1st visit of the year - just browsing

I managed to fracture, chip and dislocate my shoulder on 8 December, so this is the first time I'd been able to get to the allotment.  I only took photos this time round, and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of work needed - I'd imagined it a million times worse!  All beds need some work, and if I was back to full health, it's really only a full day's work.  I need to be patient and pace myself, which will be hard.

Dogwood rose (rosehips)

Asparagus bed

Monty frame for beans/peas

3 sisters bed

Strawberries & herbs

Bed 2

Bed 1 - turnips & swede still okay

Bed 3 - bronze fennel ok

Bed 4 - yams & roots ok

Manx Codlin apple tree

Strawberries

Bed 5 - not used yet

Fruit cage

Rhubarb corner

I wasn't expecting a harvest!

Seeds

Just put in a huge order for next years seeds.  Got some really unusual ones too!  Until they arrive, that is all!

12 Aug 2012 - next year's new bed area

Mike spent the afternoon re-preparing the new plot, since the old potatoes overwhelmed the new strawberry bed and the strawberries didn't stand a chance.   Here's where the new bed started, it's more like a work in progress now.

Can you see the pitch fork?

 there it is!












Here's how easy the stinging nettles grow round our way.... along with the bracken and blackberries.








 

 Didn't he do well!

The idea is still to have the new strawberry bed here, but have had a wee bit of insiration for a cunning plan, so it really is a watch this space!

Summer Fruits Pudding

I was very lucky that Mike got an allotment cookbook for his birthday and it just happens to have a summer pudding recipe and we just happened to have some picked on our latest visit to the allotment....and we had some spare strawberries in the freezer to make up the difference!  How very fortunate!

We didn't have any Cassis, so looked for alternatives and found a Delia recipe which said "using sliced white bread just will not do!"  Well guess what Delia, it does!

Mike did pretty much all of it, I was at the other end of the camera and the professional clingfilm cutter!

As per usual, what we actually used is in (italics)
9 slices of white bread - one day old
250g each blackcurrants & redcurrants and 325g raspberries (460ish combo of blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries)
100g caster sugar (just sugar)
2 T creme de cassis (juice from the berries)

line the bowl with clingfilm and then the bread and simmer the fruits until fruits are soft and sugar is dissolved.  The idea was that the softer fruits went in last, but we just chucked it all in.

Spoon the fruit into the breaded bowl and drizzle the juice so that the bread gets a coated a bit.  Cover the pudding with the last of the bread, then clingfilm, put a small plate on top with a tin on that, to weigh down and help the juice of the fruit get all over the bread.

chill overnight in the fridge.  Turn out and serve!

2 July 2012 - Croppage!

Some blackcurrants ready to pick, and lots more to come - we even got there before the birds!

A few raspberries are ready too - we've protected them against from the birds now.

The comfrey is growing like mad, will come in very handy later on as compost, but for now, we'll leave it to the bumblebees!

 Rhubarb wine soon - must go and get all the equipment (and instructions!)

Mike having a quick break, showing off our first turnip - we're slowly going to thin them out, by eating one at a time!

Now that the strawberry bed has been weeded (the grass tried to move in) we've got fruits!

 In this bed we've got the turnips, a few carrots, 2 corn and all 4 jerusalem artichokes (which the bunnies have taken a wee bit more notice of than I would've liked)

The first bed of potatoes is doing well - we've got 4 varieties in here (and you can just see the plastic bottle and toilet roll crops in the background!)

Here's what we took home - looks like it could be summer fruit pudding and turnip for tea then!

29 April 2012 - tidy up after holiday

We had a fantastic holiday camping round the south west of England & popped across to Newport in Wales and then had a fantastic weekend with the hockey lot, last game of the season, then baking cakes for the cake sale (no, I didn't go for the courgette cake this time), manning a stall at the club's coffee morning & sales, then relax! 

So today I thought it'd be a good time to pop down to the allotment and see what's been happening.  I expected to have alot of work to do, but pleasantly surprised I was able to get most of the beds weeded in 2.5 hours.

Here's some before and after photos:

fruit bushes

fruit bushes

raspberries

raspberries

strawberries

strawberries

beans & strawberries

beans & strawberries

see the row of turnips?

artichoke & roots

garlic - to be weeded

potatoes - to be weeded

We've also been given extra beds that someone else has given up.  The two beds are covered for now and just at the end of our plot (includes the broken compost bin, a gooseberry bush and globe artichoke plant.  There's just a walkway between the two plots - nice'n'handy!  Here's the new plot:

And the addition to the allotments - our very own slug eaters!

The seedlings didn't cope so well, but not all bad, we'll just have to wait and see.  On the plus side, if you remember the experiment with the carnation sprigs I did earlier this year, well, all of them have taken and all the one's I donated to the hockey sale all sold before I got to see them!