Last month, inspired by our Turkish smallholding/winemaking experience this summer, we visited our local vineyard – Woodchester Valley – for a tour and tasting. Continue reading
One for the Vine
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Category Archives: Good Life
A Win and a Score Draw
September marks the start of Produce Show season, even if the football season, rudely earlier every year, has already kicked-off too.
Our history of mixed results continued this year…. Continue reading
Hacking the Swimming Pool (Smallholding Turkish Style, Part 2)
As if making your own wine in glorious sunshine wasn’t enough, the Turkish smallholding we visited this summer had a brilliant swimming pool hack. Continue reading
Smallholding Turkish Style
Visiting Turkish friends this summer, we were told we must visit their Uncle in Urla who, like us, has built a house on an acre of land and is growing his own. And what an inspiration it turned out to be.
Alongside the veg, figs and olives, smallholding Turkish style means a small personal vineyard, about 10 rows of vines producing about 250 bottles a year, which of course we felt duty bound to taste extensively whilst discussing the finer points of our respective wine and cider making. Continue reading
Yesterday’s Veg Patch Harvest
Particularly pleased with our first ever crop of Padron Peppers (bottom left), continuing our Mediterranean weather themed summer. And one of our favourites in the kitchen.
At this rate of climate change we’ll soon be able to supply our favourite local tapas bar!
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
Three Wassails and a Burns Night
Chepstow Wassail & Mari Lwyd
Once again, January came and went, before we actually put into action any of our good intentions to make an early start in the garden.
Not that it was all just lounging around in the house after Christmas drawing up planting plans and ordering seeds.
As the snowdrops started to emerge, we got down to making another year’s supply of marmalade, following the award-winning formula we accidentally hit upon last time round. Continue reading
Tap’y New Year
If you were with us this time last year, you will know that Emma and I decide to dump the traditional first 24 wedding anniversaries – the rubbish ones like ‘paper’ and ‘glue’ which come before the serious bling – in favour of our own list of things we actually like.
So we wrote down 12 each and randomly assigned them into the 24 draws of a repurposed advent calendar, to be opened at the start of each year. 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…
An Apple a Day
October of course sees the official arrival of Apple Day in the UK, and an opportunity for harvest weary smallholders to invite friends round to help out under the guise of having a party!
Although in truth our apple crop had been arriving progressively in the kitchen since the start of August.
And The Secret Acre is certainly no stranger to hosting our own Apple Day events, in our long standing quest to make cider, which fortunately seems to be getting better with time at least. Continue reading
The Secret Acre 