Sara Ward

While the days are still long and mostly warm, nature is on the home run to finish the season well.
Our column in this issue of Out & About Magazine delights in our autumn harvest and shares a recipe for our Courgette & Cumin Chutney…

This month we celebrate the changing colours of autumn and recognise that early morning chills are a whisper to tell us that the seasons are changing whilst darker evenings find us searching for cosy light.
Different seasons bring different responsibilities, but all with worthwhile reward.

The shorter days, with the occasional need for a jumper, points to cosy evenings around the fire, cheese and wine with a movie and homemade bread and soup. Here at Hen Corner, with our winter squash curing and our sourdough starter well fed, we’ve got it all…

This month is all about gathering in cabbages and pumpkins, getting some repairs done at the allotment and installing a rainwater harvesting system on the top of the shed to make life easier next summer.
When we ‘grow our own’ we save money, reduce our carbon footprint and enjoy both the time outside and the fruits of our labour.

Chickens and chutney are Sara’s two overriding preoccupations this month. Chickens, because it is the time of year when she deep cleans their housing, keeping an eye on their annual moult, and chutneys, because they are one of the best ways to preserve fruit and vegetables, which currently she has in abundance.
Read how we enjoy early autumn at Hen Corner on The Chiswick Calendar website.

I enjoyed an hour or so at the allotment this afternoon and was reminded of my initial aims for the plot, ‘Fruit Trees and Honey Bees’. We grow salads and delicate crops in the kitchen garden at home, but things that don’t need daily care, like potatoes, climbing beans and squashes can grow slow and steady down by the riverside. This year we’ve got two hives with honey crops at the allotment and today I was picking apples and sloes for preserving and seeing what else will be ready soon…

This month is all about preserving our wonderful harvests, there’s even an extra three pages of recipes including our famous Apple & Chilli Jelly, Garden Piccalilli (both holding Great Taste Awards) and a wonderful Spiced Beetroot & Orange Chutney…
When we ‘grow our own’ we save money, reduce our carbon footprint and enjoy both the time outside and the fruits of our labour.

This month, I’m looking around at All things bright and beautiful…
Enjoying nature and encouraging us all to care for our environment
Read how we enjoy late summer at Hen Corner on The Chiswick Calendar website.

After a couple of weeks holiday, I’ve returned to a very overgrown kitchen garden! Before we left I was careful to make sure that the chickens were being looked after, each honeybee colony was stable and everything that needed watering, pots, window boxes and the like, were moved under a watering system in the veg patch. The added combination of recent sunshine and regular rainfall has set the plants up for a crazy growth spurt.

This August issue of Gardeners’ World Magazine includes the eighth part of my series ‘Growing the Good Life’.
The veg plot is offering more food than we can eat a the moment and we need to plan our preserving schedule to ensure that we enjoy as much of it as possible. Regular watering is so important this month, especially if we go away on holiday…