… Everyone gets wet!
Poor little bee, clinging on to his cosmos stalk. We know how he felt! It was the first time in months that we walked to the site because the roads were at a standstill due to the M4 being closed.We knew it was raining but what rain! We were drenched before we were halfway to the site, but we needed to pick runner beans and it is nice to see the site in all weathers…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 22 August 2021
When it Rains
Sunday 11 July 2021
Mas Que Nada
This post is mostly going to be about food, with the occasional ‘Come on England!’ because I’m so excited that we’ve reached the Euros final!
The broad beans have been serving us well and I made hummus today using the recipe from The Lazy Cat Kitchen. I did add a bit of chilli and used sesame oil, instead of olive oil.
It’s a tasty dip for charcoal crackers. (Neal, if you’re reading this I meant to say that I pinched a bit of your mint. Hope you don’t mind!)We went to the allotment this afternoon, it was cool, grey but at least dry after some torrential rain yesterday. Jamie fed all the plants and I mostly played about with our new camera. It’s an Olympus Tough TG6 and look how tough… This is how you wash it!!
Sunday 20 December 2020
Just the Two of Us
Now we’re being watched - we’d better not be naughty! This amazing new addition to our festive flat was designed and created by my incredibly creative Cousin Jen. I texted to ask if she had an elf to go on our shelf and within a day this little chap was made and in the post - isn’t he fabulous?!
We are feeling festive. I had Friday off work and feel like I’ve stopped for Christmas, but actually it’s the first year for ages that I’m having to work on Christmas Eve - I hope it’s not busy! Friday evening we saw A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic Theatre - live streaming via Zoom, of course...
It was great; a really good adaptation with some worthy lessons, sadly, for modern Britain. We were drawn to it because of Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead) but there weren’t any zombies in it.
Yesterday I podded the Gigantes beans. Some hadn’t dried out enough, so aren’t suitable for storing. They’re so smooth and white when they’re properly dried in their pods like this.Sunday 8 November 2020
Reasons to be Cheerful Pt3
England is in lockdown for a month and the weather is gloomy but ... on Tuesday, a little bit of Christmas cheer visited the site. Forbes hasn’t gone completely mad, there is a reason behind this photo, but I’m not revealing today! 😀
And the broad beans have avoided becoming mouse food in their little cloches.
Tuesday 11 February 2020
Wild is the Wind
The rain started while we were on our way, luckily it wasn't too cold and 25.8mph was the strongest gust while we were there. (Official wind measurements are made at 10m which is why they forecast significantly higher speeds.)
There was plenty of wind damage - netting and plastic blown around and structures in various states of collapse. As you can see, our polytunnel cover was removed - well, it was on our list of things to do!
And we seem to have gained another polytunnel... I think it's from Jackie and Elaine's plot at the other end of the site!
It was good to get back home to the warm (we were lucky, our power didn't go down) and we only saw one tree down although many more were reported in the area and so much debris on the roads as I drove to work on Monday morning.
Last week, as promised, I soaked some more dried beans overnight and Jamie cooked them for an hour the next day before I turned them into my long-awaited sausage casserole - it was delicious, quite spicy. I was going to have it for 2 dinners but it was too good to not eat all of it in one sitting.
And then for a couple of days I finished off the remaining beans with salad purchased from the restaurant at work. So tasty for lunch. I've discovered that the Borlotti seeds that I ordered are a dwarf variety, so I will buy some climbers as well, to make sure I get plenty of beans to store along with the Gigantes and some fancy Edamame that I've bought.
This blogpost is brought to you by the the colour (I know, I know, it's a shade) Black, because Ciara is apparently derived from Ciar meaning black (or dark) in Irish and each time we the storm brings us rain or hail the sky is going very dark.