Apples, pears and potatoes won't discolour after peeling if you cover them in salt water. When you next make a fruit salad soak apples and pears briefly in salt water to ensure a fresh look and taste.

Now that the growing season is well under way, we are running a formal trial with the local university using our bitterns.

From past experience on a more informal basis it seems that this liquid replaces trace elements lost from rainfall and modern farming techniques. We already supply a number of organic farmers with this product.

I have been using it in my walled garden and am delighted to whet your appetite with a picture of my luscious greens.

Sea salt seaweed and asparagus

The first crop of the year is just coming through and if I hadn’t cut and eaten the asparagus I would take a photo.

The asparagus area was well fertilized with a lovely load of sea weed that was washed onto the seasalt approach road by a gale in the winter. It was spread on the soil and has now mostly broken down.

An interesting side benefit is that we are in a dry spell now and the seaweed that is left has gone ‘crispy’ and this allows the asparagus spears to come up but it deters the slugs. Would you crawl over crispy seaweed?

Talking of slugs it is that time of year where an onslaught is necessary to make sure we get the food and enjoy the flowers and not the slugs . Our slug spray is certainly providing a barrier notably with tender tulips where the tips are very succulent and attract every small slug on a damp evening. A 50% solution sprayed on and they just cant cling on to the plant.

At this time of year beer and fermented apple juice traps are very effective as well.

Getting Pickled
Christmas 2008