Harvest Monday - quick peep in the freezer

There's a howling gale outside as I write this - these strong winds seem to have been at it every other day for weeks. But at least the rain has had a break today. The sun even shone through when I was on my half hour lunch time walk (a chance to get out of the office for some fresh air).

 

Saturday was quite nice too so Jan and I had a trip to the plot. I went for a couple of hours before lunch and then we both headed down afterwards - it was nice to have a bit of company and it's very satisfying to see what two people have been able to achieve instead of one. Plus it seems amazing that for a lot of last year Jan hardly left the house as she was too ill with her thyroid problem (now thankfully recovered), and look at her now, helping on the plot in January (she's usually a fair weather helper, haha).

 

I've made a start on sorting out the old raised beds - the pallet wood has become rotten and the couch grass keeps creeping in from the sides, so I'm pulling out all the wood and reshaping the beds (currently two large 'U' shaped beds in a mirror image ) into six individual rectangular ones - I'll take my camera next time to get some pics as it's hard to explain. The raised beds were good while they lasted but I don't have any replacement wood and also slugs and snails seem to like hiding in them (plus the couch grass problem). As we were leaving the allotment a big flock of goldfinches landed in a nearby tree and were singing their twinkly song in the last rays of sun....lovely.

 

Anyway, here's what I've got left in the freezer from last year's harvests:

Top shelf is two bags of rocket pesto, tubs of tomato sauce and tubs of stewed fruit. Behind them is peas (sadly not grown by me but I wish they were) and some quorn (which we don't actually use very often).

Below that is cubed squash and behind that is loads of fruit.

Next drawer - more fruit, what a surprise! I don't think Jan's noticed all the strawberry tubs, she'll be very pleased when I take out one of them. The smaller drawer below this has yes, more fruit (and some ends of bread).

I think we're alright for fruit for a while eh! We're buying local apples still but I think when they go out of season I'll take some stewed fruit as a snack to work instead. We're trying to use less plastic so I'm going to use a small glass jar instead. The same goes for the freezer - I was reading on someone's blog the other day (zero waste chef) about how they freeze in jars rather than plastic, so that's definitely worth a go (the best tip was not to use narrow-necked jars as these break when the food expands as it freezes).

 

As usual, this week we've had lots of corn salad and sprouted beans

And eaten our first lot of cress (with egg), grown on the windowsill, yummy. Mark (of Mark's Veg Plot) has helpfully pointed me to a post of his from last year that covered growing cress, and I've taken his advice, sowing the next lot much more thickly.

Tasty lunch, drizzled with the homemade cider vinegar mix leftover from Jan's beetroot, celeriac and orange pickle

This week I've also lifted a few more leeks (this photo makes them look bigger than they were really)

Though not a bad amount to go in the spicy leek and bean soup, made in the slow cooker

Ok, thanks for reading this week and I'm linking in with Harvest Monday, hosted again by Dave at Our Happy Acres (many thanks go to Michelle at From Seed to Table for hosting during January)

 

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