Catching up

January 24, 2014 by Ann Larson 1 Comment

After the whirlwind of Christmas, we are winding down (or is it up?) for spring.

Our usual chores in winter/spring involve the vegetable and herb gardens, and wood! The wood requirement is obvious – we have a wood burner, and what do you put in wood burners but wood?! We are pleased, though, because it uses so much less wood than our open fire, even though it’s not as pretty. With our open fire, winter was a constant round of cutting down trees, seasoning the wood and logging the branches. A lot of work, that had to be planned around the bouts of bad weather!

The winter vegetable garden is in full swing now. We’ve planted cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, peas, garlic, onions and lettuce (Lettuce, you say? In winter? I know, I know, odd to me, too!) Our seed potatoes have arrived now, too, so we will be planting those shortly. We use the great Sarpo Mira seed potatoes, which are very blight resistant and quite prolific.

This is also the time to plant herbs and fruit trees. So in goes the oregano and sage and chives. In, too, goes a Bing cherry tree, planted down by Fitz’ grave, as he used to love to pick cherries off the trees and eat them. Only the ripest, sweetest cherries would do for our Fitz!

Aloe plant at Casa Tyr (photo by Kent@imagenary.co.uk)

Weeding is a constant in our lives, hours are spent hoeing around the plants and in the rows. If you don’t keep up with it, they soon take over the garden! When weeding the other day, we were saying that having our own fresh vegetables is one of the big pleasures of our life here. We seldom buy vegetables. Ah, the joy of pulling your own organic veg just before dinner, and the outstanding flavour you get from fresh-picked veg…indescribable!

The more I read in the news about E. coli contaminated tomatoes and peppers in the US and Europe, and carrots and other veg that must be peeled before eating to be safe, the happier I am that at Casa Tyr, we know exactly what goes into what we eat.