Author Archives: james

Winter salads costs

Posted on November 15, 2020 by james

I recalled whilst writing my last post that I intended to work out the costs for producing the winter salads. I’ve therefore been back through all my order confirmation emails and here they are: Compost £6.00 Mushroom trays £19.50 Newspaper … Continue reading →

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Veg plot 2020: Fourth pick of winter salads

Posted on November 15, 2020 by james

My wife asked me to pick some salad today to go with our meal this evening. I was going to leave it a little longer as growth has quite obviously slowed down now and I suspect we’re not far off … Continue reading →

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Today I have “chainsaw back”

Posted on November 15, 2020 by james

Last winter we had a large beech tree cut down. It could easily have been close to 100 years old, but there wasn’t any way to tell as it was also hollow. The base of the tree had started to … Continue reading →

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And now the pasteurising is also done

Posted on November 12, 2020 by james

Pasteurising 140+ bottles twenty at a time certainly takes a while. But happily it is now all done and I just need to find somewhere to store all those bottles for the next six months or so whilst we drink … Continue reading →

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Finally finished bottling…

Posted on November 10, 2020 by james

After six or seven hours over the last three days I’ve finally filled the last bottle with apple juice. One hundred and forty five 75cl bottles, to be precise, so almost 109 litres or a shade under 24 UK gallons. … Continue reading →

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Veg plot 2020: Third pick of winter salads

Posted on November 8, 2020 by james

Wandering through the veggie plot during the week I’d seen the salads in the greenhouse and didn’t think there’d be much to pick this weekend, so I was quite surprised by the number of leaves available when I went to … Continue reading →

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Once again it’s apple-pressing day

Posted on November 8, 2020 by james

I posted a month back that we’d collected apples for pressing, but until today we’d not actually got around to doing the hard work. I estimated that we had 250kg to 300kg of apples ready to be pressed and today … Continue reading →

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A new fungus on me

Posted on November 8, 2020 by james

A couple of days ago whilst out in the garden I noticed a strange fungus in the grass that I’ve never seen before. Turns out their common name is “earth tongues”. Other mushrooms are quite common in our lawns, but … Continue reading →

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Swimming, 4th November 2020

Posted on November 4, 2020 by james

Another awkward day, but much better than earlier this week. I was sharing the lane with two swimmers of a similar pace and slightly slower than me, swimming continuously. So mostly I could avoid them, but every so often I’d … Continue reading →

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Swimming, 3rd November 2020

Posted on November 4, 2020 by james

I struggled today. Partly because the speeds of other swimmers in the lane made it difficult to stay on track with my set, but I think mostly because I just didn’t feel great. I stuck at it as best I … Continue reading →

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