I love baskets, little, large and in-between.

Multi purpose and hand crafted from natural materials, for me baskets represent the ethos of natural living.

Basket Care

Some of my baskets are very old but remain in perfect condition.  I put this down to moisture.  Age dries the materials making them brittle, resulting in splitting and breaking of the canes.  My solution for this is to wash them regularly with slightly pressurised water to remove any debris caught in the weave and occasionally let them stand outside in soft rain  to allow the moisture to penetrate the canes thus preventing the very brittleness that will cause them to split and break.

Here's a lightweight basket that I often take with me when foraging, I think it may have been originally made for either fowlers or fishermen.  I've smeared Vaseline on the metal pieces to protect them from the water and just let it sit in the soft rain for several days.

Basket Making and Cane Uses

Woven canes are lightweight and can be very strong, they've been used through the ages for every conceivable purpose from building (wattle & daub) to carrying, storing, fencing, furniture and decoration.

Grow Hazel and Willow

Ireland's weather is ideal for the growing of hazel and willow used in basket making, unfortunately we don't utilise it as we should by growing crops best suited to our climate.

This is such a bountiful time of the year. The spring's labours are giving forth in every area of Our Smallholding. There's homegrown fresh fruit & veggies every day.

Harvesting the Onions

This has proved a great year for growing and saving onions.  Eddie lifted these last week and they are doing really well, lined up along the railing to get the full benefit of the sunshine.  They will be plaited and suspended from the rafters in one of the sheds to store until used.

The vegetable garden closest to the house is exposed and visible when anyone comes into the drive since the hedge was removed in the spring. The onions are suspended along the railing in that garden and we've been asked during the last week if we would sell them.

Knowledge of Plot to Plate

I'm biased towards fresh, local food with knowledge from plot to plate and no money would buy these onions.  We only grow enough for ourselves, which never seems to be enough.  I would encourage everyone to plant onions, they are so simple and easy to grow.  They are a great starter vegetable to begin with, they only require a little weeding during the growing season - and then the harvesting - and Oh, the flavour!

Plan Ahead

Just a little planning will enable nature to do most of the work.  Now is the time to set aside a small patch of ground. Cover it with cardboard or newspaper and grass clippings or straw to kill any current growth, the earthworms will do the rest.  This covering will gradually biodegrade enriching and conditioning the soil.  Depending on the depth of cover used, the weather and local soil conditions this cover may need to be augmented over the winter, however, by spring when it's time to plant, there will be a perfect onion bed ready to plant.

No Dig

No digging or tilling, no toxic chemicals.  No disturbing the earthworms as they enrich the soil. Just plant the onion bulbs straight into the ground by making a hole with a pointed object, as you would for daffodills, just not so deep, cover it over and allow nature to do the rest.

Go on. Do it!

Saving seed is the path to freedom and is key in becoming sustainably self-sufficient.

Self-sufficiency & Sustainability vs.Consumerism

We've become a consumer society and can buy anything we need.  It's packaged in colourful, enticing wrappers and claims to be the best, brightest, most effective or longest lasting on the market.  We buy into the advertising spin as well.  Becoming self-sufficient means we save, we store, we re-use. Self-sufficiency means; not going to the shop, not buying online, not discarding any item that may have another life, another purpose.  Sustainability and self-sufficiency are the antithesis of consumerism.

Recent economic downturns mean less disposable income, yet it can be difficult to adapt a different lifestyle or a different attitude.

Consider the total environmental cost of whichever consumer item is closest to hand at the moment!  Watch Rebecca Hoskins as she calculates the total environmental cost of a sandwich.  Does it make any sense?

Reduce Environmental Cost

We can reduce our environmental and financial costs in our practice of growing and rearing our own.  In the past, saving seed was an essential task each harvest.  It was done simply by setting aside a portion of the crop for next years harvest.  It just takes a little planning and understanding to make it a workable solution once again.

Plants that are grown from early spring have a greater tendency to go to seed by mid summer - excellent, that's the seed for next years crop. A second planting later in the season will provide food continuity.

Above, is an early crop of Mizuna which provided salad in late spring early summer on Our Smallholding.  By early July it began to bolt and flower.  Being a member of the crucifer plant family and much loved by bees, it was quickly pollinated and set it's seed.

Seed Saving

Previously, I've only gathered small amounts of seed, but this year I harvested the entire crop to ensure a genetic mix.  Like all life forms, a more diverse genetic base will grow stronger & healthier crops into the future.

I simply cut the stems with a secateurs as soon as I noticed some of the pods were beginning to open and shed seed and gathered them on a plastic sheet to take to the wood shed.  They were tied in bunches about the size of my wrist with twine from last winters hay bales and suspended from the rafter.  The sheet of plastic was laid on the ground beneath the suspended stems to gather the seed as it dries and drops.  Nature will do the drying and saving and I'll store them in a paper bag - label and date. 

Free Seeds

I expect to have a sizable quantity of Mizuna seed to give away in a few weeks time so watch this space if you'd like some for next spring.

Why would I give them away for free you might ask and the answer is because nature provided them from a packet of open pollinated seeds that was given to me as a Christmas gift.  The Earth does not levy a fee to give, we are just the keepers, we don't own them.  We will retain enough seeds for next years crop on Our Smallholding, the remainder will be distributed to anyone who wants them.

Summer is progressing and the fruits of the season are beginning to swell and colour on Our Smallholding.  Trees and bushes are laden again this year. I have requests out for jam pots in every direction.

Every year it seems that no matter how many jars and pots we've collected over the preceding months there are never enough to preserve the abundance that July and August provide.  The most frequent item on the shopping list is sugar.

Blackcurrants

The blackcurrants have been better in other summers. They are overcrowded and overshadowed and should have been moved last autumn.  That's a priority task for October/November

Gooseberries

Like the blackcurrants, the gooseberries should have been moved last autumn but they are producing a plentiful supply of fruit which has been swelling and is waiting on the sun to sweeten.

Raspberries

No matter how well we protect the raspberries and strawberries, the birds seem to find a way to have dessert. Having fruit ripening on the canes in the evening time is no guarantee that we will have fruit the following morning.

It's the early bird... you know!

Plums

The branches on the plum tree are weighed down  again this year.   Last year we had to remove a large branch which although it was supported, had split and would allow disease to enter the tree.  Yet another large branch has split under the weight of it's fruit this year.

Apples

There will be a bumper harvest of apples again judging the the fruit that's swelling at the moment. These are a very sweet cooking apple - name long forgotten.  There are several much younger eating apple trees which are already producing a surprising amount of fruit.

Salads & Herbs

The herb rockery close to the back door had become over-run with strong grasses, creeping buttercup and dandelions to the point where it had become impossible to manage.  I covered both soil and rocks with cardboard this spring to eliminate the weed problem, the only plants left are thyme and parsley.  The parsley has been happily growing and self seeding in the herb rockery for the past six or seven years.

Most of the herbs are now moved and lemon balm, oregano and sage are happily growing among the lettuces, mizuna and nasturtiums this year.

Yet another autumn task will be to introduce more soil and rock to the herb rockery, sloping it to face the sun. A permaculture technique, it will increase soil temperatures and enable plants that like heat to thrive.  Along with the sloped elevation the rocks act as radiators to absorb, store and slowly release the sun's warmth.

Cabbages

Cabbages are ready to cut. These are a few plants from last year that were planted late.  There is a further crop of cut and come cabbage which will hopefully provide greens in late summer and autumn through to winter.

Potatoes

In a few short months since the potatoes were planted they've have closed in to exclude light from weeds below and are blossoming.  They're inter-planted with nasturtiums, marigolds, and beans.

It's not just the herbaceous plants and shrubs that produce flowers with beautiful form and colour  Aren't potato blossoms so pretty!