Our latest post on The Chiswick Calendar outlines the highlights of our most popular course Introduction to Making Bread
This week, I’ve run my favourite course, Introduction to Making Bread, not once – but twice, and also spent a whole day with a local primary school teaching their Year 3 pupils how to make bread – yes all 90 children took home their own loaf that they made by hand with me…
Dearest Gentle Reader, I have heard a secret that I simply must pass on to you – apparently, the abundance of rain (that I’ve been apologising for over recent months) is following the sports scheduling!
Here’s a throwback to a short film that we made for Country Living Magazine, as part of Celebrate At Home with Country Living virtual event which took place in May…
Wheat is Neat!
I’ve sown a field – a field of wheat! Sorry if I’ve already told you about it (if you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen some photos and reels) – I’ve been telling everybody because I’m really excited about it. I mean it is a small field, six square metres, but I’m ‘actually’ growing wheat in my back garden and I’m going to tend it, harvest it, thresh it, mill it and bake it into a loaf of bread – oooh, I feel like Little Red Hen!
Come on you Bees!
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s with great pleasure that I officially announce that this year’s Bee Keeping Season is officially open!
With it always being a little warmer in London, Spring seems to start a little earlier (if you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen that our first spears of asparagus peeped through almost a month early in mid March) and the bees have been out foraging for a plethora of local nectar for many weeks already. Read the full post here.
Some you lose…
One day last month when I was checking that the chickens had food and water, I did a quick head count and discovered one missing from the middle flock. I worked out which one by process of elimination and when I opened up the hen house, found her cold and dead. It’s always sad, but I reassured myself that she’d had a long life, most dates seem to be classified as pre or post pandemic nowadays, and can’t have been very ill or in much pain as she’d been running around the garden just the day before. Click through for full post with brighter news!
Introducing the first of our new regular posts on The Chiswick Calendar:
Learning lessons and looking forward
As we hunker down, whilst the nights are still long and the fairy lights have been packed away, we have the opportunity to look at the year ahead, as a blank canvas, and dare to dream before the weeks turn into months and the fruit trees are in blossom again.
The Country Smallholder Magazine has featured our Urban Smallholding in it’s magazine, and whilst I can definitely identify with the other pieces on poultry and preserving your harvest, I think the pages on big machinery and tractor reviews is a bit beyond our London back garden!
What a lovely surprise to see Hen Corner featured as a main attraction at the Country Living Christmas Fair in Harrogate this week – Can’t wait!
Sharon Smith found out about Hen Corner when she visited RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival earlier this year. We were there with a few of our hens promoting the book…