Growing your own food in London

There seems to be a trend happening in London town and other cities around Britain for growing your own food. I have arrived a little bit late to this but I wanted to share my experience of starting out growing some your own food if you live in the city with  not much outside space.

We don't have huge back garden and I definitely don't have the desire to apply to a waiting list for veg plots on an allotment (as community minded as that is, its just not my thing). For me the odds of tending to a small patch in front of my kitchen were much higher than dragging myself and the kids in the rain to the allotment 😏. So under those circumstances we decided to try to grow 'up' and so opted for a vertical vegetable garden.


Sounds simple right. Well it could have been if I had bought one of these.- Plastic Wall Planter

Plastic Wall Planter 

 However, wanting a more natural looking solution so we opted to build one using pallets. Yes that's right! Pallets are made of very sturdy wood and are a great solution for lots of DIY projects. And buoy did we luck out with our pallets! We got all the material free from a local builders merchants 👍👏. They recycle the pallets there and were very happy to have a few (8 in all ) to be taken off their hands.

So with pallets in hand (well in 2 hands at a time!😜 ), the journey to start a vertical vegetable garden began.

A few DIY cuts and nails later plus some landscaping fabric to line the areas chosen as boxes- the vegetable garden has started!
This frame took nearly 2 days to make from start to finish. 2 Pallets were nailed together to create the 2 bottom sections of the frame. Some of the slats at the front of the doubled pallets were then cut to create some growing space for larger veg. When it came to planting, YouTube instructions suggested lining the back, sides and bottom section of your pallet and then stuffing with your chosen soil/compost mix. However, we decided to create these fabric boxes as the inches between the slats on these pallets did not seem small enough to ensure that the soil would hold in enough moisture without some kind of guarding. This kind of landscaping fabric which we found in our local DIY shop is strong enough to hold the soil, very flexible and at the same time permeable. It is made of a type of plastic but has the look of a burlap fabric with very tiny overlapping squares and looked very similar to some bags used to grow potatoes. The size of the space was measured and the fabric boxes created to fit the space. An overhang was left on each fabric box so that it could be easily stabled to the wood. This created a more sturdy box for the soil to be kept. The whole idea behind using this kind of landscaping fabric is that it will keep the moisture in that is needed, yet allow any roots to grow without being suffocated. For extra stability, extra slats of wood could be fitted under each box area.

Hopefully this time next summer, it will be burgeoning with lots of Yummy vegetables! Watch this space!!

Let me know if you have tried this and your experiences.

From a fledgling gardener just a mum looking to learn more....

See you soon!!

A taste of vegan/vegetarian living

Over the last 4 weeks my family and I have been trying to eat a more plant based diet. For the last few months I reduced the amount of meat I eat as a part of my journey to help my PCOS (Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome). But since watching more programmes like 'What the Health' and reading more articles about the damage that excessive meat and dairy consumption can do the human body we decided as a family to give up meat and reduce dairy intake for at least 2 weeks. And somehow those initial 2 weeks has now stretched to 4 weeks with some bumps along the way (the school barbecue being one of them!). I have also been inspired at which members of my family have taken on the challenge which certainly helps when you have spent 30 minutes chopping vegetables (my least favourite part of cooking!)

If you have young kids who are used to eating meat and dairy, this is difficult switch to make. Ok way more than difficult in the face of a determined 3-6 year old or even a stubborn teenager. But it can be done!

The thought that I would be helping my children's future health by reducing the risks of heart disease, inflammatory diseases and a possibly a whole host of other issues was a good motivator to at least give it a try. I am not advocating giving up meat and dairy altogether and going cold turkey. That is not for everyone and I don't think it is for all of my family. But we can make small changes in the family routine so that you eat more vegan or vegetarian dishes for most of the week with meat dishes and dairy foods as a treat once or twice a week. Its a huge reduction if you are used to eating meat and dairy every single day but your taste-buds become used to it and your body adjusts (for the better). Its about changing habits isn't it. What we eat and how often we eat are really formed through habit. Changing a habit to form another habit is not an easy task but it is possible and knowing that there is an entire community of vegan and vegetarian families to get advice definitely helps

With this in mind I'd like to share this easy couscous dish I've discovered and adapted for my family which can either be eaten on its own or served with baked sweet potato or roasted half butternut squash.

Easy Vegetable Couscous

Ingredients
1 red onion
500g couscous
1 cube vegetable stock
handful of pistachio nuts (optional)
3/4 ready roasted red peppers (you can buy these in jars)
2/3 ready sun-dried tomatoes (also available in jar)
handful of fresh mint
1 large aubergine (eggplant)
1 large or 2 small courgettes

To serve with
Sweet potato or roasted half butter nut squash (optional)

glass of wine (optional) 😏

Method
Put your sweet potatoes or half butternut squash (no need to peel) in the oven at 200/180 degrees (for fan asssisted ovens) for 40mins

Next, slice and roast the aubergine and courgette under the grill for 20 mins. While that is roasting. Chop the red onion and mint and put to one side. Then chop up the ready roasted peppers and sun-dried tomatoes and put in a separate bowl. This will be added to the roasting aubergines once finished and returned to the oven to warm through. In the meantime, boil a kettle and add the vegetable stock to 1ltr of boiling water. Stir until dissolved and then add the couscous and cover for around 10 mins or until all the couscous is soaked through. Fluff the couscous with a fork. Remove the roasted ingredients from the oven and mix in the couscous and the chopped red onion and mint. Add chopped pistachio nuts for crunch if you wish.

Pour yourself a well earned glass of wine for all that hard work and serve with the baked sweet potato or roasted half butternut squash.

Happy Healthy Eating!