The Great British Garlic Challenge & My Green Manure.

I've not been very well today so I have spent all day in bed, so when Ed got home from work carrying this little box it really cheered me up. Ed and I love garlic, we managed to buy some from our local market this time last year-ish from the Isle of Wight and it was so delicious. So when I was researching where to get some garlic from to grow I stumbled upon The Garlic Farm. I found their website really useful it really is the one stop shop for garlicky wisdom. I then saw that they are running a competition called The Great British Garlic Challenge  where they are looking to find the best amateur garlic grower in the UK and that was the point where my competitive streak began to surface, especially when I saw how good the prize is. So I ordered my Solent Wight bulbs and was very pleased when they came in a few days.   

I love how they package up their garlic, it feels like you are getting such a wonderful little present through the post that has had a great lot of care and attention put into it. 

The bulbs look strong and robust, ready to be in the running to win The Great British Garlic Challenge.

And the bulbs even come with a little information card that has tips for growing and even recipes on the other side. I love this company, I think the detail and passion is so evident in every level of the service that I have received. And if I don't win the challenge I will definitely be pestering Ed to take me there next year. So I am excited that planting garlic will be one of the allotment jobs for me at the weekend, the others will be fixing the one raised bed then digging some organic manure into them and the other job is so sow some green manure in the big veg patch at the front of our plot.

This is Hungarian Grazing Rye one of the plants that is classed as a green manure. Basically it locks lots of loveliness into the soil ready to give plants I grow in the spring a good start. It is also really good at suppressing weeds *YEY*. 

There are many types of green manure available for lots of different soil types and what time of year you want to sow. The website I got my seed from is really informative www.sowseeds.co.uk. The seed came in a couple of days as well which was fab. The only down side is I totally underestimated how much I needed, I ordered enough for 6m squared when I probably needed double that. Oh well it just gives me an excuse to order some more off seeds off them, as they have a rather tempting veg section with seeds that I can sow now, in the colder months. Just have to hope that I feel well enough to at least get some of the jobs done over the weekend.

Hope you have lots of autumny adventures planned this weekend.

Tuesday Teacup

Being British means that you categorically have to drink tea. I love tea... green, black, white, its all yummy, as long as you get the good quality leaves! If any of you have tried green tea bags that are just off the supermarket shelf you probably will have pulled that 'eeek it's bitter' face. This is because they use the good quality leaves for the loose leaf and then chop up and chuck the rest into tea bags. (There are some top quality tea bags though such as Tea Pig). Every Tuesday I will share my favourite tea of the moment with you to try and spread the tea love <3

So my Tuesday Teacup this week is one of my own blends that I have been drinking a lot this week in the day time, I like to call it Floral Gunpowder. I blend 1-2 tsps Gunpowder Green Tea with 1 tsp Jasmi Yin Hao Lotus. I pour not quite boiling water onto the leaves and leave them for around 3-4 minutes before pouring. It is best not to use boiling water as this can scald the leaves and it can make it taste a bit funky. Experiment with the brewing time as well depending on how strong you like your tea. I finish off this tea with dropping one Damask Rose Tea Bud into it. The gunpowder tea has grey green leaves that will unfurl to produce a slightly fruity flavour, this is why it works beautifully with the heady fragrance and taste of the Jasmine tea (which I find too strong to drink on its own). I sacrifice a rose bud to this tea because it adds a heady subtle sweetness that promises turkish delight. The tea leaves should last for 2 pots of tea and the rose bud should last up to 5 cups so its rather pleasing on the pocket as well.