Selfsufficientish.com

Take young shoots before the leaf has uncurled, and wash them in cold water before cooking them in a heavy pan with a good knob of butter, salt and freshly ground pepper. Don't dry the stems first. Once they're tender put them in a serving dish with a bit of butter on top, and drizzle them with lemo...

There's no single answer that will work for everyone here as circumstances and attitudes vary so much, but congrats on your core conclusion: eat better meat, and less of it. Let me also add 'waste NOTHING'! * I echo Mabu's point that hunted meat will never be a substantial addition to the household ...

Don't panic! An egg takes 25 to 26 hours to form, and 20 of these are spent in the shell gland: so shell malformation is the most common problem that you see. Eggs with poorly-formed or absent shells are most common, but granulation on the outside of a shell can be caused by a number of things inclu...

I used 'full white' from Realseeds last year, but any self-blanching variety will be fine. (self-blanching ones have a more upright habit so hide fewer slugs) The only trick is making sure your soil never dries out, which means a decent amount of organic matter and a good irrigation routine. I think...

Hey gunners! re-shaped and raked raised beds, weeded like stink, sowed caulis and savoy and spring cabbage and peas and broadies and butternuts and courgettes and cukes and melons and runners and I forget what else. It's all a blur. Planted out tomatoes and chillis, lamented over the loss of my cele...

Using embossing paper to reflect light probably isn't the way to go as there's no way of knowing what sort of chemicals would leach out of it into the soil. I have heard of people using mirrors or whitewash on facing walls, but the best course of action is growing to suit the situation rather than a...

Getting the grit out of them can be fun though!

I think spamchops is having some trouble getting them to bite.

Did one of these the other day. Pilot holes do help - but you need a decent metal bit mounted quite far back in the drill head to lessen the chance of it snapping. Use a bit of masking tape to stop the bit from slipping at the start, turn hammer setting OFF (if you have a hammer drill), keep revs LO...

You can grow a self-blanching variety in a polytunnel or large greenhouse, treating it as cut-and-come-again. Come the cooler weather it wilts, and you just cover it with fleece until things warm up again. Growth starts again in March, and it bolts around the beginning of May but until then you get ...

There's really no need to heat a whole polytunnel unless you're growing WAY out of season, and in Bedford you should be sowing from around the last week in Feb most years. Apart from a small electric propagator for really early sowings of tomatoes etc, adding a cold frame or tunnel cloche INSIDE the...

Sounds fab - but make sure you get all the rough bits well covered, and use anti-hotspot tape or your cover won't last. And do try to get that morning sun if you possibly can - it's quite important in the winter!

There's no doubt that nematodes work, and that continued use reduces slug damage. My problem with this is that because they also cause a crash in the population of slug predators then you have to keep using them year after year, which makes them a very expensive option. You have to decide what's rig...

There's links to some research in the article I pointed out before.

Reely enjoyed the party at Lower Shaw Farm chaps - so great to get to meet a few of the other bods. And Nev & Linda - I had no idea he was in the UK (shows how time-strapped I am these days!) so that was a fantastic surprise. Booze, good chat and Joachim's take on Tommy Cooper to boot... thanks ...