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!
This is the veggie bake I made at the weekend - so pretty, but it took a long time to cook even though I’d thinly sliced the veg. The veg (potato, courgette and tomato on top of fried onions and garlic) was covered in a cheese sauce and baked.
The tomatoes were kindly given to us by fellow plotholder, Iulia. She gave us a bagful of different varieties, which was a real treat. She has said that I can dig some of her abundant horseradish. I saw a Nigella recipe with tomatoes so will have a go at that. When (when!) it rains, the horseradish smells so lovely but I don’t want the meal to be too spicy hot.
Some of those split tomatoes were boiled down with garlic and smoked paprika, which we had with gnocchi (and courgette) last night.
As you can tell, courgettes are still playing a major role in our diets! We thought the plant was dying back a couple of weeks ago but it (and the patty pan) have had a new lease of life. So... we made patty pan and carrot chutney at the weekend. It looks rather like marmalade, but I’m sure it’ll be tasty. It’s using our go-to recipe where we just change the veg for what we have available. We only made one and a half jars this year.
We had a most enjoyable HAHA picnic on Bank Holiday Monday. It’s so nice to sit and chat with our fellow plotholders. I made a colourful purple potato salad for the picnic and we’ve bean eating a few more of our super-sweet Lizzano cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.
And the prizes were awarded by Ted for the Plotholders Choice award (well done to Jenny) and the Tallest Sunflower (well done to Zoe).
Zoe’s sunflower measured a towering 3.51m! Somewhat surprisingly, the first and third tallest on site are both multi-headed sunflowers. They’ve made an impressive display around the site, so I’m sure we’ll run the competition again next year.
Here we are measuring Zoe’s earlier in the day. Jamie’s job was up the ladder (I realise he's not in the photo!). This year’s top two heights were taller than last year’s winner - which was 3.21m.
No ladder required for measuring ours the day before, which now seems a paltry 2.49m.
I bought some potted perennials at the market yesterday (Jacob’s ladder, Coreopsis, Leucanthemum and Scabiosa). I’ve planted them in front of the bench for a more permanent display. I cleared some of the terrible bindweed round the pond and a golden frog appeared to see what was going on.
That was the last day of my long weekend; it was a welcome break from work. Yesterday afternoon we dug an area on Plot3 for planting some of Neal’s leeks. It was quite exhausting, the ground was hard in places and just dust in others, but it looks better now and perhaps we’ll get a bit of rain ahead of the leeks going in at the weekend.
I peeked under the netting at the Chinese cabbage and pak choi that I sowed at the beginning of the month. I’ve left the enviromesh on to stop it being nibbled so much. I need to thin the cabbage but the pak Choi is probably ok.
And we've been having a few of the thinned baby carrots. Some are really tiny and so tasty.
Jamie sowed some Winter lettuce in the raised bed and then we played with the bubble machine 🤭
I'm eating chard and beetroot with other bits and pieces for lunches. The mornings are still beautiful but the sun is rising later and setting earlier, Autumn is definitely in the air at times.
I spent quite a lot of yesterday looking up. It was so lovely to return to sunshine and blue sky after a few days of feeling rather Autumnal, and it feels too soon.
I have a few very welcome days off making it a very long Bank Holiday weekend.
The weather yesterday was perfect and we enjoyed our lunch on the plot. The birds were very chattery in the hedgerow, which is full of berries. The swallows are still gathering and swooping, preparing for their Winter Sun - lucky them. Meanwhile, between looking-up-sessions, we were deadheading, feeding and watering the plants - of course.
The sweetcorn cobs are growing and I only appreciated the other day that the tassels, which develop from the female part of the plant, are each literally connected to what will become the kernel, if it’s pollinated. Obvious really, but I didn’t quite appreciate the link until I read this one. Anyway, the smell of sweetcorn pollen on Thursday, which was a rather drizzly day, was so strong I hope it made it to the tassels and is doing its job.
The bees and other insects are really enjoying the flowers, perhaps even as much as I am! We saw a Hummingbird Hawkmoth yesterday (they seem to be out in large numbers this year) and the other day we saw a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly - the UK’s largest hoverfly. No photos unfortunately but I’m keeping a watch to see that beast again.
You can see that the clouds started to build during the afternoon and it was very muggy.
When the clouds covered all the blue we decided to call it a day.
And as this is a Summer 2022 blogpost and that is the silhouette of a zinnia, How can I not share some of the beauties from their better angle? They have made a delightful bright display in front of our bench.
The wildlife plot has cheered up a bit since we had the rain. It had begun to look rather dead, though one section is thick with birdsfoot trefoil which has remained green and flowery throughout the dry Summer; it’s provided such thick ground cover it must still be wet underneath - hopefully our little froglets are living there. We’ve had to keep watering the bog garden (luxury of a borehole on site) and these lovely bright red flowers (Hesperantha coccinea, I think) have been pretty constant throughout the Summer. We saw a large dragonfly zooming around the plot the other day; it would be good if it laid some eggs there.
Various seedlings are emerging so I hope they’re preparing for next year’s growth (and are flowery plants). The teasels have had a second flush of flowerheads. We haven’t seen any birds eating from them yet, but there are lots of goldfinches around so we live in hope….
We have the HAHA Bring-Your-Own Picnic on Monday, after it was previously postponed because of the heatwave. It’s also measuring day for the tallest sunflower so it should be fun with prizes for that and the Plotholders Choice award. One of our sunflowers (we managed to grow two eventually) is tall but not in the running for a prize. Actually ours are meant to have giant heads, not tall stems so that’s a bit odd. Well, let’s blame the weather!
Song title is provided by Joy Oladokun. Stay chirpy and keep looking up.
I remembered we have cucumber moulds, so the continuous supply of Baby cucumbers are now looking different.
As long as they’re sealed in a plastic bag in the fridge they are still perfect after 3 days. I’ve seen some tasty recipes for them, but we’ve mostly been having them in sandwiches or with hummus dips. Jamie has made this soured cream salad with added tomatoes and salad onions a couple of times which we’ve enjoyed.
The big news this week is, of course, the weather. After the super extreme heat it actually rained - proper rain, with thunder and lightning two evenings in a row! The plots looked much healthier as a result.
On Tuesday morning we were greeted on site by a ‘flight’ of swallows (I prefer the collective noun ‘gulp’ actually) on the overhead cables and it was marvellous when they all swooped off together. And there was also a flock (a ‘charm’) of goldfinches. It was a beautiful morning actually, shame I only had an hour. The birds were clearly relieved that the rain had arrived and the extreme heat had past (thought it was still very warm).
Tuesday evening we had the most torrential downpour. We opened the windows to enjoy that welcome sound and smell.
The next morning the rain gauge showed it to have been a proper drenching - 25mm in one night.
Too late for the French beans (right) which seem to have gone over very quickly but the runners (left) are still producing flowers at the top and the borlotti/gigantes wigwam (centre) is looking bushy and healthy.
I needn’t have fretted last week. As Flighty pointed out, the cob tassels will soon arrive after the flowers start providing the pollen. And here they come on the Lark sweetcorn.
And look! The Lizzano outdoor tomato has given it’s first fruits - what a feast 😁 Well, it’s quality not quantity that counts! And you can see, there should soon be more…
Trugs are colourful at the moment with the chard and more of the Salad Blue potatoes.
Also a Nicola potato and I podded those French beans to have with orzo (a pasta, which rather seemed like slippery rice on eating), What the Cluck and a sun-dried tomato pasta sauce.
Last night I used chard to make a sort of colcannon with the Nicola potatoes. It was very tasty, but I think I should have made sure there was less water in the chard before mixing with the spuds. Although it wasn’t sloppy, it didn’t quite mash properly. It’s served with What the Cluck and garlicky-shallots.
Today it’s feeding day for the plot, though it’s certainly beginning to feel a bit Autumnal which is sad. It’s still a lovely temperature and no rain expected today. Even the clouds in the photo below, from yesterday, didn’t produce rain. It’s probably just because we’ve got used to blue skies and sweltering heat. But there are plenty more flowers and veg on their way, lots of deadheading to do and surely more cucumbers and courgettes to pick!
Aah, this song will pretty much sum up today I think. And what a great song by the Small Faces! Can’t believe I haven’t used it before. For the rest of today, I shall be mostly speaking in cock-nay 😆
I must remember to sow lobelia into modules next year. It’ll make it far easier to pot them on. Zinnia seem to be the flower of the moment. And ours are appearing. They’re multi-coloured so some of the orange flowers are zinnia rather than marigolds.
I’m seeing them everywhere, but look closer and they’re even more fab. No wonder the bees were enjoying them today.
I’m really happy with the Love Lies Bleeding (Amaranthus Caudatus). There are 4 plants around our plots. This one on Plot7 is the most advanced and this lovely long tassel has started to turn the deeper red. Such an amazing plant from the tiniest of seeds. The birds will apparently enjoy those seeds in the Autumn and I may well try some myself, as explained here by the Laidback Gardener’s blog. I hope some will set seed to re-grow next year.
The harvests are continuing and are not very varied, but a bit of creativity means that meals don’t need to be boring. That said, I am missing the kitchen at work where I used to leave all the surplus for my colleagues to take home. I must admit that we left a large patty pan and over-grown courgette on the spares shelf at the allotment and I was pleased to see that someone actually wanted them! I’m also very pleased that the chalk addition to the patty pan watering has largely resolved the blossom end rot problem.
This Rose Harissa dish with sticky rice was tasty though a bit too spicy for my taste (I got carried away with adding the harissa paste!)
The only flavouring in this stuffing, with added pine nuts, was the garlic, shallots and garlic oil. We had this in stuffed courgettes, with some left over for lunch the next day.
This weekend has been so sweltering that cold salads have been best for lunches.
The temperature has reached 33° in the shade but it's been lovely sitting under the sun umbrella with a deskfan run on a Jackery power station, which we’ve bought for heating the polytunnel in Winter really!
The weather is what everyone is talking about. We even had to postpone our HAHA picnic; not due to rain, but because we’re in the amber extreme heat warning area.
It’s just beginning to cloud over - watch the clouds.
It’s still sweltering and some of us aren’t convinced that the rain/thunderstorms will hit Hungerford over the next few days, but the temperatures are forecast to drop to a more average 23°. Too late for our pumpkin, which has gone into emergency mode and decided to skip a couple of months.
The other squashes don’t seem to have had the same idea, so hopefully more than one fruit per plant, though the ‘tunnel’ hasn’t quite developed this year.
My Florence fennel has sadly all gone to seed. It’s just not been possible to keep it wet enough.
At last the sweetcorn has developed tassels but no cobs are emerging yet, which seems rather slow. We’ll see…
Summing up the last week: Work, water, harvest, deadhead, work, water, eat, sleep and repeat. And, I must say how much I like it 😊 Song title provided by Riton.
It’s here! The new drone video of the site, courtesy of Colin de Fraine.
I hope you agree that the plots are looking amazing from all the different angles. How dry it is though! Still no rain, thank goodness for the borehole and generator to pump our water.
From Monday it’s National Allotment Week and we’re having a vote for the Plotholders Choice Award for the favourite plot. I hope lots of people join in and next Sunday we’re having a bring-your-own picnic for the prize-giving. We’re not quite ready for an open day with Covid cases still high, so this is the next best thing - also takes less organisation!
We haven’t had any rain all week and aren’t expecting any at least till Friday - hope it stays dry on Sunday for the picnic!
The dry earth makes digging the potatoes easy and they emerge clean, with no slug damage so far - it makes a nice change. These are Nicola potatoes. The tubers are mostly quite small. They’re tasty hot or cold. We’ve had them boiled, as roasted wedges and mashed.
I had the carrot, fennel and spring onion with mayonnaise in a roll for lunch - yum yum. Only one Florence fennel looks like it may bulb up quite big - nothing like you see in shops though. They are mostly going to seed but are still good as a flavouring.
I enjoyed the last of the pulled Salad Blue potatoes with French beans and these smoky not-chicken bites. They were a tasty snack and added a bit of extra protein to this colourful little lunch.
Green beans, whether runners or French beans, are well and truly on the menu now. The French beans are Blue Lake climbing French beans. And the cucumbers are just beginning to join most lunches.
Mmmm, cheese and cucumber sandwiches… we just bought some fancy cheddar cheeses from the monthly Hungerford Food market along with some more garlic oil. I also couldn’t resist buying a couple of pots on the plant stall, including a salvia for the flower patch by our bench. Talking of which, that’s where I’m going now.
