That was a real storm last night! I haven’t been able to get to Tuppenny Barn today so am bracing myself for what we might find tomorrow morning. Just hoping that the gala tent has stayed put.

For those of you that had a chilli plant from us in the bags a couple of months ago now is the time to prepare them for the winter months. Rosie and some of the volunteers did ours last week. They took all those left in the polytunnel and potted them up and you will now see them all around the top of the windows within the centre. Chillies need to be indoors at this time of year or within a greenhouse or polytunnel that keeps off the frosts. They will not survive any form of frost. You should cut off any leaves that have gone brown and trim the plant if looking spindly. I did this to the one I took home as I had not looked after it that well and I am glad to report it re-flowered after the trim and is looking much happier.

With Christmas now nearly on our door step we are stepping up the production line for gifts and seasonal goodies as we always do at this time of year. The first of the willow stars have been crafted along with our willow wreaths, awaiting to be adorned with natural decoration. The various mincemeats are being prepared alongside fruit vinegars and jams and chutneys. We hope to bring you a few new lines this year. As usual we always will give our veg bag customers first choice on ordering before they go on sale in the shop. Don’t forget to put Dec 11th in the diary for our annual Christmas Market. Emma has got together an electic mixture of stallholders, quite a few of whom have not attended before. It is from midday – 3pm and we will have our usual pop up cafe serving lots of delicious homemade christmas goodies.

Tomorrow evening Diana Tibble will be running her mush sought after workshop on an introduction to homeopathy. She still has places if anyone wants to attend. If anyone is looking for a venue for New Years Eve, the Music@theBarn team have put together what is going to be a fab evening. Music will be in the form of Bubsie and her Beat Band, there is a tasty curry on offer carefully made by our very own Jas Singh who ran the Asian cookery workshops earlier in the year and there will be fun happenings throughout the evening. Bookings can be made via the website.

This week we have dug up our horseradish and have included it in your bags this week. I have added some tasty recipes where it can be used. For those of you that just want to keep it for traditional horseradish sauce it can be frozen and grated directly from the freezer whenever it is needed. The kohl rabi also included can be grated raw for a winter salad ingredient or roasted alongside other vegetables.

Christine is making a repeat of her delicious pumpkin muffins this week alongside honey an peanut butter flapjacks.