluctant (Sloth) to find a farmer's market (or even, super-market) at dawn (okay, so it was really 7.30 a.m. but I think that counts),  I turned to the internet for visual help.
  12. Which is when I found the beautiful photo at the top of this post (Gratitude) … 
  13. swiftly followed by finding this:  

 
the totally beautiful Flickr photos of Alessandro Guerani (Respect)  
  • So (Escapism) diverted through to his blog … 
  • And then… Greed & Gluttony! … found his recipe for Figs with Honey, Almonds and Spices (although it sounds so much sexier in Italian). 
    And there we have it.  Humbled.  (Not least because this man apparently has rose water in his armoire of kitchen goodness - and uses it! - but also has the most amazing eye for food photography, putting all my efforts to shame.)  I'll just stick to digging.  And eating.  It's what I do best.

    19 Aug 2009

    Sky High Squash…


    Alright, I confess I'm looking for an excuse to post a bit of sunshine and blue skies. (The photos were getting a bit brown what with all that mud, etc.) Whilst not strictly reporting from the Veg Patch today, this is by way of proving that the York Rise Growers do not limit themselves to growing on the ground. Every summer I'm treated to this view as the delicate tendrils of my neighbour's squashes climb up like vines towards the sun from his third floor balcony. And today was particularly inspiring, set against a backdrop of a rare (in the UK at least) azure sky.

    10 Aug 2009

    A Loveliness of Ladybirds …


    Apparently we're experiencing an abundance of ladybirds this summer in the UK, emerging to feed greedily on the glut of aphids which our weather has encouraged (ironically, however, declining to feast on the aphids on my strawberries).

    Small children, usually spotted (ho, ho) with one small red bug trailing over their hands, now have them by the potful. The press have seized on this summertime news with lurid pictures of swarms of ladybirds in biblical proportions (here and here - opens in new window) and, for those of a grammatical bent, flagged up the collective noun for this gathering which is a Loveliness of Ladybirds. (All together now… "aaaahhh".)

    Which has set me thinking about collective nouns. I was unable to find any for garden produce - apart from the well-known 'hand of bananas' or 'rope of onions' - so I offer you these thoughts: how about
    • a march of mint
    • a blessing of beetroot
    • a conundrum of carrots (you never quite know how they'll turn out)
    • a marathon of beans
    • a hearing (or audience?) of sweetcorn (think about it)
    • a league of lettuces
    Any more suggestions?

    P.S. Children wanting to know more about ladybirds, including a colouring sheet, click here