Monday 14 January 2013

USA and Canada won't let you grow your own vegetables?

Just found this amazing story! Across the USA and Canada there are apparently authorities who restrict the amount of space given up to growing vegetables in your yard or garden. Sounds crazy? It is! Follow the link for full story.
How can a pristine striped lawn with hefty use of chemicals and copious watering to keep it that way be at all sensible in a world where growing our own organic food has to be the best thing we can possibly do to help us in developing healthy eating habits for our families?
I thought it was a wind up to start with but the article seems genuine enough.
What do you think?

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Grow your own Drugs and a Homegrown Revolution

I braved the weather today and went up to the allotment to see what is going on up there. The sun was shining and the sky blue but it was very cold! And the ground is totally waterlogged - so absolutely impossible to dig the ground at all - it would really damage the soil to even attempt to walk over the plot.
But I did manage to pick some lovely sprouts, some purple sprouting broccoli, and dig a few leeks and parsnips. I shall roast the parsnips with a grating of parmesan cheese - delicious!
And quite unbelievably the rhubarb has started sprouting. It clearly thinks it's spring already!
Had a super book as a Christmas present. It's Homegrown Revolution by James Wong, the author of Grow Your Own Drugs. And in it he shows us how to widen our horizons, to grow the exotic and unusual - and he trials all these in his own small suburban garden in South London. How about callaloo, watercress, cucamelons, chop suey greens, tomatillos, inca berries, shark's fin melon, dahlia yam, electric daisies .... The list seems endless; he calls them "incredible edibles." So I'm really looking forward to following his advice and pushing the boat out this year on the allotment. I can see I shall soon run out of space up there.
And through the blog I shall let you know how I get on!