Dad

You may have noticed I've been keeping something of a low profile over recent weeks. This is mainly due to the fact that my Dad had taken ill early in August and sadly, unexpectedly, died on Tuesday 31st August 2010.

As you can imagine this has been very hard for all of us in our family to come to terms with especially as, at the time of writing this, his funeral is yet to take place.

As part of the healing process, I guess, I wanted to dedicate a post to my Dad. He was a truly kind and generous man, ready to offer advice when required but knowing when to hold back and let us get on with things our way and helping to put right the mistakes invariably made. He was always the person my sister and I would turn to as young adults for assistance with practical things like putting up wallpaper or changing the wheel on a car. I remember when I first left home and was living in a top floor flat, the skylight keep leaking whenever it rained and it was Dad who clambered on to the roof of the converted Georgian house to renew the flashing and clear the guttering and sort out the problem.

He had a kind manner and infectious sense of humour and a penchant for minor practical jokes. He was always ready to "spin a yarn" and would often keep me believing some made up story for ages before I caught on that Dad was pulling my leg.

I think it was through Dad that Cloddigger and I caught the growing bug and, as regular readers will know, it is with Dad and my Mum that we share our allotment. The allotment was very much shaped by Dad's efforts. He put in so much time and energy to clear the derelict site and turn it into the thriving plot that it now is.

I can't say much more at this time other than I will very much miss you Dad and the allotment and our lives won't quite be the same without you xx

bring me sunshine

Not an allotment post today but a few pics from the garden. I had a stroll around this afternoon and realised that many of our flowers are starting to go over, so took the opportunity to take a few snaps of our sunflower while they are still in full glory.

We have grown some different types of sunflower this year and they seem to have been fairly successful. Here are a few from our garden.

Giant sunflower - this one is about 8 feet tall

Just love the deep purple centre with contrasting cream tips to the leaves

These hint towards 'traditional' sunflowers with the heavily seeded centre and tri-colour leaves of pale yellow, lilac and cream

A real stunner this one - I just love the purple leaves; very striking

spud you like?

We're due to go on holiday in a few days time so it was decided that we needed to harvest the 2nd earlies and what a crop it was! We have from left to right: Kestrel, Courage and Mayan Twilight. We'll leave them to dry off in our greenhouse at home then bag them up and store them. Should keep us going for a week or two!

So here's a quick and tasty potato-based dish:

Layered Potato and Onion Bake

Potatoes sliced thinly

Onions any variety (I used our red onions) sliced

Milk or single cream if you're feeling extravagant

Grated cheese

All quantities to fit in whichever dish you're going to cook it in

Pre-heat oven to 180C

Alternate layers of potato and onion

You can also add anything else you fancy, e.g. courgette, tomato, aubergine, etc.

Splash over some milk (or cream) to give a bit of moisture

Cover in foil and place in oven for about 45 mins or until potatoes have begun softening

Remove foil, sprinkle over cheese and return to oven for about 20 mins or until cheese golden and bubbling

Allow to cool for 5 mins before serving either as a main vegetarian dish or accompaniment to chicken or fish

Enjoy!

flowers and a courgette recipe

As well as all the lovely veg growing at the allotment, we've also planted up loads of flowers not just because they look pretty and add a splash of colour but in the attempt to lure the bugs and insects away from our crops. It stuck me the other day just how lovely some of the flowers are so I couldn't resist photographing them.

Ok, this shouldn't strictly go to flower but I just love the fluffy lilac flowers of our mint. They're soon to come off though as we want to contain the plant to just one spot so I'm afraid the plant will be having a trim very soon before all the seed disperses across the plot

These Nasturtiums were grown from seed harvested by Cloddigger from a neighbouring plot last year. They add a wonderful splash of colour and seem to grow in just about any condition

We love Marigolds not just for their magnificent display of colour but because they've helped keep the blackfly off the broadbeans this year. Such jolly little fellows guaranteed to brighten up the dullest spot

Our latest harvest - snowball turnip, courgettes (green and yellow), red onion, two HUGE cauliflower and, just out of shot, a big bucket of spuds - Kestral (whites) and Courage (reds).

The round yellow courgette have been very successful, much to our delight as it's the first time we've grown courgette. It's been nice to pass some of the excess on to friends and family but it has been even better to eat ourselves. If you've ever wondered what to do with a round courgette, you might like to try the following easy-to-prepare recipe:

Stuffed Courgette

INGREDIENTS

1 round courgette

250ml passata or tin of chopped tomatoes

Clove of garlic, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

Couscous (plain or flavoured - I like the Mediterranean variety available at most supermarkets)

Seasoning

Optional - fresh basil, finely chopped

METHOD

Pre-heat oven to 180 C

Cut the courgette in half going through the middle of the stalk

Scope out the seeds and discard (or keep for drying out for sowing next year)

Carefully scope out some of the flesh and place in a bowl; retain the two halves of the courgette

Add the passata, garlic, oil and basil (if using) and mix

Add the couscous straight from packet and mix thoroughly, seasoning to taste

Divide the mixture equally between the two halves

Loosely wrap each courgette half in tin foil leaving enough of an air pocket to allow the couscous mixture to expand

Place in the oven and cook until couscous has risen and courgette flesh is soft - depends on size of courgette allow 40 mins to 1 hour

Makes a delicious dish on its on or as an accompaniment to chicken or fish

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

bad blogger >:{

Ahem, I'm back *waves*. Sorry I haven't been round much lately, no excuses to be offered just been a very poor blogger *hangs head in shame*.

Please don't think I've neglected the allotment in the same manner. Oh no, no, no. Have been very good there and enjoying a very productive season so far. A photo from the weekend shows beds bursting at the seams:

Here is a flavour of just some of the goodies pulled from the soil in recent days (1st earlies "Emerald Vale", beetroot, red onion, green & yellow courgette, mangetout & turnip)

I would like to think I will be less tardy with my blogging from now on, but I won't make empty promises ;)

new year, new planting

Yes, yes, I know. I have sorely neglected my blog and this is my first post of 2010. To be honest there hasn't been a lot to write about as the weather, until a couple of weeks ago, has been so appalling. And there have been other things which have taken precedence, hence an extended period of radio silence.

Anyway, I'm back and pleased to say that a couple of weeks ago it was dry enough to get on site and do some digging and planting. Last year's brassica bed was cleared out, turned over and seed potatoes planted. We've planted 2 varieties each of 1st earlies, 2nd earlies and main crop. We actually ran out of room in the bed so the rest of the main crop - Mayan Twilight - were popped in the greenhouse for planting up at a later date.

The image below shows the brassica bed after it was cleared and turned over.

Also managed to lift the last of the snowball turnips which are fantastic in stews or as an accompaniment in their own right. Managed to dig over the root veg bed after harvesting the turnips, so all in all a good afternoon's work.

Fast forward two weeks and today found us working hard on site again. The garlic patch has been tended and all the plants are looking really healthy and seem to have survived the harsh start to the year.
We somewhat overestimated the number of seed potatoes required this year and ran out of space in Bed 2 (which had been planted up a couple of weeks prior). So we've utilised Bed 1 which was supposed to be the permanent bed in order to plant the remaining main crop spuds. Also sowed beetroot and parsnips in alternating rows in an attempt to introduce some inter-cropping. The theory being the beetroot will be ready well ahead of the parsnips and we'll be able to plant something else between the parsnips when the beetroot have been lifted. Time will tell! Below is a shot of Bed 1 (garlic patch in foreground) and Bed 2 which is completely over to spuds.

Bed 3 (to right of the picture below) is till jam-packed with onions and shallots so Bed 4 has now been designated as this year's brassica bed. This crop rotation business can be quite challenging !!!!

So today has proved to be another productive day and we're looking forward to being able to plant up cabbages in a few weeks' time once the seedlings have come on. There is lots going on in the greenhouse at home and I'm keen for things to start growing in the ground!!

blog makeover

I decided that the blog was long overdue a makeover, so I've made a start and loaded up a new header image. I'm certainly no graphic designer but I'm quite pleased with the result. The image currently on display is from our permanent allotment referred to as "Site 2". As you can see the local hill provides an idyllic backdrop to our plot as well as being a great place to go for a walk when you need a break from digging or weeding!

Over the coming weeks I plan to update elements of the blog so don't be surprised if it looks somewhat different from visit to visit. I'm still relatively new to the blogosphere and I'm keen to try my hand at a little web design, therefore the results may be a little unpredictable so please bear with me.

This is likely to be my last post of 2009 (yikes! where did this year go to?) so I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy & Productive (horticulturally speaking) New Year.

All the best, Michelle

Christmas veg woes

Well it's a week to go until the "Big Day" and hasn't the time flown by? I haven't had a chance to blog all week as I've been busy with Christmas preparations.

Managed to get on site last weekend. Still very soggy up there and we weren't able to do too much apart from a little weeding. Came away with some more snowball turnips (they're doing great guns) and swede and a nice red cabbage from My Folks.

We had been hoping that the sprouts would be doing better than they had been up to now. The sprouts My Folks are growing look super and will definitely be ready for serving up with Christmas dinner. Ours, on the other hand, were looking very stunted and almost dwarf-like. On closer inspection I noticed some of the leaves had a white mould-like substance on them. After consulting my disease book I concluded some of the plants had succumbed to White Spot. There was nothing for it but to strip off the infected leaves and chuck them on the burning pile. We had to pull up a couple of plants as they were too far gone. According to the book, mild damp conditions and too close planting can cause the disease to occur. Certainly we've had the weather conditions for it. As a further precaution we've staked out the remaining plants to ensure they don't grow over each other and stripped off some of the lower leaves to keep them away from the soil. I don't know if this remedial action will help or not, but its a pretty safe bet to say that we won't be having our own sprouts with Christmas dinner this year.

On a happier note, I'll leave you with a picture of a little bit of natural decoration I found for our shed

wet, wet, wet

No, I'm not referring to the 80's pop group but to the dismal weather conditions we've experienced over the last few weeks. As many of you will have experienced first hand, heavy rain does not make for productive allotmenting !

We've lost the carrots. To be honest I think we were a bit optimistic to hope that we would get a harvest from such late planting. They had been doing really well up to a couple of weeks ago then it got too wet for them and they started to rot.

On a happier note, we've harvested some petit pois - very unexpected - and some snowball turnips which are doing well. The turnips have been a bit of a hit at home as I've been using them in slow cooked stews. I "disguised" them by cutting them into cubes roughly the same size as the potatoes and everyone just assumed they were potatoes. Result!!! Our Nicola potatoes have had mixed success. We harvested the whole crop about 2 weeks ago but about half of it had been lost either to some unidentified burrowing insects or voles. Cloddigger picked up what looked like a large spud only to find it was just the skin - a vole had perfectly gnawed out all the potato leaving just the skin. Amazing and frustrating in equal measure. However, I can recommend this variety for its taste and we'll definitely try this one again.

There are still things growing and hopefully we will be able to harvest the sprouts and parsnips in time for Christmas.

A dry spell is forecast for the next few days so I'm looking forward to catching up with some tidying and preparing for Winter this weekend, and hopefully some up dated photos too!

an unexpected award

Oh my goodness. How completely unexpected (but very gladly accepted!) a Best Blog Award from Maureen of the marvellous Allotment Heaven fame. I'm sorry I don't have a better prepared acceptance speech ready, but suffice to say it is a lovely surprise and I feel humbled to know that somebody out there takes the time to read my blog!

The idea is that by accepting the award you pass it on to 15 other people whose blogs you enjoy, and put a link to their blogs. I have chosen the 15 and hope they accept the award, but will understand if they don't as it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

If you accept the award and pass it on, don't forget to let the people you pass it on to know. And so, in no particular order, here are 15 blogs that inspire me:

• Allotment Blog
• Carrots and Kids
• Allotment 2 Kitchen
• Down on the Allotment
• Not Supermum
• Parlez-vous Moo?
• Not Waving But Drowning
• Working Mum on the Verge
• The Cigarette Diaries
• Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open
• Reasons To Be Cheerful 1,2,3
• Around My Kitchen Table
• Woodwose Carving
• Dan Young, Daily
• Debbie Made...
• Blucamels in Brittany

first harvest from Site 2!

Well this is our first item harvested from Site 2 - a lovely cauliflower. We cut it yesterday and it was served up with our Sunday roast last night. Very nice it was too.



Sadly our Broad Beans have gone. We noticed recently that some of the plants had strange brown spots on the leaves. After consulting the diseases book, we concluded they had been struck down with chocolate spot. So all the plants came had to be pulled up and burned. We haven't had much luck with broads this year - we lost our crop at Site 1 due to black fly earlier in the year. Still we'll try again and see if it's a case of 3rd time lucky.

late September sunshine

Things have been a bit quiet on the allotment front this last couple of weeks. Went up today and was pleasantly surprised at how well the Snowball turnips are progressing. We thinned them out and, rather than chuck them on the compost, we've transplanted the thinnings into the remaining space in bed 4. It was only after they had all been watered in that Cloddigger wondered whether or not he actually like turnips. Well, he's going to have plenty of chances to decide if they all grow!


'Snowball' turnips - today's thinnings transplanted to the right of the main turnip row



Some of our brassicas have been suffering from wooly aphids so have been sprayed. Hopefully this has dealt with the problem and the plants will recover enough to grow to maturity.

Another pesky problem is our resident mole(s). It/they appear particularly fond of the brassicas bed so we've been looking into humane methods of repelling them. The best bet looks to be solar powered sonic stakes. These clever devices are placed into the ground and emit sonic waves which irritate the moles thus encourgaing them to move on elsewhere. I couldn't find anywhere locally which sells them so I'll be ordering online. I'll let you know how successful these devices are once we've given them a go for a couple of weeks.

Pests aside, other crops appear to be doing well. The potatoes are going great guns and the first tender shoots of beetroot & garlic have made an appearance. The petite pois are now big enough not to be tempting to birds, so I removed their protective wire cloches and have fitted pea netting to their wig wam.

September continues to delight us with its warm, balmy days so it is an absolute pleasure to spend lots of time at the lottie. The nights are starting to draw in now and I'm sure it won't be long before we're having to think about putting out the protective fleeces and cloches.

The lottie today enoying late September sunshine

growing, weeding, watering

Yesterday was a beautiful day and perfect for doing some odd jobs at Site 2. Even though it was only 6 days since our last visit loads of growing had been going on. Potatoes, onions and shallots are doing really well and the swede thinnings from Mum I planted out last week are beginning to pick up.

It wasn't only the veggies growing well but also the weeds! We did a lot of weeding (as my aching thighs will testify to) but I think it is definitely worth keeping on top of it. As it has been dry for the last few days we made sure everything was well watered.

Just about all our 4 beds are filled up with the exception of bed 1 (in the foreground with black tiles on it) which has the Jerusalem artichokes growing out of shot. We'll probably just put weed control matting down on it over winter ready for planting up next Spring. There is still a little bit of space remaining in bed 4 (potatoes and root veg) so may sow more parsnips and turnips.


Bed 3 has broad beans (which are growing a little too well - I wish they'd slow down a bit!), onions, leeks, shallots and chives; all of which seem to be thriving

Cloddigger grabbing a quick cup of coffee while admiring the marigold bed. These are such great plants - they've flowered twice this season, which is brilliant considering they were all abandoned plug plants rescued from a compost heap!

Looking round at neighbouring plots, there are signs that Autumn is truly beginning to set in with summer crops coming to the end, beds being cleared and bonfires being lit. A timely reminder that we need to be doing some clearing ourselves up at Site 1; that'll be a job for during the week I think.

unearthed

As anyone who follows this blog will know, a few months ago Cloddigger, My Folks and I took on an overgrown plot (dubbed Site 2) which we have cleared and taken back to bare soil. During the clearing process we came across a fair amount of rubbish and rubble, most of which was disposed of.

Some of it, though, proved to be rather interesting to one of us at least and ended up being crafted into very beautiful and unique object. To find out more about the piece "Unearthed", check out the Woodwose Carving website.

autumn planting

Well, the holidays are well and truly over and we find ourselves back into the usual work & school routine. Things are shaping up rather well at Site 2 with the beds filling up rapidly.


To date we have sown / planted:

• Jerusalem artichokes


• Peas


• Sprouts


• Broccoli


• Cabbage


• Cauliflower


• Swede


• Broad beans


• Spring onions


• Onions


• Shallots


• Garlic


• Potatoes


• Carrots


• Parsnip


• Beetroot


• Red currants


• Gooseberry

There's still some room left in a couple of the beds so we're deciding what to fill them with. Considering some more potatoes at the end of the root veg bed - it may be slightly late to get them in for harvesting this year so I need to consult my books.

view of our half of the plot this afternoon

plums R us

Well, we've been on holiday for a week hence the lack of posts. We haven't really done much at either allotment since coming back other than a quick visit to both sites to check on things. Site 1 is still coming up trumps with the runner beans and we harvested (prematurely as it turned out) the first of the sweetcorn. The silkies had gone over brown and the corn was milky when pressed with a thumb nail, but on opening 4 large cobs they were mostly immature and covered with an excess of green outer. Never mind, they've come home and been blanched and are in the freezer - they'll be absolutely find for using in stir frys. Guess that's what comes from being too eager.

On Site 2 the Nicola potatoes are all doing well as are the onions. Photos on those after the weekend when we have a proper session up there.

The main focus this week has been on home produce, namely plums. When we arrived back at the start of the week we were amazed that all the plums were ready to harvest. There were about 25lbs of plums to do something with. I passed a couple of pounds over to my Mum and a few were eaten, but that still left a lot to use up.

A couple of weeks ago, Cloddigger had taken a first harvest of plums - enough to start 2 gallons of home brewed wine. From this bigger harvest he has started a second batch of plum wine. All being well it will be ready in time for Christmas.

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon making Spiced Plum Chutney using an amazing recipe recommended by Mum. It's an adaptation* of Deliah's Spiced Damson Chutney and boy, does it taste good. The recipe recommends letting it mature for 3 months before opening, so that'll be another plum product ready in time for Christmas.

* my adaptation was to use 1.5 pints of vinegar (Deliah says 2 pints, but I find it doesn't all evaporate off) and I used equal measures of malt vinegar and white wine vinegar, rather than just malt vinegar. I couldn't get any whole berry mixed spice, so sprinkled in about a teaspoon of ground mixed spice over the cloves and cinnamon in the gauze square before infusing it in the other ingredients in the pot.

I still had a couple of pounds of plums to use up, so this morning I spent an hour or so making Plum Jam from a really easy-to-follow recipe found on the Internet. This was the first time I'd ever made jam and was surprised how straight forward it was. Of course cook's prerogative meant I got first taste and was pleased that the resulting mixture was just the right balance of sweetness and fruity tang.

all the ingredients in the pot to start the Spiced Plum Chutney. I didn't have gauze so improvised with an old clean muslin square to infuse the cinnamon, cloves and mixed all spice


near the end of cooking, I dished some out to check how well it thickened as it cooled (yummy flavour!)


the chutney all bottled up, labelled and ready for storage


plums, water and lemon juice boiling up before adding sugar jam (this already has pectin added so no need to buy separately)

the finished product. The photo doesn't do justice to the wonderful warm colour of the jam. If might not be the prettiest jam (it has a few bits of plum skin in and perhaps hasn't cleared as well as it should) but it is really tasty and that's all I'm interested in!

two days, two allotments

Its been a bit of an "allotment fest" this weekend with us managing to hit both sites over both days. Before going any further, I must apologise for this post being rather photo-heavy; my excuse being that I'm feeling rather fatigued from all my efforts and so too tired to compose a proper post. Anyway, the photos pretty much speak for themselves!

a treat for me - new pair of Town and Country leather and fabric gloves. So comfy and no more cuts and stings. Pricey but definitely worth it. And no, they don't look this clean now!!!


Yesterday we went to Site 2. The fruit bed is now planted up. Against the fence are a loganberry and 2 redcurrant bushes. The rest of the bed is taken up by gooseberry bushes courtesy of Deb & Dan who popped up yesterday with them as an allotment warming present (very much appreciated). At some point we'll construct a fruit cage over the whole bed to keep the birds off the fruit.


Our Nicola potatoes have started making an appearance already! Not shown, but the first of the onion shoots have also come through and all only a week after planting.


Today we went to Site 1 and were greeted by a huge sunflower smiling down at us as we walked along the path to the plot. Cloddigger is going to harvest the seeds to keep for next year.

The Boyz flower patch is looking particularly colourful. All the plants you see here were plug plants rescued from the compost heap!

Our first pumpkin has started to grow

managed to harvest more runner beans (they just keep on coming) and the spring onion

another bed has been cleared - the remaining carrots have been lifted

So another successful couple of lottie days. We're going away for a few days to visit family so we'll be taking some of our produce with us by way of a gift. I hope they like carrots!!!!!!

a lovely surprise

We arrived at Site 2 yesterday to find a lovely surprise waiting for me in the shed - this lovely yellow courgette courtesy of Dad. He's been growing them in his greenhouse at home and had very kindly brought one up for me. It's enormous; plenty big enough to make a tasty side dish. I haven't decided yet which recipe to use it in but I'm certainly looking forward to eating it.

a film about allotment life

Cloddigger and I watched a lovely film on BBC 2 tonight called "Grow Your Own" about an allotment site in Liverpool and the impact that refugees introduced to the site have on the existing allotment holders.

A wonderfully engaging film which we really enjoyed.

If you didn't get a chance to watch it, possibly its available to see on BBC iPlayer. I would really recommend watching it if you get the chance.

not so good old Blight(y)

Disaster has struck. All our tomato plants on Site 1 have been wiped out with the dreaded 'B' - Blight. We had an email from Deb last night to say her tomatoes were diseased and thought that ours might be too. Cloddigger hot footed it up there today after work to find that all our tomato plants had been infected. Nothing for it but to pull them up and remove the plants for burning. We couldn't believe how quickly it had taken hold as there were no evident signs of blight on Saturday.

Looking at a neighbouring plot, Cloddigger could see that their potatoes have been infected. Luckily our last batch of salad potatoes had been spared so these have now all been lifted. We're not taking any chances though, the potato plants will also be burned.

I guess it was pretty inevitable that we would feel some effects as the weather conditions have been perfect for encouraging the disease. I think we will be cautious about planting up tomatoes at Site 2 and just stick with growing them in the greenhouse at home where there is more control over the climatic conditions.