And the Name of our Farm is….

I promised you I'd come back today with the big reveal and some more information about our brand-new holding which is ours and belongs to us (still buzzing!) The farm is just off the A483 outside the village of Llandybie (pronounced Thlan-di-bee-ay, approximately), about three miles north of Ammanford. It's at the very top of...

How small-scale horticulture can help with food security, health and rural regeneration

An interesting article about small-scale sustainable horticulture in Wales…

Maniffesto Bwyd | Food Manifesto

By Alicia Miller

When my husband, Nathan Richards, and I started our farm, Troed y Rhiw in West Wales, growing a wide range of organic vegetables and soft fruit, many of our local farming neighbours were surprised and even openly sceptical. Were we mad growing horticulture crops on what was thought of as livestock land, with 6–8” of poorly drained topsoil? The farm was not in good heart to start with, having been neglected for more than 30 years – the challenge to bring the land back to health perhaps seemed foolhardy to them. The east of the UK was much better for vegetable production – why should we bother way out here in the west to grow food?

Remarkably, just .08% of agricultural land in Wales is currently used for horticulture production and the sector is in long term decline in terms of land use. While this…

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Newyddion Da!

Great news, everyone! We have officially signed the contracts for our land purchase, and we exchanged and completed on Friday. WE HAVE A FARM NOW! *leaps around excitedly* *loses a large chunk of toast to one of the Ungardeners* And our farm has a name - come back tomorrow for the big naming reveal!  

Making Room For Mushrooms!

Ever since Chris and I did an intensive three-day mushroom cultivation course at Feed Bristol we've been determined to grow some mushrooms of our own. Particularly winecaps, which grow well on most substrates (the substrate is the substance you grow mushrooms on, so coffee grounds, an old log, a pile of goat poo etc) and...

The Critical Path

There is a track up to the land we're buying (any week now, solicitors and estate agents have shut down for Christmas but we hope to have a confirmation by mid-January, fingers crossed). It's sloped but not steep, and it's very wet. You might be able to get a 4x4 up it, but Bessie and...

Adventures in Food – Simple Pear and Ginger Pudding

We had a lot of pears all at once in the Meddwl Coed house, so I stewed most of them and stashed them in the freezer. This is a recipe that uses up those stewed pears - all the recipes I found seemed to be quite complicated and involved stem ginger and fresh sliced pears,...

Adventures in Food – Tomato, Pumpkin and Basil Soup With Daikon

What to do with four large pumpkins after you've made pumpkin pie? One of our challenges at MeddwlCoed is to come up with new recipes for the things we grow so we don't just eat the same old meals with whatever happens to be in season. Soups are good because you can experiment, and experimenting...

The End of Season Round-Up

It's been a while since I blogged here, sorry. We have now had the allotment for 11 months, and as the year has just turned to autumn, with the pears over and the apples ripening, I thought I'd let you know how it was going. There have been a few non-starters (leeks, sprouts), but there...

Adventures in Food – Nasturtium Jelly

Nasturtiums are one of my favourite flowers to grow. They're easy, don't need much fussing over, they're very attractive, make good companion plants and you can eat almost every part of them - what's not to like? Nasturtium leaves can be used in salads or just eaten while mooching around the allotment - they have...

Allotment Dairies – July 1st 2017 Picture Post!

The allotment is looking pretty nice at the moment. We brought the onions in and replaced them with some lavender plugs. Chard and courgettes are doing well and we have flowers on the pumpkins   and the nasturtiums.   The dogs came along to help today. Charley proved adept at digging up hidden bindweed roots...