Jam making: forty jars!

Just a peek into 'my' kitchen in the Findhorn Foundation: last week we made jam! We had quite a few gooseberries in the freezer and our fruit and veg supplier gave us a big box of bananas, peels blackened by the cold but still very nice inside. I had been hoarding jars for the last few months and now we filled them with a gooseberry - banana - ginger jam. The combination is delicious and the house will be able to enjoy this for at least a couple of weeks :D.

Tadaaa!

Growing peas and beans in toilet rolls

Someone asked me how to sow in toilet roll tubes. Well, that's actually easy peasy :).

1: Collect enough toilet roll tubes - this may take all winter. Here in the Findhorn Community it just takes a few weeks :)

2: Find a low seeding tray

3: Fill the tubes with seeding compost in the bag or in a bucket with compost, by pressing with the fingers of both hands on either side of the tube. Make sure to give a good amount of pressure and leave 2 cm (1 inch) space at the top.

4: Put them upright and side to side in the tray and drop one pea or bean in each tube

5: Top up the tubes with compost and press again

6: Water (just moist, don't overdo it!), wish them well and wait...

7: Once the plants have grown two or three pairs of leaves and the roots are visible, plant them with the tubes. This works so well, because the roots stay undamaged and healthy. The cardboard will disintegrate and feed the worms. I use this method for bigger seeds, like peas, sweet peas, broad beans, runner beans and corn.

When the peas look like this, you can plant them. Enjoy!