| We are sowing and planting every spare minute to fill up every square inch - I had this brain wave of putting some alpine strawberries in a couple of old hanging baskets and then here they are on the washing line (I think it was inspired by a few cold beers).
Below you can see that lettuce have replaced the bedding plants this summer - when they are eaten we will replace with rocket/dill/coriander.
Below right are some potatoes planted into 'pods' and growing under the greenhouse bench - they will not need to be in full light until the
shoots get to the top of the bags...
|  |
 |
An important part of the challenge is to find local food producers. I have found quite a few local producers via the internet and also asking friends. Whenever we have taken the dog out for a walk we are looking out for
people selling anything that we can eat! I am in the process of putting most of our finds on the Home Grown Local Producers page. The info includes
how many miles form our house - so some are out of bounds to us :(
I had driven past the Birchfield Farm shop many times but never stopped. But now I have called in and found they rear (outdoors) their own pigs, buy in sheep reared in Wharfedale! So we bought some really delicious pork steaks (at a very reasonable price) and enjoyed them on our barbie.
As an extra treat they also make their own ice-cream from Jersey cows.
I am sure there are still more great producers that we have not uncovered yet. 10 mile radius from our house actually covers an area of 314 sq miles - so there is plenty to go at.
|
|
Biggest concern is that after Christmas the lack of fresh tomatoes, aubergines, sweet peppers will start to make the whole thing a pain.
I am trying to find different ways of storing/preserving these things. Our own fresh tomatoes won't arrive until June next year, quite a gap to fill.
We are planting tomato plants in every odd corner and if the summer/autumn is sunny we might just get to dry some.
|  |
 |
Running out of room now and we have nowhere to plant the sprouts or purple broccoli for winter/spring. We have decided that the lawn in front of the greenhouse is going to have to go!
|
