While away a Wintery Afternoon with Fork to Fork Videos

Fork to Fork is a British gardening series made a little over 10 years ago. Monty looks a good deal younger and appears in the series along with his wife Sarah and their three children.

Though there are some elements about the series that feel a bit dated, growing things organically, bringing the food you grow into the home kitchen and preparing simple, delicious meals is still very timely.

Here is what Monty Don says in his introduction:

"I am definitely a morning person; always the first one up in our house. I can't wait to get outside into the garden. Being in the open air feels like liberation. I feel like a child let out of school: rain or shine. I get a sense of what the weather has in store; taking in the quality of the light and the mood of the sky.

Accepting what nature throws at you is part of the whole organic thing. It's about going with the flow, following your instincts and doing what seems right for you. And that's what this series is all about. Over the next six weeks Fork to Fork will show you how to grow organic ingredients and turn them into some of the best food you have ever eaten."

To fill a wintery afternoon, here are the first three shows in the series:

Fork to Fork: Episode 1 

Potatoes, Carrots, Beetroot and Parsnips

Fork to Fork: Episode 2 

Tomatoes, Onions and Garlic

Fork to Fork: Episode 3 

Herbs

Life in a Cottage Garden

I stumbled across this set of videos and enjoyed watching them so much that I wanted to share them with you. The video series follow a year of seasonal changes in Carol Kein's garden in North Devon, England.

I admire Carol's passion for gardening and her boundless energy. Well into the darkness of evening, she's out in her potting shed filling seed trays and making new plants. As I watched her working away, scattering seed over the surface of the rich, black earth and covering it with "grit" I found myself wondering if her husband must not be a little lonely inside the warm house watching the "telly" all by himself.

Does he peer out the kitchen window periodically and wonder if its time to put the kettle on? Somehow I think that after over thirty years of marriage he has come to understand and appreciate her obsession with plants.

Photo by Jonathan Buckley Source

Carol is a tiny woman, with a bird's nest of short blonde hair, but there is nothing delicate about her. As you will see, she is always hefting and hauling heavy plant pots and trudging through her garden wheelbarrow in hand.

"Come'n have a look at this," she says beaconing to the camera in the fourth video of the series. It turns out there are hornets "tucking into" the bark of some willow saplings. Her delight in this discovery makes me think of my Mom. She too found pleasure in such simple things.

My most favourite scene by far is one of triumph. It is mid-August and Carol's "hot" flower border has come into its height of color.

She adds a pot of tall vermilion 'Bishop of Llandaff' dahlias into the border and then stands back to describe for viewers the glorious mingling of reds, oranges and yellows. Her words end with a crescendo of excitement and her body rocks in a little gig. "I think that its all sort of..." her hands ball into fists as she struggles to find the perfect word to describe just what she has managed to create. Finally the right adjective bubbles to the surface,"Magnificent!"Carol declares in jubilation.

Moments of triumph like this are every gardeners dream!

Go make yourself a cup of coffee and then settle into to watch the snowdrops and hellebores emerge in Carol's garden in the early winter.

Links to Life in a Cottage Garden can be found on my Pinterest page on the board "Gardening Videos".