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!
Sunday 21 February 2021
Back to Life
Sunday 31 January 2021
Winter
It was bright this morning so we decided to visit the plot. By the time we got there it wasn’t very bright but it was very cold ... brrr. I’m only slightly sorry that the snow started about 30minutes after we got home.
Thursday 31 December 2020
Say Hello Wave Goodbye
This is the obligatory look back over the year - a year that certainly didn’t follow any plan and I don’t suppose there are many who aren’t happy to see the back of 2020 with high hopes for 2021. Even though the year has obviously been dominated by COVID-19, horrible statistics, social distancing, lockdown tiers and face masks this post is only covering my highlights.
I read more books than usual and I think I’ll continue to do so, rather than just reading on holiday which is how our year started (little did we realise how lucky we were with our timing).Aah, those costumes and fabulous drummers! Carnivalesque - Such a fabulous time to visit Tenerife.
Shielding and lockdown kept me indoors for more than 70 days, working from home was enough to drive anyone stir crazy... my hair bore the brunt of the boredom.My first trip outside was at 4am in June to see the sun rise over Freeman’s Marsh. It was worth getting up so early.The poppy fields just up the road were well worth another walk outside and the weather was beautiful.
It seems that 2020 was a good year for flowers in and around Hungerford.
Birthday trip to Chalk Hill |
I was inspired to do some embroidery - the first time in decades. Loved doing it and love my sewn Plot7 but it seems that isn’t a hobby I’m going to keep doing.
Feeling creative I also did some decorative baking (after seeing it on the Veg Hog’s blog) - focaccia will definitely be made again.
I made a foraged blackberry and apple crumble. (Bear with me, I don’t cook much)
And even baked a cake, with a tromboncino squash donated by a fellow plotholder.
We did get to the allotment and enjoyed some lovely hot days, or lunch hours, up there. We even did a bit of clearing, but didn’t get much planted. Our generous allotment friends and my sister made sure we got fresh fruit and veg though.Our sad overgrown plot |
Elephant hawk moth |
Elephant hawk moth |
Pale tussock moth |
So it’s goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021, song title provided by Soft Cell.
Thankyou for visiting and we wish you all a Happy New Year 🥳
Thursday 1 October 2020
Space Enough to Grow
On Sunday I planted our garlic in the raised bed, sprinkled with a little 6x. Two Carcassonne Wight bulbs provided 30 cloves - I hope we get to look after them unlike last year's batch. We also harvested our first french beans - yay, delicious! I picked a few gnarly runners to eat the beans tonight - apparently it's pretty much only the British who eat the pods, the rest of the World grows them specifically for the beans.
Tuesday 21 July 2020
A Stitch in Time
Monday 25 May 2020
Red Alert
A bit droopy on arrival. They're happy now |
I fried the finely chopped onion and celery in oak-smoked oil. It's amazing, just like Campbell's condensed soup - it needs scooping out of the jug! Even Jamie likes it - he never normally likes my home-made soup :-)
We're still eating a lot of rhubarb. We actually have brown sugar to bake it and the syrup is delicious. We've discovered that chocolate icecream goes particularly well with rhubarb.
The title is highlighting the fact that this government think we can 'stay alert' to a virus, rather than stay home to protect ourselves and others - Basement Jaxx provide the great song.
Saturday 15 December 2018
Wonderful Wonderful
The HAHA lanterns were a beetroot, a carrot and one decorated with flowers and a butterfly.
And we managed to get HAHA into each of our designs...
We made our paper lanterns over the last two weekends at workshops. First we made the structures, then added tissue paper coated with a PVA/water mix, then they were hung up to dry for a week.