Sugar In My Cereal

Ever since I was about 7 years old I've started the day with a big bowl of muesli covered in milk, then as I've got older covered in soya milk (whey doesn't agree with me so no milk or cream in my life).

But as my mornings are a slower affair than they used to be I've been eating "pink por with yeah yeahs." Or to a normal person, porridge with jam and a few raisins chucked on top (we've no idea why Ev calls raisins "yeah yeahs" but we're fairly sure it's on of those names that's going to stick!).

As I'm sat there munching away I've been feeling a little guilty about having a teaspoon full of home-made jam on top of mine (the girls only get enough to colour theirs) and thinking about how much sugar that is. 

30g of sugar

I then looked at my normal muesli and read how much sugar that contains - Average serving 13.3g of sugar. The trouble is I easily have three times what they call a "average" serving, and I know it's this much because I weighed it! That means that on average I'm having over 30g of sugar for breakfast! 

It makes a teaspoonful of home-made jam on my bowl of porridge look much better and I'm also controlling what goes into the jam (sugar and fruit). This isn't even looking at the fact that a big bag of porridge oats last about five times as long as a box of muesli and costs a fraction of the price!

Anyone else been shocked when they've looked into what they've eaten lately and changed their habits because of it?

Comfrey Root Cuttings

As I've been try to be more organic and contained it's made me realise that comfrey is a pretty valuable plant with loads of uses from making comfrey tea to using it as a mulch or filling the bottom of a trench to grow beans on.

thee roots of a small clump of comfrey

 I've got two patches in corners of the veg garden but this is nowhere near enough. I looked on the internet at the prices and decided that I could probably propagate it myself for a fraction of the cost. I did divide the roots in early spring and doubled what I had, but I need a lot more of this herb to be useful. Looking on the internet I saw that one of the best ways to propagate it is to take root cuttings. 

Root cutting

 In essence, dig up a clump, cut some of the large roots into 1.5-2" lengths and plant this into compost.

Plant in small pots of compost

Cuttings done, now just got to wait!

I did this 26 times so we'll see how many of them will work. If they do I'm going to add a few patches around the smallholding, in the orchard and the coppice so I should always have a supply and be near to where I need it.

How does everyone else use comfrey and how do you propagate it?

James Wong Home Grown Revolution Seeds

AS I said in my previous post I've been intrigued by James Wong's range of plants and seeds at Suttons and as they were having a sale on some of them I overindulged!

I was looking at buy a couple of packets of seeds when I saw they had a collection of twenty reduced from £40 down to £10, there were many things in there I fancy trying, even though it's too late to plant many of them this year, most seed keeps well past it's sell by date. I planted some squash seed this year that was over 10 years old and it still came up!

20 packets Seeds for £10 reduced from £40

There's some great ones in there including electric daises, cucmeleons, musk melons, Bergamot, Quinoa, Japanese Beefsteak plant, Tomatillo, white apline strawberries to name but a few. 

The two I really wanted to try - the electric daisies sound great fun!

Although it is late this year I've decided to risk planting a few and see how they do, the cucmelons sound just right for my girls, little melons favoured like cucumber and lime and the electric daises that are like popping candy just sound like fun! White alpine strawberries and musk melons might also be worth a shot this year, I'll keep you posted on how they do!

A nice feature is the seeds have much longer instructions than normal and recipe ideas inside

To be honest I'm quite impressed by this range of seeds. Each comes with great instructions and then inside there's the history or extra information on the plant as well as some recipes to try out.

Cutting Glass

Glazing my "new" greenhouse I've been a little short of glass. The guy I bought the greenhouse from said there was only one pane missing. Not sure why I had to buy 18 on Tuesday then...

Essential kit for cutting glass: straight edge, tape, gloves, goggles, glass cutter

 It worked out much cheaper to buy standard sizes from a wholesaler than to get it cut locally. So on Tuesday the girls and I made a trip over to Evesham, a stones throw from where we use to live, to a garden wholesalers, BHGS, that's open to the public. Instead of paying £6.40 a pane from the local glass merchants it worked out at just over £3.

The trouble was I then had to cut the angled panes of glass and four narrower panes that I couldn't buy off the shelf.

Years ago I brought a glass cutter from a car boot sale just in case, so I dusted it off and got to work. On it was engraved "Made in West Germany" so it might have a little age to it.

Mark the glass with a pen, then hold the straight edge on the line and run the cutter a few times down the glass firmly.
Then tap the cut all over, hold the glass on the edge of the table and carefully lever it down.

And SNAP!
It all goes wrong.
Lucky I brought a few extra panes to have a go with.

In the end I was getting pretty good!

I managed to glaze the remaining parts of the greenhouse last night so now it's just a case of getting it full of tomatoes and peppers! Cutting the glass like this saved me money and in some small way it's also a part of the whole self reliance of being on a smallholding/homestead.

Anyone else cut glass lately?

Planting Chilean Guavas "Kapow"

I've been quite interested in  James Wong's "Home Grown Revolution" range from Sutton seeds. Lots of interesting and usual fruit and veg to try and grow. The other day I was feeling a little rash and ordered some things they had on special offer, one was 6 Chilean Guava plants for £10 (reduced down from £47.86). 

Well packaged delivery

 They're meant to taste like a cross between a blueberry and a strawberry and grow much like a blueberry bush with berries that are meant to be good for eating fresh as well as drying and preserving. The plants turned up looking healthy and strong (although the delivery driver had left them in full sun so it was lucky I wasn't out for too long as they'd all be dead).

Already the potential for berries this autumn.

How to ruin a perfectly good bucket... Er I mean pot

Drainage holes drilled

My mix for the plants 50-50 soil and compost with some wood ash and blood, fish and bone added for good measure

Rocks and pebbles in the bottom of each "pot" for drainage

Six "pots" ready to go

Instructions

Good roots on each plant, a little teasing of the roots out before they were planted, but I'm never sure if it makes much difference.

Placed at the front of the house where there's a slight micro climate due to the south facing wall.

I decided to plant them in pots as after dong some research on the plants, Suttons claim of them being tolerant down to minus 10 might be a little optimistic, so for the first few years they will over winter in the greenhouse to give them a little more protection, although I might leave one plant out and see how it fairs.

And as for the buckets rather than pots, it works out much cheaper than big pots (these were only one pound each) and they seem to last much longer than some pots you buy, as well as having carrying handles (compost womans suggestion from a while ago and it seems like a good idea).

Anyone else been trying new fruit or veg this year? There seems to be lots of interesting things about at the moment and I'm keen to try as many as possible.