Organic veggie box...

Riley wasted no time investigating the veggie box!

All excited this morning as my organic fruit and veg box arrives courtesy of Four Seasons Foods - www.fourseasonsfoods.org . Four Seasons Foods are a local company running an organic box delivery scheme. Started up by some friends of mine - Glenn and Kishe Redwood a few years back now they have gone from strength to strength and now deliver all around the forest. I had boxes from them a few years back but had to stop due to a number of factors but now Riley is eating pretty much what I do and the cost of our local supermarket fruit and veg is ridiculous I thought it was time to go back to basics.
So what have I got for my £12? lets see... some lovely mushrooms, onions,carrots and potatoes still in dirt jackets! (the best way to keep them fresh), lots of lovely curly greens, nice head of broccoli, some dwarf french beans, a couple of corn cobs, a handful of cherry tomatoes, some apples, kiwi fruit, a lemon and a bag of red grapes!

Now I need to get planning meals so none of it goes to waste....Any excuse to get all my cookery books out!

Some news...

A hectic few weeks have finally ended with an exciting and busy Saturday with the Newent Onion Fayre bringing thousands of people into the town of Newent and lots of new visitors to Lara's Den. It also marked the grand opening of the other half's new shop Biker Dean (second branch - he is creating his empire!)

After all the hard grafting and late nights that he's put in, with the help of friends, staff and family, it was good to open the doors to customers for the first time - Amazing considering we only took the shop on 4 weeks ago! Check out the website - http://www.bikerdean.co.uk/ for more piccies and news on the Biker Dean blog (to be completed later today!)

Also this week my brother has finally got his own website showcasing his photographs up and running - http://www.antsphotos.co.uk/ . He has been a hobby photographer for many years and has produced some amazing and unusual pictures. We will be selling a selection of mounted small prints at Lara's Den and maybe a few larger framed pictures at a later date but if there is anything you like on the website you can contact him by email for a quote.

Play date...

Another gorgeous late summer/early autumn day and another trip done to Nannie's house to feed the cat this time with my friend Claire and her little girl Paige.

Riley was a little reluctant to share Nannie's garden to begin with but I put that down mainly to teething misery as there is more than enough space for everyone!

As you can see he soon let his adventurous spirit take over and had a great time exploring!

Autumn bounty...

I love this time of year. The summer - such as it was - is having it's final fling, with glorious blue skies and fluffy white clouds encouraging us outside - although the brisk breeze and the nip in the air reminding us that colder times are not far off.
I took Riley down to his Nannie's house for a romp around the garden yesterday, approximately a quarter of an acre of cultivated wildness complete with little pathways that disappear behind shrubs and apple, plum and hazel trees. Not forgetting tangles of bramble bushes over flowing with luscious blackberries!
Of course we couldn't leave without a bag full of apples and blackberries as Riley got his first lesson in foraging for food!

What I love most about Autumn is that a lovely pile of goodies like this...

...can be turned into a luscious pudding like this...

...a bowl full of sumptuousness like this...

...to be enjoyed like this!