Only the eagle-eyed visitor will spot this tiny gem of a plant gingerly poking its flowers out of its terracotta pot. This genus of succulent plants, native to South Africa, is commonly called pebble plant or living stone – and you can see why as they look exactly like little pebbles bursting into flower. They are really fascinating little specimens and are flowering right now in the Mediterranean Biomes – just enter the Biome and look to the right.

As part of our harvest celebrations we’re putting on cider pressing demonstrations during the week at 2.20pm. Here’s  a snippet of Nathan and David from our Pollinating Team in action.

Courgettes are also very good at this time of year and Eden’s chefs have put together this fab recipe for Garden courgette and tomato chutney.

Ingredients

• 200g courgettes (unpeeled if small) cut into 1cm pieces
• 200g red or green tomatoes, blanched, skinned, roughly chopped
• 200g Bramley apples, peeled and diced
• 100g onions, peeled and diced
• 100g sultanas or raisins
• 100g light brown sugar
• 50 ml white wine or cider vinegar
• 50 ml water

For the mixed spice:

• pinch of dried chilli flakes
• salt
• 1 small piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
• 1 clove
• A few coriander seeds
• A blade of mace

Put the vegetables and fruit in a large, heavy-based pan with the sultanas or raisins, sugar, vinegar and water, chilli flakes and salt.

Mix the spices and tie in a square of muslin. Add to the pan.

Heat the mixture gently, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring regularly to ensure it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan. Add a little more boiling water if it starts to dry out.

Pot up the chutney while it’s still warm in sterilised jars with plastic-coated screw-top lids (essential to stop the vinegar interacting with the metal). Leave to mature for at least 2 weeks, ideally 2 months before serving.

As you can see from these photos taken at the weekend Eden is really basking in the autumn sunshine.

“Chile” is one of those wonderful hidden corners of Eden you may not yet have discovered as it is hidden behind the Pineapple Car Park. As it’s name suggests it is a big collection of native Chilean plants, but more than that it also acts as a seed bank for the critically endangered native plants of the country.

These photos were taken yesterday when we followed Skilled Horticulturalist Jamie McCormack, who looks after Chile, as he took a small group of Eden Friends on an exclusive tour.

We’ll be publishing more stories on Chile and other areas of Eden you may not know about on the blog in the future.

This is the amazing Jackfruit Artocarpus heterophyllus which you can see right now in our Rainforest Biome.

Producing the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, a jackfruit can weight up to 50kg. The fruit is said to taste like banana and pineapple – yum. However the outer skin smells like rotting onion. urgh!

Also flowering right now in the Mediterranean Biome is the beautiful Khali ginger lily with its fragrant pale yellow and red flower spikes. Its originates from the Himalayan mountains.

Also looking (and smelling) good in the Med right now; Fuschia boliviana, Bougainvillea, Protea, Hibiscus and Banksia.

There are lots more great horticulture pictures in our Flickr group and our photo galleries.

We like the sound of GROFUN an organisation that encourages & empowers people to begin growing food and shows what’s possible in small urban spaces. They have a scheme that co-ordinates neighbours to grow food cooperatively in their own gardens. So if you have green fingers but no green space you could ask your neighbour if they want to swap labour for vegetables through the GROFUN scheme. Sharing gardens is a great creative solution for space poor urbanites or the elderly who can’t tend to their garden for example. GROFUN also aims to engage with more people through community gardens in publicly accessible locations. Visit www.grofun.org.uk to find out more.

This morning we’re welcoming Allegra Fuller Snyder, the only surviving child of Buckminster Fuller, noted architect and inventor of the geodesic dome. Allegra is visiting the Eden Project, probably the best contemporary example of her father’s geodesic dome design, for the first time.  Allegra is coming to Eden as part of a trip to the UK and has wanted to see the project ever since it was opened in March 2001, as it is one of the best realisations of her father’s revolutionary geodesic dome idea. She will be hosted by George Elworthy, Eden’s Phase Five Director, and will also meet Foundation Director, Tony Kendle.

Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was an American architect, author, designer, inventor, and futurist who, as well as developing the geodesic dome, wrote more than thirty books. Other notable geodesic domes include the pavilion for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City, which is now used as an aviary at the city’s Queens Zoo.

Allegra Fuller Snyder, 82, is Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and Professor Emerita of Dance and Dance Ethnology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Welcome to the Eden Project Allegra.

News was announced today on BBC Cornwall that Orascom Development, a Swiss town developer with global projects across the Middle East has joined the Eco-town project.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Eco-town project it’s a very exciting and ambitious opportunity to regenerate the Mid Cornwall Clay area.

For  the past 12 months the Eden Project has been working in partnership with Imerys Minerals Ltd to jointly prepare the Clay Country Eco-town submission to the Department of Communities and Local Government who announced in July 2009 that the project had been awarded Eco-town status.

The mid-Cornwall area has been chosen along with four others in the UK for the government to build environmentally-friendly towns. Schools, other facilities and about 5,000 new homes could be built. Imerys, which is working alongside the Eden Project on the scheme, is planning to build the eco-town on six sites including Nanpean, Bugle and Par. These areas have suffered a decline in traditional industries.

Talking about Eden’s involvement in the project CEO Tim Smit said, “We want to help create a community for the future, one which provides affordable homes, new schools and places of work. We are giving the plan our full backing to help Imerys deliver the best result for the people of Mid Cornwall. Eden is proud to be a partner because the chance to shape our future is a rare privilege and we hope all of us who live here will see it for what it is – a chance to make a positive difference.”

“The Eden Project has been involved from the beginning in the hope that this opportunity might arise and would like to pay tribute to all the partners who have worked together seamlessly. The real test is whether we can turn aspirations into a legacy for the people of the Clay Country and Cornwall. Cornwall was in at the start of the industrial revolution. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be at the start of the post-industrial revolution and show what Cornwall is made of.”

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There’s lots more information on Eden’s project’s and programmes on the Our Work section of our website.

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If you’re coming to visit us this autumn we’d love to see your photographs, you can post them on our Flickr group which has some amazing pics on it taken by you guys. Keep snappin!