Four days to go...

Our debut at Leicester farmers' market is looming. We are there on Thursday, April 1 and then again on the first Thursday in each month.

Sian is frantically sewing our latest invention - sleep pillows for children in the shape of hares. Hoppy and Lavender we are calling them. Guess what's in them?

They smell fantastic.

Hopefully, they will go down very well for Easter. That's them.

Myrtle - that's our cat - has been helping us pot on plants, in her own way. She has also been eating anything she can catch in the garden. So far, that means a couple of very early red admirals and some spiders.

With luck, we can teach her to distinguish useful invertebrates from bad and chooses her diet accordingly.

Here she is, taking a rest from her frantic exertions.

The plants have shot up. It's amazing how quickly we have gone from seedlings to decent-sized pot herbs. We also have a great many more plants coming along nicely in our bedroom converted into indoor nursery. Dill is coming along nicely, stevia, cardoon, hyssop, weld and selfheal are doing well and we are already drowning in sorrel. Woad is showing in the outdoor seed beds as well.

Lastly, here's a recipe from Sophie Grigson for lovage soup:

Ingredients: 1 chopped onion, 4 large carrots, 2 large potatoes, 4 garlic cloves, 4 tbsp chopped lovage leaf, 1 tomato, zest and juice of half a lemon, 30g butter, 1.25 litres of stock. Sweat onion, potatoes, carrots, garlic and lovage in a pan and sweat for 15 - 20 minutes. Add stock and tomato. Season. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Liquidize. Add lemon juice. (Sophie Grigson's Herbs, BBC, 1999). Buy the book. It's excellent.

Lovage is one of those herbs you should probably avoid if you are pregnant.