[HLS]

Last night I was sitting outside enjoying a three-course meal made with lots of home-grown veg, enjoying the warm weather and listening to the birds singing.  It's my first year and I haven't had wonderful yields so far but it's still a good feeling knowing that I can grow at least some of my own food.

The starter was an apricot and nasturtium flower salad (wonderful combination of flavours, incidentally - made up on the spur of the moment because I accidentally pulled up a nasturtium plant and had a couple of bought apricots to use up), with three types of homegrown lettuce and homegrown nasturtiums.  Main course was free-range chicken baked with homegrown thyme, with homegrown potatoes, homegrown chard, my first ever homegrown carrots and homegrown mangetout.  Pudding was thick natural yoghurt with homemade gooseberry (grown by friends and picked by me) compote.

Now, of course, I'm worrying about whether my beans are actually going to flower, and what to do with the three kale plants sitting in pots as I'm not sure quite how to fit netting round the only spare ground on the plot...

[Elcie]

mmmm that sounds delicious!  It is wonderful when you harvest and eat food that you have grown yourself.  Priceless!

[Beetroot queen]

Thats the moment when you can feed all those tired and starving muscles, it is worth it and if it wasn't most of us would still have fun trying 

[aelf]

sounds delicious! When can we all come round for tea? 

[shay]

Have to agree, its not so much how much you grow but being able to say to some extent that you are self sufficient. I am lucky or unlucky depends on how you look at it, we have 3 plots next to each other when no one else wnted them. Only about 25% of the plots are in working order at the moment, whilst the rest is worked on however that 25% is starting to save us money in terms of trips to the supermarket, I am getting fit, kids have somewhere to go during the summer holidays and coupled with the fact we have 5 chickens, all I need now is some pigs, cows and sheep, although I suspect the council so may say no, so I am almost there on full self sufficency.

[HLS]

aelf: how about when I've got that courgette glut everyone keeps warning me about!

shay: good luck with all that!  Sounds like you've got a lot to do, but I hope it's fun.

It is such a good feeling when you can look at your dinner and say 'I grew that!'

[aelf]

aelf: how about when I've got that courgette glut everyone keeps warning me about!

shay: good luck with all that!  Sounds like you've got a lot to do, but I hope it's fun.

It is such a good feeling when you can look at your dinner and say 'I grew that!'

I can bring the courgettes - we have loads!