by Philippa | Aug 16, 2013 | Allotment
Slow cooked courgettes! Another great recipe for enjoying the piles and piles of courgettes at this time of year!
For a two person serving for a side dish slice about five courgettes into rounds. Melt a knob of butter in a pan with a glug of extra virgin olive oil over a medium heat. Once melted add a couple of crushed garlic cloves and the courgettes, some salt and pepper and give everything a good stir to coat with the oil and butter.
Leave them slowly cooking on a low-medium heat covered with a lid for about an hour. Give them a stir every ten minutes or so to ensure they aren’t sticking. They turn into a melting and rich sort of confit. Delicious!
by Philippa | Aug 11, 2013 | Allotment
I popped down for a few hours on Saturday while Neil was off playing cricket having been inspired by the Ashes. Apart from watering the greenhouses almost all of my time was spent harvesting goodies, which I can hardly complain about!
We got another massive punnet of blackcurrants. I just wish there was a quicker way of picking and getting rid of stems from them, it’s such slow going (and back breaking too!) but worth the bounty at the end of it.
I also took away a bulging carrier bag of broad beans, both trugs already full. I had thought it might be the last lot of broad beans but in fact there are still a lot on the second sowing of plants so we’ll have a few more bags to fill I bet! I came face to face with a large hairy caterpillar whilst picking the beans. Not sure what he will turn into but I bet it will be impressive given how fancy he looks now.
The plum tree has been stuffed with fruit for weeks now and this is the first time they have looked almost ripe. I gave a few a squeeze and found some almost fully ripe so I brought a handful home to ripen up in the fruit bowl. I will need lots of bags or buckets when the rest are ripe. And some tasty plum recipes!
As well as the first plums, I also brought home our first climbing French beans. Without doubt they are the best climbing beans we have ever grown. They are unblemished, a good size, straight. This is quite a surprise as we haven’t done anything different this year and when we planted them out they looked absolutely terrible for weeks and at one point looked like they had died! It was worth the wait and I’m looking forward to eating them and the rest we harvest.
I’m hoping that the same can be said for some of our brassicas as since last week something has given them a good going over. They are securely netted so it’s nothing larger than the small holes in that. Having spoken to Bob his look a bit worse for wear too and he thinks it might be caterpillars. Hopefully in a few weeks the caterpillars will have moved on and the plants will still have plenty of growing time, otherwise I don’t think a few of them will recover!
I took another trug full of courgettes home as they’ve really taken off. So while Neil had his cricket tea I made use of a couple of them cooking my own tea of courgette rarebit. A simple but tasty dish of gently fried courgettes, spring onions and garlic topped with a mixture of beaten egg, mustard and grated cheese with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs. A quick ten minutes in the oven and a lovely homegrown meal to enjoy!
by Philippa | Aug 6, 2013 | Allotment
We managed a couple of visits this week and while the change in the weather might be making others grumble, the rain has helped a lot. Most of the squash and brassicas have grown a fair bit and look much greener.
The plots were judged for the annual competition this week so it’s a good job we’d done a lot of weeding last time. While I doubt we’re in line for any prizes we can at least be proud of how both plots look, especially given everything else that we’ve had to do this year! The results will be announced at the summer show so watch this space. One area he thought some members needed to improve on was composting. It’s odd as we’ve composted right from the start and it seems so obviously helpful that its hard to see why people wouldn’t compost! Maybe they just need a bit more information about how to get started. On that theme, Neil gave the compost bays on plot 118 a good working over. There was quite a bit of couch grass in one of the bays that we’d stored manure in which he cleared and he managed to get a couple of barrows of compost out of the bays for spreading around.
Neil was very much getting jobs ticked off the list! He did some tidying of the back of plot 118 and so I put some chippings down to keep it looking neat. He repaired the back gate which had somehow come away from its concrete post. But the best job was building a new front gate! It had been made out of pallet pieces but over time the screws holding the fastenings in were coming loose in the wood as it was slowly disintegrating. In fact the whole latch had fallen off on Saturday meaning it couldn’t be locked. Cue a trip to buy some wood and hey presto we have a lovely new gate! He even managed to get a coat of green woodstain on it before the rain started on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, I wasn’t exactly slacking! The garlic and the shallots have been looking ready for harvesting for a couple of weeks so I dug them up. The two varieties of garlic are noticeably different in size, with the Lautrec Wight bulbs being almost twice the size. While the Solent Wight has performed well for us previously I might be tempted to just go for one variety next season. I hung the bulbs upside down on the greenhouse staging to dry. Then we’ll be able to see if there are any likely prize winners this year! The shallots looked good. The average size of this banana style variety is much better than the round varieties and I think we’ll get a lot of use out of them as a result. I strung them up in the greenhouse again to dry them out before storing.
The strawberries that have been growing straight in the ground rather than in the beds on plot 118 have for the last year been looking a bit like they were on the way out. The crops from these are generally smaller and fewer in quantity. We’ve never really been sure of the variety as we inherited them but they are quite seedy too, definitely our poorest performers given how good the others are! So we decided to get rid of them and I dug them all out. We also started collecting some runners off the other strawberries so they can be transplanted later.
We had a successful batch of small but tasty carrots. Think the key is picking them quite early on, previously we’ve left them a bit longer and they have been holey as if they’ve been eaten by something! So we’ll pull some more up next week. Meanwhile we’ll have to be looking up some good plum recipes as it looks like there will be a bumper crop!
by Philippa | Jul 28, 2013 | Allotment
We had trugs full of broad bean, blackcurrants, blueberries and blackberries. It also included our first cherries, courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes (but didn’t want that to spoil our title!). We are now consistently taking large amounts of produce home so it really feels like we are in the swing of things!
We spent a good few hours there this weekend and seemed to get quite a lot done. Most things are looking green and perky thanks to the heat wave breaking with a few rainstorms. The last of the brassicas that had yet to be planted out had come on leaps and bounds as a result so they really needed to go out. After unsuccessfully trying to buy some more netting from the local garden centre and B&Q, Mickey came to our rescue (thanks Mickey!) with some spare. That end of plot 118 still hadn’t been turned over since we put some barrows of manure on it weeks ago so we first had to dig it over which was no mean feat in the humid, sticky weather! We then planted the brassicas out in three more tunnels. This means we have Brussel sprouts, igloo cauliflowers, candissa cabbage, kalibos pointed red cabbage and Savoy cabbage in one block. In the second block we have minicole and tundra green cabbages, scarlet borecole, cavolo nero, dwarf curly kale, red arrow sprouting broccoli, calabrese green sprouting broccoli, summer purple sprouting broccoli and regular purple sprouting broccoli. Phew!
Neil planted a couple of rows of green manures between the tunnels, because he sure does love the green manures. I think he used phacelia, trefoil and some crimson clover.
It was a week of season firsts on both plots. We harvested a handful of perfectly sized courgettes, both green and yellow. Neil also dug up our first crop of Charlotte new potatoes which looked great, really good sized and consistent quality and probably our best for the last couple of years. In the greenhouses we have our first aubergines, chillies and peppers growing. We also managed a handful of the first tomatoes to turn red. Things in the greenhouses have grown quite a bit so I needed to tie some stems up to support canes, which was good timing as I had to hide from a pretty heavy downpour! Other maintenance jobs included weeding the front of plot 97 (again! It never stops!) and tying up some of the larger plants as they were starting to droop into the pathway.
There had been a manure delivery which was quite good quality, not too much sawdust or hay, so Neil collected about 8 barrows worth! I think he’s replaced Ironman training with wheelbarrowing, he kept getting some saying it would be the last then going for another until he’d finished one whole section of plot 118! We can properly dig this in once some of the produce comes out as that side could do with quite a bit of matter added, as it’s lagging behind the left side that we’ve given more attention to.
We’ve been seeing lots of wildlife on the plots lately. We had a new season little robin come and scavenge some worms when we were digging the soil over, lots of bees and butterflies are enjoying the lavender and sunflowers and we’ve lost count of the number of colourful cinnabar moth caterpillars we’ve found. Is lovely being down there when it is full of life!
by Philippa | Jul 24, 2013 | Allotment
It has been far too many weeks since our last update so this one covers quite a lot of happenings! We knew that the end of June and the start of July was going to be a busy time as we had Glastonbury festival and Neil’s Ironman event, both of which spanned full weekends and which fell consecutively. In addition, just prior to going to Glastonbury the weather really picked up and temperatures were consistently high meaning that lots of jobs that needed doing couldn’t really wait what would amount to more than a fortnight.
Prior to Glastonbury both of us spent almost a full day at the allotment getting things ready to be left alone for a couple of weeks. This involved a major weeding of both plots, including the paths on plot 97. We had a lot of things still in the greenhouse or coldframe that needed to be planted out or potted on. We potted on all the tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, peppers and aubergines into their final larger pots. We added a handful of the organic pellet feed that lasts for up to 8 weeks to each of them. In the greenhouse on plot 118 Neil dug the pots down slightly into the open soil, this seemed to work quite well when we tried it with a few select items last year as a bit of an experiment. It does seem to mean they don’t require so much watering.
We potted on all the brassicas but they had still been in the small trays they were sown in so they went into the small black bags we use as an intermediate stage. We put them straight out into the coldframe as we didn’t want there to be too much delay in them being ready to be planted outside once we returned from all our festivities!
Courgettes and some squash were ready to go outside and they did their usual impression of looking like they had died in the days following being planted out! But, as usual, they perked up in no time and once we had returned they looked much better.
There were loads of other things that we did and I had been really efficient and written a list of them for blog purposes but due to a technology fail this got deleted! But we did get to a stage where we felt content that the plots would not come to ruin due to our absence. Once we returned we were pleasantly surprised by how good they looked and also by how much had grown in the sunshine. We were also able take our first produce home-strawberries, rainbow chard and some mini cucumbers. In fact we have declared this year the year of the strawberry. We are at 25 punnets so far and there are still fruit on some of the plants!
In the last week or so the heatwave has meant that some things look permanently parched. Neil has set up the greenhouse irrigation system on plot 97 which helps. We have now planted out all of our squash varieties. All of the brassicas are either planted out under netting or are outside but still in the small bags still developing their roots. It does feel like they are really behind, I’m not sure whether this is due to the cool start to the year or our being busy or a combination of both, but they will be ready to go out this week. We have had a couple of trugs filled with produce, which along with more strawberries and cucumbers has included some peas, broad beans, red and blackcurrants and a handful of blackberries.
Having visited today to do some watering in the greenhouses we have our first red tomato! There are lots of green ones on all the plants but this is the first one to ripen. It is the gardener’s delight variety that is in the lead, although the plant does not look too healthy so it may be in a panic that its days are numbered! I also discovered that one of our pepper plants had lots of tiny holes in most of its leaves. I had expected to find some whitefly which we have had previously on some greenhouse plants but there were none. After very close inspection I found lots of very thin, bright green caterpillars. My internet searching has not given me a conclusive answer yet as to what they are or how to treat them but as the only thing I had at my disposal was some whitefly organic insecticide I gave the plant a good spray with that – even if the active ingredient doesn’t see them off the drenching might have drowned them! I’ll do an inspection at the weekend to see if there is any change.
by Philippa | Jun 9, 2013 | Allotment
A lovely weekend at the allotment in the sunshine, several hours flew by on Saturday but that may have been in large part to lots of chatting with Bob! Neil managed a couple of hours with me on Sunday after getting his almost 3hr run out of the way.
You really cannot miss too many visits at this time of year, the weeds have gone bonkers! The high temperatures all this week have had a noticeable effect. I popped along this Tuesday and gave things a good water and weed but even despite that there were plenty of new weeds to tackle by the weekend. Neil did a mammoth weeding of the onions, which seemed to have attracted more weeds than anywhere else on plot 118.
The heat has contributed to most other things growing great guns this week. All the tomatoes needed sideshooting already. The parsnips were ready to be thinned and the beetroot also, which incidentally seems to have had a really good germination rate. You could practically watch some of the greenhouse sowings grow. I planted some pak choi (joi choi) on Tuesday and yet by Saturday they had germinated well. The climbing beans were all sprouted and so I moved them to the coldframe to go out next week. I suspect the Brussels and cauliflowers already in there will be ready to go out too, but will need netting.
All of the cucurbits have done well and will be outgrowing their 7cm pots soon so it will probably be time to get them outside in the next week or two. I potted on all of the cucumber/gherkin varieties and also all the chillies and peppers. We always pot on more than we will end up using as chillies are really nice to give to friends and families and are generally well received!
Outside, the strawberries on both plots look decidedly perky and you can see that they are going to crop well, as long as we beat the slugs! I gave the shallots and garlic some water and added some organic general feed to the watering can.
Neil put in some ‘cross training’ by digging over some more of plot 118 and getting a few barrows of manure. I sowed some flower seeds, much less tiring work! We say every year that we want to plant more flowers and while we have started quite a few off, I’m not sure we’ll have many due to patchy germination. Even our marigolds, usually a winner, have been a bit off. Bob clearly took pity and generously donated some of his spares which we can be transplanting or planting out in the next few weeks. There were some marigolds, lobelia, lupins and petunias. I did have two small buddleia and a hydrangea plant I’d bought last week, so I planted these out at the rear of the left side of plot 118 along the fence. Hopefully these will add some interesting colour and height when they establish. I sowed some pansies (forerunner), Michaelmas daisy, aster (milady), chrysanthemum (mixed), ipomoea (grandpa ott) and zinnia (Oklahoma) in the greenhouse and coldframe. I also sowed some poppies outside (Shirley double mixed). The packet rather poetically suggested sowing these in drifts for a majestic display, so I did my best to cast them in majestic drifts!
We are all up to date with seed sowing now, save for lettuce varieties. I think it’s because they grow so quickly that I have a tendency to leave them until we’ve caught up with other veg, which is a bit daft really as they are a tasty and value for money crop. Anyhow, I’ll get them in sometime over the coming week!
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