Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Tuesday 30 July 2013

A yummy lunch courtesy of my ICE #GrowYourOwn competition seeds


Some of you may remember I am taking part in a  #GrowYourOwn competition run by  Ice , a  new, flexible customer reward programme which identifies sustainable products and services, from high-street retailers to small independent businesses, presents them to you in a one-stop shop and rewards you generously when you buy them via Ice.
 

The Ice #GrowYourOwn competition uses seeds from  The Organic Gardening Catalogue (one of its partners) to encourage home grown, sustainable produce. I was sent a selection,  which I planted a couple of weeks ago. on the 12th July





The seeds popped through the soil surface on 15th July




 And look at them now !


 I decided I had better do a bit of thinning picking so went into the polytunnel armed with my gathering trug to get a salad for lunch. I gathered a tasty basket of baby leaves of Pak Choi, Radish, Beetroot .


Trug after the lunchtime leaves were removed


I harvested a bit of the Celery I grew from my Rocket Gardens plug plants - still growing well in the wicker basket in the Polytunnel - I also picked some tomatoes and the first of the Aubergines.

Add a cucumber picked from the polytunnel yesterday and I reckon that will be a tasty salad.







And so it was, with quiche and some potato and chive salad ( not shown), all from the garden or hens.

I like radish leaves so I ate the thinnings whole as part of my salad, but Compostman and Compostgirl don't like radish root (but do eat radish leaves) so I cut the ends off for them. The pak choi leaves were very tasty, as were the baby beet leaves. I also had some rocket on my plate (from a Rocket Gardens plug plant) but I am the only one who eats it ( funny lot my family!)

So far the carrots and the salad leaves and rocket from the #GrowYourOwn competition seeds are still a bit too small to use but in another week I should have some tasty additions to the plate from them as well.

More from me on the Ice #GrowYourOwn competition  in the next few weeks.

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