We Grow Our OwnWhat we grow, what we cook, what we eat …

As promised earlier in the month, here is this month’s Cultivate, Cook & Click Competition.

So, here is a reminder of the rules …

Well either I made the choice of ingredients too hard this month, or you were all too busy in the garden growing your fruit and veg, as I only had one entry that met the rules for the competition this month!

So, this month’s winner is ….

After the overwhelming response to last month’s Cultivate, Click & Cook competition, I have decided to set this up as a monthly competition, to encourage people to cook with whatever is in season.

So, here is a reminder of the rules …

It doesn’t matter whether you have a small garden, or a large allotment plot, you always seem to run out of growing space, especially in the busy late Spring and early Summer months.

However, there are a couple of techniques that can be used, which will ensure that you get the absolute most out of your growing space.

Thank you to everyone who entered and to all those that voted in April’s Cultivate, Cook & Click competition.

I can now announce that the winner of this month’s competition is …

Thank you for all of your entries for this month’s competition, and now it is time to reveal the prizes and the finalists for this month.

The runner bean is a great British summer vegetable that is easy to grow and delicious to eat, but it seems that it has been forgotten by a large number of people, dismissed as old fashioned, probably because they have been used to it being boiled to within an inch of its life by generations of school cooks!

As you’ll know by now, two of the things I love doing is growing vegetables and fruit at my allotment, and cooking with whatever is in season.

A few days ago, my better half and I thought why not combine the two, and make it into a monthly competition. Even better, the winner of the competition each month will win some fabulous food related prizes that have kindly been donated.

Following on from my video blogs giving tips on how to get your chilli seeds to germinate, and also how to make sure they grow from tiny seedlings into big healthy chilli plants, this video blog explains what to do when your chilli plants starts developing flowers. The flowers are crucial, as they turn into chillies when the flowers have been pollinated.

You’ll remember that last month, I gave you some tips about how to give your chilli seeds the best chance of germinating, and starting to grow into big healthy chilli plants.