It was a brilliant, fun way to get people engaged with the plight of bees, created by the guys over at helpthehoneybees. And if you’re interested in learning more about saving bees, there’s a lot of great information on their website.

Here are two more of their funky bee dance videos. Stand up and get down for the bees!

Do the honey bee, do the honey bee, yeah!

Bees do disco!

One solitary seedling was planted in mid May and this is what it looks like today.

Take a closer look and you’ll see at least five green protrusions – all different sizes and shades. One of them even looks like it’ll be ready to eat next week! Looking forward to that.

Now I just need to find some recipes . . .

UPDATE (15 Aug): Eight lovely courgettes eaten so far and my solitary plant is the plant that just keeps giving – there’s at least four more coming along nicely. It conveniently readies the next courgette several days after the last, so they’re not all ready at once.

I will definitely be saving a space for Mr Courgette next year!

The team behind the ITV show Britain’s Best Dish is currently looking for applicants! If you have a passion for cooking why not give it a go?

This week I was approached by someone from ITV asking me if I would like to take part in the TV programme Britain’s Best Dish!

As fun as that would be, I feel this is a little out of my league, but I thought I’d pass on the details so that if someone out there does want to give it a go they can.

How To Enter

To enter, you need to be a non-professional cook and have a tasty starter, main course or dessert to cook. You’ll only need to cook the one dish. It can be anything at all, but something you feel could potentially be Britain’s Best Dish 2010!

Regional auditions take place in May so get applying right now! The winner of the show will get a tasty £10,000!

If you’re interested email bestdish@itv.com ASAP with your contact details and address.

Good luck!

Art and Crafts on a Vegetable Theme

During my latest browse, I discovered numerous Folksy crafters who have taken on the humble theme of vegetables! Here are a few of my current veggie favourites.

The Botanical Concept

I’m a fan of having food pictures on the kitchen wall so I was delighted to discover the work of Charlotte Linder.

Charlotte’s Folksy shop, The Botanical Concept, includes realistic images of vegetables, flowers and fruit, all featuring her original watercolour paintings.

Among her box canvas prints are ‘Three Brussels Sprouts’, ‘Parsley Pea Pods’ and my favourite, ‘Three Tomatoes’ (pictured).

If you order soon, you could get your hands on the limited-edition print, ‘Aubergines’.

Kate Broughton

Kate Broughton has hit on a great idea for greetings cards.

Printed with her own illustrations on recycled card, her greetings come with a pack of seeds attached and instructions on how to grow them. The cards even come sealed in a compostable corn starch packet.

Great for children, or any beginner gardener, you can choose from Kate’s Carrot Seed Card, Broccoli Seed Card or Beetroot Seed Card.

And that’s not all! Kate also has something for fungi lovers! A funky felt mushroom brooch and a toadstools cotton tote bag (pictured).

Grandma’s Miniature Market

If there’s a dolls house fan in your family, they can fill their kitchen with fresh produce from Grandma’s Miniature Market.

Crafter, Shirley Chalkley, has created an extensive range of Fimo food for twelfth-scale (1/12) dolls houses of which any farm shop would be proud.

Shirley’s crate of mixed vegetables (pictured) reminded me of the veg boxes I used to have delivered when I started this blog. Her cauliflower trug, box of mushrooms and string of garlic also caught my eye.

One thing’s for sure – the dolls in Shirley’s dolls house are extremely well catered for.

EAT

Purple sprouting broccoli

WHY: Purple sprouting broccoli has a fairly short season in the UK from around mid February to mid April. It’s tasty, colourful and full of nutrients. Get it now, while you can!

HOW: Try one of these recipes:

• Pasta with Purple Sprouting Broccoli – a simple recipe, including dolcelatte cheese, pine nuts and lemon.
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Leek au Gratin – with hard boiled eggs, cream, ham and gruyere cheese.
• Chicken and Purple Broccoli Stir-Fry with Wholewheat Spaghetti – for those who like their food with a tang of soy sauce, chilli sauce and spring onions.

FOR MORE INFO: Check out this interesting blog post about growing purple sprouting broccoli.

PLANT

According to the website Garden Organic, now is a good time . . .

TO SOW: Broad beans, early carrots, parsnips, peas, radishes, and turnips.

TO PLANT: Asparagus, onion sets, potatoes, shallots, and Jerusalem artichokes.

MAKE

A mason bee observation box

HOW: This short video from SolitaryBee shows you everything you need to know to make your mason bee observation box.

WHY: Although they only live for six weeks in their flying form, solitary bees are great for the garden, pollinating up to ten times more flowers than honey bees. The observation boxes are cheap and easy to make with just a few tools.

WHEN: As soon as possible! Their short season is starting around now.

FOR MORE INFO: Check out the Solitary Bees blog.

VISIT

Thanet Easter Beer Festival

• WHERE: Winter Gardens, Margate, England
• WHEN: 2–3 April
• WHY: If you’re a beer lover you’ll find a huge selection of real ales, ciders and perries as well as food and live music.

Scallop Festival

• WHERE: Loguivy de la Mer, France
• WHEN: 3–4 April
• WHY: It’s a two-day gastronomic festival, including fishing trips and full-on feasts.

Bristol Slow Food Market

• WHERE: Corn Street, Bristol, England
• WHEN: 4 April
• WHY: Held on the first Sunday of every month, this regular ‘Slow Food’ market brings the together a wealth of local, seasonal and traditionally produced food and drink.

(Photo by mishimoto via Flickr)

This fun, 2-minute dance video (from www.helpthehoneybees.com) uses music and choreography inspired by bees . . .

I had seriously considered a Green Cone and a Bokashi bin, both of which are designed to process food waste unlike normal composting, but neither felt like the right solution for my home.

I do have a garden, but it is very small and public on all sides. The only place I could have put a green cone was right by my front door and I didn’t fancy that. The problem with the Bokashi bin was that I have very little space to dig in the compost, which has to be dug in a certain distance away from plants to avoid burning their roots.

Bokashi Bins

If you haven’t heard of Bokashi before, this is a system of composting kitchen waste using a special plastic bin with a tap. Each time you put in your kitchen waste you add a handful of ‘EM Bokashi’, a combination of sawdust and bran infused with Effective Micro-organisms (EM), a natural bacteria that accelerates the breakdown of the waste.

As the food begins to decompose a juice is formed, which can be drawn off using the tap. The liquid can be used as a drain cleanser or as plant feed when diluted 1:100 parts with water. Ideally you would have two Bokashi bins as, when full, the bin needs to sit for 10–14 days for the food waste to decompose effectively. After that time it can be dug into the garden.

You can read more about the Green Cone in one of my earlier posts.

The Council to the Rescue

So with Green Cone and Bokashi bin out of the running there was very little I could do with my kitchen waste . . . until last week!

Last week my council supplied all the houses in the area with a 23-litre food collection bin and a 7-litre kitchen food caddy. And this week they made their first food waste collection! Once all the food waste is collected it is taken to a composting plant where it is turned into compost or agricultural fertiliser.

Food Waste in Land Fill

According to the leaflet that came with the bin, approximately 40% of the borough’s waste is food waste. The problem with sending biodegradable waste to landfill is that it cannot decompose naturally. With a lack of oxygen, this waste causes the release of methane, said to be much more harmful than carbon dioxide and a contributing factor to global warming.

Thanks to the council, finally I can send my food waste to somewhere other than land fill.

Added Benefits – Less Plastic Bags

Now I’m using the food waste bins, I no longer need to use bin liners or put the waste in black bin bags, so this new service reduces the amount of plastic bags being used. Instead, the food bins can be lined with newspaper, which is also compostable. Bonus!

Plus, with no wet or smelly food items going into my usual kitchen bin, there’s no longer any excuse to use plastic bags or liners from the supermarket. I have my fingers crossed that less people will now choose to take plastic bags from the checkout when they shop.

UPDATE (17 Feb)

Another thing I’ve noticed about the food bins is that they make you realise how much food you throw away. I don’t know if I just had a bad week, but last week I threw away far more than I thought I would.

It certainly makes you think more about how much you are cooking. I think maybe smaller portions are in order, plus, keeping a check on what’s in the fridge so my fresh food gets used up before it goes off.

Photo via Flickr by dasistdasende.

Pollination is important for a wide range of plants, but it is essential for those which cannot self-pollinate, particularly those that have separate male and female flowers.

Self-pollinating Plants

Some fruits and vegetables have flowers that contain both male and female parts (male – stamen/anthers, female – stigma/pistil/ovary). These types of plants self-pollinate when pollen is shaken off the stamen onto the stigma due to a breeze for example. Gardeners growing tomatoes in greenhouses often gently shake their plants to achieve the same result.

Plants that can self-pollinate include: • Tomatoes • Peppers • Beans • Chicory • Endive and • Peas.

Plants That Need Pollinating By Insects

Plants that have separate male and female flowers rely on bees for pollination. When the bee visits the male flower its legs and body become coated with pollen. When the bee visits the female flower, the pollen gets transferred to the stigma.

Some gardeners choose to hand-pollinate these flowers if bees are not visiting their garden. They do this by collecting pollen from the male flower using a paintbrush and then brushing it on to the stigma of the female flower. However, this method is only sustainable for very small crops.

Plants that need pollinating by insects include: • Apple • Asparagus • Aubergine • Avocado • Broccoli • Brussels sprouts • Cashews • Cauliflower • Celeriac • Celery • Cucumber • Kiwi • Melons • Onions • Papaya • Pumpkin • Squash • Strawberry.

For a more in-depth list click here.

When a plant is successfully pollinated, the ovary grows to become the fruit or vegetable. If it is unsuccessful, the ovary will wither and die. Sometimes the fruit grows only a little and this may be due to inadequate pollination where not enough pollen has been transferred.

Photo via Flickr by eNil.

Inspired by Damian Grounds of Help Save Bees, I’m making 2010 Vegging Out’s Year of the Bee.

Bees are crucial to many of our fruit and vegetable crops. Without bees our harvests would be extremely disappointing and food choices may become limited.

Bees Under Threat

Unfortunately the bee population has been under threat over the last few years with what is now referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder – you may have noticed less bees in your garden.

The cause of colony collapse is as yet unknown, but some of the reasons that have been touted include: a virus, malnutrition, the use of pesticides, immune disorder, mites and fungus.

Help Save Bees

Damian Grounds set up Help Save Bees to raise awareness about the plight of our native British bees. His website and blog are great sources of information for anyone interested in learning more about bees.

For my Year of the Bee I plan to help spread the word about the plight of bees through this blog. I also hope to discover and share ways of encouraging bees back into our gardens, and am keen to make my tiny garden as bee-friendly as possible. There is also a local apiary that holds beekeeping courses, which I hope to be able to get to and I will of course write about those here, too.

Vote for The Bumblebee Conservation Trust

I’ve started my campaign for bees by voting for The Bumblebee Conservation Trust to help them win £25,000 for their latest conservation project.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust wants to restore a habitat for the Shrill Carder bumblebee (Bombus sylvarum) one of the UK’s rarest bumblebee species. This is one of six eco-projects in the running to win £25,000. You can help the Trust by voting for their project here.

Photo via Flickr by Danny Perez Photography.

The good news is that my training is coming to an end – only a few more weeks to go! I am looking forward to getting back to Vegging Out and writing regular new posts very soon.

If there’s something you would like me to write about, let me know by using the Contact form.

UPDATE – 7 Feb: I’m pleased to report that I have now qualified!