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 23 May 2021
Radioactive
Sunday 16 May 2021
Mosaic
We spent several hours on the plot yesterday and today we went up specifically to enjoy the rain from the polytunnel while having a coffee.
That’s our first chive flower to open. I’m waiting for more in order to make chive flower vinegar.And here’s the evidence that Jamie’s pollination technique worked; our first little green strawberry is on its way.There’s a sunny-ish photo from yesterday. You can see our giant rhubarb which we’ll be living on for a while - tasty rhubarb on waffles for breakfast. Yum!Monday 1 March 2021
Epic
Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine at the weekend.
The ladybirds were sunning themselves, out from their Winter shelters. We saw Brimstone and Peacock butterflies and I even uncovered a little frog. So, I had to stop digging that last part of the plot. I knew toads hibernated underground but I didn’t realise that frogs do too. There was another rhubarb plant in that spot, but it had rotted away under a mass of nigella. We'll get another one to put in there later in the year.We stayed until the Sun started to dip on Friday and the temperature soon started to drop. The temperature showed as -3° overnight.
My seeds haven't popped up yet, but the marigolds that Jamie had covered with a plastic bag in the polytunnel have started to germinate. The anemone is continuing to flower in the pots, such a pretty flower but it's fighting with weeds which I can't clear because there are a few bulbs still waiting to emerge.
So for the end of February our plot is looking better than it has done for a few years, but still lots more to do and I think I need more seeds :-) Maybe I'll wait to see what offerings fellow plotholders have to share a bit later in the season...Talking of which, Ivan gave us a lovely crop of purple sprouting broccoli which we added to a Quorn curry on Friday evening.
What a great weekend - some would say 'epic' or maybe it's just an excuse to use this song title by Faith No More after I saw the video on a Top of the Pops from 1990 last week :-) Hooray! Now it's March!Sunday 17 January 2021
Blue Monday
Aah, the sky was blue this morning and the sun was shining - that made a welcome change. There are many fewer planes flying nowadays but the contrails were in full view this morning which shows the air was cold up there, but not so cold at ground level as it has been recently.
I was looking forward to being outside after pretty much sitting still all week inside. We drove to the allotment and were the only people on site for a while. I weeded the garlic in the raised bed.
Jamie took the covers off the broad beans and weeded that area and I dug the area behind, though I didn’t manage it all. It was nice to be outside and digging. Several of our plot neighbours arrived but we were all well socially distanced. We were pleased to hear that Ivan has had his first COVID-19 vaccination - I’m expecting mine in February if all goes to plan.
Jamie cleared the rhubarb and surrounded the huge plant with a ring of manure to give it a boost after it was left to its own devices last year. We really need to divide the plant later in the year.
The larger birds were active today mostly gulls from over the Marsh, magpies and buzzards being quite noisy overhead. We saw a couple of robins but they weren’t as busy or inquisitive as they usually are.
We left as the sunshine had gone and it started to get chilly. We’re expecting a lot of rain this week. The plot was already very wet. So the question is... do I read a book or carry on practising crochet before I embark on extending the sleeves of my beautiful cardigan..? Or maybe I’ll make some onion soup as Ivan gave us these lovely veg as we left the site. The onion is huge, it weighs 472grams!
The song is by New Order - I used to hate this song, but quite like it now. Tomorrow is known as ‘blue Monday’, but try not to feel blue - we’re moving closer to Spring and vaccination so it’s best to stay positive. Take care and stay safe x
Sunday 7 June 2020
Eighties
I actually went out again last week - in the daytime, it was on the last sunny day. We walked to a field that overlooks the town.
We walked down through to the town. There were a few more people than I've seen in weeks, but we didn't have to do much swerving to avoid other pedestrians - though, I must admit, I found it rather novel seeing the avoidance manoeuvres people make!
Apart from that walk, I've just been working. I bought a new gamer’s mousepad - makes my 'workstation' look cool :-)
Jamie pulled one of our garlic - they’re all small like this because they didn’t get enough water when the bulbs were forming, nice flavour though.
Neal brought over some more broad beans. We had them with two meals including this halloumi and grilled asparagus (You can tell when I've cooked because I like to make it look fancy)
And there were some left so I made hummus - I had to add some frozen peas, (there weren’t quite enough beans once they were podded and shelled) which add to the GREEN! It was very tasty, we had it with the roasted peppers, along with other tapas, on Friday evening.
The rhubarb is still providing and we’re still loving the mix with strawberries, so delicious and so easy:
Equal measures of rhubarb and strawberries;
1/4 measure of water;
1/2-3/4 measure of sugar;
2 tbsp of lemon juice.
Shaheen’s recipe for rhubarb and rose petal butter gave me the idea of soaking rhubarb in some rose liqueur and cooked that up a couple of days later with some sugar and a bit more rhubarb. I do love flowery flavours.
Today’s song is provided by Killing Joke, I saw them at the Elephant Fayre (in 1985 apparently) - I don’t remember them like they appear in this video. The country rather feels like it’s returning to those times - apart from coronavirus which is taking a bit of a backseat in the media, but it continues to kill over 1500 a week in Britain so please continue to stay safe x
Tuesday 2 June 2020
It Doesnt Make it Alright
As well as our first broad beans and strawberries there was another huge supply of rhubarb - our mammoth plant just keeps on giving! (Photo from last year).
The top photo in this post is the marvellous combination of strawberries and rhubarb to make a most delicious sauce, using this recipe (even I probably didn't really need a recipe for this!)
The sauce has provided us with a tasty filling for breakfast pancakes, a topping for ice cream and even as a jam for scones. What a great combination of fruits which happen to harvest at the same time.
There's been a lot of growing activity in the flat this week. The micro-greens have shot up.
The 2 courgettes both germinated quickly.
And the peppers and tomato plants have flowers. Hopefully we'll get some of the rain that is threatened tomorrow, then Jamie may be able to get a spade into the ground!
Lockdown has been reduced somewhat, even for the 'clinically extremely vulnerable'. I'm not going to change my behaviour much, but may not feel guilty by getting a bit of sunshine outside now. The NHS website suggests adding vitamin D to the drugs regime - We already started doing that a couple of weeks ago.
The Specials provide the song. I love the Two-Tone message of the eighties. Sadly racism is as rife as ever with the shocking news from America where racist police were literally dismissed for murder, rather than being arrested - now corrected, but no wonder people are raging. And in our country, this Government delaying the results of the review into why BAME (black and minority ethnics) appear to be more critically affected by Covid-19.