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The Great Courgette Glut. Season: July and August

August 15, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Next year, when I’m sowing courgette seeds, will someone please remind me that eight courgette plants are far too many?

The great courgette glut

Someone over on The Bridge Cottage Way Facebook page suggested this week that courgette seeds be sold strictly in packets of three to avoid overplanting. I think they have a point.

We’ve had a few takers for homegrown courgettes and cucumbers from the table outside Bridge Cottage. We are dripping in them and it’s courgettes with everything at the moment.

August Harvest Minestone

We’re making minestrone and ratatouille for the freezer and adding courgettes to risotto and ragu. This week I make a courgette and chocolate traybake cake, which has gone down a treat. Our youngest son usually shuns courgettes but has gone back to his own house today with a box of courgette and chocolate cake tucked under his arm. Another hit was the courgette and cheddar soda loaf from BBC Good Food.

Courgettes are being added to risottos and curries – I love a prawn and courgette curry, and soups are being made to go in the freezer for the winter months. I’ve just shared a photo of courgette, tomato and basil soup bubbling away in the pan over on Twitter (@suereedwrites) and had a request for the recipe, so here it is:

Courgette, Lentil, Tomato and Basil Soup.

Courgette, Tomato, Lentil & Basil Soup

I onion, finely chopped.

1.5 pints veg stock

100 g red lentils

2 courgettes

400g tin chopped tomatoes

handful fresh basil

Gently fry the chopped onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add veg stock, tomatoes and lentils, bring to a boil and cook for ten minutes. Add courgettes and chopped basil and cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper then blitz to a smooth soup.

Easy peasy! My friend Ann has been making potato, courgette, cheddar and fennel seed soup, so I must give that a whirl! Don’t be afraid to experiment with your soups, and do share your successes on our social media channels. I’ve shared the minestrone recipe in a separate post.

From the goddess of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson’s easy courgette pasta sauce is a family hit, and today I’ve made sweet potato and courgette bhajis for lunch. I thought I’d share the recipe for those with you here. It’s really very simple. I’ve added sweet potato, but you could add grated carrot or any other veg, or keep it simple and just use courgette.

Courgette Bhajis

Courgette Bhajis

serves 4

2 medium courgettes (or 1 courgette and half a sweet potato or small carrot)

1 medium onion

2 tsp each cumin, coriander, turmeric

half tsp chilli powder or half finely chopped chilli (optional)

3 tbsp gram flour

sparkling water to mix

4 tbsp vegetable oil

Courgette Bhajis

Grate the veg and chop the onion. Mix well with the spices and season with salt and pepper. mix in the flour and enough sparkling water to bind it all together – about 4 tbsp.

Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy-based frying pan and fry on each side til golden brown. Drain and serve with seasonal salad.

Harvest Time Minestrone.

August 1, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

August Harvest Minestone

Minestrone making is one of the joys of late summer’s harvest time. A seasonal recipe that freezes well, is a meal in a bowl and brings a welcome reminder of summer in the depths of winter. I first wrote this piece on the first of August and Lammas, the pagan celebration of the harvest. This bountiful collection of vegetables was gathered from the Bridge Cottage garden yesterday.

We’re just back from a trip away and we’ve come home to some courgettes of marrow proportion. Courgettes are still in their ‘glut’ season, and I’ve written a separate post giving some seasonal recipes for courgettes. Here, in minestrone, they can be added in chunks along with seasonal tomatoes. Both of these are covered in separate posts to give more inspiration for seasonal eating.

Our broad beans are past their best now, leathery in texture, so are shelled. It’s a bit of a phaff, but well worth it. Simply blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water, then plunge into a bowl of cold water with ice. The skins will then be easy to squeeze and the tender insides squashed out.

I also like to skin the tomatoes – it’s up to you if you want to make a passata or keep them in chunks.

Here is our minestrone recipe, though feel free to adapt according to what you have ripe and ready, and vary the amounts if you don’t have as much veg ready and ripe. We like to cook in bulk and freeze, so this will make around ten generous portions:

August Harvest Minestrone

Bridge Cottage Minestrone

(Makes ten portions – enough to keep some in the fridge and freeze the rest for winter)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

3 red peppers

Handful each of French, Runner, Borlotti beans, chopped.

Broad beans

1 kg ripe tomatoes

4 courgettes

Chopped fresh herbs eg oregano, parsley, basil.

2 litres stock (chicken or vegetable)

100g small pasta – we like little star-shaped Stellete but Orzo works well too.

Salt and pepper

Method

Shell the broad beans and remove skins by blanching for two minutes in boiling water, then plunging into a bowl of iced water. Squeeze to remove outer shells.

Prepare the tomatoes: Simply score with a sharp knife then put in a heatproof bowl, and cover with boiling water. Leave for a couple of minutes, then drain. Peel off the skins once cold enough to handle, and whizz them up in a blender to give a beautiful tomato sauce. If you don’t like the pips, then pass through a sieve. Alternately, skin then chop into rough chunks for a chunkier soup.

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and gently cook the onion, adding the tomatoes, peppers, beans, chopped herbs and stock. Bring everything to the boil and cook for five minutes before adding the chopped courgettes, crushed garlic and pasta. Cook for a further ten minutes or until the pasta is done. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy warm, then cool the rest for the freezer, putting in recycled plastic bags or tubs, and labelling with the date. You’ll be glad you went to the bother in darkest January!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

How to build a hotbox for propagation, early seed sowing and growing

February 27, 2021/0 Comments/in Outdoors, Sustainable Living, The Bridge Cottage Garden, Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Hotbox propagation

Making a hotbox may well be the answer if are you chomping at the bit to get the growing season started, It’s still February and last week we had snow. However, the sun started shining this week after a long Winter. We are still in Lockdown due to the pandemic and goodness knows we are longing to get growing again. Last year’s lockdown seemed so much easier to bear, with veggies to grow and gardens to tend, but we must remember it is still Winter!

Hotbox propagation. for early seed sowing and growing

Last year Tim built a hot box for the greenhouse, and it’s brilliant! We can set seeds away and grow then on without fear of the frost getting to them. I know some of you who have seen pictures of this on the Bridge Cottage Way Facebook page have asked how he made it, so here you go.

It’s quite simple. We got the idea and all the help we needed from Jungle Seeds.

You will need a greenhouse or cold frame and a source of electricity. We have run an outdoor extension lead from the garage into the greenhouse. We have taken care to cover any electrical parts with a bucket so avoid accidents when watering!

The heat comes from Bio Green Soil Warming cables. available from Jungle Seeds.

Building a hotbox for early seed sowing a propagation

We started by building a wooden box. The bottom was taken from an old dining room table, and the sides, off-cuts of plywood. You may want to build something smaller, a tray for example. In this first picture, you can see it has been covered on the outside by insulation. We used this insulation as we had it hanging around after building the sauna. You might want to use polystyrene, or Kingspan. Use what you have!

Building a hotbox for early seed sowing and propagation

Next, add a layer of sand, and then lay the cables on top of that. We got the Bio Green Warming Cables from Jungle Seeds, and you’ll see that they give basic instructions too for building a hotbox.

The cable is normally laid in runs 3″ to 4″ apart. This layout will allow you to raise the soil temperature by 11-13 C, above the greenhouse ambient. Higher temperatures can be achieved by laying the cable runs as close together as 5cm. In this case, a thermostat should be used to precisely control the soil temperature to avoid overheating.

After laying the cables, cover again with another layer of sand. Water all this well. It needs to be kept moist to give good heat transference.

building hot box propagation, early seed sowing and growing

building a hot box for propagation, early seed sowing and growing

A top tip is to cover the plug socket and thermostat with an upturned bucket. This prevents any water from getting in the electrics when watering the greenhouse!

At night, a layer of bubble wrap can go over the top to tuck your baby plants in.

building a hot box for propagation, early seed sowing and growing

That’s all there is to it! We’ve set leeks, board beans, chillies, lettuce and tomatoes away already and they are growing well in the hot box. You can see I’ve used sawn-off juice bottles as seed pots – waste not, want not!

Do get in touch if you have any questions!

Wishing you a very happy growing season.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

July 2020 Blog – Summer at Bridge Cottage

August 6, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

July 2020 in The Bridge Cottage Garden

Welcome to the July 2020 blog, where we look back at life in the Bridge Cottage garden and kitchen over the past month, and our attempts to live a more sustainable life in this summer month.

It’s been a wet and cold July up here in Northumberland, and we’ve been wondering where summer went to. I think we had it back in May! I hear the south is basking in hot sunshine, but as I write this, it’s grey and windy, and two of our sunflowers have just blown down. Never mind, we have sunshine to look forward to this weekend, and the garden is in full bloom, with dahlias and lilies coming into their own, and tall sunflowers reaching for the sky, turning their faces to look for the sun.

Hexham Fresh Food Bank Donation

We are very grateful for our garden during these difficult Covid-19 times. Growing your own food has never been so important, and we’re delighted to hear of many of you planting out allotments and veg plots for the first time. We’ve continued to support our local Food Bank, dropping off donations for the Hexham Fresh Food Bank Group. This is a great scheme; food poverty being a tragic part of life for so many in our communities

The lockdown was eased after a fashion, but we still kept ourselves very much to ourselves. Having kept out of the supermarkets during the lockdown, we found our shopping habits continued in this vein, and with so much ready in the garden, we have been eating very simply indeed. In Hexham, we have some great independent shops, which have seen us buying cheese, butter, olives & cream for our local Deli at Number 4, and rice, pasta, coffee and other basics from the new Refill Shop on Market Street. We have a fabulous Farmer’s Market in Hexham town centre too.

July saw us engage with Plastic Free July, and whilst we’ve always been keen to reduce our use of plastic (one of the reasons we steer clear of supermarkets where possible), this month we really looked at the plastic in our home and made a few more changes to our habits.

Plastic Free July – Who Gives a Crap

Toilet rolls are an ongoing debate with many, and discussions took place over on our Facebook and Instagram accounts about where the bamboo is sourced, that so much of ethical toilet roll is made from, where it is made, and how it is shipped. We bought a box of ‘Who Gives a Crap’ and very much like that their rolls are made from recycled paper, and that this past year they donated 3.2 million pounds to help provide sanitation in communities where it is lacking.

Plastic-Free-July

Refill shops are a great way of saving plastic, and we’ve made the switch to solid shampoo bars, and refills for washing-up liquid and other household cleaning products. We’ve also now got a pile of reusable wipes in the bathroom for when our granddaughter has her nappy changes or if we need a freshen up, made by cutting up an old towel. A handy bag hangs on the loo roll holder, and they are washed, ready to be used again.

There are so many other ways single-use plastic can be reduced – our local Eco Home shop, Matthais Winter, will take toothpaste tubes for recycling, and has a huge range of products. We recently needed new clothes pegs and found some wooden ones there.

Spinach and Eggs

The garden is now being bountiful, with so many wonderful veggies and fruit. We’ve eaten some glorious meals using spinach and kale and discovered Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe for Spouffle in his book, Veg. The Bridge Cottage chickens are laying well, so spinach quiches and omelettes are regulars on the table. Courgettes are coming thick and fast, and the red onions and shallot lifted, thanks to our little helper, the Lady of Shallot.

The Lady of Shallot

Nasturtium Pesto Ingredients

Pam Corbin in her book, Preserves, gives a wonderful nasturtium pesto recipe, which we had with roast chicken, cooked in our outdoor wood-fired oven.

Redcurrant and Almond Cake

July is the month for soft fruit, and we’ve picked pounds of raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. I discovered a great recipe for a redcurrant cake from Mrs Portly’s Kitchen, and an equally wonderful blackcurrant cheesecake from Gill Meller’s fabulous book Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower. We have enjoyed some warm days, and homemade ice-cream – so much better than shop-bought!

Many have been jam and jelly making in earnest – I’ve made a batch of redcurrant jelly, but apart from that have been too busy gardening or writing content for this new website, so all the soft fruit picked has gone into the freezer. Tim will soon be making raspberry and blackcurrant vinegar, and I’ll make up batched of summer fruit compote to have with our homemade yoghurt in the mornings, or on porridge. You’ll find a recipe for Raspberry Jam over in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen.

Summer Herbal Tea

We’re continuing to dry herbs for use over winter and make our own herbal teas. July is seeing me use calendula, borage, mint and lemon balm in a delicious tea. We’re also drinking a lot of cucumber water – with a bit of fizz from the soda stream. I had a friend over for a socially distanced cup of tea (how I’ve missed my friends during lockdown) and took this as an opportunity to make a batch of herby shortbread. This time I used calendula and borage, but have also had great success with calendula and thyme or lavender shortbread.

Seeds for Winter Veg

Now is also a great time to sow winter salad, bulb fennel, winter cabbages, all year round cauliflower, spinach, kale and sprouting broccoli, which will sprout in the early Spring. The long days are still here, and once onions are lifted, and potatoes dug, there will be space for these late summer sowings. I think we get so excited in Spring and can plant massive amounts of seeds, then successional sowing can sometimes go out of the window. I’m off this afternoon to pop some fennel seedlings in the ground, next to the squash. I wrote about companion planting this month. our vegetables are like us, they have friends they’d rather be with than others, That is one reason for all the nasturtiums, borage and calendulas in the garden, They make great companions for many plants.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are ripening nicely in the greenhouse, and in next month’s instalment, I’ll let you know how we make our own passata and ‘sun’ dried tomatoes. It’s a daily job to keep everything watered and fed. We’re so glad we took the time to make our own organic comfrey feed. We’ve been adding borage to the bin too, and this provides so many good nutrients. The tomatoes love it!

Make your own organic comfrey feed.

July 2020 Veg Plot

I think I’d better go now, I could waffle on forever! I hope this has given you a snapshot of life in July here in 2020, a year that will go down in history for many reasons. Will this be the year you started to grow your own food? I hope so!

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Grow Better Veg with Companion Planting

July 24, 2020/1 Comment/in The Bridge Cottage Garden, Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Companion Planting – Courgette growing with calendula and borage.

Companion planting. Like us, plants have friends, and like us, they have are some they like more than others. For example, my potatoes love hanging out with horseradish but put the squashes right off their game.

Companion planting

We’ve known about companion planting for a while, and in the greenhouse, we take care to grow French Marigolds alongside the tomatoes. As well as looking very pretty, these attract the hoverflies, which much on aphids and other pests. Basil likes to be there too, but at a distance and prefers to stay in its pots.

Tomatoes and Marigolds. Companion Planting in the Greenhouse

We find it useful to start a few trays of calendulas, French marigold and nasturtiums off in the early spring, to pop in alongside beans, or in pots. Our courgettes are loving the companionship of borage and nasturtiums and are just coming into that prolific stage where you are scratching your head in the kitchen for some new inspiration with courgette recipes. The borage self-seeds from the year before – although strictly an annual, once you have borage in the garden, it won’t leave you.

Herb Society UK Companion Planting Poster

We follow the Herb Society UK on both Facebook and Instagram, and this year bought a very useful poster from them, which is pinned to the back of the potting shed door. It gives a long list of plants, their companions, and antagonists.

I’d been wondering why, out of six squashes planted, two had yellowing leaves and were failing to thrive….the answer may well be that potatoes are antagonists to squashes. It will be interesting to see if they pick up once the potatoes have been dug up. We could move them, but where to? The garden is full to bursting. We may well pop a borage plant in there, as I see from my poster that borage is a good companion plant to squash – goodness knows, the borage is doing really well, providing masses of edible blue flowers as well as material to go in the dustbin for making organic comfrey feed.

The onions are about to be lifted, and I see from our chart that carrots and beetroot both like onions, so it seems a good idea to pop in a few rows of late carrots and beetroot once they’ve been dug up. Although I’ll have to sneak in the beetroot – Tim thinks it’s the food of the devil – I disagree!

Next year, I’m looking forward to trialling the Three Sisters method of planting squash, beans and sweetcorn together – though whether there will be enough sun for sweetcorn in Northumberland remains to be seen.

I had a quick look on the internet for useful links and companion planting charts and have found a few, which I hope will be helpful to you.

Here are the links:

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Thanks for reading. Best wishes, Tim and Sue Reed

Make Your Own Herb & Floral Vinegars

July 4, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Capture the flavour and scent of summer in a jar by making your own herb and floral vinegars.

This is so simple to do, and a few minute’s work will reward you with delicious vinegar you can use in cooking and to make salad dressings with wonderfully complex flavours.

Elderflower blossom

Pick your blooms on a sunny day so the flowers are open and dry and leave on a piece of white paper for a while for the creep-crawlies to crawl off and find somewhere else to inhabit.

It’s then just a simple job of popping the flower heads in a sterilised jar and topping up with either rice, white wine or cider vinegar.

After a couple of weeks of infusing, drain the liquid from the flowers and keep in a clean bottle. I do have friends who leave the flowers in, it’s up to you!

Chive Blossom Vinegar

We have made beautiful pink vinegar with chive blossoms and rice wine vinegar.

Elderflower vinegar can be made at the same time as elderflower cordial, and is a welcome treat for salads long after summer and it’s flowers have faded.

Sage Flower Vinegar

I spotted these pretty purple sage flowers and thought I’d give them a go. Why not experiment and see what you come up with? I’ve seen this work very well with deep pink rose petals.

A jar of homemade floral vinegar would make a beautiful gift for a friend or family member.

Find out about growing herbs and some suggestions for their uses in Growing Herbs.

Tying up Unruly Peas, Mangetout & Broad Beans

June 29, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized, The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

Mangetout in the Bridge Cottage Garden

It’s June, and the crops are growing well in the Bridge Cottage garden, but I have unruly beds of broad beans and mangetout that have grown to be taller than me in places and are starting to waft and wave. If we get a windy day, they will snap, so I thought I’d better get them fettled.

First, the tops were nipped out. This will stop them getting any taller, help them to bush out, and the tips, lightly steamed are delicious to eat.

Pinch out the tips of broad beans and mangetout

If growing broad beans, pinching out the tips will also help to deter blackfly. These are very tasty, lightly steamed.

Broad Bean tips

Sharpening the ends of hazel poles to make stakes

Sharpening hazel poles for stakes

We coppiced a hazel tree in the winter, and so have these beautiful hazel poles to use. You could also use garden canes, but I like the rustic feel of the hazel, and am not a fan of going to garden centres unless I have to! Tim used an axe the sharpen the ends to make them easier to drive into the ground.

Beds of mangetout, peas and broad beans in the Bridge Cottage Garden

Placing the supports around the crops, I used natural twine, and wound it around the poles, skirting the broad beans and mangetout at three different height levels.

A job well done! Now my broad beans and peas can continue to grow without the risk of falling over or getting too tall.

Mmm, mangetout are delicious

We had a little visitor to Nanny and Grandad’s garden today, and she thought that her first taste of mangetout, freshly picked was ‘delicious’ 🙂

Are you growing peas, beans or mangetout?

Have you had your first harvest yet?

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on any of our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Garden & Kitchen News from Bridge Cottage June 2020

June 28, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Sue Reed

Glastonbury 1985

It’s June 2020 and as I write this, the wind is howling and the rain is lashing down, It’s proper Glastonbury weather. It would have been Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary, but due to Coronavirus, it’s been cancelled. I last went in 1985 – it was a sea of mud, and I can’t remember who I saw. Now I’m happy to leave the thronging crowds to the youngsters, and spend the summer months in the garden.

Mangetout and Broad Bean Tips

June is a busy month in the garden, and welcome crops have been making themselves known in the Bridge Cottage kitchen. We’ve had our first tastes of mangetout, with a fabulous purple variety this year, Mangetout Snow Pea, Purple Shiraz as well as the more usual green variety. In the trug in this photo, you can also see the tops of broad beans which have been pinched out to deter blackfly.

Both mangetout and broad bean tips only need to be steamed for a couple of minutes of added to a stir fry and cooked lightly to be enjoyed.

Garlic bulbs drying under the eaves of the roundhouse

Our garlic crop has been harvested and is now hanging under the eaves of the sauna to dry. It got rust right at the end, but doesn’t seem to have suffered too badly for it. Soon the onions will be following suit – not with rust, but by being harvested.

Organic Comfrey Feed

The black liquid of our organic comfrey feed is starting to drip into the container beneath the compost bucket and this rich feed will now be added to water and be fed to my tomatoes and other fruiting crops. The hanging baskets, dahlias and sunflowers.

Making Organic Comfrey Feed

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

It’s time now to think ahead to the winter and make sure you have winter veg sown. It’s not too late to set seed away for next Spelderflowerring’s Purple Sprouting Broccoli or kale and cabbages for over winter.

Salad crops too can be sown every month to ensure you have a regular supply of lettuces and not a glut all at once, and then a barren time. It’s too hot in the greenhouse now to grow rocket, but we’re having good success with rocket and cut and come again lettuce grown in containers on the patio.

Growing Food in The Bridge Cottage Garden

The potatoes are growing well and Tim has been earthing these up to allow as many potatoes to grow as possible.

The chard and spinach are both wonderful, and over on The Bridge Cottage Kitchen page, I’ve written out a recipe for using chard. We have kale ready for eating, and I’ll be getting some tonight to go with our Sunday dinner.

It’s strawberry time now, but we have lost our crop to the blackbirds. They were new plants in this year, and we should have thrown a net over them to protect them from the birds. Oh well, the birds are welcome to them. We have plenty to eat with rhubarb still going strong, and the gooseberries ripening nicely.

Gooseberry and elderflower ice cream

I thought I’d better use up the soft fruit that is still in the freezer from last year and made a delicious gooseberry and elderflower ice-cream, which you can try for yourselves.

Talking of elderflowers, now is the time to gather them, not forgetting to thank tree and bough. I’ve made elderflower vinegar, and will be mixing this with olive oil for a delicious summery salad dressing.

Elderflower cordial

Of course, elderflower cordial is a must, and can be frozen in small plastic bottles for use throughout the year. I only take a few blooms from each tree, saving plenty to turn into elderberries, which we’ll come to again in the autumn.

Elderflower recipes

The front of Bridge Cottage is laden with pink roses, and I thank whoever it was who was here before us and planted them. I’ve been drying rose petals to use in herbal teas. Now is a fabulous time to dry herbs, petals and leaves for use in the kitchen and for making tea, and this can see you right through the winter.

Roses on Bridge Cottage

Elderflower and mint tea

See my post over on the Bridge Cottage Kitchen page on using summer herbs for cooking and for teas. In June, I’ve been able to dry mint, lemon balm, sage, elderflower, rose, and rosebay willowherb. I’ve also made a couple of jars of herb salt, which will add delicious seasoning to our cooking.

The big news this June, has been the finishing of the pizza oven, and we’re enjoying lots of alfresco dining. If you’d like to see the movie we made about the build, head over to YouTube by following this link: the Bridge Cottage Pizza Oven Build. Tim’s worked really hard on this, and we’re very proud of him.

This is just a snapshot of some of the goings-on at Bridge Cottage this June. Head over to the other pages to get more in-depth writing about:

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or one our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram. and sign up to our mailing list.