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

So autumn is here and when we got up this morning to go to the car boot sale it was cold, so cold that no one really bothered to come sell their tat, how very grr.  The prospect of an afternoon on the allotment in the cold was not very appealing so layers were the order of the day including my epic mustard coloured scarf, when held aloft it's taller than me and is the best thing to keep warm.  Did I mention I made it?

Of course when we got there it rained and I had to take shelter in the shed with the massive clumps of mud on my wellies that I'd collected along the way...

A view up the path, our allotment is on the left (you can't see it in this photo) and you can see the polytunnel where we have a plot.  I love that there is a guy who has decorated his shed with old skool Kentucky Fried Chicken shop awnings!

This is what it is all about, we grew those leeks, and those chilli's and we made autumnal soup...

..... included in the soup is butternut squash, we grew that, carrots, we didn't grow them, potatoes, we grew them.  I haven't included a photo of the finished whizzed up soup because I can't pretend it looks like anything other than puke.  Tasted good though.

Allotment Geekery

Not doing too badly with the old veg at the moment, of course Mewster makes a thorough inspection of anything that we bring home.  As it turns out if you leave shredded beetroot unattended, she'll eat it, in fact she'll eat pretty much anything and in the morning when she's ready for her breakfast she'll just keep hurdling over your head until you get up and feed her.  Who knew?

Allotment Geekery

Sunday at the allotment, the butternut squashes have gone in...

the strawberries are flowering...

the lavender is on it's way...

the peas seem to be liking their new home and have started to produce pods already...

carrots!

too many tomatoes...

...and finally kites and shadows.  MozzyMr and I were suffering after a Birthday celebration at the Double Locks for friend Charlotte.  Too many ciders made us a bit broken, so we crawled to the allotment in the hope it might be restorative, a bit of sun and digging sorted me right out not sure about MozzyMr he seems to want to eat all the cake and sleep in his armchair.

Sandal Wearing, Yoghurt Weaving and Carrot Hummus.

So this bank holiday weekend I became one of those hummus making, allotment owning, Guardian reading lefties.  It shouldn't have come as too much as a surprise I had the allotment owning and Guardian reading under the belt already but then I went and purchased this little beauty (yeah I pimped the photo, I wanted it to look it's beautiful best), I think I might call her Betty....

So  what to make with Betty first?  Well  reflecting upon my new lefty lifestyle it seemed wrong to do anything else but a River Cottage carrot hummus receipe, hazaar!We totes own a pestle and mortar, MozzyMr is very keen to master curries and mashes up all sorts of seeds and spices (om nom nom).  These little beauties released a lovely zesty smell and grinding them up to put in the hummus made me feel like a GROWN UP!

Yum bags roasted carrots with garlic, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, olive oil, salt and pepper. 

And finally the carrot hummus!  Yeah, yeah it looks like baby sick, but it really, really is delicious and will be my packed lunch tomorrow with lots of raw pepper and celery, which bearing in mind I've got the post bank holiday blues it's a good to have a nice lunch to look forward to :)

How was your Easter bank holiday weekend?

Allotment Geekery

So, could the weather have been any better this weekend?  The only thing to do was get on the allotment and get busy.  Plus today is MozzyMr and my 10 year anniversary, from here on in we'll probably just celebrate our wedding anniversary but 10 years can't be overlooked!

The big project this weekend was the apple tree, it needed to be cut back to encourage more fruit but also to discourage the caterpillars that have been wreaking havoc across the allotment.  This was MozzyMr's job, not because he's the man about the house but simply because almost every plant I've cut back has withered and died.  He's so precise, contemplating the tree from all angles, cutting back only the branches that created a symmetrical and perfectly formed tree.

The branches will come in really useful, for growing the peas up.

The carrots are in, both normals and rainbow mix, I was following the very precise instructions from 'Keeping an Allotment' a book my mum gave me for Christmas.  This involved digging, sieving, sieving again, planting, watering, and then covering back up under the fleece.  If this doesn't produce the best carrots I've ever eaten I'm giving up.

The strawberry patch is coming along nicely, my new watering can is making the constant shuffling back and forth to the water trough easier to bear.

Everyone in the polytunnel has been massively productive, I think we've been a little late with getting our seeds planted especially in comparison to the plots on either side of ours.  The temperature in the polytunnel was 30 degrees, yum.

The plant I'm most excited about this year is the pea, I've planted a whole tray just in case so when we turned up and they'd started poking through I was perhaps disproportionately excited *hangs head in shame*.

These planting bags aren't ours but they are a good demonstration of how keen some of the gardeners in our polytunnel are, I'm intrigued to see what they've planted.

Again, these aren't ours but shows what we will be doing with our apple branches outside on the plot when the peas are ready, they look loads better than bamboo.

Aaaaand finally, purple sprouting broccoli, it's finally making an appearance and is abundant.  I don't know what to do with it all, any one got any receipe suggestions?  I've just been steaming it so far!



Well that's me, next weekend I'll be going to the Totnes Vintage fair where my mum will be selling, I'm really looking forward to it hopefully some photos to follow..

Allotment geekery

Sunday saw MozzyMr and I working on the allotment, so far the cabbages are going well:

The garlics are coming along a treat:

The tomato seedlings we had growing on the kitchen window sill have been re-potted and moved to the the polytunnel ready to be planted in our raised bed properly when they're a little stronger.

The first batch of potatoes are in:

And the carrot plot has been weeded, raked and fleeced to warm the soil, in a couple of weeks we'll dig it through, sieve it and plant our carrot seeds out.

We harvested our first crop of purple sprouting broccoli as well, it was a bit buggy and needed a good wash but was delicious and was well worth the 4 or so month wait.  Things are getting exciting again on the plot and I hope this year we'll expand range of veg and have a year of good eating...