There is no mystery to growing your own veg, magic yes, there is something very satisfying in going into the garden and picking veg that you have grown, knowing that there are no food miles involved and that no chemicals have been used, the taste of freshly picked veg cannot be beaten. Our garden has continued to produce all that we need throughout the winter, we still have a lot of carrots, they did particularly well last year and despite it having been so wet have stood well, the kale likewise has produced throughout. We had an excellent crop of brussel sprouts although they are now coming to the end, we have been picking them for over four months.
We had a months gap with the chard but that is now regenerating and we have had our first picking, add to that the cabbages and purple kale we have had no shortage. We had an excellent crop of potatoes which will last us beyond the first earlies which have now been planted in the tunnel. We might however run out of onions, we always seem to under estimate how many onions we use in a year.
The broad beans planted last Autumn are now well up so we should be picking them by May. The Rhubarb will be ready for the first picking in a week or so.
Many people consider that food is expensive, yet they spend only about 12% of their income on food, and in the UK, can on average afford to waste around seven hundred pounds a year on dumping food.
This week we decided to have a joint of beef, boned and rolled rib, this came from our local butcher who had bought the animal from a farm just four miles away, this joint will work out to around 1.80 per portion, less than you would pay for a sandwich or half a pint of beer, so it can not be described as expensive. We can also be sure that what we are eating has not traveled from one side of Europe to the other and that we are eating locally produced meat of the highest quality.
In the wake of the horse meat scandal the supermarkets have come in for a lot of criticism, they have now in retaliation blamed local councils for driving food costs down, suggesting that as councils are responsible for school meals, prison and hospital meals it is their demand for cheap food that has lowered the standards and prices, there might be a degree of truth in this, however, supermarkets have been doing this for the last five decades, whereas outside catering for council run establishments is a fairly recent event.
Hi Anne,
ReplyDeleteThe pictures of your garden are wonderful and brings me hope that amid lots of snow, cold and winds spring will too come here soon. Mmmmm the brussel sprouts and you have them for 4 months. Our season for them is shorter.
It seems everyone is blaming someone else for the horsemeat saga. Instead of blaming it would be nice if they would do something about it.
Let the people in prison work. Here is the states some prisons are like resorts. And in most prison they can go to college for free. Lots of our poor and middle class families can't afford to go to college, yet in prison if your term is long enough you can become a lawyer!!!!!!
I hope to try a tunnel this year, hoping that I can grow vegetable throughout the winter.
Blessing to you and yours
Carole
I agree that people in prison should work and I'm sure they would also agree, but being allowed to work is counted as a priviledge. we will have to agree to disagree regarding prisoners being able to get a college education, many of these people have not even finished basic education through their background, at least for people on the outside they have the opportunity to work to pay for thier college education.
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