FLOWER POT KITCHEN: MY GLORIOUS GARDEN SMALL HOLDING BEFORE DURING AND AFTER THE PIGS

6 Apr 2013

MY GLORIOUS GARDEN SMALL HOLDING BEFORE DURING AND AFTER THE PIGS

TIME TO PUT THE GARDEN BACK TO A GARDEN FOR THE SUMMER

This is the first day our piglets arrived and our garden still resembled a garden, we were completely prepared for mud and lots of it, but I did find having the wettest year on record in over a hundred years a little bit of a challenge, mainly due to the personal pressure we had put on ourselves not to have any smell, as we are urban mini garden small holders in a very built up area and out of respect to our neighbours most of who have been outstanding and loved our pigs, we have had so many families in our garden meeting and petting the pigs and our fabulous neighbours opposite said they have really enjoyed watching ten's of cars pull up and people getting out and looking through the gap in the hedge at the pigs and then driving off,

Mud glorious mud...

5 ton of earth and 45 sq metres of fresh turf and a days hard work and the garden already looks almost back to itself. Now just to grass seed where the chickens have scratched and we have walked bald areas over winter and the garden will be all done until next time !!!

In all we have really loved having the pigs for 5 months, and really look forward to doing this again, but this time hopefully we wont have to extend the pig run as we hope to have our pigs from August till December, when it will be drier rather then October to March and not to have Tamworth crosses, (ploughs on legs), we will go with the breed we originally wanted Gloucestershire Old Spots, nice old squat noses that take their time to rootle.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.