now we have more ideas coming out of the woodwork than ive had hot dinners!. so many friends and family keep suggesting such great ideas i wish we had the time and the money to implement them all at the same time. something to work towards i suppose. as it stands at the moment we have to get the basics sorted and go from there. this year we are growing in X2 60ftx20ft polytunnels up at oak tree farm on a 50 acre plot owned by our lovely landlord jon. he runs a pig roast company and the delicious smell of roast pork helps work production up at the farm as it smells so god damn good so its no chore to be up there working. we are just preparing as much as we can as we get the land officially in december but a lot of work has to be done before building the tunnels and frames for the hanging baskets. we have learnt so much already just about owning and running a business (a far cry from just planting a few plants in and see how it goes!) all of which is good but trying to have the foresight of where you will be in 5 months time when its ready to plant up is quite hard sometimes. the elephant garlic is the first thing to go in in december 2011 which we are planting in the tunnel in a 20ftx20ft raised bed. we first discovered elephant garlic in bournemouth at a local deli at a price of £7.00 per bulb. apart from the massive size of the bulb (about 5 times the size of a regular bulb) we did of course notice the price. after speaking to the assistant she informed us it is the latest thing to come into the gastronomical world as the next big thing. now my ears pricked up and thought we should definitely get on board with this. we roasted it and it was delicious a lot milder than the regular garlic and more closely related to the leek and only discovered 50 years ago in america. we want to sell to local independent restaurants as a locally sourced seasonal "special" starter on their menus. it should be ready by july and then time to cure it and smoke it with some oak chips in our home made smoker (more about this later with pics of how i built it).
Since actually starting all this last year, i had no real idea what i wanted to do with my life. i am and always will be a musician and thats where i thought my life might take me, but gardening was always in my life with my father being one of the greatest gardeners i know and great memories of being in our garden making mud pies or playing hide and seek in the tall conifers make me think now that i always had a great connection with nature even if i hadnt quite realized it yet. Having this new direction to my life instantly relaxes me as i career towards 30 years old at break neck speed and having a purpose and building a life here makes me feel rather disgustingly happy.
we will see if im still half as happy as i am right now after a whole year of sowing,growing and mowing but ive got this little feeling i am exactly where i am supposed to be.
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