It has been the usual busy summer period here at The Secret Acre, since enjoying the first produce of spring, punctuated by the sadness of having to say goodbye to a beloved elderly member of the family.
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Regular readers will know that autumn’s harvest season also brings forth the village show.
We have form, stating with some urban practise, and then some baby steps, before gaining experience for a successful all-out assault on a whole section last year.
To be frank, I didn’t think it could get any better, and along with the uncertainty around the virus this year, I doubted we would enter. Continue reading
August is always a manic month of harvesting and preserving, and our ongoing Harvest 2020 was no exception.
If anything things have been even busier this year with the unseasonal climate change affected weather meaning everything has been ready at least two weeks early, and some crops badly hit.
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The final addition to our new fruit cage has been the construction of a raised strawberry bed, like those you get in some PYO places.
Another project accelerated by the benefit of the extra lockdown time at home and again using our supply of junk wood. Continue reading
You could have a laurel hedge, taking up the sunniest spot in the garden. Or you could have a fruit cage, where the fruit might be as sweet as can be.
We chose the latter, and took a preverbal sledgehammer to the laurel. Well a chain saw and a mechanical digger to be precise. Continue reading
While Extinction Rebellion are rightly taking to the streets, inside The Secret Acre kitchen this autumn, things haven’t been hotting up, so much as becoming constantly warm.
Our local climate change has been the result of the purchase of a dehydrator, as another bow to our harvest preservation options.
So far our initial tests have involved plums, pears, apples and beetroot. Continue reading
It seemed a slightly odd harvest this year.
Thanks to the unusually hot and dry summer, some old reliables failed, like our potatoes, while some pervious underperformers flourished, like our aubergines. Continue reading
The Secret Acre 