Where did that last year go? Somehow we’re already in 2010, we’ve had the chickens for almost 18 months and we’ve been growing our own food for more than two years. So, what have been the highlights of the last year on the plot and in the garden? Here are five of our favourite moments, with five more to come tomorrow.

1. Salvaging tomatoes for a spicy tomato soup
I loved this recipe, and I loved the soup it made. It was a bit of a made-up solution to our problem of a weak and weedy tomato harvest. Even the greenhouse-grown fruits were slow to ripen, so we never had enough for a decent salad, and those that did ripen quickly turned to mush. This recipe allowed us to use even the bad ones in a tasty soup.

2. How to pickle onions
Alongside mince pies and cake, one of the things that signifies Christmas for me is big, juicy pickled onions. This year we grew our own in the plot and, when they were ready, peeled and pickled them ourselves, leaving them in the pantry for three months to mature. The results were pretty powerful stuff.

3. A year with the chickens
When we got the chickens, if we’re honest, they were a bit of a gamble. We’d looked online and seen that if it really didn’t work out we could pretty easily get them re-homed and their house would sell for more or less what we paid for it. As soon as we brought them home, though, we knew it was the right thing to do. We’ve become stupidly attached to them, and our first year with them in the garden was as fun as it was educational.

4. Deep snow on the plot
It wasn’t just us who learnt something this year: the chickens did, too, as they encountered their first snow in February. As soon as they discovered it was edible, they peck-peck-pecked like mad.

5. Making plum wine
We’ve done a few batches of wine from kits over the last couple of years, but this year we found a field lined with wild plum trees and decided to try our hand at brewing from scratch. After a lot of boiling, slicing and straining we have 12 bottles of home brew waiting in the pantry until the summer when they can be opened and tasted.

Check back tomorrow for the next five entries in our list of the top ten Blagger posts from 2009.

Related posts:

1. A year on the plot: another five highlights
2. Red chillies
3. Our meagre tomato harvest