Starting Afresh

I'm not usually one to make new year resolutions, but here's one for 2015: to get back to posting regularly on this blog - even if it's just a quick update, a picture or two, or what-I-did-on-the-plot-today for the record. And as everything out there freezes over and readies itself to start afresh, I plan to start afresh too, assuming you know nothing about my plot, and not worrying about repeating myself. Last year's posts were mostly theory and rants anyway - it's been a long time since I actually wrote about the day-to-day stuff of growing my own.

So this is me. I'm Naomi, and my wonderful husband is Eddie. We've had our allotment in St Albans since 2007, and it's had its ups and downs and we've learned an awful lot along the way. We very nearly gave it up once - what a lot has changed since then! We also grow veg in our garden, which is really my parents' garden. I passionately believe that we must all grow more food at home and in our communities, for the good of our health and the planet. (To this end I also help run a Community Supported Agriculture initiative where I live.) We grow sustainably, which for us means organically, often guided by permaculture principles, and supporting wildlife, soil health and biodiversity. We don't dig unless it's absolutely necessary. We don't grow F1 hybrids, which harm diversity and self-reliance. I love the great outdoors, I love food and I love to cook. I plan big and I dream big. I tweet a lot. I long for a smallholding of our own someday, with chickens and pigs and beehives and perhaps a little market garden business. I don't have a regular job at the moment; I have three casual ones and a few that don't pay - and I like to think of growing food a lot like growing money anyway, though it's a real shame you can't buy a house with it...

So happy new year and here's to a great growing - and blogging - season in 2015! Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll drop by again along the way.