Le Jardin Créatif are now offering gift vouchers. You can either book a place onto a course for your friend or family member and we will send you a personalised gift certificate for that course or you can purchase a gift voucher that they can use towards a course of their choice.

We will email you the voucher or gift certificate that includes a personal message or for gift vouchers we can post the voucher inside an eco-printed card to the recipient with a personal message for just 5€ extra.

When you are stuck for gift ideas for Birthdays, Christmas, Mothers Day etc, this is a great way to give someone a fun day out, learning new skills and meeting like minded people.

For full details see our new page on the website: Gift Vouchers

I have had so many requests for the recipe that I use for my home made bread served with the lunches that I have decided to post it up on the website!

I use a Panasonic bread machine, the bake setting is menu number 4 which is a 5 hour bake for wholemeal and seeded breads. I use the medum loaf setting. I usually bake it on a timer overnight to make sure it is fresh in the morning. I use dried yeast and always put the yeast into the machine first, then the dry ingredients on top then the water last. This keeps the water away from the yeast until it starts mixing, which is the secret to success. If the water touches the yeast before the bake starts (if you are using a timer to delay the start of the bake) then it partially ferments before the mixing of ingredients and you end up with a loaf that looks a bit like a house brick!

Here is my recipe, I seem to have deviated slightly from any of the recipes in the book, having made it from memory when my book was in England, however it seems to produce good results every time:

400g multi-cereals flour (I use the supermarket own brand)

3/4 teaspoon of dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt (you can reduce this if you are on a low salt diet)

15g butter OR a tablespoon of olive oil (to make it vegan/dairy free)

280ml chilled water

What is an heirloom variety? Heritage and heirloom varieties of vegetables are simply old varieties that are no longer sold commercially by the big seed companies or used in commercial growing, they may only have been out of commercial circulation for a few years but some date back as far as the 1800’s. Also under this classification you can find local varieties that have been cultivated for many years, the seed being saved year on year and these varieties may never have had been offered commercially or officially named.

Why choose heirloom varieties? These old varieties have generally been chosen for flavour and will crop over a long period,  modern commercial varieties are often developed for uniformity, ease of mechanical harvesting and shelf life rather than flavour. Heirloom and heritage varieties are generally open pollinated and have natural variation that allows them to adapt to local environments rather than being F1 hybrids that are all identical and expensive to produce. With heirloom vegetables you can save your own seeds year on year.

Read more about this in our article in the October edition of ‘etcetera’. Come along on Saturdays when our nursery is open and see our collection of heritage beans and find out more about the different uses – we have over 40 varieties – we are giving away free packets of heirloom bean seeds to customers to grow next year!

The nursery is open every Saturday from 10-4 until the end of October. We can open at other times by appointment so call or email if you want to drop in at another time.

The dry weather and sunshine has produced a ripe crop of squash rather early this year. The orange, yellow green and blue globes were not ready to harvest until October last year but already the plants are dying back, revealing the ripe fruits that will keep us going in pumpkin soup all winter!

It is important to let winter squash fully ripen before harvesting and storing so that they develop a tough outer skin that will protect them from drying out as well as diseases. Once properly ripe they can be stored in a cool, dry, frost free place and they should last through until spring.

We have grown some decorative varieties this year like the tiny ‘Munchkin’, the aptly named ‘crook Neck’ and a variety of ornamental gourds for our autumn and winter crafts as well as some tasty varieties such as the blue-skinned ‘Crown Prince’ (the best flavour of all in my opinion) and the surprising ‘Tromboncino’ – this one is a ‘vining’ or trailing squash that produces long curled summer squash that ripen to a pale orangey pink rather like a long bent butternut. This year we also tried climbing them up an archway and they have produced magnificent long, straight fruits, the benefit of these is that the bulbous end

that contains the seeds is small compared to the main part of the fruit which is easy to peel and can be used like a courgette when young and like a butternut squash when ripened. They keep fairly well too. Why not try something different next year!