Jan Willetts's Page

Saturday's soup called for the sacrifice of two of my small butternut squash to make spicy butternut squash soup from Louisa's recipe over at The Really Good Life. Using my own onions and chilli made it very special too. The butternut squash produced useable sized fruit this year. Last year they went in too late. Sizewise, most weigh about 1.5lbs, with one huge 6lb specimen. Will have to pinch out side shoots more religiously next time. Pulled up most of the big beetroot from the plot and… Continue

Saturday was bright and sunny-perfect for a spot of cob-walling with my local environmental group. A derelict garden between some garages has been rescued from total decay and is an environmental garden, with rescued grape vines, apple trees and a wildlife pond as well as examples of permaculture/forest edge planting. There's a composting loo and a roundhouse built from salvaged items. This year we are building some permanent walls from cob and wood, also some straw bales planned for the colder… Continue

At last an excuse for a proper bonfire! As the village bonfire party kicked off at six tonight I reckon it will burn all night due to the two silver birch trees we had felled. In spite of keeping the trunks for logs, there was loads of stuff left to donate to the village pile and plenty left for our own effort. The wood ash will go on the new strawberry patch, and the bonfire site(now minus weeds) will be covered with old carpet until we can afford to do our next project( a mid garden seating… Continue

Can hardly believe I passed the practical exam! 64.50% overall for the three papers. I just squeaked over the line on my plot work with 50.43% (50% needed on each section and 55% minimum overall to pass). Reckon that final rake over to remove my footprints must have been worth it! I was completely unable to do the third lot of digging and seed sowing as my back was really hurting so I lost out on thirty points completely. At least I won't have to do it again. The potting shed was an ok… Continue