Another grey day (weather-wise) but on this long holiday weekend there's plenty of catching up to do on the plots. Chinese radish, swede, lettuce, asparagus pea and some beetroot need to be cleared and composted as they've either gone to seed or simply given up. None of the swede has bulbed up for some reason. I
pulled all the silverskin onions from the raised bed and put them on mesh to dry - thank goodness for the greenhouse! We'd struggle to get them dry outside at the moment and don't want to fill the flat up with them!
We need to get pickling! We have quite a few onions....
And of course, we have another load of BIG onions too, so we need to get things sorted!
However, on Saturday I left Jamie working on the allotment while I spent a few hours at
my sister's farm for her birthday. Joanne and I had a lovely time, chatting, wandering round the garden, eating cake then feeding the chickens and geese.
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| The chickens came into the back door when they thought it was tea-time |
They have a Caravan Club site on the farm and a couple of caravanners turned up while I was visiting. What a lovely peaceful spot to spend a few days!
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| Barney & Big Boy - the alpaca |
Jonathan and George were busy harvesting so we took a cuppa and cake down to them at the dryer. Jonathan explained the system, from the wheat being dropped in one end, along the conveyor belt system, through the heated section and fired out at the other end as clean, dry wheat.
Lovely to delve your hands into the huge pile of grain.
When I got back to the allotment Jamie was just about ready to leave. He'd trimmed all the grass edges and mowed the remainder of our paths as well as doing some weeding so the plots were looking tidier again, but still loads more to do...
The Tenerife potatoes are getting big in the ground (they're only meant to be tiny) and are beginning to re-grow so we need to pull them really, but there's only so many spuds two people can eat in one week!
Those are our Lizzano tomatoes in the photo above. They are grafted plants and it's clear how much more prolific they are than the grown-from-seed Sungold variety that we have in the greenhouse. The Lizzano are really sweet and tasty until you taste a Sungold - WOW! They are amazing. We're looking at getting some grafted Sungold plants for next year (if we get to keep the allotment - we should find out next month).
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| Sungold |
The Cornells Bush Delicata squash are looking good - trailing off just like you'd expect of a bush variety - not!
I made dinner - it gets a mention as I don't do it very often and it was delicious. A layered oven bake of par-boiled Tenerife potatoes, courgette sliced longways, tomatoes, silverskin onions (which I needn't have bothered caramelising), garlic and cheese topped with filo pastry. Mmmmm, so tasty and pretty, wish I'd got a photo!
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| The Russian Giant Sunflowers are about 3 metres tall! |
We need to get pickling! We have quite a few onions.... 
And of course, we have another load of BIG onions too, so we need to get things sorted!
