our little pepper

We went on a plant-buying spree a while back and among our

purchases were two Habanero pepper plants. I don't consider my fingers to be a particularly deep shade of green, so I was surprised and delighted when this plant bore a little pepper. It gradually ripened to a pretty orange colour, and we decided the moment had come to try out its heat qualities. Despite its minute size, it flavoured a batch of chilli pretty well. Both plants are currently sporting a pretty array of little white flowers, so I'm holding out high hopes for another crop in the future. It's not quite living off the land, but hey, it's a start!

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Hosting Thanksgiving

OK, I have to confess. This will be a very boring Thanksgiving story. Everything went right and it was a lovely day. For an interesting story you need a few things going wrong. I heard a couple of interesting stories this year - like the one about mis-measuring bourbon to go in the stuffing. Apparently if you put far too much in, all the alcohol doesn't boil off. Or the one about going to cook dinner at an Asian friend's house, and discovering at the last minute that she doesn't have any baking trays, and it's quite difficult to roast a turkey in a wok. But as I said, we didn't have so much as a lumpy gravy panic. Where's my food??? We're working on it, baby! So what do you want to know? Well, it was my first Thanksgiving dinner cooked on American soil. Back when I was free and single and shared a house with lots of people who liked to eat, I got into the habit of celebrating the American feast for a few years, until the...

Anticipating

Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. Song of Songs 7:11-12 The Bible passage comes first today, because it sets that tone of anticipation so well. Let's go see! Are there buds yet? Are the flowers starting to open? Is anything in full bloom? I love the anticipation of spring flowers. First the dainty bobbing snowdrops, then the rainbow spikes of crocuses and the golden trumpets of daffodils. Then the trees get in on the act. The ornamental cherry with its over-exuberance of pink fluffy blossom is my favourite, and the waxy white magnolia which lasts for too short a time. Every year the same pattern, and every year somethi...

How does your garden grow? Spring 2017

Isn't it exciting when little seeds you've planted start cautiously unfurling stalks and leaves, and turning into proper plants? Most of my vegetable planting is now done for the spring, so I thought I'd update you with what's in this year. I used some plastic sheets to turn my vegetable boxes into mini greenhouses, which I'd like to think helped with the germinating process. One unexpected thing which sprouted were half a dozen courgette plants, which I assume are the same ones that never came up last year. I transplanted them to some pots, where one has already been savaged by slugs. The seeds that I did expect were spring onions, carrots and rocket, which have duly come up in neat little rows. I haven't tried carrots before; they're supposed to be good companions for spring onions in some mutually beneficial way, so I'll put in another couple of rows soon and see how they go. tiny spring onions and carrots tomatoes and rocket ...

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

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