Uncategorized | with knife and fork

Aubergine tragedy

In early September I was wondering whether my mini aubergine would get large enough to harvest…. it was quite small back then as you can see in my Teeny tiny aubergine post.

Well it did grow quite well and it looked lovely and glossy and like it might be a winner.

Then something awful happened….

The snails that had been plaguing the runner beans got to it.

I was able to salvage about half of it.

Not really enough for a moussaka.

And possibly the most expensive half aubergine ever.

Not sure I’ll try again next year.

Wintery Woollies for Wool Week

via knitrowan.com

After a few days of Indian summer the weather has gone rather cool and chilly.

So I’ve been thinking about toasted tea cakes, warm Ribena and snuggly woolly jumpers.

A tip off from @SaltYardBooks about this natural undyed collection of British wool made me head to the Rowan site.

I really quite want this cardigan in their Steel Grey Suffolk wool.

Except I am the worlds slowest knitter. So I might just have to dream.

Tasty Lancashire

Tasty Lancashire is a cheese.

From Lancashire, which might seem obvious, but in these days of Cheddar from just about anywhere and PDO stuff you never know.

Not all Lancashire cheese is Tasty even if it tastes very good.

Traditional Lancashire is either Creamy (aged 4-12 weeks) or Tasty (aged from 12 weeks to 2 years). Crumbly is some latter day invention of factory production.

Anyway.

A few weeks ago it was British Cheese Week.

I don’t need a special week to want to eat British cheese, any day any week suits me just fine.

To make cheese week more special though the nice people at Butlers Farmhouse Cheese sent me some of their Tasty Lancashire.

Wow. This is the Tasty Lancashire of my childhood. Creamy buttery texture but strong tang.

Not for the fainthearted.

But what Lancashire lass or lad is fainthearted huh?

Now I just need a London stockist, or courier delivery weekly.

A bit potty about Copped Hall, Epping

Row on row of pots awaiting planting…..

I spotted these yesterday in the amazing walled garden at Copped Hall near Epping.

It’s a fantastic place.

I took lots of pictures so watch out for more highlights from this 18C manor that’s in the process of being restored.

It really truly is fascinating. Go if you can.

Coffee time fashion

So those of you who are regular readers here or follow me on twitter know that coffee forms a large part of my day.

Everyday.

It’s an important ritual. Mostly accompanied by chocolate.

But now I’ve found the perfect thing to wear as well.

Look:

What’s not to like?

If you are quick you might be able to bag one too from Howies here (it’s their T shirt of the month so limited quantities)

Snail invasion

Despite trying all sorts of methods to keep the snails off our already low yielding crops this year, sometimes the snails just win.

Like this one munching on a runner bean.

Grrrr…..

Beautiful borlotti bean pods

This year I grew borlotti beans.

I had four plants and you might remember I posted about them when they were very small.

Well they grew. And they had lovely pale pink flowers. And beans.

And eventually the beans had lovely stripey pods.

Then I harvested them.

There were 11 bean pods in total.

Which yielded 40 beans.

They do look beautiful don’t they.