It's Cold Outside!

Our pumpkins are now under a blanket of snow... winter arrived on Friday morning 25th November at about 10.30am! Rather specific I know, but that's when the snow started falling and we rapidly slid into a winter wonderland.

We're now two weeks on, and in this little pocket of South Wales

there's no sign of a thaw despite what the forecasters say.

Our turkeys are a little unsure about the cold!

One of our bottle fed ewes... Greedy,

feels quite snug in her 100% wool winter coat.

Holly, berries, snow and the coldest morning this week....

-10 degrees Celsius, that's cold!

Holly and Christmas Cake!

It's that time of year again... time to get mixing the currents and sultanas, the butter and sugar, the flour and all the other little extras that make Christmas cake so special!

One of our Snowmen cakes from last year!

I'm not sure whether the children enjoyed eating them or

just making them the most!

Last year The Pumpkin Patch Class made tiny Christmas Cakes, baked in used (and washed!) sweetcorn tins! We lined them thoroughly, filled them with cake mixture and baked them for about an hour.

Once teased out of the tins (made easier by opening the other side of the tin)
and then iced, they made the perfect little Christmas cake to give a friend or the family for Christmas.

I think I made about forty 'sweetcorn tin' Christmas cakes
and about twenty full size cakes last year....
Oh no,... it's that time of year again!!

Christmas is Coming!!

The St Catherine's Walk summer vegetables and flowers have long gone

and it's time for some Christmas colour! The new shopping center in Carmarthen is keen to repeat the success of the last gardening week we held in May of this year. This week and next a number of local schools will come along and help me to create five Christmas gardens.....

The children from four local primary schools recently planted the large flower pots with Christmas shapes and colour... reds and greens and snowy white.

Baubles and Christmas trees decorated the little gardens to add a touch of fun as well as shape to the new designs. The weather wasn't good but the children seemed to enjoy regardless.... handling compost and plants and designing their own patch.

Richmond Park Primary School enjoying a morning out of the classroom!

It was a hands on job.... filling each pot with six bags of compost!

We may not get a white Christmas but Myrddin School's garden full of white Cyclamen

certainly looks like a winter wonderland!!

I love Toffee Apples!

Don't you just love toffee apples? Toffee and apples!

Not just toffee but bright red toffee!! Mmm

We had fun making toffee apples at last weeks Pumpkin Patch. We washed the apples to rid them of the wax...( toffee doesn't like wax very much.. it runs away!)... then we made toffee.

A lot of sugar, a little water, a splash of vinegar and a blob of butter all in the pan and carefully boiled until syrupy!! Don't forget the colour.. RED of course!

They're bright, they're sticky but they do count towards your

five a day

- provided you don't just lick all the toffee off!!

HRH Start Project

The Pumpkin Patch has been out and about a fair bit this summer. It's been great fun getting involved in a number of different projects. We've attended carnivals and fun days, food festivals and more recently the launch of Prince of Wales' Start project at the national Botanic garden.

Start is a UK national initiative by The Prince's Foundation to promote and celebrate sustainable living.We can all make positive changes to our lifestyle to benefit the planet, and the Pumpkin patch was proud to be part of such an important day and project.

Above are some of the long standing members of The Pumpkin Patch.

William, Anna, Ailsa, Anya, Thomas and Nia with Aimee and myself.

Nia... the star of the show! Why? For not only cooking the Welsh cakes but for running after the Prince with a plate full, and offering HRH one of our of cakes! Yes, he did accept!!

Aimee above... getting ready for the cookery workshop, and below....

both of us with Anya, busy at work but enjoying the day!!