This month’s speaker was Kev Alviti from The English Homestead Kev’s aim is to grow as much food as possible for him, his family and of course, the chickens, ducks, pigs etc and to give his children a real appreciation of where food comes from.
At The Homestead he grows a huge variety of fruit from top fruit through to soft fruit. Many of these are varieties you’d know but many were new to us keen gardeners. By selecting a wide range of varieties, he is able to cover a long season.
When he bought his 5-acre smallholding, his first priority was to plant an orchard. The north facing field may not have been an obvious spot but is now a mature orchard which has benefited from shade in this last ferociously hot summer. There’s fruit, in different forms throughout the smallholding so something always does well. Apples, plums, pears, gooseberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, tayberries and peaches in the polytunnel.
So, what to do with such a surfeit of fruit? Preserve it! Jam making, freezing, drying, canning, bottling, juicing and of course, cider. Anything left is happily devoured by his two pigs – Bacon and Egg!
Kev was able to paint a wonderful picture of life on the Homestead in this lively, entertaining and informative session.