Hazel grove & Sugar Snaps

Went to the Farmer's Market in Alton with Rosie on Saturday and bought lots of local cheese, pastries, bread, beer, fruit wine and cider. Mmmmm. Went for a pub lunch afterwards and walked back to Kingsley from East Wordham. On the way we found a whole grove of bountiful Hazel Nut Trees Will have to go back nutting in late August/September.


We also came across this snake. We assumed it was a Grass snake but couldn't tell if it was an Adder or not. Thankfully the dogs didn't even notice.


I came home yesterday to find some of my Mangetout Sugar Snap peas are ready already! This is despite a lot of the plants being chewed to bits by slugs that can apparently climb the plastic netting I put up as well as they can. Picked a handful to stop them getting too big and spoiling the yeild. Had one fresh off the stem which was really tasty. Also picked more loose leaf lettuce and rocket.

Sprouts & Carrots

Now we've cleared some space by eating some of the potatoes, I've been able to put two of my brussel sprouts in at last. I planted some chinese leaf salad in between to pick as baby leaf before they use all of the 2.3 ft of space they need. The plot is now full to bursting point.


The rain seems to be helping most stuff grow. My carrots have formed a thick forest of tops.

Mushroom feast and incredibly early blackberries!

More rain = more mushrooms! :)

Because I'm back home this week I was able to go down the Leg'O'Mutton field with Dad earlier and got a whole punnet of tasty fresh Field Mushrooms. I can smell the risotto we're cooking them in as I type and it's making my mouth water. If my parents hadn't gone and bought so many cultivated ones last week I would have been down there every day! Will probably go back on Friday for more.

On the way home we swung by Leigh Hill for some raspberries. there weren't many worth having as the birds like them too, but we did find three of four ripe blackberries! That's unbelievably early, we're hardly out of June!

More rain, more spuds and some flowers

Its been raining solidly for weeks now. Today saw sunshine interspersed with heavy showers, crashing thunder and lightning flashes on all sides. I can see a rainbow out my window at the moment.


Last night we had some more fresh epicure new potatoes for dinner with quiche. They were really nice with butter and parsley. They just melt in your mouth!


Today I've found the first flowers on my peas....


...and my rocket which I guess means its gone to seed. The rocket has been a great success so far, we have it with almost every meal! It's really tasty and easy to look after.

With all the rain everything's been growing like mad. These Bolthardy beetroot are looking good.

Toady and some greens

On slug patrol last night I found this toad on the lawn by the large conifer. He didn't seem to be in much of a hurry to eat the slugs on the veg patch though. I found a frog siting in my lettuces one night last week as well!


I thought that some of my Little Gem lettuce might be ready by now but have decided it needs another few weeks. Following some instructions in my book, I loosley tied up the leaves with gardening string. Should keep them out of easy reach for the slugs.


I also planted two of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli seedlings out on the patch. I'm hoping that 4 will make it, although not many survived the whitefly, slugs by the backdoor and my over/under watering, so there's only 6 left now! The area I'm putting them in is already a bit crowded with stray lettuce thinnings, rocket and a renegade tomato plant from the compost. Will see how they cope.

Finally, I keep forgetting to mention, but a few weeks ago Mum got some Rhubarb off one of her friends at work who I gave some tomatoes to. Despite being stuck in a bucket for three days and looking pretty wilted at first, it has now made a full recovery and is looking healthy.

Day of little surprises

I got the train back from Rosie's today. She's still ill so I've been looking after her for the last few days while her parents are away. On the way back from the station I discovered a whole bunch of full sized rasberry bushes at the bottom of Leigh Hill. I never even knew they were there but will definately go back for more. When I got home I threaded the Fairy Ring mushrooms on string and hung them up to dry in the garage. Will use them in a Risotto when Rosie's better.


Another discovery was waiting for me in the back garden where my tomatoes have produced their first tiny little fruit! It was on one of the plants affected by the mosaic virus. Rosie's plants, which never got sick, already have a number of fruits on them.


Down on the patch, my courgette plants are really getting established. They're huge now. Henry says his have alreay got fruits a few inches long.

The final surprise of my day was being sked by my local Friends of the Earth group to take over as Campaigns Officer for the Big Ask Climate Change Bill campaign. Following all the havok being wrecked by flooding in Yorkshire this week, hopefully the UK government will take this problem seriously and bring in legislation to help reduce future chaos.

Mushrooms in the Rain

I went back to check on the mushrooms today. I picked some of the Fairy Ring's making sure that they were the right ones and not the Cream Clots or Cracked Caps that they could be confused with. The big white Horse buttons still haven't broken their veil yet.

I should probably say at this point that I spent about 3 years studing wild mushrooms with field guides and online resources before I ate any, and I still stick to those that are easy to identify and hard to confuse. If you ever plan on picking mushrooms, it is adviseable to learn all the posible poisinous look-a-likes and find examples of both them, and the ones you are lookin for, in different stages of development so that you can familiarise yourself with their different features. It is also worth taking spore samples and important to note the habitat in which you find them.