This year, one of our early harvest gluts was radishes, which all came in a rush, despite the weather.
So for the first time at The Secret Acre, Emma tried her hand at pickled radish. Continue reading
Radishes in a Rush
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Category Archives: Garden
139 Days Later…
Has The Secret Acre gone to rack and ruin since our last blog 5 months ago?
In short, no.
What has gone to ruin, we’ve realised, was our resolve to only work part-time since moving to the smallholding. Both our hours have slowly crept up again over the last two years, almost without noticing. Continue reading
Tool of the Year
In a Secret Acre first (and quite possibly last!) we thought we’d announce our first ever ‘Tool of the Year’ award.
And our totally just made up award goes to… the Wolf Garten KS2K Weeding/Planting Knife! Continue reading
Cider – The Motion Picture!
The inevitable consequence of Apple Day in October is of course a new batch of cider making.
And this year our friend Derek was on hand to record it all on film, leaving me in presenting terms somewhere between Jack Hargreaves and Kevin McCloud I fear.
Anyway, grab your popcorn for the first (and quite possible last) Secret Acre movie…
August’s Bounty – Pass the Preserving Pan!
No sooner had we made our ‘Beauty Bath Spiced Apple Chutney’, than August’s harvest arrived en masse.
Suddenly every spare minute was taken up in the kitchen with the preserving pan. The Blaisdon Plums were our biggest crop, with Emma heroically creating over 100 jars of various plum based jams and chutneys for the storeroom. Continue reading
August’s Bounty – Hail the Apple?
We’ve been quiet online last month, an indication of frenetic activity in the garden and kitchen, as harvest season started to kick in.
It all started with apples. Which may seem odd. Our main apple orchard harvest occurs in mid-September and October after all. But up by the house we have a Beauty of Bath apple tree, a variety cultivated to crop very early in August, which resulted in it being awarded a Royal Horticultural Society First Class Certificate in 1887 no less. Continue reading
Having a Rotting Time
We can now pop out and pee in the garden.
Yes that’s right, we’ve finally got round to building some compost bins. Appropriately recycling some of the pallets left by the builders of course. Continue reading
The Onion and Garlic Harvest
Last year we had an onion and potato harvest in September. Our white and red onions had been spring planted alongside the spuds.
This year we tried over wintering our onions along with the usual late autumn planted garlic. Continue reading
Herbie Rides Again
Regular followers of our progress here will remember that just two months ago a bit fell off our car.
As you can imagine, this led inevitably to the creation of a new herb garden at The Secret Acre. Obviously.
But just eight weeks on, the tyre planters have in fact worked a treat, and as you can see in the picture below our herbs are now roaring away. Continue reading
Time to Fizz
The mad rush to catch up in the garden at the end of May was immediately followed by the mad rush in early June to catch the Elderflower at its sunny best.
After this year’s whopping 4kg of wild garlic pesto making, we made Continue reading
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