Yummy Honey!

 Today was the day.....we received the field rent for the two bee hives situated in the fruit garden. They paid us well in jars full of wonderfully golden, sweet runny honey! I can't tell you how many jars we have because, as I write, the honey is still dripping through the sieve. Soon it will be ready to be bottled or potted, sealed and labelled. It's a sticky job, but rewarding!

 Today, it was a family affair, both boys, Sam and Josh collected  the honey laden frames from the hives, whilst the girls Aimee, Ailsa and Anya decapped the honeycombs and spun the frames to reveal and collect the honey! What a day!

Tomorrow......well it's definitely toast for breakfast, and definitely a generous drizzle of honey!! Yum! 

Today, it was a familly affair, both boys, Sam and Josh collected  the honey laden frames from the hives, whilst the girls Aimee, Ailsa amd Anya decaped the honeycooms and spun the frames to reveal and collect the honey! What a day!

Tomorrow......well it's definately toast for breakfast, and definately a generous drizzle of honey!! Yum! 

Wat..er Summer

Wat..er Summer!!

 I love summer, but I have to confess that this summer has been rather disappointing :( 

I hate to complain, but there are good summers, poor summers and then there was this summer! I haven't seen the statistics, but surely they must confirm that the number of sunshine hours for the past three months has been low, whilst the volume of rainfall must surely have been high. 

It's not that I wish to sit on the beach for hours, or on a lounger in the garden, though that does sound appealing right now, as I listen to yet more of the wet stuff landing on the roof window.  I love to spend hours in the garden, digging, weeding, planting and pruning, cutting back, rearranging and harvesting summer fruit and vegetables. Treating myself occasionally, to a five minute sit - down to enjoy an ice cold lemonade. I love it when the children loose me behind the runner beans and resort to phoning my mobile to relocate me in my jungle! Not this year though! 

This year, despite no shortage of water, the runner beans and the French climbing beans  have not long managed to reached their lofty destination. They almost lost in their battle to ascend the six foot canes. Almost...nearly...but, finally, somehow they managed it, but I'm yet to be delighted by a summer feed of wonderful beans, drenched in butter and plenty of  black pepper with crusty white bread! 

 

As always, I love to meet other gardeners, to chat and compare progress.. or lack of!  For a short while in June, I started to doubt my veg growing skills, maybe I'd just been lucky for the past twenty years! A touch of  beginners luck maybe? Until I met up with some other keen vegetable growers, and all had the same sorry tale to tell. Vegetables rotting in the ground, failed crops, slugs galore, rain and cool temperatures, a desperate combination :(

I'm now dreaming of a warm and pleasant Autumn. I may have to buy  pumpkins this year, but I can still enjoy making comforting winter soups, chutney and jams.   Maybe I can even sit, wrapped up in a comfy blanket, and enjoy a very late feed of runner beans under a cool autumn sun!  Better late than never! :)

The West Wales Food Festival 2012

 

May usually means just one thing to both Aimee my eldest daughter and I....The West Wales Food Festival! Other months conjure up images of other events and locations, but May has to be the glorious setting of the National Botanic Gardens of Wales, home and birth place of one of West Wales' great food events.  I was sure of a dry and humid time at the West Wales Food Festival........I was cooking in the Great Glasshouse! What a place to cook! Apart from being warm and dry, it has to be the most beautiful place in the country to run children's cookery workshops.

The  two days were jam packed with cookery demonstrations and workshops by the best of Welsh chefs. Plenty of top quality local produce to taste and take home. The Pumpkin Patch made several batches of bread with groups of children and their interested parents. Some dough to take home and some we shallow fried with black onion seeds to create flat breads, perfect for summer barbecues!

 On the Saturday morning we had the final of the Junior Chef competition in the chef's marquee. What a morning! Lara and Martha the two fourteen year old young finalists cooked with such confidence in front of an audience and several accomplished and well known chefs. They did well, and Angela Gray, Dudley and myself did our very best to ease their nerves as we interviewed and judged the menus and cookery skills. There were no losers, just winners and a lot of very tasty food to enjoy, well done girls!

Where next?
Well, having cooked at Carmarthen Barbecue Week I'll soon be at the River Festival and then I'm off further afield... but not too far! I still need to regularly tend to The Pumpkin Patch gardens and make the most of the summer harvests. The Holiday Club is in full swing during August and that should keep me busy! The regular Pumpkin Patch Junior and Teen workshops will start back as soon as school resumes it's normal hours, but for now I'm going to enjoy the summer...well once the rain stops!! 

To check where we'll be and what we'll be doing over the summer please check
the web site thepumpkinpatch.org.uk  for up to date details.

Buzzing with Excitement

Buzzing with Excitement

One of the most exciting days of the year is when the bees venture out for the first time. For most, it's probably of very little significance, but for the beekeeper it gives such a sense of relief that the bees have made it through the winter months.

For a variety of reasons they often fail to made it through the dark, cold months and during the past few years we've lost our fair share. To make up,we have also caught a few swarms which is rewarding and makes up for the losses, but not always!

Last year, we lost a lovely colony of old Welsh bees that were so wonderfully docile that no swarm, however large or free, would make up for. I still miss them, and regret that we couldn't do something to save them, but we were too late. Thankfully, this year, we've had no losses, and despite the recent colder weather, the bees have already been out and about spring cleaning their hives and gathering spring nectar.

Flower Power!

I just love flowers, and looking back at these wonderful cheerful flowers from last spring, it's hardly surprising! I'm not into spending a fortune on them either...they're mostly gifts, reduced or home grown!

These beautiful pink roses were a gift from friends, and lived for a full three weeks on my kitchen windowsill, hard to believe I know, but they really did! Other flowers that came indoors last spring were just the wild but dazzling foxgloves and forsythia, daisy flowers of all descriptions and sizes, as well as lots of hedgerow flowers.

Massed together, they cheer and brighten up any room for next to nothing! A few minutes cutting and arranging them gives me days of delight and happiness!

Come on spring, I can't wait! I can already see the beginnings of this years tulips, the daffodils are out, as are the snowdrops, but I've yet to bring some indoors. Problem is of course, they look too good in the garden! I'll wait a while, until there's and abundance of flowers and then the odd one won't be missed! 'Till then I'll look at the photos from last year :)