The Old Vicarage- Eats shoots and leaves

Another day without leaving the Old Vicarage and another attempt to push the envelope even further- can we live off the land within the grounds? Can we simulate a real apocalypse? So we pretty much have all the kitchen garden full now with Broccoli, tomatoes, peas, runner beans, sweet corn, beetroot, cabbage, pumpkins, cucumber, radish and our seed potatoes have now arrived too. We are also planning on getting chickens. 

While we've been waiting for our food to grow we've been sourcing from local farms and also experimenting with wild food. I've yet to stand in a corona supermarket queue. Of course all anyone needs is Richard Mabey's classic book 'Food for Free'. We are still making our way through a large batch of nettle soup (which is delicious and also 2.3 % by weight of iron, 5.5% protein and high levels of vitamins A and C). Today I went foraging again and this time collected leaves of white-dead nettle, yellow archangel and ground elder which I cooked with butter and onion and was also delicious. I've also got ground ivy drying to make a tea from and also tried Hawthorn Leaves. Other options growing wild in the old vic garden this time of year is Garlic Mustard, Cow Parsley (which you can make a herb from), Dandelion leaves, Chickweed and there's even Watermint and Watercress growing in the brook. 

I'm hoping by the end of lockdown we can have at least one day where we are completely self sufficient. It will also be good to bring some permaculture, biodiversity/companion planting techniques into play but keen to learn as much from Holly's dad at the moment and get some well established food growing techniques under the belt. 

 The Nettle soup batch is still going down well 

 Ground Elder, White-dead Nettle and Yellow Archangel. I boiled the Ground Elder first and then everything went into a pan with butter and onion- delicious  

 We've got stacks of Rhubarb- Holly made some jam today 

 The Tomatoes (above), Runner Beans and Sweetcorn are coming along in the pots (below) 

The root vegetables and broccoli are out in the raised beds already