Thinking green thoughts

Little Man and I had a lovely visit this morning from Caitriona from Wholesomecook, and her two little boys. While Little Man was busy making friends, Caitriona and I were chatting about motherhood, community, blogging, and feeding our families. Specifically I was picking Caitriona’s brain for information and ideas about what to grow and how to grow it in our little urban garden.

And that’s when I learned that this year is actually a good year to be thinking about growing your own food in our area, because the local council are getting ready to open up a new group of allotments in North County Dublin, and if we put our names down now, we might just get a spot.

Of course I was immediately swept away with daydreams of Little Man helping his Daddy dig potatoes for our dinner, and me walking around with a basket of fresh greens and pots of jam! Oh and maybe a rhubarb tart or two!

I’ve given a little less thought to the hard work it will take to get to that point, but my parents spent half their spare time working on our garden, growing flowers, trees, fruit and veg when I was growing up, so I have an inkling of how much work is involved. Of course knowing that and living it are two very different things! But I’m sure we’ll soon learn that lesson!

As she was leaving, Caitriona lent me a copy of a book she recommended called Tales from the Home Farm by Michael Kelly. In this book, Michael takes you through the growing year in Ireland month-by-month, interspersing his gardening and growing knowledge with fascinating insights into the modern food supply chain in Ireland. Half curious and half horrified by what he has to say about it all, I’ve found I can’t put it down since I started it. So right now, I’m half way though April and learning more about pig-keeping than I ever expected to know! If you have any interest at all in gardening or home-grown food and you haven’t already read this book, I suggest you pick it up. Even if you have no interest in developing some green fingers I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this read.

Thanks for the recommendation Caitriona – and thanks for all the advice today! I can’t wait to get started now! (And everyone else – make sure you check out Caitriona’s great food blog: Wholesomecook)

Right – back to my book!!