Courgettes are not called summer squash without reason, as they only fruit well when the temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius, so although the plants grow and sprawl, they won’t do anything else until it warms up and stays there. One warm day is just confusing, as ideally they need […]

I obviously didn’t consider the basil when I was trying to reduce our vegetable growing this year, as we have a dozen healthy plants all growing like the clappers, enough for a small restaurant not a downsized family!  The thing about basil, or any other herb, is that if you don’t […]

This month’s recipe is based loosely on pisto, a Spanish dish that is related in a Mediterranean way to the ratatouille of France and Caponata of Italy. It’s an everyday dish using summer vegetables cooked slowly, without fuss and often served with a fried egg on top. The runny yolk […]

Spring has well and truly arrived. Four seasons in one day make a regular appearance and the garden is thriving. Everything in the garden is very green and there are plenty of things sprouting at both ends of the vegetable growing spectrum. The new seeds are slowly uncurling, whilst last […]

Sunshine and rain just about guarantees everything’s going to be green. The garden is lush with kale, spinach and rocket, admittedly the best is in the tunnel but it’s all zooming ahead. The outside crops are taking off again after sitting there patiently all winter. We’ll get quite some picking […]

After weeks of rain rolling down every hill in Ireland it seems the spring has arrived. The weather is very changeable but give me four seasons in a day any day rather than wall-to-wall grey. It doesn’t take much sunshine for everything to kick into action and the birds are […]