Fruit smoothie cake

I had another glut problem this morning. Not plums or marrows but bananas.  I don't usually buy bananas, thinking that it is better generally to use up my own gluts first.  So someone else had stockpiled them in the knowledge that the younger generation often snatches them for on-the-go breakfasts, late night munchies and sophisticated …

Autumn raspberries

Autumn raspberries are a delight. They start to ripen in early August when you want to shout at them to slow down - it's not autumn yet. Then they keep on coming, handfuls at a time in my garden and in small bucketfulls at the allotment. I harvested these at the allotment at the weekend …

A new redcurrant recipe

I harvested most of the redcurrants today. They have been fabulous this year in the garden but not at the allotment. Another of the strange differences in microclimate between my two growing spaces. I remembered making some less than successful redcurrant relish last year but couldn't remember where I found the recipe - just checked, …

Onion soup

Despite being June, it's definitely soup weather. I've already made several of my classic green soups, mainly using Swiss chard, herbs and assorted bought vegetables but this week I've also been experimenting with onion soup. I've got a bit of an onion glut. The autumn planted allotment onions are absolute stunners. Here they are back …

Cottage garden

Warm sunshine, pouring rain, warm sunshine again - it's party time for the weeds in my garden and allotment. This morning I tackled the weeds in the front garden, which if you've been paying attention, is a former paved over car parking space, converted to what can only be described as a 'cottage garden'.  In …

Juggling rainbows

It's May and should  be the time to get lots of things going in the garden but the last week has been too nippy for me to dare put very much outside or even out to the seed palace.  The tomatoes are taking over the windowsill inside and I haven't yet sown any courgettes, marrows …

Foraging

Last weekend I was away,  staying in a caravan, having a long lie while reading in a sleeping bag and listening to birdsong, then waking myself up by paddling in freezing sea. Here is a photo of fabulous gorse bushes with a wonderful coconut scent It was all lovely but there was no gardening or …

Reclaiming Paradise awards 2018

As the old year rolls on and we venture into 2019, it's award season at Reclaiming Paradise. In a year of weather extremes and personal complications, we celebrate all that is great, good or frankly unsuccessful in my garden and allotment. This year I  cracked a bone in my arm, helped my mother move house, …

Yet another apple cake recipe

Thanks to the tomato, apple and courgettes gluts, there have been mutterings lately about 'too many vegetables' and that 'vegetables with vegetables and vegetable sauce is not a proper meal'  at Reclaiming Paradise. So, when it came to making a start on the annual birthday cake marathon (everyone here except me has birthdays in October), …

Tomato rainbow

This year's tomatoes have probably been the best ever: Here's how they looked just planted out in June in their shiny new raised bed  Since then, what with all the hot weather in the early summer, they have grown massive and have long since caused the canes to collapse: We've had a few red ones …