It’s STRAWBERRY TIME! I don’t know about you, but we’ve been eating strawberries pretty much every day for the past two weeks. Our appetite for strawberries largely exceeds what our singly strawberry bed can supply but luckily our neighbours have…
I have a serious obsession with apples. I’d argue that as obsessions go, this is a healthy one, but my family who get dragged to at least one apple festival every fall and are regularly required to participate in apple-tasting…
Somewhere in November, my mom texted me the photos below with the caption: ‘We have all these beautiful fragrant quince – what should I do with them?’ The fruits were from a tree in their garden that we planted together…
Back in July when my birthday was coming up, Remco asked me what I wanted as a present and I said: ‘Pergola!’. This pergola has long been planned (& dreamed about) and I must admit that in my lack of…
Most of the time it’s just the two of us working in the garden so on the rare occasion that we get some help I’m always amazed by how much can be done in a couple of hours. About two…
My daughter is in the middle of her finals, marking the end of her high school career. She’s pretty calm and undoubtedly doing well in her exams. There’s not much we can do for her at this point but in…
When we bought our garden, there were two mature trees there: one big hazel and an even bigger pear tree. We tried to find out what variety it was, but all the answer we got was ‘probably a cooker’. We…
Designing our new garden is all about fulfilling a long-time dream of being able to grow all the veg and fruit we need/want. When it comes to vegetables, self-sufficiency requires adequate space and a fair amount of planning, but is…
In the Netherlands, when you’re too late for school, there’s a widely (mis)used excuse: the bridge was open! There are a lot of channels here and if you have to cross one and the bridge is open to let a…
This year we left our vacation a little later than usual. Though the reason was mainly that I had to finish my manuscript (I only sent the last chapter to my editor the night before we left (of course)), it…
I have said it before but: we have a LOT of rhubarb in the garden. So much that no matter how many cakes, tarts, jars of jam or muffins I make, no matter how much I give away, there’s more.This…
Every year I put a considerable amount of thought into the first rhubarb dish of the season. I usually cover one of our 20+ plants (I’ve been meaning to count) with a big bucket to force and blanch it and…
Back in October when we hosted our apple harvest dinner (four dishes each featuring a different apple variety), finding a vegetarian main course with apples turned out to be the biggest problem. Esther, as the true child of the 21st…
The general rule for pruning fruit trees is that it’s best done when the trees are dormant, during a cold and dry spell. That, for those of us living in the Netherlands, constitutes a problem. The winters are often not…
So – it’s been a while. I took a break from my computer for most of our Christmas break which was good and a little weird. I focused on spending time with people I love and see too little of.…