Cloudbusting

I took a couple of slices of bread and butter to the plot for a fresh and colourful sandwich 😀 To be honest, it didn’t taste of anything but bread and butter, but it did look pretty.

This sandwich was tastier, with the addition of a freshly picked cucumber, cheese and mayonnaise 😊.  I only recently found out that snapdragons (Antirrhinum) and French marigold (Tagetes) flowers are edible and you can order tubs of ‘fresh’ edible flowers online…! Hoho, I don’t think I’ll bother.

Anyway, enough of that silliness, (though I think my sandwiches may include a few petals more often now). This is a row of nasturtium with self-seeded snapdragons - such beautiful colours, even on a dull day.

We are at the end of July and it’s raining, as it has been for much of this month. But the growth is amazing! This is the Jack Be Little pumpkins and the Incredible sweetcorn.

The Cornell’s Delicata that I sowed is clearly not the bush variety that I’d planned the space for! It’s a Winter squash and I’m pleased to see some fruits now appearing. I’ll try to encourage the plant to grow over the mangetout frame rather than over the path…

Meanwhile our sunflowers have peaked too soon - the measuring is 4 weeks away so we didn’t want them to flower yet. But they do look good and it’s so nice to see them all around site and the bees love them.

This really is perfect growing weather at the moment and it’s a nice temperature for working in - though the HAHA Work on Saturday morning was exhausting - clearing a mass of stingers and brambles from against the site fence near the wildlife plot - my arms were tingling all evening after so much stinging!

Here’s a Timelapse of the lovely bubbling clouds yesterday. We left before the rain started, with a trug full of veggies.

I was eating separately from Jamie so could have chard and fennel which he doesn’t like, oh yes, and asparagus peas 😃 and I used a few baby leeks as spring onions. The courgette had to be picked, but will have to wait a day.

I realise it looks like I was frying coleslaw! This is the mixture of grated carrot, grated fennel, chopped leeks, cornflour and a bit of seasoning. I should have chopped the fennel, or maybe added some of the foliage as the flavour didn’t really come through, but after frying for about 5minutes on each side, then 10minutes in the oven these fritters were very tasty with a satisfying crunch.

This was a teriyaki tofu and courgette meal we had the other night - I found it delicious. No home-grown tomatoes yet but they’re coming on in the polytunnel along with peppers and aubergines.

The French and Borlotti beans are flowering and growing over the old polytunnel frame so we should have some beans to add to our meals in a few weeks…

I’m into my second week of leave (feels like I’ve been work-free for ages) so don’t want to wish the weeks away! We’re enjoying watching England win their matches in the Women’s World Cup - supported by my new gnome 😀 - though the matches are tighter than expected!

Song title provided by Kate Bush - I was amazed to see that I haven’t used this title before. What a great song - but the Cloudbusting can stop now - we’ve had enough rain for the timebeing…

All the Plans...

...were thwarted by solid ground today. I was hoping that at least the raised bed would be protected enough to dig, as it wasn't frosted on the top. However, within a couple of centimetres the earth was full of frost - so not the time to be digging in preparation for garlic...

All this frost is good for clearing the nasties from the earth and it's nice to feel the Sun on your face, so, instead of working, we had a couple of hours on the plot chatting to our allotment buddy, Malcolm, and watching the wildlife around us. One particular thrush wasn't too bothered by our presence and seems to be making a good job of clearing the snails, judging by the many empty shells.

I did manage to break through the ground to pick two parsnips which I'm currently turning into soup.

There is some canker (Itersonilia pastinacae) on them, but plenty of parsnip left when that's chopped out. I think the canker is a result of the soil on plot 3, it's very compacted. Or it may be because of pest damage...

We're surprised to see that the Valerian has sprouted again on Plot 3. It didn't produce any flowers last year and we thought the Winter would spell it's demise, but it's looking quite healthy and pretty with pink foliage - strange, as the leaves were completely green on the plants last year. Will be interesting to see if it flowers this year..

I've now made parsnip and pea soup, with garlic and rosemary. Unfortunately we don't have any frozen peas, so I spent some time picking the peas out of a bag of frozen mixed veg! Not very satisfactory really. My soup wasn't as green as the recipe I saw online which put the idea in my head... Next time I definitely need more peas.

Starsailor are providing today's title...

Signs of Leaf!

It snowed for a few hours this morning but had all melted by the afternoon so we walked up to the allotment. It was very cold - just 3° and felt colder in the wind.


Keeping an eye on our garlic

Not surprisingly, there wasn't much happening! It's so very wet :-(
Jamie uncovered the rhubarb again - the birds are continuously burying it while they dig about around it - it's only very small, but there is a leaf on it now!

Leaves have also emerged from the buds on the raspberries, so there is life on the plot - you just need to look a bit harder for it at the moment!

We left after not too long, but I forgot to check how our grape hyacinths are doing - I guess they can't have been too impressive otherwise I would have spotted them!