Home Farmer Magazine Dec 2015 Back Issue

With all the great ideas we’ve packed into the December Home Farmer, you won’t be accused of slacking if you huddle up in front of the fire with your favourite magazine. We cover December on the plot, with tips for keeping your veg frost-free, suggestions for getting beds into shape for next year, and allotment blogger of the year, John Harrison, gives his top tips for planting in 2016. We also cover planting bare-root fruit trees and bushes, and DIY supremo, John Butterworth, pulls out all the stops to build a fantastic wooden garden planter. Of course, we’ve also got our usual livestock features, including goat nutrition, what’s permitted and not permitted as regards chook treats, and the final part of our urban bee-keeping feature. And in keeping with the season – no “Bah Humbug!” here – we have a number of seasonal features including gifts both for and from the garden, mulled wine recipes, delicious alternative Xmas side dishes and desserts, a feature on the history of cake together with three milestone recipes from the last 600 years, a jewellery class, and even instructions for home-made Christmas crackers. Then, to top things off, we have two special features: Great British Bake Off finalist, Richard Burr – everyone’s favourite builder-turned-baker – makes a delicious Swedish wreath sweet bread which will bathe your kitchen in the aroma of apple and cinnamon, and we have an interview with new Shadow Environment Minister, Kerry McCarthy, who may one day be responsible for the UK’s farming, food and environment. We asked her about that now infamous quote which seemed to compare eating meat with smoking cigarettes, and her answer was interesting – and echoed by a subsequent report about the dangers of eating processed meat. In all, the December Home Farmer should keep you out of trouble and warm as you plan for forthcoming festivities and 2016 on the plot.