I went to visit my private allotment and apiary yesterday (aka my parents garden). I went to steal chicken compost for my own garden and It was like visiting an old neglected friend. I had pretty much given up the idea of growing here this year and let it all go wild. Yet today my Dad had mowed the lawn and tidied up and it was looking quite inviting.
Last year, I was preparing for the end of the world, so enthusiastically grew 16 tomato plants, 4 cucumber plants and hundreds of onions and shallots. I dont know what i was thinking. Well, I do. My vision at the time was to preserve huge amounts of pickled onions, pickled mini cucumbers and dehydrated tomatoes. This was my moment to save us all from famine!!
And I did it…
The problem is…now, nearly a year on, I still have huge amounts of pickled onions and pickled mini cucumbers. They sit there on the shelf and on the floor of my kitchen, mocking me. No one likes them. I don’t like them!
I explored dehydrating tomatoes, trying to convince my cynical husband that having a machine plugged in day and night was actually saving us money!! The very minute portion of dehydrated tomatoes I did make, got used up in two spaghetti bolognaises.
So, this year, I reasoned, I must think of a new way to save the world..
I cast a glance over at the solitary bee hive in the corner of the garden. Third year of beekeeping and I wasn’t convinced the bees had survived the winter. As it was warm, I went over to survey the hive and found every single bee was dead. There was plenty of food in the hive, but every single bee was stationary, as though some kind of bee-type Pompeii had occurred!
It was a discouraging, but not altogether surprising trip. I was never sure the daily cannabis smoke drifting into the garden from next door was contributing to the vision of an organic garden!!
It was time to recalibrate and reflect. More bees or no to bees? To preserve or not to preserve? That was the question…