Allotment geekery

Less than a week to go before I start my San Diego adventure!  I am so excited but stressed as well, there is so much to do before I go and both MozzyMr and I have caught a cold.  It's like we're competing for most disgusting nose blow, or loudest cough the whole time.  On top of that I've bruised a bone in my foot, I'm not even sure how I've managed it but it has kept me from the gym and I was counting on these last few classes before I fly out to calm me down!

Last weekend we were in London attending Secret Cinema (which was awesome!) so all the allotment work that has been piling up is being condensed into this weekend.

The allotment is just bursting with all sorts of gorgeousness at the moment, these little flowers are everywhere at the moment, as are buttercups is that a thing this year?  I see them in abundance everywhere I turn.

This year I am trying my hand at companion planting, in this raised bed we have shallots and carrots.  Monty says the smell of the shallots should deter carrot root fly, as most of my crop of carrots were attacked last year I'm hoping this works... At any rate the shallots are popping up and doing well so that's good :)

The apples have started to make an appearance, we might give cider vinegar a try this year.  

That's a whole lotta egg shells right there.  We've been saving them up since the autumn (giving each shell a thorough wash before crushing and storing) so we can protect our runner beans from slug attack.  Since owning an allotment you start reusing things more and more, seemingly everything that is thrown away can be used in one way or another on the plot!

My A - Z of books

No image this week because the book I am referring to is actually in the shed on my allotment... This week 'K' is for Kevin Forbes, and his book 'Keeping an Allotment'.

MoMa bought it for me, it's a very straightforward guide to growing veg, no fancy photography and very functional illustrations.  The reason it has made it into my A - Z is because I am constantly referring to it, if I had a scan of it you would find mud on almost every page as I stand in the middle of the plot thumbing through it's pages to get advice on planting beans or carrots!

Here is a recap of my A-Z so far:

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J

Allotment geekery

What is to be done on a weekend when you planned to dig the allotment for two days and it did nothing but rain?  Well the exciting news is... pot on your purple sprouting broccoli, boo-yah!

They were beginning to get leggy and were too crowded.

The best time to pot on your seedlings is when a true leaf appears (usually the third or fourth leaf to grow)

Never hold the seedling by the stem only hold it by a leaf (apologies for the blurry photo the damn thing wouldn't stay still).

If at all possible have a cat trying to get your attention throughout the whole process..

Allotment geekery

On Saturday we were on a major clear up mission at the allotment, the weeds and grass have crept in and we have a lot of work to do.  Happily Malcolm from the plot across the way has offered to rotavate for us, all we have to do is move the raised beds and horseradish to one side so he can get there to do his thing.  Today the weather was bobbins so we didn't make it to the plot, instead we got more seeds planted and prepped, it got me thinking how much thriftier we are towards all things allotment in comparison to how we were when we first started.  So with that in mind I thought I would share some of the things that I have learnt along the way, not all of this will be earth shattering news but there may be the odd tip that comes in handy.

1. Absolutely, positively don't bother buying brand new tools.  They are so expensive and until you know that you love your allotment and can't imagine yourself not having an allotment there is NO point spending £20 plus on just one spade when you can get everything you need from the car boot sale.  The rake above which creates a lovely fine soil was a mere £2, I appreciate it isn't the best looking piece of kit but it does the job and that's all we need it to do. 

2. Save on seeds AND stop yourself from buying expensive coffee table gardening books.  Once the initial enthusiasm for the gardening books has passed we found we didn't refer to them that often.  We have perhaps two books that we go back to for reference but in your first year of owning a plot I would recommend subscribing to an allotment magazine like Grow Your Own or Kitchen Garden as they provide great tips and with almost every issue they give away all the seeds you could possibly need in your first year allotmenting!

3. Don't bother with expensive propagators or seed trays.  Even the more expensive plastic ones rarely last more than two years and you have to store them for 6 or more months a year.  From about December we start saving up our loo rolls (squeeze them and slot them in one another so they don't take up much space), we also start saving useful ice cream tubs or the packaging mushrooms come in so that when we're ready to get our seedlings going we have everything we need!  The bonus of this system is the loo rolls rot down and add texture to your compost, and the ice cream tubs can either be washed and used again or recycled, plus you don't have to store them year on year.

4.  Instead of buying bamboo canes for our beans each year we save the branch cuttings from our apple tree and use these.  In my opinion they look better than bamboo and at the end of the season can go on the bonfire.

5. Make friends with the ol' boys.  Malcolm loves his rotavator and for the price of a couple of ciders is happy to fire that bad boy up and give us a hand.  The wealth of knowledge available to you from those around you on the plot is incredible, just take a walk around the site and copy what everyone else is doing!

6. Start saving your margarine tubs now!  Come summer we will be lean, mean passata making machines and will need every tub we can get our hands on for freezing and storing.  The brick shape of the tubs make it easier to store in the freezer as well.

7. Once you have frozen, stored and used the veg in the margarine tubs rather than throwing them away, cut them up and use them as plant labels for next year.

8. Blanche and freeze as much as possible.  Stupidly we didn't do this in our first year and so much of our crop went back into the compost bin.  In the last couple of years we got ourselves organised and had runner beans and beetroot well into the winter which proved to be great additions to our soups and pizzas.

9. Sell your excess crop to family and friends.  I took armfuls of courgettes and beetroot into work last year and sold them to colleagues for charity.  Happily I have some keen cooks in my office who were happy to buy them and it made me really proud to see how impressed people were that we had grown the amazing looking veg.  Don't be cheeky with your pricing but don't do yourself down either you put time and effort into growing that veg!

10. MozzyMr's top tip would be use a separate pectin in your jam making (we use Certo which you can get in Waitrose or Lakeland) rather than buying jam sugar which is RIDICULOUSLY expensive in comparison.  Also if you have an Aldi near you buy your granulated sugar there as we have found it to be cheaper than the big supermarkets.

Well that's all I can think of right now, I hope they're of use!  

#100happydays

Halfway through!  With spring sneaking in more and more, and allotment time expanding I anticipate many more happy days moments.  Here are days 41 - 50:

41: Spring blossom is always good, even if it means everyone in the office is sneezing away with hayfever!

42: Booking flights and accommodation for our little holiday in San Diego.  I am so so so excited!

43: My continued love for netball just has to feature in my 100 happy days.  The last two sessions have been great with lots of game time :)

44: What would a 100 happy days post be without at least one reference to The Drowned Man?  I went with my brother in mid-March and it was the best performance yet!  I got some funny looks on the train back to my brother's house carrying this mask.  (Don't worry no one was harmed!)

45. Being a geek and photographing all the minerals on display at the Natural History Museum!

46: Seeing this painting at Tate Britain and being reminded of MozzyMr's work.

47: My daily obsession is checking on the progress of all our seeds, these tomatoes are doing well, perhaps a bit leggy at the moment but I will move them to prime windowsill space to thicken them up a bit.

48: I did say checking the seeds was a daily obsession!  Here is a little cucumber seedling poking it's head above the soil.

49: After a gorgeously long lie-in on Saturday morning I was greeted by these amazing reflections on the ceiling of our bedroom when I flung back the curtains.  How very geometric and now...

50. The first crop of the year and that is such a happy day.  Purple sprouting broccoli for tea was a real treat :)

#100happydays round up:

• Days 1 - 10
• Days 11 - 20
• Days 21 - 30
• Days 31 - 40

Resolutions in review

Wow, March has been awesome so far.  Hectic for sure, but awesome.  I'm finding some of my resolutions easier to keep than others but that strikes me as pretty standard!

1. Be in the moment.  I have been taking a slightly different approach to this resolution recently, I have been taking the time to evaluate what I already have and ensuring I use it.  For example, I love my Kindle and love how easy it is to just download a new book to it and to start reading straight away.  The thing is I have an ever growing pile of actual books that people give to me because they think I will like them, so my task recently has been to work my way through the real books and save the ones on my Kindle for when I am on my travels and need to pack light.
2. Take every opportunity to exercise.  Well I bit the bullet and joined the gym.  I've been loving going to classes and netball every week and I'm finding the more rigid structure of class timetables more motivating than slotting exercise sessions into my week here and there.  Now the weather is getting better I have to admit I'm more inclined to walk to work as well, when I do I average 15,000 steps without even trying!
3. Be organised about lunches.  Nooo I'm still struggling with this one, any suggestions folks?
4. Reconnect with friends.  This month we went up to Birmingham to visit good friends Bon, Andy and their new (ish) baby Archie.  It was such a chilled weekend and perfectly sums up how awesome those pair are and how lucky we are to know them :)
5. Allotment time.  I think this might just be my favourite time of year for the allotment.  Of course I love harvesting armfuls of crops, but when you first put the seeds in and check them everyday for progress, for me that is the most exciting time!
6. Seek out culture.  Not a bad month for culture at all!  Two visits to The Drowned Man, an evening with comedian Jon Richardson, an afternoon at the Natural History Museum and a morning at Tate Britain.  I'm loving seeking out exhibitions, plays and films.  This month I want to visit the Gilbert and George retrospective exhibition at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter!
7. Be more efficient with chores.  Whilst taking up classes at the gym has been great for me they definitely eat up my time in the evenings but I have managed to do the odd job here and there to reduce the amount of cleaning I have to do at the weekend.  My mornings have also become a ruthlessly efficient time for doing laundry, and tidying up.  That said there is room for improvement, I might draw up a rota to formalise what needs doing on which days, you never know it might help me focus my mind?

Allotment Geekery

Well I haven't had the opportunity to write an Allotment Geekery post for a while, happily Saturday was sunny and warm.  It was also the last burn day on the plot until October so we burnt ALL THE THINGS!

Not long now until we get purple sprouting broccoli (which takes forever from planting to harvesting), we missed out last year because... well I forgot to plant any.  Awkward.  They're so tender and delicious, three plants provide more than enough for the two of us.

Check it!  Broad beans, planted in the autumn and finally peeking through the soil!  I didn't think these would work because it has been so wet, but 15 little seedlings are poking through with the weather slowly getting drier and warmer it shouldn't be too long before broad bean pesto again! 

Allotment geekery

Ever since Christmas I think there has been either a storm or heavy rain shower every day making time on the allotment scarce.  Happily on Saturday there was enough of a break in the rain for MozzyMr and I to get the new incinerator (an early Birthday present from MoMa and MoPa to MozzyMr) out and give it a whirl...

Before we could get started we had to sit out a heavy rain shower in the car, it didn't last long and we took a moment to listen to the radio.  We're really stacking up marks on the middle age bingo card aren't we?? 

There has been much debate between MozzyMr and I over what to call the incinerator (we name everything) I started off calling it the beast but Moz didn't like that.  We have settled for Bernard or Bernie to his friends... get it?  Bernie....?

Feeding Bernie weeks and weeks worth of weeds, the Christmas tree, paperwork and cardboard.  Whilst Bernie was doing his thing we set to cutting back the apple tree, Bernie is so efficient you can pop green wood in there and within ten minutes it will dry the wood out and burn it as if it had been dried for weeks.  This may not seem like a big deal but will in actual fact help us clear down the allotment more efficiently, and efficiency we like!

Alternative advent calendar #14

I haven't done a life lately for a long time so if you follow me on instagram some of these photos will be familiar... apologies.

// 1 // 2 // Mewster taking some time out to sit on towers of boxs and files

// 3 // 4 // Mewster taking some time out to schlomp about the house

// 5 // Being a bit right on and protesting the EDL presence in my home town

// 6 // Getting some fresh air and having a stomp in the woods with my wellies on, literally the best thing

// 7 // Embracing winter and filling up on homemade stodgy pies packed with homegrown veg

// 8 // Buying and making MozzyMr wear daft hats.  Best IKEA purchase ever.

// 9 // Making metres of paper chains for decorating the office

Alternative advent calendar #12

October and most of November were absolutely hectic for us, in a good way but hectic nonetheless.  When it gets a bit much MozzyMr and I slink off to the allotment for some fresh air and peace and quiet.  Our plan for the festive period (when we both finally finish work for the holidays) is lots of allotment time especially as we have the new quarter to dig over.  

Our plot is right by one of the entrance gates, we were chatting away to Malcolm from the immaculate plot across the way when a couple came by, all of us did the usual hellos and nice weather we're havings but what struck me was that they were quite obviously noobs.  They turned up to the allotment in near perfect clothing and had a wheelbarrow full of brand new tools, this is unheard of!  I wonder if MozzyMr and I looked like that to the others when we turned up three years ago?

The polytunnel has finally been put to bed, the last of the chillies and a baby butternut squash have been picked, the chilli plants have been wrapped in fleece to over winter them and we can start planning what to put in their next year. 

The best thing about root vegetables is that you can just keep them in the ground until you need them (assuming the soil isn't too wet), this little selection is destined for a 'half the garden' soup.  I still have plenty of parsnips to come out ready for Christmas dinner, and by the time we get to the big day the leeks should have experienced a couple of good frosts to make them sweeter.

Allotment geekery

Mighty parsnip!  Last year I accidently grew one parsnip because I didn't realise how long it takes them to germinate so thought they hadn't worked.  This year I had a little more patience, grew three rows of parsnips and finally we're being rewarded!

A few carrots for good measure, they did well but there is room for improvement next year.  I am trying to find old baths or other containers that I can raise up and grow carrots in because the majority of my crop this year were eaten by carrot root fly which is a shame.  But we just cut the nibbled bits off and ate the rest and they were delicious....

....especially in a homemade, herb crust veg pie with honey roasted parsnips and carrots with gravy and peas *dribble*.

Our allotment mate Laura has given up her final quarter of the plot.  Work, family and general life commitments make it a struggle at times to get to the plot and it was with regret that she had to give it up.  As such we started digging over the front quarter, happily the soil was perfect for digging and we got through a fair amount, assuming next weekend isn't too rainy we will crack on and get more done.

Allotment geekery

It has been a good year on the allotment and we're pleased with what we have managed to grow. There is definitely room for improvement, next year we are going for volume especially with broad beans, carrots and parsnips, but that is next year.  In the past month or so MozzyMr and I have been working hard to preserve as much as possible because last year too many tomatoes and beetroots went to waste.

Preserving beetroots is easy if a little time consuming.  MozzyMr and I aren't mega fans of pickled beetroot so we went down the boil and freeze route.  Boil the beetroots in slightly salted water for two hours (!) once done dunk in iced water and rub the skins off (love this bit, huh huh huh huh so satisfying).  Once properly cooled dice or slice, bag up and freeze.

As you know we have been making a lot of tomato sauce, which is lovely but can be a bit samey. This time we roasted our tomatoes with garlic (home-grown of course), a bag of the frozen beetroot and dried oregano.  Once wazzed up the sauce was a beautiful raspberry red, and once sieved it was super smooth I can't wait to use it as a pizza sauce.

Allotment geekery

Well a full week back at work following two weeks off has been a shocker.  I am now on week 8 of the cold, I was fine for the first half of the week but then things really stirred up again and I have developed a delightful, chewy cough.  We went to the allotment for some fresh air, resting up did help but it hasn't helped enough to rid me of this damn virus entirely (I am SO frustrated with this damn cold now) it was absolutely knackering working on the plot but totally worth it.  I hadn't been to the allotment for at least four weeks and the weeds were taking over but I managed to clear about half of them today, here are some of the highlights from the plot...

Baby carrots!  I thinned these bad boys out so the ones left in the ground have more room to grow ready for later in the season.  MozzyMr cooked these up this evening and they were just so tasty, if you grow just one thing grow your own carrots they are lush!

The polytunnel is still nice and warm so we have lots of tomatoes coming along, there is no doubt growth has slowed down considerably but we are still bringing home bags and bags of toms.  In fact we are quickly running out of room in the freezer for all the tomato sauce and soup.

Before this little patch was weedtastic (you can see some of the evidence in the wheelbarrow to the left) but now the leeks and parsnips have the space to spread out and grow.  The leeks won't be ready until there have been a couple of good frosts on them but I should be able to pull up some parsnips soon.  I'm hoping some of them will keep in the ground until Christmas.

The last of the runner beans, once they die off we will cut them back to ground level but keep the roots in as they are beneficial to the soil.  Today was the first burning of the season, unfortunately all of the lovely dry material we had been saving for months got soaked in the epic downpours we've had over the last couple of days.

Dried mustard seed pods.  I kept these in the ground as it has been so warm and sunny, the plants have died back and dried enough for us to take them home and remove the little black seeds.  Chuck a teaspoon of mustards seeds into warming oil, when they start popping add your onion to fry or other veg and the little seeds will add a lovely flavour to your meal :)

I love the little curly stem on this little squash!

Only one of my pumpkins survived this year but happily we have a medium sized pumpkin ripening in time for Halloween.  The raised beds on the back quarter of the plot that we took over in December have struggled with a lot of weeds, it needs to be thoroughly dug over which is a job for the autumn and winter.

Allotment geekery

1. We're a little unsure about the tomatoes, we've had fewer but they've been bigger.  Last year we grew plum, gardener's delight, black krim, cherry and tom-berry varieties.  This year we've gone with gardener's delight, principe borghese, and plum.  These varieties are much flesher than a lot of last years, the black krims we grew last year looked amazing but were powdery in texture (like over ripe apples) and the cherry and tom-berry ones were lovely but would split and ripen quicker than we could pick and use them.  
2. Massive shopping bags are a must at the moment to carry everything home.  You have no idea how much writing that makes me happy!  It finally feels like we're beginning to know what we're doing, and can make decisions based on our own experiences growing rather than shrugging and hoping we get lucky.
3. Successional planting of beetroot was one of my goals for this year and I've been doing well!  Plus I'm actually preserving it this year (boil the beetroot for two hours (!) in slightly salted water, once boiled the skins will rub off really easily, cool completely, chop up, bag into servings and freeze).
4. Eeep!  The pumpkins are coming along nicely, we didn't plant many this year because we didn't really use them in our cooking much and a couple of them rotted but one or two were a must.
5. We are in full on apple season and we've been out collecting blackberries so bramble jelly and apple and blackberry pie will be a must.
6. Our one pear.  Hmm might have to read up on how to care for pear trees...
7. MozzyMr tending to his courgettes, in previous years he hasn't been that bothered by courgettes but this year he seems to be into their care a lot more.  I think next year there may even been growing experiments to get the biggest yield *eye roll*.
8. If you have any left over bread crusts and a food processor, waz them up with some salt and pepper, a clove or two of garlic and some dried herbs (I usually use oregano or basil).  Cut your courgettes up into 1 cm thick sticks dip them in egg, coat them in the breadcrumb mix and bake at 200 c until golden.  Yummers.
9. My butternut squash panic earlier in the year my have been unfounded.  We have a lot of butternut squashes.  A LOT.

Allotment geekery

1. The allotment is one of the few places in town where you get to see a big sky, with the clouds moving towards us it was looking particularly amazing today.
2. These cornflowers grew from seeds we had leftover from the wedding invitations, as you can see they're doing pretty well.  The bees love them and they supposedly help keep carrot flies off my lovely carrots!
3. The plum tree is settling in well, no sign of any fruit yet but, I guess that we'll have to wait until next year for fruit.
4. The red cabbage is doing ok, it had a few caterpillars munching away on them which we had to dispatch but I haven't seen any on there for the last few days.
5. Aubergine flower!
6. A bumble bee taking full advantage of the leeks that we let go to flower.
7. These borlotti beans look absolutely amazing!  I think I need to leave them on the plant a bit longer but it's a struggle resisting the temptation to pick them.
8. The same goes for the purple dwarf French beans, I don't know how big these actually get?
9. Successional beetroot planting is working well for us this year, think I might need to find a beetroot relish recipe...

10. The sunflowers aren't doing too badly this year :)

11. Hmm the peas aren't amazing this year I still haven't quite got the hang of them, next year I'm just going to plant absolutely loads of them!

12. Foolishly we planted courgette on the same patch we did last year (we were very quickly running out of usable space) and they haven't done so well.  We also need to give the soil some tlc in autumn and winter.

13. A spaghetti squash, when we first put these in the raised bed they withered and didn't look as if they would make a recovery but happily they have.  With the fab weather we've been having we have been going to the plot every day to water, it take about an hour between the two of us but is worth it.

14.  We have about five or six butternut squash plants that survived, this one is the smallest, most wilty but has the largest flower on it.  It may only produce one squash but I suspect it will be a good un.

15. Hmm the pear that I photographed a few weeks back really hasn't grown much.

16.  The apples are coming along a treat...

17.  MozzyMr watering his precious tomatoes! 

18.  The tomatoes are growing well but they're just not turning red, hopefully we will have some to eat soon.

Allotment geekery

The strawberry patch on the allotment is being kind to us at the moment, we were able to harvest our first strawberries on Saturday and we harvested 3kg of fruit!  So what do you so when you have 3kg of strawberries and your husband can't eat raw fruit?

Make jam!  We talked about making jam last year but never got around to it which meant I had A LOT of strawberries to eat by myself, by the end of the strawberry season I was sick of them.  So MozzyMr being the thorough fella that he is researched a number of recipes from Delia, Jamie, Hugh and even the Devon Cookbook, in the end going with the one found on the bottle of pectin.  We had to make the jam in two batches because our cooking pot was too small, but overall the process was fairly straightforward.  First tastings have been good but it hasn't cooled sufficiently to tell if it will set well... I'll keep you updated, we have ten jars of the stuff so I'm off to get the toast under the grill.

Allotment geekery

Ooo check out the elephant garlic, plus the rucksack full of garlic and onions!  It has been good to get back to the allotment, whilst the weather since returning from France hasn't been amazing it has been nice to return to the plot and tackle some of those weeds.  

1. The haul of garlic and onions, they smell amazing and I cannot wait to start cooking with them.
2. We had two aubergines which germinated and we finally managed to get them in the ground in the polytunnel having removed the broad beans which had stopped producing beans.
3. MozzyMr has four chili plants on the go and in the polytunnel plus one at home in our bathroom which needs to be re-potted.
4. Basil, last year our basil just didn't work this year we're trying to stagger the planting of basil so we have a supply all year round :)