 Friday, October 02, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (2 comments)
It seems that nearly every celebrity chef is embracing the idea that growing your own food is worthwhile. Last week I watched a cookery program in which the presenter took a portable stove down to some London allotment gardens and cooked up a delicious lunch from ingredients picked in situ. Such programs may simply be a reaction to the current surge of interest in the source and quality of our food but it has always been true that the very best cooks need the very best ingredients. Where better to source those special culinary delights than from your own garden? Read more...
Categories: gardening vegetables fruit taste |
Friday, July 10, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (3 comments)
Growing your own food is the best way to ensure that you know exactly what went into producing it. However, most gardeners are unable to be completely self-sufficient in food and have to also rely on fruit and vegetables grown commercially. It is this which makes the question of pesticide residues so important – what exactly is on the fruit and vegetables we buy? Should we only buy higher priced organic produce or is it OK to compromise? The best way to answer this is to look at the extent of the pesticide problem... Read more...
Categories: pesticide, fruit, vegetables |
Friday, December 12, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (3 comments)
A few weeks ago I completed a food diary of everything I ate and drank for a week. This was for the EPIC study: a long-term research project being undertaken across Europe to look at the prevelance of cancer and its relation to diet. I found that there’s nothing like writing everything down to make you acutely aware of just how much you snack during the day and for me one thing stood out: chocolate! So when my family succumbed to a bout of flu last week I decided it was time to clean up my act and try to boost my immunity. But just what changes would be necessary? Read more...
Categories: Immunity health vegetables fruit |
Friday, October 17, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (7 comments)
It is around this time of the year that I like to start one of my favourite gardening activities –dreaming about next year! As the garden starts to slow down for the approaching winter, catalogues appear through the letterbox at an ever increasing rate and looking through them helps distract my attention from dismal weather and lack of daylight. I particularly like pictures promising huge harvests of fruit from perfectly pruned bushes. The only problem is the cost of buying in the new bushes and trees. But there is one type of fruit that comes to the rescue... currant bushes. Read more...
Categories: gardening fruit currant shade propagating cuttings |
Friday, June 20, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (5 comments)
A few years ago my parents gave me three dwarf apple trees for my birthday. You might think that’s a strange present but I love apples and they’re great to grow. I carefully set up supports and planted them as thin ‘cordons’ where they grow up at an angle to maximise the crop in a small space. Soon they were blossoming and then laden with lots of tiny fruit. Imagine my disappointment then when after a few weeks the apples started dropping off. What was the cause? Read more...
Categories: gardening fruit apples |
Friday, February 08, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (8 comments)
This week I was asked about whether we could incorporate perennials into GrowVeg.com garden plans, so that they stayed in position for the next year. It’s definitely something we would like to do and it set me thinking about the value of these plants on a vegetable plot. It turns out that there is a growing movement extolling the benefits of growing perennial plants for food. After all, perennials were once a much greater part of our ancestors’ diets and they are great for the land since they don’t involve all the soil disturbance (and hence erosion) associated with agriculture. But are they really that viable for the home gardener? Read more...
Categories: gardening vegetables fruit |
Tuesday, November 06, 2007 by Jeremy Dore (1 comments)
I’ve recently been enjoying several of the posts at GardenRant.com. It’s a great blog by four gardeners who are also gifted writers, bringing humour and honesty to the subjects they tackle. You can tell they’re passionate about bringing gardening to the masses by their 'Manifesto' which includes ‘We are… bored with perfect magazine gardens … in love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens ... appalled by chemical warfare in the garden ... having a hell of a lot of fun’. There’s nothing like some strongly held views to make you keenly aware of what motivates you and so I thought I’d have a go at articulating my own. Read more...
Categories: organic vegetables fruit gardening |