This is a handy chart for calculating how much produce can be grown in a given space using a bed system.

It’s from the book Solar Gardening: Growing vegetables year-round the American intensive way by Leandre Poisson and Gretchen Vogel Poisson (ISBN 0-930031-69-5).

For a printable PDF copy, click here.

The chart shows the average yield for a 4′ x 8′ bed (32 square feet, or about three square metres). Depending on the conditions, the yield can be higher or lower than this. Last year we harvested over 30 pounds of potatoes in one of our allotment beds (which are slightly smaller than 4′ x 8′). Conversely, there’s no way in a British climate you’ll be able to grow 28 pounds of watermelon or 45 pounds of sweet potatoes in a 32 square foot area!

It’s a great starting point, though, for figuring out how much space to dedicate to each crop.

Happy gardening!

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog somewhat, but I’ve been a busy little beaver in the kitchen.

I created the most amazing vegan-hamburger-steak-type thing which had just the perfect texture and a savoury and delicious flavour. And on the first try as well!

I also made some awesome vegan pepperoni sticks:

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Not to mention some very tasty butter bean burgers with a lovely crunchy crust (which all good bean burgers must have):

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AND, I also tried my hand at homemade crisps. It would be truly dangerous if I made these on a regular basis:

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Recipes will be in forthcoming posts!

But that’s not all…

I took a look in my freezer a month or so ago and realised there were still a couple of drawers full of fruit, waiting patiently to be made into wine. I’ve been making a gallon a week since then and so far have brewing: blackberry-raspberry; plum-blackerry; cherry-cranberry; elderberry-blackcurrant; and plum-blackcurrant-blackberry. YUM!

I also invested in a brand-spanking-new SoyQuick 930P, kind of the Rolls Royce of soya milk makers. Woohoo! I’ve made not just soya milk but also hemp milk, and will soon be experimenting with homemade tofu. Very exciting!

And I’ve bought a few exotic and somewhat hard-to-find ingredients: carrageenan, agar-agar and locust bean gum. These have been used to make a delicious garlic pâté (which was supposed to be cheese, but ended up with a consistency and flavour like pâté), as well as the aforementioned pepperoni.

Not only that, but we’ve been starting to prepare the allotments for the new growing season, and Mr Thrifty will be utilising his exceptional garden DIY skills to make raised beds for our second allotment. It’s a new and better design (hopefully) than the ones that are on our first allotment.

And if that weren’t enough, we’ve also joined a food co-op, and now can buy all kinds of delicious organic food at wholesale prices! Our first order has come in and we’ll be picking it up tomorrow. Yay!

Stay tuned, cyber-friends, details of these new ventures will be coming soon!

UPDATE January 2010: Added Popular Mechanics resource, plus a new section: Self-sufficiency websites.

I’ve been wanting to do this list for ages, and will be adding to it regularly. I’ve put a link in the bar below the Thrifty Living header photo, so it will be easy to find.

These resources are free (legally free, I might hasten to add). There are links to a wide range of subjects such as gardening & agriculture; homesteading; health & medicine; heating, energy & fuel; food preservation and personal freedom. I’ve started the list with the first few categories. Some are virtual libraries containing e-books and other materials in PDF and html format, whilst others are websites with extensive information on certain topics.

I suggest making electronic (or paper) copies of the material you are interested in. Websites come and go, and there’s nothing more frustrating than clicking on a bookmark only to find the website obsolete. Also, some websites may start charging for content which is currently free.

Much of the information is in Adobe PDF format. The Adobe PDF Reader can be downloaded here for free, if you don’t already have it.

A very convenient way to save web content that is not already in PDF format is to use CutePDF, which allows you to “print” to PDF (i.e. make a PDF copy) of web pages. The programme is free to download and use.

Another useful tool (also free) is PrintWhatYouLike, which allows you to edit webpages in order to remove ads, sidebars and other nonrelevant content, before printing a copy (either a paper copy, or a PDF copy using CutePDF).

If you want to download the content of an entire website to your computer, HTTrack, another freeware programme, allows you to do so.

Resources overview

Here is an overview of some of the larger resources, which are also listed separately in their appropriate categories below.

Soil and Health Library. Australian-based library run by Steve Solomon which makes available, for free download, e-books on holistic agriculture, holistic health, self-sufficiency, homesteading, as well as personal sovereignty and spiritual freedom. Some books are in the public domain, whilst others are out of print but still protected by copyright. How can this library distribute copies of copyrighted material? Australian law allows libraries to supply, for personal study, electronic copies of copyrighted books, as long as they are out of print. However, as stated on their website, “further reproduction and dissemination of copyrighted materials supplied to patrons of the Library is prohibited by international copyright agreements”. Excerpts from a few in-print books are available as well, with permission of their respective publishers. You don’t have to become a member of the Library in order to access the titles, but lifetime membership is only 10 euros (about £9 or US$15) and helps support the work.

Mother Earth News. This American magazine — “The original guide to living wisely” — has been publishing for almost 40 years. Their website contains a plethora of articles on homesteading, gardening, health, renewable energy, etc, which can be accessed free of charge. You can also buy CDs or DVDs of their article archive. List price for the entire set (1970-2008) is US$69.95, but they regularly have sales and if you’re patient, you should be able to pick up the set for as little as $29.95 plus s&h.

ATTRA: National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. US-based organisation which provides information on sustainable agriculture and organic farming. Free downloadable publications on growing fruits, vegetables, herbs & nuts organically, as well as advice on running a farming business. A wealth of information.

Journey to Forever. Journey to Forever is involved in environment and rural development work in remote and impoverished areas, with a focus on trees, soil and water, sustainable farming, sustainable technology, and family nutrition. They have two free online libraries, the Small Farms Library and the Biofuels Library.

Practical Action. This development charity “works with poor people to develop the skills and technology that will enable them to build a better future”. They provide free downloadable publications in the areas of agriculture; crop & food processing; energy; transport; waste & recycling; water & sanitation; and more.

Instructables. I love the idea of this website, which brings together the innovation of a worldwide web of people. All about “Make, How To and DIY”, accessible at no charge.

Plants for a Future. Huge free database with information on 7000 species of edible and/or “otherwise useful” plants which are suitable for growing outdoors in a temperate climate. Very comprehensive. Search the entire database, or peruse specialised lists which organise plants into dozens of uses.

Popular Mechanics. One hundred years of this practical magazine, with thousands of projects and ideas, are available for free perusal at Google Books. Issues from the first half of the 20th century — a time when innovation and ingenuity ruled — make for particularly interesting reading.

Gardening & agriculture

Soil & Health Holistic Agriculture Library. All titles are free to download and include Bio-dynamic agriculture: an introduction; The living soil; The natural way of farming; and many more.

Soil & Health Homesteading Library. All titles are free to download and include Building soils for better crops; Beyond organics; Gardening without irrigation; Organic gardener’s composting; and many more.

Mother Earth News. A huge database of free information and projects. Examples include low-cost greywater irrigation system; “100-year” hotbed; deluxe four-season cold frame; four herb garden designs; and many more.

ATTRA Publications. Big range of subjects, all available for free download, including growing food crops organically (both general guides and specific advice), growing organic greenhouse crops, organic pest management, etc, etc.

Journey to Forever Small Farms Library. Titles in this free library include Common-sense compost making by the quick return method; Weeds — guardians of the soil; Farming and gardening for health or disease; and more.

Practical Action. Free downloadable publications include home composting and micro-irrigation.

Instructables. Projects are available free of charge and include geodesic dome greenhouse; vertical vegetable system; tomato shelter; and many more.

Plants for a Future. Includes cultivation, propagation, uses and other data on thousands of useful plants, both edible and otherwise useful. Specialised lists in this free database include top-rated edible plants; alternative fruits; compost plants; shelterbelt plants; herbicide plants; and many more.

California Rare Fruit Growers Fruit Facts. Free information sheets, including cultivation and propagation, on various fruits such as gooseberry, fig, avocado, currants, pawpaw, kiwifruit, and more.

The Rooftop Garden Project. A partnership between Alternatives and Santropol Roulant, this project has “combined hydroponics, permaculture and organic gardening principles to develop soil-less growing techniques that are ecologically sustainable, affordable and light-weight enough to be used on rooftops, balconies, walls and other small urban spaces”. Free PDF download of their publication Guide to setting up your own edible rooftop garden, available in both English and French.

AVRDC: The World Vegetable Centre. This organisation, which promotes vegetable consumption in the developing world, has available for free download Saving your own vegetable seeds.

The National Academies Press. Books are available to view online for free. Has a few agriculture titles, including Lost crops of the Incas; Lost crops of Africa: volume I grains, volume II vegetables, volume III fruits.

Project Gutenberg. Here you will find 30,000 free ebooks, converted from books whose copyright has expired. Most books are old, and lack diagrams, making them a bit of a difficult read for gardening-type books. One that looks useful is Culinary herbs: their cultivation, harvesting, curing and uses.

Leaf for Life. Website with free information on edible leaf crops. Lists of 16 top rated edible leaf crops and 50 honourable mention edible leaf crops.

Popular Mechanics. Gardening-related articles, all available for free perusal, include Secrets of backyard gardening; Aerial cold frame; Garden hints; Pyramid strawberry bed; and more.

Homesteading

Soil & Health Homesteading Library — Titles are available for free download and include Flight from the city; Three acres and liberty; Farm blacksmithing; and more.

Mother Earth News. Lots of free information and projects, including how to build your own food dehydrator; wind-powered washing machine; low-cost earthbag building; many more.

ATTRA Publications. Lots of free advice on the starting and running a farm business. Titles include Start a farm in the city; Market gardening: a start-up guide; New markets for your crops; Oilseed processing for small-scale producers; and many more.

Journey to Forever Small Farms Library — Titles in this free library include Handy farm devices and how to make them; The sunflower seed huller and oil press; and more.

Practical Action. Free downloadable publications include solar water distillation; rainwater harvesting; and more.

Instructables. Projects are available free of charge and include homemade sun jar; build a workshop from scratch; and more.

Jenkins Publishing. This publisher has made available for free download, their book The humanure handbook: a guide to composting human manure. Or, as they put it, “255 pages of crap”.

Popular Mechanics. Numerous articles, all free, such as All-winter vegetable storage; How to build a root cellar; Build your own fruit & vegetable dryer; etc. Lots of free plans for building simple (and not-so-simple) furniture, including Space-saving dinette table; 16th century x-chair; Early American storage chest; and many more.

Health & medicine

Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. Founded by the late herbalist Michael Moore, this Arizona-based school offers a large range of free materials for the herbalist. Most of the texts have been converted to searchable, bookmarked PDF format. Included are photographs and drawings of medicinal plants; clinical manuals written by Michael Moore;  British herbal manuals; texts on herbology & herb growing; and much more. Sample titles: Herbal manual by Harold Ward; Herbal formulas for clinic & home by Michael Moore; Useful wild plants of the United States and Canada.

Hesperian Foundation. A non-profit publisher of books and newsletters for community-based health care. Their Online Library of free downloadable books includes Where there is no doctor and Where there is no dentist.

Plants for a Future. Specialised lists in this free database include Plants for medicinal use.

Heating, energy & fuel

Soil & Health Homesteading Library — Titles are available for free download and include Solargas: How to easily make your own auto and heating fuel for pennies a gallon.

Mother Earth News. Projects include how to build your own wood-fired earth oven; solar heater; and more.

ATTRA Publications. Publications include Conserving fuel on the farm; Renewable energy opportunities on the farm; and more.

Journey to Forever Biofuels Library. Titles in this free library include Manual for the home and farm production of alcohol fuel; Convert your car to alcohol; and more.

Practical Action. Free downloadable publications include wind for electricity generation; solar water heating; and more.

Instructables. Projects are available free of charge and include wind turbine; portable solar energy generator; and many more.

Popular Mechanics. Free projects include how to build outdoor kitchens; solar heater; and more.

Self-sufficiency websites

Self-sufficientish. Categories on homebrew, wild foods, budget living, etc, plus a forum.

The Green Living Forum. Dedicated to “helping you live a more sustainable life”.

More categories & links to come.

I love growing things, most especially things that are edible. Eating food that I’ve grown and tended myself really makes me feel connected to the earth and other living things.

So what’s happening down at the allotments?

The strawberries are mostly finished, though we still have a few everbearing and wild ones that are producing a small crop.

The autumn raspberries have finished their first early crop on last year’s canes. Most garden ‘experts’ advise you to cut your autumn raspberries down to the ground in February, but I’ve discovered that if you leave them to grow the second year, just trimming the tips in spring, you will get an early crop of raspberries from the old second-year canes. These canes can then be cut down when they’ve finished fruiting in June, and the new canes will start to produce a crop from around mid-summer through until frost. Two crops for the price of one! The crop on our new canes is just starting, so won’t be in full production for a few weeks.

Fruit that is in full production right now includes gooseberries, white currants and black currants.

One black currant bush is producing fruits that are about three times the size of our other black currants… they are the size of small grapes! Unfortunately, we won’t have enough to save for a batch of black currant wine, though hopefully I’ll be able to make black currant cordial (homemade Ribena).

The gooseberry bush is tiny, and there are only a few gooseberries on it, but they are very delicious. I’ve found that leaving the berries on the bush until they have a bit of “give” to them really makes a difference to how sweet they are. They bear little resemblance to the gooseberries you buy in the supermarket.

The white currant harvest is likewise very small, but they are also delicious.

On the vegetable front, the first mention goes of course to the fabulous spud. The harvest began a couple of weeks ago, and barring a major disaster, we shouldn’t have to buy potatoes until sometime next spring.

We have picked our first pods of Bijou, a giant mangetout (sugar snap pea). This variety will definitely be grown every year. We were a bit late getting our peas into the ground, which is why they’re starting to crop so late.

We’ve had just a few pods of our shelling peas, Hurst Greenshaft. The seed is a couple of years old now, and germination wasn’t great, but we’ll be saving seed to sow next year as the peas are tasty and sweet.

Our sugarsnap peas, Delikett, have just started producing pods. They were also sown from older seed, with resultant poor germination, so that will be another that we’ll save fresh seed from (or buy, if we don’t have enough to save). This variety is superb… crisp, juicy and sweet. I love eating them raw, fresh off the vine.

One crop that can always be counted on to be prolific is courgette (zucchini). We’re growing three varieties this year, the standard All Green Bush, as well as Trieste White Cousa, and Early Golden. The first two have begun producing, and it won’t be long before the glut. Anyone have any courgette/zucchini recipes to share?

Back at home, we are growing salad leaves in a raised bed in our front garden, and hope to keep it in production for most of the year. Right now the bed is growing romaine lettuce Chartwell, red cos lettuce Marshall, and also Red Deers Tongue lettuce and Salad Leaf Rocket. Mr Thrifty found slugs and snails partying in the bed a couple of days ago, so he removed them to the secondary party zone (a pile of half-munched lettuce leaves located away from the raised bed, on the grass), then sprayed all around the outside of the raised bed with a salt solution. This seems to keep the slugs and snails away without committing slug & snail homicide (gastropodicide?)

We are continuing to slowly get the new allotment into shape. An update on the progress will be forthcoming soon!

I LOVE gardening!

Last year we hit the gardening jackpot and became the proud keepers of an allotment (after a two-year wait). For those of you unfamiliar with them (which probably includes most everyone outside of the UK), allotments are areas of land owned by local town councils, which are divided into plots and rented for a nominal fee to town residents. It’s great for those who don’t have enough space to grow much at home.

This year, we were given a second allotment which, let’s just say, needed a bit of a makeover.

The new allotment hadn’t been worked in ages. It was an interesting mix of couch grass (an invasive grass which spreads rapidly by creeping rhizomes), bindweed (an invasive weed which regrows from the smallest segment of root), invasive wild blackberries (which at least have yummy edible berries), rubbish (tyres, old doors, broken glass, etc), huge piles of rocks, and some big trees (unusual on an allotment).

We’ve slowly been whipping this second allotment into shape, as well as continuing work on our first allotment. Hence the paucity of posts, dear readers.

And now, some photos!

This is our first allotment (17B) in spring of ‘08, before we did any work on it. Half of it was covered in couch grass, and at the back lay a thicket of blackberries and several large trees. (As well as the ubiquitous bindweed). The soil was rocky and clayey, the kind that bakes to a concrete finish in the sun.

The work begins! We decided to lay out most of this allotment with raised beds. Mr Thrifty constructed them out of old pallets and offcuts of hardwood flooring boards (both obtained for free, of course).

We seived the soil to remove the rocks and added horse manure, organic mushroom compost and various other good things. Didn’t Mr Thrifty do a fabulous job on the raised beds?

This is the strawberry bed. We decided to make it a tiered bed.

At the back, we dug out about half of the blackberries, and planted two rows of raspberries, and a tayberry. The compost bin was relocated back here as well. Mr Thrifty built a large box for gardening tools. (We put a lock on it because occasionally there are thefts at the allotments.) You can see the tool box in the background of the first three pictures above. The compost bin is in the foreground of the first picture, and the background of the next two pictures (we relocated it).

The tayberry — which had been languishing in a pot at home — went crazy once it was planted in the open ground, and sent out runners about 4m (12 feet) long. So a couple of weeks ago, Mr Thrifty constructed a tayberry trellis from an old broken garden arch, to give the tayberry runners something to climb.

This is the new allotment when we first took it on in February of this year. It’s situated 90 degrees to our first allotment, and the two plots form a large “L” shape. The wagon wheel is from my FIL, he was going to take it to the tip, so we took it off his hands. The side boundary of our plot is where the green compost bin is. The bit at the left edge covered in black weedcloth is the plot of our neighbour, Dr Potato. (He’s an MD, but last year all he grew were potatoes, hence the name. This year we will have to call him Dr Potato-Tomato-Leek-Courgette-Runner Bean. Or something like that.)

The big green mound that goes from the centre of the picture to the right edge is a thicket of blackberries. For now, we’re going to keep them. The plot extends behind the pallets/fencing, all the way to the trees (and including the trees).

We are building a dry stone wall at the back, under the trees, in front of the fence. It’s a way of getting rid of some of the enormous quantity of rocks that are on the plot, and it looks a lot more attractive than just heaping them up in a big pile.

Here is the plot at the beginning of May. Along the edge that borders our first allotment, we planted some fruit bushes — gooseberry, white currant, red currant, black currant. The strip that’s dug out was planted with potatoes.

Eventually we’ll probably do this new allotment with raised beds, but there really isn’t any time this year.

Here are the bean teepees we just constructed on 19A. They’re made from 8ft bamboo canes. There is a winter squash planted in the middle of each teepee;, the idea is that they will be trained out of the teepees to trail onto the ground in front of them. The rope encircling each teepee has been sprayed with salt water as a snail/slug deterrent. (Note: this deters snails but doesn’t harm them. Our allotments are no-kill zones!)

That’s the potatoes growing behind the row of teepees, and the fruit bushes behind them (which are kinda hard to make out). The strip of grass divides our two plots, so plot 17B is in the background.

And coming back to 17B…

Here is the support Mr Thrifty constructed for the grape vine. We don’t expect the grape to grow very big this year, so we planted cucumber and peas along with it.

Another shot of 17B. Onions & garlic are growing in the front bed, potatoes in the bed behind it. To the right of the potato bed we’ve planted oca, and behind the oca is yet another potato bed (we planted LOTS of potatoes this year).

And how are all your gardens growing?

A few weeks ago, we started some wine which turned out to be the best wine EVER, even better than the blackberry and elderberry wines we’ve made previously. We were both surprised at how smooth and delicious the wine was.

We collected the raspberries from our own bushes as they ripened, then froze them in single layers on parchment-lined baking sheets, before transferring them to freezer containers. As I’ve mentioned before, freezing the fruit eliminates the need to either use chemicals or boiling water to sterilise the fruit.

Let me just do a little aside here and highly recommend the variety of raspberries that we bought in spring 2007. Joan J is a primocane variety (meaning it bears fruit on first-year canes) which produces heavy crops of sweet, delicious berries. BTW, you can get TWO crops per year from primocane raspberries by not cutting down the canes after they have finished fruiting (which is the usual advice). Instead prune just the tips of the old canes and the following summer you will get an early crop from these second-year canes. The new canes will also bear a crop starting in mid-summer. This year, we picked around 6.3kg (14 pounds) from the second-year canes, and about the same again from the new canes. (The row is about 4.5 metres / 15 feet long.) Two crops for the price of one, gotta love that!

But back to the wine. I used slightly more fruit than I have in past batches of wine, including some freshly frozen grapes. I also used a litre (quart) of white grape juice. The yeast used was Gervin varietal A. I’d read somewhere that putting the sugar in at the same time as the yeast can kill the yeast. Although I hadn’t had this problem with the other batches, I decided to add the sugar syrup a few days after adding the yeast (just before transferring from fermentation bin to demijohn), instead of at the same time.

Next year we will be using a lot more of our raspberry crop to brew this fine wine!



Raspberry wine

1. It’s best to start with frozen fruit. Freezing sterilises the fruit without having to use chemicals or boiling water. Freeze raspberries in a single layer on parchment paper-lined baking trays, then transfer to containers once frozen. Halve grapes, removing pips if they aren’t seedless, then transfer to containers and freeze. Freeze fruit at least two days ahead of time.

2. Put frozen fruit into a muslin hop bag, then into the fermentation bin, and add two pints (38 ounces) of filtered water. Cover and let stand 24 hours, or until the fruit is thawed and the whole mixture has come up to room temperature. Add juice to bin.

3. Start yeast. Sprinkle yeast over 50ml (2 ounces) of warm water to which 1/2 teaspoon sugar had been added, then leave to stand for 20 minutes. After this time it should be foamed up. Stir and add to the bin, then stir again. Cover.

4. Put bin in a warm spot (around 20C/70F), or if you’ll putting it in a cooler location, use a heating strap around the bin.

5. Every day or every couple of days, stir the mixture in the bin, mashing the hop bag to help break the fruit up.

6. After a week or so, the wine will be ready for transfer to a demijohn. After giving your hands a really good scrub, squeeze the hop bag to remove as much juice as possible. Feed pulp to the compost bin if you have one.

7. Dissolve sugar in one pint (19 ounces) water over low heat. Let cool to room temperature, then add to the bin.

8. Pour into a sterilised one-gallon glass demijohn. Don’t forget to also sterilise any equipment that will be used in the process, such as the funnel and bung/airlock. For sterilising, we use a chlorine-based agent for the demijohn, and boiling water for anything else. Fit a bung and airlock. Put the wine back into a nice warm spot (or cooler spot, with heating strap).

7. The wine will continue to ferment, and the sediment will start to settle to the bottom. A week or two later, syphon the wine into a second sterilised demijohn and then let it stand again. When the wine has cleared and fermentation has finished, it is ready to transfer to bottles (which also need to be sterilised). We use old screw-top wine bottles, that way we don’t have to bother with corks.

This wine was ready to drink as soon as it was bottled. There was almost no sediment in the second demi-john, so we got over six bottles of wine.

Cost was a bit more than last time because of the fresh grapes we added: one gallon (six bottles) of this wine cost about £4.25 ($6.50), which works out to around 70p ($1.07) per bottle. That’s still much cheaper than the cheapest supermarket wine. And much finer tasting!

A week ago I tantalised you with a photo of an unusual vegetable that we grew on our allotment this year. Thanks, Jeni and Bethany for your guesses, although you were both ultimately stymied!

The identity of the mystery veg is… achocha! Hey, even the name is cool, doncha think?

Apparently, it’s got a bunch of other aliases… like caigua, slipper gourd, lady’s slipper, sparrow gourd, but I know it as achocha.

I bought the achocha seeds, and the oca tubers, from a great little company called Real Seeds. They sell heirloom, open-pollinated seeds (you know, the kind you can save the seed from) of lots of really interesting varieties of familiar veg, as well as more unusual veg like quinoa, amaranth, exploding cucumbers, melothrie (another cuke relative), salsola, winter cooking radish etc. As well as oca tubers, they also sell ulluco and yacon tubers.

But anyway, back to achocha. This is our second year growing it, and it is really easy and fun. Achocha fruits are crunchy and delicious, tasting (to me, anyway) like a cross between green beans and peas. The little spines are soft and edible, but they can also be rubbed off easily. They’re best eaten at a size of about 2.5cm (1 inch) long.

Unlike peas and beans, achocha doesn’t get powdery mildew, which cut short our pea crop this year in the very very wet summer we had. Achocha doesn’t really seem to get going until about September (though maybe our wet summer was to blame), but then it’s very prolific, and keeps chugging out the fruit until frost (which, sadly, came in October this year). And we had NO pest problems (though you do watch out for those pesky slugs & snails before the plants get established).

Anyhoo, I’d highly recommend growing this interesting veg, very easy and rewarding. And because “weird vegetables are us”, you can look forward to more fun garden guessing games in future!

Okay, so I had y’all on tenterhooks, didn’t I, when I asked you the identity of the mystery vegetable a few posts back.

Thanks to everyone for your guesses, Bethany came the closest when she guessed it was mashua, as both the mystery veg and mashua are root vegetables from the Andes, and have a very similar appearance.

The mystery vegetable is actually oca, here is the Wiki entry on it, though I have to say the Wiki picture does not look like my oca… on the other hand, the picture on the mashua page of mashua and oca, THAT looks like my oca (except for the colour).

It is a really great crop to grow, very easy and virtually pest-free. (A couple plants did get an early infestation of blackfly, which was quickly sorted with an organic pest spray.) The tubers form AFTER frost has killed off the top growth, which is usually at the beginning of November in this part of the UK (though we had an early frost this year). They keep for months if kept in a cold, dark place, and they’re easy to grow from the previous year’s tubers (this is our second year growing oca).

So far we’ve dug 1/3 of the bed, total useable weight was around  2.3kg (5 pounds), so hopefully we should get about 7kg (15 pounds) from the 1.2m x 1.8m (4ft x 6ft) raised bed.

Oca can be eaten raw or cooked. The tubers are crunchy and tangy (kinda lemony) when raw, but lose this sharpness when cooked. They’re really good roasted too. In New Zealand, oca are called yams, and are a common crop (or so I’ve read). I found this page on different ways to prepare oca, and will definitely try some of them out.

Now for the second mystery veg, which we also grew this year:

Have fun guessing



A couple of weeks ago I found myself in a Borders bookstore, sitting in a comfy armchair and perusing some interesting books. One was The new self-sufficient gardener by John Seymour, that guru of self-sufficiency. The book is a revised and updated version of his 1978 book The self-sufficient gardener.

The book is a comprehensive resource, and is full of b&w and colour illustrations. The first nine chapters deal with planning your garden, the essentials of good gardening, and the cultivation of fruit, vegetables & herbs. Seymour extolls the virtues of the “Deep Bed Method” of gardening (aka the Chinese Method, the French Intensive Method & the Biodynamic/French Intensive Method). Seymour is not one for simply repeating the same standard gardening advice the way a lot of books and websites do. Instead, has “walked the walk” with the gardening techniques he recommends and has proven that they work.

Yields with the Deep Bed Method are impressive… a bed of 100 square feet (9 square metres) can produce from 200 to 400 pounds (90-180 kg) of vegetables a year, thus saving hundreds of ££ (or $$ or €€ or whatever) a year at the supermarket.

There is also a chapter on preserving garden produce (salting, drying, pickles, bottling, freezing) and making jams, jellies, wine, cider & mead; and a final chapter on a few miscellaneous topics like beekeeping, drainage and hedges.

A great book, and I coveted it, but at £20, it didn’t find its way onto my bookshelf that day.

But then, last week, I was in a WHSmith bookstore and found to my delight that it was on special offer, half price at £10. My joy was compounded when I was able to use a ‘£5 off when you spend £10 on any book’ coupon that was burning a hole in my wallet, and which you can print here:

WHSmith coupons

Thus I was able to walk around the rest of the day feeling very self-satisfied (all you thrifty shoppers will be familiar with the ‘thrill of the bargain’ high).

I very highly recommend The new self-sufficient gardener, and at £5 it’s a steal of a deal.