We are now in the new house and settled in, however this blog post was "virtually written" in my head the week before the move; I will follow this up with another post about the settling-in process of the new house but for now, this is about my visit back to Reading to see my oldest (well... longest) friend.
The visit was a purely social occurrence but, imagine my surprise when it turns out that they have been doing exactly what I want to do for the previous few years!
They have a small area built up on sleepers in their back garden, probably about 200 square foot, with tomatoes and small cucumbers and other small plants. The meal that Ira cooked for me involved produce from the garden and all I can say is WOW.
They also have rabbits but these are going to be moved to a better home and they are planning on chickens.
Their compost bin is quite mature and they have a good routine of a small margarine pot with kitchen roll in the bottom which they put vegetable and compostable waste in during cooking etc and empty it every day; this means that you don't end up with a large pile of smelly waste on your kitchen windowsill, which can happen with the large receptacle that most websites seem to sell.
Anyway, I went away with a couple of pots of (very very very tasty) plum chutney and a renewed determination to get something rocking in the new house.
So, thank you Wardy, for your welcome and hospitality.
Keep up your homesteading!
