Welcome to Cwm to the Garden.
This is a blog charting the horticultural and culinary adventures of the residents of a small Welsh cottage with a lot of land!
I have shamelessly hankered after the ‘River Cottage’ lifestyle for many years – since I was first introduced to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his ethical and practical take on food production and consumption through the medium of Channel 4. Having moved to our own (albeit rented) little cottage in 2005, I set about creating my first proper vegetable patch (my previous attempt in Scotland had been rather thwarted by cold Scottish hooleys and its location on top of a very windy hill!), amid dreams of never having to visit the supermarket again! A little too much enthusiasm, and slightly too little planning, ensured our wee patch became over stuffed with veg that didn’t have the room or resources to grow properly. Having said that, we still have a freezer full of beans, we are still enjoying home grown squash, and the purple sprouting broccoli should be ready soon. What did grow was delicious: sweetcorn actually tasted of something, potatoes were yellow and flavoursome and garlic was juicy and very pungent!
Last autumn we acquired the use of a field, goodness knows how big, perhaps an acre or so, and my plans of veg patches suddenly stepped up a notch or seven! We now have the basis of a 20m by 5m veg patch, a fairly rotten bath tub with garlic and raddiccio planted, a chimney pot full of chives, and (most excitingly!) a 14ft by 24ft polytunnel! I plan to grow as many different types of veg as I can possibly fit into the different spaces, and we will use one end of the polytunnel as a conservatory. Hopefully this summer we wont have to pay as many visits to our local supermarket (phew, both monetarily and ethically), and there may even be enough left over to share with our family, neighbours and friends! And perhaps even set up a wee stall at the end of the road…..
But, I am most excited about the prospect of all those lovely things I will be able to cook with! I love cooking, its my therapy! I own many cookbooks, most of which I use - I find it difficult to visit a bookshop without at least browsing the cookery section and making a mental note of which book(s) I really can’t live without. My favourites have to be the seminal River Cottage Cookbook, and a great American book, New Classics from the Moosewood collective, although I am quite partial to the likes of Delia and Jamie.
I digress….
This blog will chart the progress of turning our currently grassy field into a supremely productive vehicle for self-sufficiency! As well as posting bits and bobs about digging the field and planting the seeds etc, I want to share the fruits of our labour and divulge the many ways of cooking what we grow.
Its a horticultural foodie blog………….
