Hen Corner
  • About
  • Courses
    • Online/Virtual Courses
    • Business Start Up
    • Retreats
    • Chickens & Bees
    • Bread & Baking
    • Artisan Food & Drink
    • Preserving
    • Families
    • Christmas
  • Corporate
  • Schools
  • Bakery
  • Honey
  • Media
  • Contact

Hen Corner

  • About
  • Courses
    • Online/Virtual Courses
    • Business Start Up
    • Retreats
    • Chickens & Bees
    • Bread & Baking
    • Artisan Food & Drink
    • Preserving
    • Families
    • Christmas
  • Corporate
  • Schools
  • Bakery
  • Honey
  • Media
  • Contact
Hen Corner

Planning the plot

Blog
| 10th January 2014
We’ve had a full week back at work and 2014 is well underway.

Finished pathways‘What shall we grow this year?’

Was the question that my friend, Matt, asked me over breakfast on New Year’s Day. I was pleased to see that he was eager to begin his plans to spend more time at the family allotment and was impressed to hear of his successful lettuces (Icebergs, don’t you know) and the bumper crop of pumpkins that his daughter, Matilda, had grown last year. Giving good time now to planning your plot and choosing your crops can make all the difference when it comes to harvest time.

Throughout last year, I recorded everything that we produced in the garden at Hen Corner on a Harvestometer with Capital Growth; they were running a campaign for Londoners to grow a Million Meals and we worked out that between the fruit, vegetables, honey and eggs we gathered 200kg of food worth approximately £1,160.00 contributing to 2496 meals! With this under our belts, we’d better get cracking to improve on that in 2014…

Fruit Basket

So how did I answer Matt’s question of what to grow? Well, I suggested a few categories that should ensure your toil in the soil is as rewarding as possible:

  • Favourite foods – See what grows well in our climate (not bananas or pineapples!) and try growing something that you love to eat; french beans are fun, tomatoes are tasty and cucumbers are crunchy
  • Best fresh – Most of the food we buy in the UK is at least a few days old, if not more, and many fruits and vegetables convert their natural sugars into starch once harvested. New potatoes and baby peas are just a couple of crops that taste amazing when freshly picked. Where else can you eat food within minutes of its harvest?
  • High value – Raspberries and redcurrants can be pretty pricey in the shops but growing your own can produce bowl after bowl for many months of the year. We harvested around £35 of raspberries in 2014
  • Perennials – The old faithfuls that feed us year upon year; rhubarb, artichokes, hardy herbs, horseradish, etc. Our favourite is asparagus and, once established, a bed can feed a family every week from April to June. We grew nearly £30 worth of asparagus last year and it was so fresh and tasty.
  • Fruits – These usually harvest every year with the minimum of maintenance, we have apples, pears, peaches, figs, plums and a variety of soft fruit
  • That which stores well – Winter squashes keep for ages in a cool place, rhubarb and runner beans are happy in the freezer, and other foods can be preserved or fermented, hic!

Why not have a go yourself this year? What would be your favourite food to grow?

TM Toast

Coming up at the Corner…

This year we have planned courses right through 2014 giving everyone the opportunity for ‘A little bit of country life in London’. Our next course, on Wednesday 29th January, is right in the middle of the Seville orange season and we invite you to join us to make your own Toast and Marmalade.  Bring your pinny and roll up your sleeves, this special course has been designed to help develop your artisan culinary skills as we create beautiful bread and marvelous marmalade… 

Book of the Blog Post:

Fruit EverydayRiver Cottage Fruit Every Day!

By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

I was very pleased to receive this as a Christmas gift and am sure that it will help me as I resolve to eat more fruit this year; it is the perfect, self packaged, ready meal – yet none of us eat enough…
Let’s hope this book will be the encouragement we need to start getting fruity!

This book is available with many of our other favourites books from the Hen Corner Shop!

  • Other News:

  • I treated the bees with Oxalic Acid to help destroy varroa mites, I chose a warm day and all three colonies seemed happy
  • The chickens have noticed the days getting slightly longer and are laying a few more eggs
  • We enjoyed a wonderful rolled shoulder of pork roasted to perfection last week, and still have loads more in the freezer

Jobs for next week:

  • Give the fruit trees a winter wash and prune
  • Put the finishing touches to our new website
  • Try and build a shelter for our peach tree to protect from leaf curl

 

Have a good week yourself…Hen logo good

Join us on the Journey!

 

Planning the plot was last modified: June 13th, 2016 by hen_admin
beesCapital GrowthChickensCountry Living Magazinecoursesfruitfruit everydaygrow your ownKitchen GardenmarmaladeNew YearRiver CottageToast and Marmalade
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Receive our blog post to your inbox

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 30,043 other subscribers.

SOME OF OUR COURSES:

Simply Sausages (Virtual Course via Zoom)

25th March 2020

We started making our own sausages with the meat from our pig-share in 2013, now we source high quality ingredients and help you select spices and seasonings to make your very own…

Baking Together

12th June 2016

Ready, Steady – Bake! This course will get you kneading, rolling and mixing as we make four recipes together using a variety of baking skills.

Hot Cross Buns (Virtual Course via Zoom)

2nd February 2021

Pop on your pinny and roll up your sleeves, this special course has been designed to help develop your artisan culinary skills as we create beautiful bread together from our London kitchen…

Christmas Baking

22nd September 2016

Join us this festive season to make our Special Stollen, the traditional German sweet bread encasing a rich almond filling, that is folded to represent the infant Christ in his swaddling clothes...

Christmas Wreaths

19th September 2016

Using trimmings from the garden and a selection of ribbons and decorations; this special course has been designed to bring together friends as we make a Christmas Wreath at the beginning of the festive season…

Apricot Advent Wreath (Virtual Course via Zoom)

20th October 2019

Pop on your pinny and roll up your sleeves, this special course has been designed to help develop your artisan culinary skills as we create beautiful bread together from our London kitchen…

Christmas Puddings (Virtual Course via Zoom)

3rd October 2019

Bring your pinny and roll up your sleeves, this special course has been designed to help us usher in Advent as we make our Christmas puddings together...

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

About Hen Corner

We are Hen Corner. We love the bee keepers, the veggie bed diggers, the jam makers and cider drinkers, the chicken fanciers and the real bread bakers. But not just in the deepest darkest countryside or the far, far away villages but right here in our cities and towns.

Recent Posts

  • It’s All About The Bread…
    In Blog
    3rd February 2021
  • It’s a new dawn, It’s a new day…
    In Blog
    11th January 2021
  • 2020 – Our Best Nine
    In Blog
    30th December 2020
  • Merry Christmas from all at Hen Corner!
    In Blog
    22nd December 2020

Twitter Feed

Tweets by @HenCorner

Instagram Slider

We’ve now had our allotment plot for a year and We’ve now had our allotment plot for a year and after months of clearing 8’ brambles and digging up plastic bags of rubble we are starting this season by building raised beds. Thanks to @primedevelopmentslondonltd for transporting the wood planks, @wardybits for planning & building them and @saranov59 for the chocolate cake 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻#teamworkmakesthedreamwork
It’s our big #RealBreadWeek Bake Day! Alongside It’s our big #RealBreadWeek Bake Day!
Alongside our customers orders, I’m also baking 58 loaves to donate to @hounslow_foodbox (many sponsored by our generous customers).
It was an early start, but the sun is shining and we all get good bread!
#wearerealbread
Glad to be back, Glad to be back - Oh oh... . . . Glad to be back, Glad to be back - Oh oh...
.
.
.

#garden #gardening 
#growyourown #organic #natureslarder #urbansmallholding #goodlife
#HenCorner #London #kitchengarden #countryliving #goodlifeinthecity #countryinthecity #explore #explorepage #learn #class #skills #goodlife #allotment #potatoes #potato #spuds
⭐️Giveaway Baking Bundle worth £75!!!⭐️ C ⭐️Giveaway Baking Bundle worth £75!!!⭐️
Celebrating Real Bread Week 20th-28th February 
Win a Hen Corner Fairtrade Apron plus *Two Places* on our ‘Intro to Bread Course’ (virtual) for you and a friend. We’ll also post out a bread scraper each for you to use on the course! 
To enter: 
⭐️Follow us, ⭐️Like this post & ⭐️Tag the friend that you would invite to join you on the course.

Each unique comment tagging a friend = one entry (enter as many times as you like) 

If you get tagged - why not enter as well???

Competition closes midnight 28th Feb, Winner will be drawn by random selection and announced on 1st March 🤞🏻🤞🏻
.
.
.
.
#realbreadweek #realbreadcampaign #wearerealbread #bread #realbread #breadangels #microbakery #learn #class #skills #instabread #brentford #baking #bakinglove #tw8 #chiswick #competition #instagood #win #free #giveaway #freebiesuk #contest #instagramgiveaway #fairtrade
I couldn’t resist sharing this! Today’s mentor I couldn’t resist sharing this!
Today’s mentoring session with our new @breadangels included a #HotCrossBun class 😋😋😋
Oh my, they taste amazing 😍
Learn how to make your own in our Online/Virtual Class (8th March) or swing by our bakery on 26th March or 1st April...
Hip hip hooray! The girls are back in lay... Hip hip hooray!
The girls are back in lay...
Lucky me! @wardybits hunted down a limited edition Lucky me! @wardybits hunted down a limited edition Valentine’s hare from @sharkalley ❤️ 
Now to celebrate his birthday 🎂
Whatever your intentions for this weekend, be that Whatever your intentions for this weekend, be that a spot of self care, a reason to be cheerful, a lockdown supper or a 'little lurve', let me introduce our Spiced Chocolate Babka!

A treat of decadence. Our classic sweet dough rolled around a spiced chocolate crème pâtissière, then split & twisted into a babka. Available as individual treats and/or larger loaves... Full details via Bakery tab of main website...
My *last* 7kg of Seville Oranges, bringing our tot My *last* 7kg of Seville Oranges, bringing our total yield this year (month!) to 180 jars of marmalade... I glance at the food processor, but no, every shred is cut by hand. Samples have gone off to the @marmaladeawards and we are hoping to upgrade our awards from Bronze to Silver this year!
🥉🥉🥈🥈
❄️🦢Saving Swans in Sunday’s Snow🦢❄️
During this afternoon’s walk along the canal, we were happy to help rescue a trio of swans that had become trapped in a local lock. They may have popped in for a sheltered swim when the water level was high, but as water escaped from the lower gates and the level dropped, they were unable to hop out and locks are too short in length for swans to fly out. We arrived as a brave man was trying to break up some stressful fighting deep down behind the lock gate and another couple had called for help and borrowed a lock handle. This allowed us to empty the lock of water before opening the lower gates to set the swans free. We watched the bully swan and it’s spouse swim off to their freedom, but this vulnerable swan unsurprisingly refused to follow. We therefore closed the lower gates and filled the lock up again allowing her to step out at her leisure and dry herself off with a gentle preen... See more at @iamfionaanderson Well done to all involved!
Just some of our loaves baked especially for @houn Just some of our loaves baked especially for @hounslow_foodbox this morning 🤗We bake them first so that they can be delivered to the households within hours... nice & fresh! *Thanks to Nick, our bakery customer, who collects from us for the #foodbank #donate #volunteer
It's All About The Bread... New blog post from Hen It's All About The Bread... New blog post from Hen Corner featuring Weekly Micro Bakery, Online Bread Courses, Sharing the love with @hounslow_foodbox & @realbreadcampaign #ReallBreadWeek!

Find it all via link in bio 🤗
Sorry to share two dinners in a row, but these #Fo Sorry to share two dinners in a row, but these #Fowey mussels from @abelandcole were so amazing!
I’ve ordered more for next week... #sorrynotsorry #seasonalfood #fish #seafood #nomnom
Ooh! Jolly proud of this 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Ooh! Jolly proud of this 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 my first haggis, made with lamb pluck, oatmeal and seasoning, served with neeps, tatties & whiskey cream sauce... #burnsnight
Quick pop to the plot for a mug of tea! Checking a Quick pop to the plot for a mug of tea!
Checking all is well while the kettle is boiling...
Delighting in nature on our Sunday walk... #countr Delighting in nature on our Sunday walk...
#countryinthecity
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Linkedin
  • Youtube
Receive our blog post to your inbox

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 30,043 other subscribers.

Followers

Follow @HenCorner

Subscribers

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 30,043 other subscribers.

  • TripAdvisor

Copyright @ 2018 Hen Corner | Policies & GDPR