Sometimes I think I have gardening and cooking in my genes! My Great grandfather on my mother's side supplied his own vegetable shop in Coleraine and then later moved to Comber to work as a gardener in the Andrews (Titanic fame) Estate.
His son, my Great Uncle Christie, lived in Comber in a small terrace house with a long kitchen garden out the back and some of my earliest memories are of visiting him and going out into the garden with him to look at everything he was growing.His greenhouse was a hive of activity all summer and yet he still found time to grow the most amazing flowers for my Great Aunt!
His son, my Great Uncle Christie, lived in Comber in a small terrace house with a long kitchen garden out the back and some of my earliest memories are of visiting him and going out into the garden with him to look at everything he was growing.His greenhouse was a hive of activity all summer and yet he still found time to grow the most amazing flowers for my Great Aunt!
My "Grandpa" on my father's side came from Dromore and was a great gardener who grew food for his whole family. As a child I loved to walk into his greenhouse and smell the incredible smell coming from warm ripe tomatoes. Strawberries, peas and all sorts of fruits were "tested" when we visited Grandpa's house!
At potato harvest time we were all roped in to picking potatoes ready to store for the winter but the hard work was worth it when we sat down to a huge pot of "laughing" spuds - as he used to call the beautiful floury potatoes which burst in their jackets as they dried ready for the table
When I am sowing seeds each year I often think how proud he would be that he passed on his enthusiasm to the next generation
My Granny and my Nana were both from very different worlds, one from Dunmurry and one from the country in Dromore but they shared a love of jam making and feeding people!
Even to this day the smell of a blackcurrant bush reminds me of sitting as a child cleaning the fruit before watching them make the jam. Nana's preserving pan still sits in my kitchen inspiring me and making me yearn for bread spread with butter and still runny warm jam!
Even to this day the smell of a blackcurrant bush reminds me of sitting as a child cleaning the fruit before watching them make the jam. Nana's preserving pan still sits in my kitchen inspiring me and making me yearn for bread spread with butter and still runny warm jam!
So now in my own garden in Ballinderry I carry on the family tradition. I started with a herb garden in my first home 25 years ago with just a few vegetables interspersed among the flowers. When I moved to our current home over 20 years ago I was fortunate that it had previously been a pig farm so the ground was amazing. Over the years the garden has grown and extended with the addition of a greenhouse and then a polytunnel when I outgrew that!
Like my Granny and Nana I started with jams and jellies before discovering ways to preserve my vegetable harvest. I made my first ever chutney over 25 years ago when the church harvest festival was over and no one knew what to do with the huge marrows that had been donated and I've been making them ever since!
I now love to experiment with natural ingredients, sometimes using old recipes and adapting them, sometimes inspired by something I've eaten while travelling. I tasted Salsa Verde in Arizona and so came back home and planted tomatillos that summer. A year later and those same tomatillos were in jars as Salsa Verde!
Everything I make is natural with no artificial colourings or preservatives, made in small batches with care and attention. Some of it is seasonal as it is made purely with my own produce , some is available all year round with ingredients sourced from the best local suppliers
I hope you enjoy!