On Saturday my friend and I went to the Edible Garden Show, and I have to say, had a jolly good time.
I digress… On speaking to the bee man, I’ve decided that keeping real bees is a bit more involved than I’d thought. I would quite enjoy the ‘prancing around in a white suit’ bit, and would probably wear my beekeeper’s hat at a jaunty little angle just for the fun of it, but the actual honey extraction seems like a lot of work. True, you can borrow the equipment from the club, but you’d still have to fetch it, take it back, clean it all down, jar the honey… you get the picture. We have some honey in the fridge that’s been there for six months, so honey is evidently not on our ‘must eat on a regular basis’ list.
From there we went to see Pippa Greenwood giving a demonstration on which vegetables to grow, and what to watch out for. Very informative indeed… According to the Pip-Meister, tomatoes are a relatively easy crop to try. She suggests that if you’re growing tomatoes, have a go at aubergines, as they need the same conditions, albeit slightly more light (up on the shelf?) and slightly less water.
Courgettes too, are apparently a doddle, and why not try some butternut squash while you’re at it. All good, inspiring stuff to be thinking about. Then she moved on to talking about brassicas and broccoli, and she went on to say that one of the main predators for these is pigeons. It was like de-ja-vu… had she been reading the Hinckley Times last week, I wondered?
After the show we decided to find a nice country pub to have a spot of lunch in. This plan went slightly awry, as we got completely and totally lost. After driving around for an age, we eventually found a pub, and on entering realised that a) not many girlies or non-locals frequented the place and b) the floor didn’t get washed all that often. All eyes were on us as we ordered our drinks and a portion of hearty Irish Stew (as it was St Patrick’s Day).
Having said that though, the food was actually very nice, so overall, it was a most enjoyable day out.
