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A single Westphalian kale plant in the the vegetable patch.

Growing kale

30 January, 2012 by Stonehead 4 Comments

Crofters have long depended on kale, as well as its brassicae cousins cabbage and neeps (turnips), as it thrives in the Scottish conditions. Ann Dean, in Foudland Slate Quarriers and Crofters refers to the slate crofters who once worked the hills just up from us as living largely on a brose of oatmeal and greens, [...]

Vegetables

brassica, brassicae, Crofting, Gardening, Hungry gap, kale, postaweek2012, sowing, vegetable

Growing potatoes

24 January, 2012 by Stonehead 11 Comments

Potatoes are one of the staples of our diet. They also grow well in the acidic soil and the cool, damp climate of north-eastern Scotland. However, potatoes are not necessarily one of the best vegetables to grow, particularly if space is limited. Potatoes are relatively cheap to buy in large quantities for the table, they [...]

Vegetables

Crofting, Gardening, how-to, Phytophthora infestans, postaweek2011, potato, Smallholding, vegetable

A good, well-hearted Premiere cabbage should look like this.

Don’t eat the cabbage!

24 October, 2011 by Stonehead 1 Comment

We’re into the time of year where we get to eat some of our favourite dishes with one of our favourite vegetables—cabbage. This evening, I went out to the vegetable and cut three cabbages for tea. I had to cut that many as the poor season meant none had hearted as well as the one [...]

Food, Vegetables

Cabbage, cooking, Fruit and Vegetable, Met Office, postaweek2011, potato, Sunshine, Weather

Growing carrots

27 August, 2011 by Stonehead 13 Comments

We like carrots, eat them in abundance and plant many to meet our needs but, as with many vegetable crops, they can be a little tricky to grow in our conditions. Our topsoil is poor, stony and acidic, we have hard frosts from November through to April, the growing season is further curtailed because our [...]

Crofting, Farming & Smallholding, Vegetables

carrots, Crofting, Gardening, How to…, postaweek2011, Smallholding, Vegetables

The boys collect stones to stack around trunks of the apple trees

Feeding apple trees

22 February, 2011 by Stonehead 1 Comment

We’re still playing catch-up around the croft. Today, the boys were barely off the school bus before I’d roped them into helping me feed and mulch the apple trees. Ideally, we’d prune and mulch them in late November but this winter’s early freeze and snow put paid to that. I was concerned that, if we [...]

Fruit

apples, Crofting, Fruit, muck, postaweek2011, pruning, Smallholding, Trees

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