Connecting to Earth~Grow your Own

Honour the sacred.

Honour the Earth, our Mother.

Honour the Elders.

Honour all with whom we share the Earth:-

Four-legged, two-legged, winged ones,

Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people.

Walk in balance and beauty.

~ Native American Elder ~

Just where have the last few days flown too? These last few days seem to have been hectic with my day job, harvesting, and granny sitting which I just love.  Above you can see how my little granddaughter not yet 3 loves to interact with nature… I am trying to teach her not to be afraid of the creepy crawlies and she had this little fellow crawling up over her arms for over 20 mins as she helped us in the allotments…The caterpillar got safely put back in the grass as she gently lifted him, and now knows that caterpillars poo too as she discovered . 

I seem to have discovered my love of cooking all over again too, and even Hubby who is usually the head cook, has opened his eyes wide at my new found urge to bake more often.. Maybe its the changes in energies as my creative mood seems to have had another boost… So  I will share a couple of recipes with you later in the post.

Ok so remember those Lovely butterflies we have had over Summer?

Peacock Butterfly in our Garden

well we also have had our share of the caterpillars and while some in the allotments have sprayed chemicals to get rid of them, we do not use anything like that so its been a case of share and share alike!.

Devoured by Caterpillars

Remember this when I showed you the lattice leaves on the Brussels sprouts ?

Caterpillar Heaven. Herbert the scare-crow, couldn’t scare the caterpillar’s 🙂 The sprouts are just visible below

Well my hubby set two and stripped off the leaves which were covered in our little friends and then I went and did the same along the cabbage row.

Removed the caterpillar eaten leaves..

I removed all the outer eaten leaves eaten by the caterpillars

The potatoes are now all dug up, we had  around 10 rows, and some are still drying out in the shed awaiting to be sorted, but we should have around 8 large sacks full.. These sacks hold up to 25kl and have only been filled half way or we would not be able to lift them ..

Potatoes Drying

5 sacks of potatoes, onions and Apples in store

Yesterday we gathered the last of the sweetcorn in, and that is now all safely frozen. we cleared weeds and hoed where the onions were and potatoes were harvested from

Below you can see the sweetcorn patch along with the Leeks and spring onions we set between them. 

Harvest clearance … Sweet corn Patch and leeks in background- Beets in foreground 

 

We are lucky in the fact that we have some wonderful Blackberry brambles around the back of our Allotment shed and have had an abundance of Berries we have picked this year.. In fact upon my travels I have seen many brambles in hedgerows, but would not fancy picking them from the roadside with all of those exhaust fumes which are deposited upon them.

So I made a wonderful Blackberry and Apple Chutney, the recipe you can find HERE. as I added it to my recipe pages you can find on the top bar under Home Cooked Recipes

Then as we have had an abundance of Beetroot my daughter has been adding them to her smoothies and I tried out the Potato and Beetroot gratin which I had never tried before, and we loved it, and I will be making it again..  You can find this recipe HERE upon my Recipe Page.

On the home front in the green house the tomatoes are coming along now nicely as they are ripening, so that green chutney may not be needed. 

Green house Tomatoes

Ripening Tomatoes

I may be quiet again for a time as another busy couple of days coming up again.. I hope you give those recipes a try I was amazed how easy they were to make and they both add that little extra something special to a meal.

Until next time take care and be good to each other..Oh and I am still wading thought the back log of all of your posts 

~Sue~