Sara Ward is celebrating winning two Great Taste awards – one for her honey and one for her Garden Piccalilli – a ‘recipe’ she threw together ten years ago on the hoof, from what vegetables she happened to have available, while being interviewed by a journalist.
Well it clearly it worked, and both are available to buy from Hen Corner in Brentford as well as a range of courses on how to cook good food from scratch yourself.
New Chicks on the Block!
Did you know that commercial egg farmers ‘change’ their chickens every year, as a hen will lay the most eggs between the age of 6-18 months? After 18 months, a farmer can only expect 300 eggs a year, rather than 350, so naturally would prefer to feed new younger birds. Since 300 eggs a year is more than enough for Sara Ward at Hen Corner, she has rehomed some very lucky birds who, like her, are now living the Good Life in Brentford.
It was a delight to welcome Paula Reed of Good Housekeeping Magazine to meet our chickens!
We chatted about the joys and responsibilities of keeping hens and she enjoyed a cuddle or two.
Check out our course Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London
Hen Corner to the rescue
There is a flock of ten hens in Brentford who have no idea how lucky they are. The former commercial egg-layers are becoming less productive with age, but still have many egg-laying years ahead of them, says Sara Ward, so she is resettling them at Hen Corner as their ‘forever home’.
Sara Ward has been at the Ideal Homes exhibition, proselytising about The Good Life.
‘I gave talks every day highlighting the joys of growing our own and keeping bees and chickens for honey and eggs – together these harvests can add up to thousands of pounds worth of food that we can gather in from our urban patches of green’.
A brief burst of warmth have kick started the bees’ activity at Hen Corner and when she hasn’t been running Easter courses, Sara Ward has been decamping bees into new homes. Plus a last minute competition for free tickets to the Ideal Home Show!
Sara’s appearance (on TV) reflects a wider shift we’re seeing across homes and gardens.
More people are looking for ways to make their living spaces work harder for them – from creating beautiful outdoor areas to growing herbs, vegetables and even keeping hens. It’s all part of a growing desire to live more sustainably while getting more enjoyment from our homes.
When the production company who make the ITV show ‘Jimmy and Shivi’s Farmhouse Breakfast’ got in touch to say:
‘We feel that it is important for Shivi Ramoutar to show how food is also being produced in creative ways in her hometown in London.’
We invited her over to Hen Corner, of course!
Sara Ward is living her best life, occupied with sprouting vegetation and reawakening honey bees.
This is her best time of year, she says, when everything in nature is coming to life.
As every day is a little longer, and hopefully warmer, than yesterday, now is the time to start planning all things in the garden. If you dream of scrabbling for new potatoes or picking your own peas, now is the time to get ready.
Our column in this issue of Out & About Magazine focuses on planning your plot and presents our new course Growing the Good Life on Tuesday 24th February