The Good Life was a popular British sitcom about a couple living a life of self sufficiency in 70s suburban Surbiton. 35 years on, Sue Perkins and Giles Coren (comedian and foodie) set about recreating this world, documented in a 3 part series, where they grow their own vegetables, bake bread and generate their own power, all while dressed in dungarees. It’s light hearted and messy and it won’t serve as a guide, but if you’re curious for a sly giggle and need to feel better about your own growing endeavours, you many want to peek. The series will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer for another week.

On the other hand, for something a more historically impressive, educational and down to earth, Edwardian Farm documents the journey of two archaeologists Alex and Peter and historian Ruth as they set up an Edwardian Farm in Devon for a year. What kept my interest was their dedication to seeking out original hand crafts and skills which are frighteningly on the decline. Edwardian Farm will be available for longer on BBC iPlayer – until the first week of January 2011.

This is a really lovely 10 minute documentary about the work of coral gardener Austin Bowden-Kerby, who has dedicated his life to the ‘reforestation’ of coral reefs in Fiji. Available on BBC iplayer until Sunday 10th October, alternatively you can find out more at the Corals for Conservation website.

Apologies for the tardiness in this post~ admittedly, it’s been a manic set of few months. The bean seeds in the end were indeed dead on arrival, and the courgettes I thought I was growing turned out to be cucumbers~ and prolific ones at that! The strawberry plants were equally fruitful and deliciously sweet. Next year they’ll be in their third and in the meantime they have been happily spreading across the plot.

The tomatoes… again, I got it wrong on the type ~ moneymaker are not the same as what we had last year! Defiantly larger and slower o.o… Garden Organic have warned of tomato blight this year, which thankfully mine have been spared from, but it’s worth checking just in case. The sweet pepper survived this year and are looking healthy and sweet. I tried growing Rocket and various other salads this year as well which all turned out wonderfully. Turns out that the mystery herb was an oregano variety, however I still haven’t been able to identify the small spikey fruit growing on the tree. Will post photos when I can! Additionally, Hawthorne berries are a plenty here with which I hope to make something and will post up recipes if I succeed! The apple tree gave much away this year which went straight to the animals. The grape vine from Tara’s mother is growing perfectly.

So… this leaves us with the question of what next. Autumn approaches, and I’m not entirely sure what happens during these months or what it is I’m meant to be doing. Any suggestions? Perhaps being grateful fot the harvest of this year and planning for the next is the nost important. Either way, there is plenty still to learn and much more to grow. Below, the view from the cabin in Wytham woods, Oxford, 7am, with the mist rising.

Recently I’ve been watching a show on the BBC about using plants and herbs for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. ‘Grow your own Drugs‘ is a show hosted by the ethnobotanist (appearently ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between plants and people) James Wong and is really quite engrossing. It has a Blue Peter crossed with Jamie Oliver twist to it’s style which makes it easy to watch and encouraging to follow. Wong shows us how we can use various plants, flowers, trees and shrubs to create ‘natural’ medicines and cosmetics, ranging from gentle moisturizers and bath milks, to throat soothing jellies and vitamin-packed soups. What’s so brilliant is that all the ingredients are so easy to get hold of and almost all of them are ones we’ve heard of before – lavender, roses, eucalyptus, willow, honeysuckle, camomile and St. John’s wart to name but a few. Wong reminds us of the origins of modern medicines, but more importantly, provides us with yet another reason to love and respect the awesome power of the natural world.

After a period of quiet here (and manic else where!) we finally got round to addressing the desire to growing and tending various plants and flowers. This year I am trying out sweet pepper, rocket and cucumber. I have been told that all three are relatively easy to grow and take care of, so we’ll see how it goes! Along side the new contenders, I planted tomatoes (cherry) and courgettes, but what I am more excited by is this: Last year I saved some dwarf beans from our plants and froze them. This year I thought I would try planting them, but found out from Joan that in order for this to be successful, they needed to have dried out before freezing.However, I can not for the life of me remember if I had let them dry or not, so it will be interesting to see if they grow.

Joan and I have planted our beans at the same time, so if hers begin to grow and mine stay quite dorment, then I know that they hadn’t been dried out (or I just treated them badly o.o.. though I’m hoping that’s not the case!). Time will tell and in the meantime, they sit comfortably on my window sill!

“How long did it take?” – A while! It took one evening meeting, one day shopping (ingredients/tools and then I ran around toy shops for a good part of a weekend morning ~ this was rather fun!) It took us 8 hours baking and making the first lot of models, took me 5 hours making some more in the morning (I couldn’t sleep as I was too excited), and then 4 hours of Libby and myself icing and adding everything on top of the cake.

“What did you model the vegetables out of?” – Modeling sugar, called Regal icing which we bought ready colored to save on time.

“What was the soil made from?” – Chocolate cake. A small chocolate cake was made separately, and then crumbled. We added Weetabix for the hay around the little ‘strawberries’. Weetabix would also make for good haystacks.

“What were the three cakes?” – Lemon + Lemon Curd, Vanilla + Raspberry jam, Chocolate + Hazelnut spread.

“Did you make the shed?” – Jonny made the shed from scratch using balsa wood which in my opinion was brilliant! We were able to put the hen inside it. (There was much debate about this… In general we wanted them included with the cake – however, it was pointed out that they really were quite out of scale… so in the end we decided to disguise this by placing the hen inside the shed, and the cat by the side of the cakes which we both agreed worked brilliantly!)

“Can I eat the cat?” – No

“…Can I eat the hen?” – No

“…the butterfly?” - Yes!

The cake was cut by the brilliant Dr. David Fleming and we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!

A very simple yet powerful memory that I will always be fond of, is the image of an elderly lady I spotted on the pavement, picking lavender from the garden of a large corporate building. It was during this time that I had started quietly taking over a small corner in my parents garden for vegetable growing. In this radio programme, Alice Roberts talks to people who really take it to the next level~ from secretly planting at disused land sites, to going back to smaller and intimate farming methods. If anything, it’s very inspiring!

“Outside the walls, the wild remained as close to the surface as blood under skin, but the city-dweller was no longer equipped to face it directly.” The Dark Mountain Manifesto

Today I buried a blue tit.

I had arrived home in the evening after spending the night away, and as I was washing the dinner dishes, my father told me that the tiny, dark, still shape on our snow covered patio that I was curiously peering at through the window, was in fact a small bird which they had spotted in the morning.

I was horrified.

I’m not sure what hit me harder; The knowledge that somehow, somehow, I could have saved that little bird had I have provided something for the birds a few days back in preparation for the impending weather. Or the knowledge that knowing my family just left it lying, waiting for a warmer day to venture outside, pick it up and bury it.

My body convulsed; I left the dishes, ran outside across the perfectly shoveled driveway, round the back and to the preciously delicate bird, now frozen, lit up by the light from the motion detectors. I picked her up with a handful of snow, and lay her to rest under the roots of a large shrub; In the summer, this shrub has the prettiest flowers.

Our attitudes and our actions are a reflection of our self righteous higher-than-all-creatures image that is projected onto this Earth and all her inhabitants, and is so utterly destructive. How is it possible to not see the creatures and plants as the same extension as ourselves? How is it possible to not see how we sprang from the same source? And should we understand this, how then can we not mourn the loss of our fellow love?

When the sun rises, I’ll be going to see what I can do so that no more blue tits lie lifeless on a patio floor. God knows there are enough of her brethren lying on the hard shoulder of the A3.

(Edit: Thinking back now, she may not have been a blue tit after all; being brown and slender, she may have been a small sparrow. How pitiful, that I do not even know for sure, what kind of bird she was.)

And now, knowing this, my relationship with this little bun changes so much! Am i really deriving any pleasure from eating it? Do i really know anything about what i’m eating anyway?!

who made it?
where did they make it?
where did the vegetables come from?
how was the bread made?
who provided the flour?
was any of it fair trade?
is any part of it not mass produced?
did anyone at any point even so much as think of how i would feel when i eat it?
do they even care who i am? (and ‘yes they do becasue they want to sell it to you’ shouldn’t count)

And then i spot my apple core, which came from my tenants garden, and i remember how yummy it was. I know where that came from – i have a relationship with the people involved – and they care about what i think of it. These seemingly insignificant strands of knowledge add so much more to the experience of food intake. Our relationship with food shouldn’t start from the moment we tear open the plastic wrapping – it should be from the very beginning- from it’s conception.

If the phrase ‘you are what you eat’ is anything to go by, then we’re one bulging grossly overweight junk fast food with little patience and next to no respect for nature.
Further more, if i am what i eat, and i don’t know what’s in this bun, then i have nooo idea who am i!!!