Purple PawPaw

On bank holiday monday we went for a ‘Wild Food Walk’. This was organised by a group that we are part of called Buck the Trend (BTT) that is aiming to get people to think about living more kindly on the earth, looking at alternative energy, transport, cutting costs and food related things. This has included looking for some land, talking with people from different groups about how they have accquired land for planting, meeting with people doing fantastic and amazing things in terms of living more simply and small holding and now eating from the hedgerows.

The walk was led by Fiona Campbell who largely feeds her family from the wild. We were encouraged to try things and were also shown poisonous plants which should not be tried at all. We came back with a basket of goodies which formed our dinner for the evening – and with some BBQ meat (foraged from the butcher) and a little light dressing it was lovely. We have said we would collect more food this way, as yet we haven’t made time, but I look forward to another salad sometime soon.

We’ve been to the Devon Show for the past two years and decided to go again. The weather held and we bumped into a number of friends making us feel that Devon really is home. Managed to do some research on bee keeping, clay ovens and pigs as well as having to sample many of  Devon’s exceptional culinary delights.

Below are some photos of the exciting day we had….

Our allotment is growing excellent grass, chickens have had to have their wings clipped after escaping and digging up all our bean seedlings and we are planning great things for later in the summer…watch this space…

We grow potatoes, grass and rhubarb!

The scaffolding is down and you can see that the painting continues, we had some wet weather early on this week which halted things a bit but otherwise everyday the house feels more and more like ours.

The great reveal as the scaffolding at the front of the house comes down

Nearly all the green has gone!

Apparently this is the wooden anniversary – but as we have lots of wood already – see ‘Neighbours’ – we decided to celebrate mostly by eating!

We went to Cornwall where we ate Friday lunch at Restauraunt Nathan Outlaw and quite honestly wanted to spend the day discussing what an amazing meal it had been. Highly recommended – and although I am not entirely an expert in this area from what I can see well worth the rising 2 star Michelin rating!

Onto Boscastle where we stayed at a fabulous B and B – The Old Parsonage - where we were well cared for. A lovely walk across the Stitches into the village in the evening.

Following morning we were again well fed at The Old Parsonage and onto Padstow where Rick Stein has his empire.

More food – this time at St Petroc’s Bistro. It was great – informal, large quantities, well cooked – but even I was beginning to think I may have overdone it a bit as was probably not as appreciative as I would have been had I not had Nathan and Margaret and Morag already having cooked us fabulous food.

Great weekend and a lovely anniversary treat – but its good to come home for a rest!

Did you know it flowered?

If yours does cut it off immediately – apparently it stops the plant wanting to grow and therfore the end of your source of a delicious crumble!

We have new neighbours, actually we have had them since October but over the winter we don’t spend too much time outside, plus the way our house and theirs is positioned means that we rarely would bump into them.

Anyway – we did meet them today and they seemed very pleasant and lovely – but most especially as they have felled quantities of trees in their garden and saved the wood for us – even though they hadn’t met us before – what amazing kindness!

We are now the proud owners of a new and glorious woodpile!

So said Keats – it seems Autumn is proving to be slightly a season of disappointment – at least in the garden – tomatoes all green, butter nut squash not yet ready, apples small and wasp ridden.

However despite this we are managing to forage for things and live contentedly. We have squashed apples to make cider (an exciting experiment) and apple juice (sharp bu lovely) and have stewed loads for apple sauce through the year. Our beetroot are lovely and the PSB looks like it might do some good.

We have been offered a 1/3 of  an allotment to share with our neighbours. This is quite thrilling and I hope will give some more balance to life in what could otherwise be an entirely work orientated life.