Grey Day

Not the best day for showing a new plotholder around the site, but she is very happy with her new mini plot. In fact we've had four other new arrivals over the last couple of weeks so I hope the weather cheers up soon - for them and us! At least the rain stopped for a short while so we could get the kettle boiling.

Jamie sowed our Sutton broad beans in the greenhouse and put their little cloche tops on to protect them from mice. It's nice to be sowing something, but we've got lots to do before anything can be planted out. Plenty of time though...

I spent the afternoon clearing and composting. Three compost bins are full, but it will soon shrink down and make room for more green waste to be added, though I may need to use a fourth bin given the amount we still have to clear.

Jamie did 'neeps and tatties' for our lovely Burns Night meal with a Stahly's veggie haggis on Thursday - so delicious, with our own swede as the neeps but we had to buy the tatties.

Yes, I know I'm in pyjamas - it's the only tartan I own :-D

Leeks and carrots are still our main harvests at the moment. We had a tasty cheesy pasta bake with them last night. Here's a little timelapse.

We seem to have a never-ending supply of leeks! This was a bunch that I stuck in the ground last year - I couldn't bear to waste them but couldn't be bothered to plant them properly - they look in pretty good condition, as 'Baby Leeks'.

They certainly look better than the ones we planted into pots... when I say "planted" they were basically dumped into soil and abandoned, so that may have been the reason for the poor show :-)

Here's our french garlic that we bought at Hungerford Food Festival last year. Not many plants this year, but the cloves that we planted were huge. We usually end up with far too much.

The bunches we stored in the greenhouse are starting to sprout but there's still more at home which is lasting well.

And look what we spotted on Plot 3! Our very first purple sprout - I did have to zoom in to photograph it, so broccoli won't be replacing leeks and carrots on our menus any day soon!

The very apt title is provided by Madness.

This is the New Year

Welcome to 2018! This will mark our 9th year of growing our own and my 10 year transplant anniversary. Time really does fly when you're having fun, or is it when you're getting older? Well, there's no avoiding getting older, so we may as well have fun while we're at it!

We celebrated the arrival of the new year by having a lovely meal of Stahly's veggie haggis (the best) with home-grown vegetables, which we picked from a very wet plot yesterday. At midnight we opened the windows (even though it was a bit chilly) and heard the town hall clock chiming and then watched the fireworks. I do love fireworks.

As usual I picked too much for our evening meal, so I intend to make parsnip soup later - the same recipe as I used on 1st January 2017 as it happens! The parsnips are huge - each over 30cm long.We were pleased that the sprouts were so good. They look in a sorry state on the plant but were really tasty. The swede are great (I still haven't found the variety, but they were planted late, in July), although the one we ate had a small 'hollow heart', possibly due to the weather..? It was delicious mashed up with the carrot.

This year I'm recording our plot efforts with the MyHarvest diary. It's a University of Sheffield research project investigating the sustainability of allotment gardening, so I thought it would be interesting to join in. Also, it should help me remember to note the weather each visit, which I always intend to do, but often forget.

So, here we go again...
I can't help thinking of blogposts when I hear new songs that I like now. This was a new one to me and is by A Great Big World... enjoy and here's to a happy, healthy, productive 2018

Three Little Birds

I was intending to join in with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, but the birds didn't want to join us on the wet, dreary day so I'll have to give it a miss this year - of course the robin, blackbirds and magpies were there, but not enough to hang around for an extra hour to do the counting :-(

We've had a week with two excuses for celebrations. Last night we celebrated the Chinese new year of the Rooster - that little Buddha was bought for us in Malaysia and has blessed us with green fingers (apparently) so he's always a welcome addition to a celebration. Earlier in the week was Burn's Night, with a delicious Stahly vegetarian haggis - really, if you see one in a shop you must buy it! So tasty!

The plot looks unloved so it was good to do quite a bit of tidying and most importantly our garlic is planted!

We pulled all the weeds, topped it off with last year's potato bags and added a bit of manure. That looks better doesn't it? (Jamie's raking, not mine obviously)

We've now got 30 cloves of Cristo softneck garlic. I really wanted hardneck, but am just glad it's in at last! We surrounded each clove with some organic onion fertiliser - shouldn't take long for the rain to soak that in.

Much of the chard that's left is a soggy mess, I always sow afresh each year. These pink stems were gleaming out through the greyness of the day so I picked a few of those lovely fresh new leaves. I may add them to my carrot soup, if they aren't too bitter.

Today's song is provided by Bob Marley - "don't worry about a thing".

 

Squelch Squelch!

Last night was Burns Night. We aren't Scottish, but any excuse for a little celebration! So, we had a lovely Stahly's vegetarian haggis with our neeps (swede) and tatties (potatoes). And enjoyed tasting 5 varieties of Scottish whisky. I, sensibly, had pre-booked today off work, but it wasn't really a day to spend on the allotment!

The ground is sodden but we needed some sprouts so just a quick visit.

Plenty more sprouts to pick...

And plenty of work to be done before any sowing, if it stops raining for long enough!