Crazy weather for November

The weather is still really warm for November (2.5degC) was the lowest last week. There hasn't been any rain for a while but it's been misty/foggy so it was pretty wet on the allotment this morning, but the sun was shining.
The weather's causing a bit of confusion - our raspberry canes are flowering again! We're going to clear them late this year or in the new year and just keep a few canes where we want them to grow - it'll be a shame if they've got fruit on them!!

We only went to have a look at the broad beans - the 3 which hadn't grown last week are still pathetic so we've left the cloches on them, the rest look happy enough though something is nibbling the leaves.

Talking of nibbling.... we didn't eat many of our sweetcorn this year as they hadn't produced very good cobs, but something is happily clearing them up for us!

Bad Camouflage

Whilst tidying up the chard - clearing dodgy-looking leaves and removing a couple of plants - I found three of these bright green caterpillars. A hopeless place to hide as they were almost glowing against the red stems. The Wildaboutbritain web forum confirmed that it's probably a Angle Shade moth larva.
They're living over the hedge now :-|

Hot November

We haven't visited the plot for a couple of weekends but wanted to get up there to do some digging today. It's been rainy and dull over the last week (lowest temp was 1.5°) but today the sun was shining and it was about 16° - amazing for November!

The broad beans have sprouted well, with only a small number not looking right. I took the cloches off all the good ones and have put a frame over them in an attempt to keep pigeons off...

Pulled the remaining turnips and dug over the area and the green manured area.
We cleared Quarter 3 and dug the horse manure in, avoiding the area where the peas are going to stay.
Jamie dug up the last of the purple Congo potatoes and we also took home a giant beetroot and a carrot to have a lovely veggie bake tomorrow.

We left 3 hours later with a much tidier looking plot.

Next Year's spuds and onions ordered

We've placed our order for next year from Thompson and Morgan.

We've opted for these potato varieties:

Potato 'Kestrel' - 10 seed potatoes (Second Earlies)

Potato 'Orla' - 10 seed potatoes (First Earlies) We found these to be good for mash and baking too this year

Potato 'Belana' - 5 seed potatoes (First Earlies) These should produce lots of small new potatoes

And we've ordered the following onions and shallots:

Onion 'Santero' F1 Hybrid - This is an early cropper which is apparently resistant to downy mildew

Shallot 'Golden Gourmet' - Our favourites for making pickled onions They won't arrive until Jan-mid-May. We've ordered less than we've had this year, as they just keep going on for too long really. We got a bit fed up with the new potatoes this year and it's a shame to let them grow big. We've still got a Congo and a Kestrel plant in the ground at the plot at the moment. We're really hoping the onions will be happier next year so that we get a full season without them succombing to mildew...

Halloween

We had a lovely Halloween dinner: Layered beetroot, potato, carrot and tofu chunks in a cheesy sauce - so delicious and colourful (we used purple spuds).

The next day the pumpkin went to the compost bin - not a home-grown pumpkin this year; they take up so much room, but next year we may grow some small jack-o-lantern squashes...

More Tidying

Another sunny morning meant more weeding and tidying up on the plot. No signs of life in the broad beans yet.
I ventured into the sprout cage, weeded and pulled off all the yellowing leaves at the lower level of the sprouts. Masses of white fly under there, while some of the sprouts look really healthy - others look really awful!

We actually weeded Plot 8A as well - it was a state! Filled a compost bag with weeds. It looks so much happier now.

And we went home with another trug full of purple Congo potatoes.

Sloe Gin

As expected there weren't enough sloes in the hedge by our plot so we picked ours from Hungerford Common where there were loads. Some of the berries were pretty small but we filled a jar and made a litre of sloe gin in 2 kilner jars half filled with sloes and with about the same weight in sugar. We'll just give the jars a shake every day and in a few months we'll have a lovely drink.

Enjoying the sunshine

And it was lovely being able to sit in the sun with a coffee again! Look at that blue sky - gorgeous!

This bee was enjoying warming itself in the sun too

Digging and Clearing

Had a lovely 4 hours on the plot this morning in the sunshine.
The temperature had reached -1 and the beans, courgette and tomato plants all collapsed due to the frost. We cleared them all away to the compost - such a lot of runner beans went uneaten. We must sow them earlier next year!

Frosted Runner Beans

Frosted Courgette

Jamie dug and put organic chicken manure pellets on the quarter for onions next year and I dug all the areas which had the plants cleared. It's satisfying to clear the areas and nice to be able to dig again - funny how you miss it even though it's tiring!

Pickled Cucumber

We pickled (sweet pickled) the cucumbers. The chopped cucumber was left in salt overnight to remove some of the water. Pickled in about a pint of white vinegar, 60g sugar and a teaspoon each of mustard and celery seeds. We made some last year which were really tasty but overly sweet so we reduced the sugar by half this time...