Monday 24 November 2014

Harvest Monday - frosty and garlicky

We had a really heavy frost last night, thick ice in the puddles this morning. Although quite chilly, today has been sunny, hooray (after a whole weekend of constant rain). Unfortunately I was at work, booo. But I did head to the plot for my lunch break ( I work in walking distance from the plot, very lucky) and it was good to get away from the desk for a while in the Autumn sun.

As I hadn't been down to the plot over the weekend because of the rain, I still haven't sowed my broad beans. But I did get time today to finish sowing my garlic, which felt good. By accident I've done two different planting methods; the first bed I just pushed the cloves into the ground a bit (kind of like onion sets) but by the time I remembered this wasn't deep enough they'd already settled themselves in and were rooting and shooting so I didn't want to disturb them. I think I'll cover them with a bit of compost as they really seem too high and are pushing out of the ground.

The second lot (that I did today), I made a hole by pushing my index finger all the way into the soil (it's so wet, it easily pushes in) and dropped the cloves in and covered them over. They're probably still not as deep as recommended but I worry about them rotting if they're too deep? What do you guys do?

Also today, I moved the chicken wire that my gherkins had grown up to cover over my chard as I spotted signs of pigeons munching on it. That was all I had time for and didn't even get time to pick anything but if the weather's ok tomorrow I'll head over again.

So it's been slim pickings again, just some chard and onions brought back from the plot sometime last week. In terms of eating up stored foods, weve been enjoying gherkins from the fridge, plum chutney, stewed fruit with breakfast and chilli-tomato sauce from the freezer. I also swapped a big jar of gherkins for a jar of our friends' honey, which they produce (well their bees produce) right in the centre of Norwich :)

Here's the chard! Not very exciting.

Here's the honey, much more exciting! It's a very rich and full honey, the main pollen for this batch came from the lime trees that are in their neighbourhood, it's quite aromatic too.

Linking in the with the nice folks for harvest Monday hosted by Daphne's dandelions. Ooh, I've just thought, Daphne's post from last week reminds me that I can start harvesting parsnips now we've had a decent frost. Probably save that for the weekend as its a bit messy to do in my work clothes.

See you next time.

 

11 comments:

  1. Glad that you managed to thwart the pigeons, Recommeded just means that - I often don't do as recommended with no problem

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    1. Thanks Sue. I'll have to see if there's any difference between the two methods. Can't remember how I did it this year, think I might have used a dibber which meant they were deeper. Oh well, we'll see what happens!

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  2. What beautiful looking honey. It's a dream of mine to have bees one day. I'm worrying about my garlic now, I hadn't really thought about the depth before. I think the tops are a centimetre or so below the surface, just covered really. Like you I worry about rotting if they are too far down. Especially as it seems as though it will be a wet winter. I must have a look at Daphne's Dandelions, I've heard it mentioned before. We have similar allotment/garden food here - onions, chard, garlic, the odd leek and a few lettuce leaves. Plus some jam, there's always jam.

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    1. Thanks CJ, it's good honey. I'm with you there, would be great to have bees one day. My garden is too small though and I'd be worried about vandalism at the plot. It'll have to wait til I get my own plot of land ( in my dreams).
      Well, I just looked up on RHS and it said plant garlic so that its tip is 1 inch below soil level, so you're not far off that anyway. Plus I think this year it's definitely better to be cautious of rotting, like you say ( not that I know much about it! I gave up growing garlic for a few years after I had problems but grew a few this year just gone to dip my toes back in.) And as sue says, often things work out without sticking to recommendations. Everyone's soil / aspect etc is going to vary so one size doesn't fit all.
      Hee hee, jam is a nice treat. We actually have loads of homemade jam in the cupboards but hardly ever have toast so tend to add it to stewed fruit as a sweetener. The problem is if I start eating jam on toast I can't stop! (Mm feeling hungry now)

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    2. Oh and I meant to say CJ that Daphne's Dandelions is a very good read, and harvest Monday is really interesting to see what other people are up to. The blogs I mainly read through this are in USA and Canada, but you'd be surprised how many similarities there are. Obviously things have quietened down a bit now due to changing seasons though. Discovered it this summer through Sue at Green Lane Allotment's excellent blog :)

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    3. That is Sue Garrett and Daphne Gould's blogs who've also posted comments so I have to say nice things hee hee ;)

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  3. Lime honey is something I've never tried. Typically here you can get clover honey or wildflower honey.

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    1. It's a really strong flavour, probably not to everyone's taste. It's the first time I've had it, the previous honey we've had from them has been from a different time of the year and more mixed pollen. Clover / wildflower honey sounds nice, mmm. More things making me feel hungry just before bed.

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  4. That honey does look good - local is always best! I plant my garlic around 5" deep but we get much colder winters than you do, so deeper planting is a necessity. Then I cover the bed with a few inches of straw, which I just did a couple of days ago. I have a feeling you will be ok with the shallow planting - you have such mild winters there.

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  5. Maybe the local honey will help with my hayfever too Margaret! Although it hasn't been as bad the last couple of years and is mainly from grasses these days.
    I did see on your blog that you planted that deep and thought 'wow'! The hard winters explains it. Ours is likely to be very wet if the last few weeks is anything to go by. We've had a couple of hard frosts the last couple of days but nothing like your weather! If we're forecast a long period of bad weather I might cover it over, I don't think we had any snow last year but the year before was the most we'd had for a few years.

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