Category Archives: My Practical Side
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Grass/weed cutting time
12Monday 25 April, 2016 by Uncle Spike
Very soon I’ll be heaving the gas powered grass cutter onto my back for two solid days of tackling the …
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Last of the winter veg
2Sunday 17 April, 2016 by Uncle Spike
Temps are a climbing… up to the early 30s again now (that’s touching 90F), so time to rip up the …
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Broccoli plants
9Saturday 12 March, 2016 by Uncle Spike
A little while ago we saw these beautiful flowers, and Joanne from My Life Lived Full mentioned wanting to see …
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Cabbages…. my five year wait is over
16Sunday 28 February, 2016 by Uncle Spike
Never had a lot of luck or the right weather conditions for cabbages, but finally, I have some – yay! …
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Something simple from the freezer
16Sunday 21 February, 2016 by Uncle Spike
With three freezers full of homegrown produce, it’s a pretty regular occurrence that I delve into their depths with not …
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Gotcha – Stopped that leak!
13Sunday 31 January, 2016 by Uncle Spike
Ok, hands up who’s ever owned a house and had a leaky ceiling at some point or other? Most of …
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Preparing that slow goat stew
15Saturday 23 January, 2016 by Uncle Spike
I was asked by Janey In Mersin (an Aussie expat in southern Turkey) about my method of creating that slow-cooked …
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Wordless Wednesday ~ Very very slow cooked goat
8Wednesday 20 January, 2016 by Uncle Spike
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Lemons, just a few
14Thursday 07 January, 2016 by Uncle Spike
Following the disaster of last January, when our big freeze wiped out all the lemons, killing one decent sized fruit-producing …
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Wot No Cabbages?
5Wednesday 06 January, 2016 by Uncle Spike
The sudden cold snap (aka, winter) dissipated after five-six days, and we are back to mild weather, with a mix …
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Kumquat success
8Tuesday 05 January, 2016 by Uncle Spike
Whilst many crops have not favoured the weird weather of 2015, the humble little kumquat tree seems to be as …
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Autumn colours, in Winter
12Saturday 26 December, 2015 by Uncle Spike
It’s officially past mid-winter…. yeah right! Our trees are only just shedding their leaves, as our weird weather continues unabated …
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Making the most of it
8Thursday 03 December, 2015 by Uncle Spike
When the mountains are as rock strewn as we have here in the southwest of Türkiye, there is little one …
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Last summer produce
6Sunday 25 October, 2015 by Uncle Spike
It’s been a weird old year…. we’ve seen lemon trees decimated and some killed off by very rare severe frosts …
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Last Peppers
3Sunday 18 October, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Drying the last of the summer peppers before the rains start…
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This’ll be tasty!
5Tuesday 06 October, 2015 by Uncle Spike
The citrus fruit yield looks to be well below average this year. Most of that is down to the weather …
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Remembering our Turkish rural springtime
Leave a commentSaturday 03 October, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Everything is green Everything is fresh Everything is lush Everything is growing… . . How different springtime time, compared to …
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Between floors…
1Saturday 26 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
In between the floors of the farmhouse are these huge air bricks. Encased within steel cages and covered in concrete, …
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Logs of the future?
7Saturday 19 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Down in the lower olive grove, we have a rather tall lonesome pine that is growing at a weird, almost …
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Last of the summer crops
10Tuesday 15 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
As summer proper recedes and we move into early autumn, the thermometer drops to below 100F (40C) for the first …
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Recovery over time…
2Saturday 12 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
This bush was one of those pretty much decimated by last winter’s unexpected freeze. Whilst we don’t have ‘real winters’ like many …
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Olives Trees ‘Off Season’
8Thursday 10 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Olive trees tend to produce a crop every two years, more or less. Some trees are a bit weird, producing …
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Drying hot peppers
8Tuesday 08 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Here in Türkiye, we use a table condiment called Pul Biber on a daily basis. Basically it is red pepper …
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Gonna be a peachy old day
3Sunday 06 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Whilst the pear tree and the quince trees are bare this season, can’t quite say the same for the peaches! …
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Jujube or not Jujube
7Saturday 05 September, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Ziziphus jujuba, commonly called jujube, red date, Chinese date, Korean date, or Indian date is a species of Ziziphus in …
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But mom said “No Smut In This House!”
18Wednesday 26 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
When I was a lad, my mom always told me this… but I guess that’s a different story altogether (and …
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Summer weeds
3Tuesday 25 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Summer brings many things…. For us, here in the southwest of Türkiye it means continual hot weather, which is around …
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Summer roses…
4Thursday 20 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Roses in summer are almost unheard of for us! Admittedly the weather is far kinder than normal this year with temperatures, …
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Good year for grapes
6Sunday 16 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
We always get a good crop from these black grapes – they come from a hardy and strong vine. Mostly …
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Splashes of colour
7Thursday 13 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Lilies like these now cover all sorts of areas around the farm. Having started out as one small bucket load, …
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Lemon tree is still alive, just…
9Tuesday 11 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Remember this lemon tree that was almost wiped out during our much colder than normal winter? Well, this is what happened a few …
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Using all the spare land
7Sunday 09 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
There are always places to plant something I’ve found. And this year I’ve utilised a spare area at the back …
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Spot of work to do!
5Thursday 06 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
We forever are collecting wood around here it seems. Whether it’s from the pruning back of the fruit trees every …
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Olive
2Wednesday 05 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
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Pink tomatoes – maybe
14Tuesday 04 August, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Raising pink tomatoes, or any non-cherry tomato, has always been a bug-bear for me. I’m really not a fan of pesticides, …
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Throwback Thursday – The first weeks
8Thursday 30 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
When we first took on the farm it was just an overgrown mess, with trees in poor condition and one …
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Greenhouse: Before & After
9Wednesday 29 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Before (2007) . After (2015)
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Black bum tomatoes
13Tuesday 28 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Ok so here’s a strange one for ya… black bum tomatoes! This weird phenomenon is actually very common for us on larger fruit tomato plants. …
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Throwback Thursday – Olives indoors!
9Thursday 23 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
This takes me back… to the days before the house was fully habitable. We still lived here, but it was …
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Cherry tomatoes
9Tuesday 21 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Of all the types of tomato that we have attempted to grow, dwarf cherry are the most successful by far. …
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Impressive weeds
3Saturday 18 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
These large yellow bush things are in fact just weeds that appear all over this part of Türkiye. Most of the time …
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Basil
9Wednesday 15 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
One of the better crops this summer, so far, has been the small leaf black basil plants. First planted out …
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Sweetcorn: Progressing well
13Tuesday 14 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Moving on one month after planting, and the corn plants are growing very well indeed. They certainly love the heat …
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Cucumber
8Tuesday 14 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Simple, organic, tasty, free, mine 🙂
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Grape vine escapes
3Sunday 12 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
This grape vine went a little mad this year!
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Sweetcorn: Sowing the seeds
12Thursday 09 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Terry said to plant the seeds 6″ apart…. Yes, the advice from my all American farming friends in Colorado, who …
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Sweetcorn: Ground preparation
9Tuesday 07 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Ok, now growing sweetcorn has always been one of my lesser achievements. We had one half decent year some seven …
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Final pomegranate flowers
6Sunday 05 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Early July, and we have the final pomegranate flowers… Should be a fairly good crop again this autumn – can’t …
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A dash of yellow
1Thursday 02 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
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Our extraordinary new hedge!
16Wednesday 01 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Quite a few years ago now, Uncle Baldrick and I bravely moved a rather evil single cactus plant from our …
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Uncle Spike's Adventures 