Three cheers for the Apple Cider Vinegar – at last!
Just when we were about to give up, we successfully bottled 15 litres at The Secret Acre this winter.
We first, and last, successfully made Apple Cider Vinegar back in 2017, using it the following year for pickling all sorts, even radishes.
But the half dozen attempts since then to replicate that initial ‘beginners luck’ success have all failed.
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After the amazing deer and aurora, out on another winter walk recently, we spied an impressively big Red Kite circling overhead.
Red Kites have made an astonishing comeback in the UK, since their re-introduction in 1995.
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In common with much of the UK, there was an unbelievable display of the aurora borealis in Gloucestershire last night. I never saw it this good when living in Scotland!
In case you missed our own pics on social media, here they are again,straight off Emma’s phone camera with no editing…
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January is that time, at the start of a new year, when everyone asks us what our new Wedding Anniversary theme is for the next 12 months.
And the answer for 2026, out of box number ten of our ‘Mystery Moose’ of yearly wedding anniversary themes is… Cheese!
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Despite the dry summer, autumn dampness seemed to arrive just in time for a spectacular display of seasonal colour.
The autumn fungi seemed to enjoy it too, with an abundance of edible and non-edible varieties popping up around The Secret Acre.
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If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest… have a really dry year apparently… certainly some things on the smallholding have enjoyed it more than others… and not necessarily the things you might expect.
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It’s shaping up to have been a pretty good year at The Secret Acre, despite the very dry weather.
Where crops simply failed in last year’s unseasonable rain, at least the gardener has the chance to water things, especially, if like us, you live in a well-managed area like Severn Tent Water, which rarely needs a hosepipe ban.
So most things are back to growing reasonably well, even if the fruits are a bit undersized from the lack of rain.
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The rotavator man cometh!
Since moving to The Secret Acre, on the principal of cash poor, time rich, Paul has dug over the veg patches each spring, having never quite managed yet to get our ‘no dig’ act together sufficiently.
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Last week saw the arrival of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The UK enjoyed an unseasonably warm day, including Wales’ warmest spring equinox on record, as the early impacts of the coming climate chaos continue to make themselves felt.
Naturally, here at The Secret Acre, we took the opportunity for a summer BBQ. Our earliest on record, after none at all in last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet.
We ended up enjoying three seasons in one day! A summer BBQ on the warmest spring equinox, having dug up the last of the winter leaks, to char on the BBQ coals, and eat with an excellent romesco sauce.
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The Secret Acre 