We don’t know about you, but for us it seems to be a bonanza year for broad beans.
Our over-wintered crop, which in past years has struggled to get past knee height, suddenly shot up during May to waist level monsters.
Our first attempt at a spring compost dressing might have helped, as no doubt has the good spring weather. Continue reading
The strange feeling of ‘veg bed competence’ we had at the start of May has somehow survived through to end of the month.
Surely it can’t last!
The greenhouse seedlings (pictured left) rapidly turned into a veritable garden nursery vision of plug plants demanding to be planted out against the risks of any late frosts. Continue reading
The New Year barely seems to have got underway, before the occasionally feel of a Spring like day arrives, and the veg growers cycle begins again.
For us at The Secret Acre that usually means the chitting potatoes gets underway, the rotated veg bed plan is drawn up and the new seed order arrives. 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
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
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
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!
Having pickled the first sowing of radishes, our next harvest at The Secret Acre was once again the over wintered onions and garlic.
This year’s varieties were Cristo and Iberian Wight for the garlic with Troy F1 white onions and Electric red onions. Although the results seem on a par with last year’s varieties. Continue reading
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
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
The Secret Acre 