In whole-grain foods, the plant's cellular walls protect nutrients from oxidation. The process of oxidation begins to occur as soon as grain is ground, exposing the cell's contents to oxygen in the air. Within twenty-four hours of grinding wheat, forty percent of the nutrients have oxidised. Within seventy-two hours of processing (just three days), ninety percent of the nutrients have...
Pruning helps maintain the balance between wood and fruit by stimulating dormant buds on old wood to produce new growth, which becomes the next fruiting wood.
Potatoes are one of those staples that can keep us fed all year round Ireland. Maincrop potatoes are used for stashing away and eating through Winter and Spring when little else is available in the garden. These potatoes generally produce thicker skins and have longer dormancy periods which inhibits them from sprouting too soon. However, to keep your maincrop potatoes...
Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) has beautiful gold flowers and is a valuable wildflower, but it is also famous for its ability to reduce the vigour of grass. The plant operates as a partial parasite on grasses, it will lock its roots onto the roots of grasses, once contact is made the yellow rattle draws water and nutrients from them, suppressing...
1. Clean Up There’s more to a tidy up in the garden than just making it look neat and tidy – old plants can harbour diseases and pests so it’s wise to remove and dispose of any spent or rotting plants from your plot. You can also bury any disease & pest free finished plants into the ground which will...
The terms ‘Rye’ and ‘Ryegrass’ can be confusing. They both refer to plants which belong to the grasses (Poaceae family) and their uses overlap. However, they are not the same species. Rye (Secale cereale) is a cereal grain closely related to wheat and barley. It is grown for grain that produces deep flavourful breads but also as a forage and...
It's the time of year when many people can have a glut of produce in the garden. You may find you have a bumper crop of beans, courgettes, carrots, cabbage, onions or kohlrabi....well we have a few ideas of what you can do with your surplus produce. Fermentation is our favourite way of dealing with a glut of food and...