Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
It's been another stormy weekend - Storm Dennis this time - less windy for us, but so much rain!
Dwarf Iris in a weedy pot, just about surviving the deluge
The weather during the week, between the two storms was pretty horrid too. I nipped up the allotment straight from work on Wednesday, as I promised some people at work that they could have some carrots and I needed to make some more soup to cover lunchtimes.
Carrots posing with my little satellite model at work
Some of the carrots have a lot of stringy roots and there is some carrot fly (or slug) damage. I also gave a bag of my mixed dried beans to one of my friends - I felt I had to share the delights!
The soup I made in the week was carrot and coriander, I think I used more coriander than I needed to (the resulting soup was a bit greener than expected) but it was still very tasty with some cheesy bread.
Other areas of the country have had much more rain than us, but the River Dun is certainly flowing higher, faster and browner than usual - it's a trout stream and is usually lovely and clear.
Those downpipes aren't meant to be in the water!
We got a drenching walking to the plot yesterday to feed the poor birds and pick more carrots (I know, but there's nothing else!) and a few sprigs of sage.
It was rather chilly and I was glad when we got back home into the warm to make my soup. I added the sage to the pot with the onions - mmm, the smell while they were cooking was lovely! While they were softening up I chopped the carrots and chestnuts.
I remembered to remove the sage sprigs and added salt and pepper.
Then after the stock was added, boiled and then all simmered for about 50mins I blitzed the mixture and luckily <ahem> there was some for me to taste - delicious! The chestnuts add such a pleasant flavour and make it a nice creamy soup.
Poetic licence has allowed me to use Blondie's song Denis (the 'Dennis' song I found didn't appeal!) and the blogpost is brought to you by the colour... brown!
Wow, your carrots are blooming amazing. I am going to show D and he is going to be so envious, whats your secret or advice to us as we are nots as successful in growing them in such splendour. Carrot and coriander is one of my fave soups too. Yeah the rivers are flowing higher in some places, guess some of us have to be thankful for escaping the floods this time.
Thanks! We're usually pretty careful with our carrots: making sure the soil is sieved or re-using soil from potato bags so that the carrots can produce a nice long root - or maybe it's just the variety!
Mmm, delicious soup - I've just finished today's mugful. The photo is of THE GIANT puppet who we saw in Liverpool in 2018 - aah, that was such a fantastic event! https://plot7marshlane.blogspot.com/2018/10/i-like-way-you-move.html
The soup I made in the week was carrot and coriander, I think I used more coriander than I needed to (the resulting soup was a bit greener than expected) but it was still very tasty with some cheesy bread.
Other areas of the country have had much more rain than us, but the River Dun is certainly flowing higher, faster and browner than usual - it's a trout stream and is usually lovely and clear.
Those downpipes aren't meant to be in the water!
We got a drenching walking to the plot yesterday to feed the poor birds and pick more carrots (I know, but there's nothing else!) and a few sprigs of sage. 
It was rather chilly and I was glad when we got back home into the warm to make my soup. I added the sage to the pot with the onions - mmm, the smell while they were cooking was lovely! While they were softening up I chopped the carrots and chestnuts.
I remembered to remove the sage sprigs and added salt and pepper.
Then after the stock was added, boiled and then all simmered for about 50mins I blitzed the mixture and luckily <ahem> there was some for me to taste - delicious! The chestnuts add such a pleasant flavour and make it a nice creamy soup.
Poetic licence has allowed me to use Blondie's song Denis (the 'Dennis' song I found didn't appeal!) and the blogpost is brought to you by the colour... brown!
Wow, your carrots are blooming amazing. I am going to show D and he is going to be so envious, whats your secret or advice to us as we are nots as successful in growing them in such splendour. Carrot and coriander is one of my fave soups too. Yeah the rivers are flowing higher in some places, guess some of us have to be thankful for escaping the floods this time.
ReplyDeleteThanks! We're usually pretty careful with our carrots: making sure the soil is sieved or re-using soil from potato bags so that the carrots can produce a nice long root - or maybe it's just the variety!
DeleteNice soup! And I like your satellite model. Who is that on your laptop screen?
ReplyDeleteMmm, delicious soup - I've just finished today's mugful.
DeleteThe photo is of THE GIANT puppet who we saw in Liverpool in 2018 - aah, that was such a fantastic event! https://plot7marshlane.blogspot.com/2018/10/i-like-way-you-move.html
Those carrots look pretty good, much better than I usually grow. xx
ReplyDeleteThankyou!
DeleteThose are fine looking carrots compared to ours this year. Coincidentally we had carrot and coriander soup at my sisters this lunchtime
ReplyDeleteMmm, it is lovely. I think I'll still be eating carrot variety soups for a few weeks yet
Delete