Orange Crush

My first post of the new year is mainly about soup - a common theme for me at this time of the year. The soup I made today is Squash and Chestnut.

I used two of the remaining four Jack Be Little squashes. I read a previous post of mine and saw that I got away with leaving the skins on, so I just removed the seeds, sliced them, added a bit of chipotle rape seed oil and roasted them for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile the onions and chestnuts were cooking on the hob with a little oil and seasoning along with half an Oxo cube.

Everything was then simmered for about 20minutes before I blitzed it. It's rather sweet (not sure how I could make it less sweet given the main ingredients) but the taster I had makes me think it'll be a welcome lunch for a few days at work next week.

We visited the plot today; there were people working. Not us though, we just wanted to pick some carrots.

The plot is looking as expected; soggy, unloved and mostly brown. The weather has been so wet and mild that there's a lot of growth so we really need to get working on it, but although we're thinking about the plot, the activity is less appealing just yet.

But there were a few good signs. Our broad beans are looking better than this time last year (tempting fate here!).

But our bulb pot is looking sad - clearly a mouse took a fancy to those fresh new shoots. That was going to be a stunning display of crocus that Jamie planted up :-(

I received this interesting book for Christmas, from my sister. I love the cover and that the pages are coloured. I'm attempting to colour-theme each blogpost - well, there is a lot of orange on this one... we'll see.

An interesting fact about orange is that the word 'orange' as a colour was first used in the sixteenth century; before that, the fruit's colour was described as 'yellow-red'. Well, I thought that was quite interesting.
And the song is provided by REM.

Sail Away

Friday was a beautiful day and I was off work - hooray - so we spent a few hours on the plot.

I collected two bagfuls of grounds from the coffee lounge at work - we get through a lot of coffee each day! I added some to the compost bins which are still housing rats because I still need to mix them up a bit. Apparently rats don't like coffee, though they like everything else I put in the bins.

Jamie cleared the plot where the potatoes will be planted.

Then he dug in some 6x and the coffee grounds - hopefully a slug deterrent and a bit of acidity to prevent scab...

Voila! A lovely dug plot and a painful Jamie - it's hard on the back/knees/arms/hands for these first few plot visits of the year!

While Jamie did that, I worked on the raised bed. Lots of weeding.

And now it's ready to become a salad bed.

No sign of the broad beans yet, but the marigold and salad seedlings are on their way, in the greenhouse.

Look at the temperature range in there!

On Saturday we arrived on the plot just in time for a little lunchtime soiree with David and Ivan and some of Ivan's home-made wine. The blackberry and apple was delicious with some crisps and olives. We did manage to do a bit of allotmenting afterwards - I planted up 5 tubs with Summer bulbs - hopefully they'll be in full flower for our fete on July 7th. And I also planted the five Chinese Lantern plants by the greenhouse. Hoping all these can survive the chilly nights.

No frogspawn has arrived (I may bring some in from elsewhere), so Alfie provided us with some cheer for our little pond.. unfortunately the little boat didn't float so I had to balance it against the edge :-)

And that is the reason for the song title <ahem - poetic licence>

Missing

Jamie carved a fab pumpkin for the Marsh Lane gate and also one for us on Halloween.

We had a lovely meal of roasted squash on black rice with black truffle grated on top. We bought the truffle home from holiday, but were disappointed that it didn't seem to have any of the flavour we expected - never mind, at least we know not to spend a lot of money on it in the future! The squash was our Crown Prince and that has lovely flavour - even better (not so sweet) than the Festival I would say.

Now it's November and we achieved a few things on the plot yesterday. It was reasonably warm and quite a few plotholders were on site. We planted up our flower bulbs in big pots

I bought some wallflowers which were on sale, so I got about 30 for £4, I thought that was a bargain, so planted them up along the edge of the plot to cheer it up from March - May (well, that's what the labels say).

I also planted some by the pond at the same time as doing some weeding and getting rid of some of the Californian Poppies which are everywhere!

Jamie dug through the raised bed so that we could plant garlic in it. I left it late to buy it and ended up buying these ones from Waitrose. I think it's a bit naughty to plant shop-bought but hope that because they're from Scotland they'll grow ok. I managed to get 15 good cloves with a few left over to eat too.

The broad beans have grown well, we don't really want them much taller than that.  They're under the cloche net to protect them from the worst of the weather. It'll be nice if we actually get to eat some early broad beans next year!

This is my two celeriac - they've grown well in the old recycle bin. I want to make soup with them, but have to finish off the Crown Prince squash first.

I'm roasting the Crown Prince with sage at the moment, with the skin on. The skin definitely provides most of the flavour and is perfectly soft enough to eat. Look at how pretty it looked in the roasting tray. I've added a bit of chilli powder now it's on the hob. (I've just remembered I meant to add an onion, but I don't think it will be missed as the squash is so tasty)

So this is the last month of Autumn and there are masses of berries on the hedge - does it mean it'll be a hard Winter?

 

We always used to say that, but we'll see... We've already had a week or frosty cold weather, but it's warmed up again now and just a bit wet.

We found one last interesting thing before we left the allotment - a bagful of 10p pieces for my "10 Year Transplant Anniversary Fund" for the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association. People are so generous! Thank you to whoever left it for me! I look forward to doing the big count-up in April!

So today's song...is about the fact that garlic was missing from the garden centres, Wilkos and even Marks & Spencer. But I really hope it's not missing from our plot next year!

Cold Cold Cold

Well the north wind did blow and we did get a dusting of snow (although some may call it sleet). It wasn't enough to have fun in but it made the rooftops look pretty.

The old Hungerford Fire Station - 'Hungerford Volunteer Fire Brigade' from 1910.

We avoided being outside too much today by going to Wantage to buy our seed potatoes - Charlton Park Garden Centre is great because they sell individual tubers for 17p each. And there are so many varieties to choose from...

We opted for Orla, Kestrel, Chopin, Desiree and Burgundy Red - most will be grown in bags. We don't grow masses nowadays. When we first took on the allotment we grew 2 full rows, but we don't store them and there were far too many.

Yesterday we stayed on the plot for a little while so Jamie cleaned the bird bath and I cleared old pots in the greenhouse. This is a little video of a bird singing - well, it's the sound of a great tit but I couldn't actually spot the bird and had to look up the song when I got home - you can see the snow though :-)

The bulbs are making their way up through the soil. The garlic I planted last month are being pulled up by birds so each visit I have to push them back into the ground. They'll be fine though once the roots get a grip in the ground.

We visited the plot twice this weekend - to feed the birds and pick some veg. We've taken the netting off the sprouts now, so the pigeons will probably clear the plants off and the blackbirds and thrushes can clear away any under the plants to clear any pests that the cold temperatures haven't killed off. (Fingers crossed)

Today's song title is very apt and is provided by 'Cage the Elephant'.