Edible Egilsay

This June I joined a crew of friends, old and new, for a week of gardening on an amazing project in Egilsay, a tiny island in Orkney...

I had heard great things about this palce but nothing prepared me for the bright blue waters and endless skies... the site on which the garden grows is a magical place.

By the time I arrived there were salads a-plenty, pak choi, tatsoi and Mizuna had done particularly well and we set about harvesting them for our evenign meals as well as for guests at the Egilsay Solstice festival, the local pub and lucky neighbours. 

We reigned in some unruly tree spinach, packed up cloches not longer needed for the warmer weeks ahead, weeded and watered lovingly and sang sweetly to the peas which were flowering but not quite fruiting.

I learned some interesting and valuable tips about companion planting for pest control and saw some impressive examples of Upcycling that put everything from rusted creels to leaky wellingtons to productive use.

The pace on Egilsay is slow but satisfying, life here is back to basics, the plumbing breaks almost daily, meaning everyone who has visited now knows how to fix a tap with a bicycle inner tube.. and more.

Really hope I get the chance to go back one day and see how things evolve. Thanks PMW for supporting the excellent venture.