Featured News

Aubergine Parmigiana

This simple aubergine parmigiana recipe from Italy makes a cosy mid-week meal. Serve this cheese, tomato and aubergine bake as a vegetarian main dish, with some wholewheat garlic bread or a peppery rocket salad, or you can also make it as a hearty side for for a meat dish.!

Irish Stew with Parsnips
The Parsnips are by no means traditional in this recipe and are optional but my wife loves them so what you going to do? 

Classic Rhubarb Crumble
Growing up this was my favourite dessert & seeing as only my dad and I liked it I always had a massive portion!

Time to do some groundwork

We get a glimpse of the early signs of the arrival of Spring this month. The soil begins to warm up around the middle of February and we can see for the first time this year the buds beginning to swell on fruit trees and bushes. Overwintering vegetables begin to look less sorry for themselves and they start to produce new growth.

January is generally a very cold month with hard frosts freezing the ground and when the ground isn't frozen it is generally too wet to do much although there are no guarantees with British weather. Looking through my diaries, snow isn't that likely for a prolonged period but you never know.

October is the month when it feels like the season is about to turn, the days start to shorten and the sun appears lower in the sky, the leaves change colour and fall to the ground and temperatures drop.  The first frost are likely too, which will be the end of many of your crops out in the open so if you still haven’t harvested frost sensitive crops now is the time before Jack Frost gets them!