Harvest Monday - freezer treats and a polytunnel

For breakfast every morning we both have muesli topped with yogurt and a fruit concoction (usually a mix of apples, berries, currants from the allotment). This week though, we discovered several tubs of strawberries in the freezer...yummy. I've still got other frozen berries to mix together too, so there should be plenty to keep us going until the fresh ones come along.

Out on the plot I've been picking self sown chard...

Purple sprouting broccoli and Brussels sprouts shoots....

Leeks....

And the last curly kale, which I've cleared from a bed I want to use soon. There's also been a few Nero kale sideshoots from the plants I snipped the tops off recently...

In the lean-to at home I've picked a bit more lettuce and some more pea shoots, a lovely fresh taste.

We used up some of the goodies in a stir fry. I also really like the purple sprouting broccoli just lightly steamed to soften it a bit, a gorgeous flavour.

Out at Eves Hill Veg Co not-for-profit farm the polytunnel frame was up, and beds inside it prepped. Time for the cover...

With multiple pairs of hands, ladders and some teamwork we got the cover right the way over, hooray

The trenches get filled in a bit with soil to weigh the plastic down, and then plastic is pulled to get a tight fit over the frame

The doorways get cut out and then the plastic is pleated and secured in place with batons on the inside of the doorframes. This sounds easy but the pleating was tricky - luckily one of the other volunteers was really good at it.

Looks pretty good

The polycover team

And here's what's happening in the original, smaller polytunnel...salads coming on very nicely. The sorrel is particularly tasty, a really intense flavour.

Ah yes, I definitely have poly-tunnel envy...maybe one day eh. On the allotment I've planted out my main onion sets (variety Sturon) and have still to do the red onions (Red Baron). I'll also shortly plant out my early potatoes, sow some spring broad beans and parsnips. The summer raspberry canes have been tied in and now I need to mulch around all the fruit bushes with compost. Plus it's not long until the peak sowing month...April...eep.

 

Thanks for reading this week, I'm linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

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Harvest Monday - some actual harvests! And potting on the toms

You may remember that I have a purple sprouting broccoli plant on my allotment. It was one that I left growing from the previous year, to see what would happen. Well, it produced a whole load of new healthy leaves and even started sprouting again this spring, hurrah, (which I made the first picking from a few weeks ago). But....I took my eye off it and some hungry pigeons pretty much stripped the whole plant, sigh. But....I covered it with some odd bits of chickenwire to keep the birds off and it's put on some new growth again, hurrah!

 

So this week I snipped off the best bits, it was worth giving the plant a second (or third) chance

They were so sweet and tasty, boiled quickly in a tiny bit of water. Hopefully there'll be more to come too. (Though it's in the space I need to put my red onions soon)

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) we decided to do a roast in the evening. The potatoes are from storage at home and the beets are those I got from my friend last week. The parsnip actually came from my plot! I thought I'd lifted them all. The leaves die off over winter making them hard to see but I spotted some new growth peeking out of the soil, which gave it away. They start to get woody if you leave them to grow for much longer but this one was fine.

In case the beets were a bit tough I cut them up smallish to make sure they got soft when roasted in a bit of oil (and covered the dish with foil during the cooking to keep in the moisture). But the star of the show was the humble onion.....I'd found a few more small ones this week in a tray in the shed at the allotment - they'd got hidden underneath some bits and pieces and I'd forgotten about them. Anyway....roasted with the beets and some Rosemary from the front yard, these were so sweet and melted in the mouth....delish. (Sorry about the pic, the dish was very hot to hold!)

And today I picked some parsley from the lean to at home. This is the parsley, that germinated by itself in the homemade compost my toms had grown in last summer (as I'd put a seeded parsley plant in my compost bin a couple of years ago). It's come on really well the last few weeks with the longer hours of daylight.

Whilst Storm Katie was raging today (so much rain and wind!) I made a stew in the slow cooker....first, on the hob, softening an onion and some garlic in butter with the last two leeks from my friend's plot. Then added a tin of tomatoes, chopped carrot, a bit of cayenne pepper and some water plus some butter beans I'd previously cooked in the slow cooker. Once I got the temperature up I added it to the slow cooker for a few hours. Then about half an hour before eating, added in a defrosted bag of rocket pesto and some chopped parsley. Yes, it was good, so good, mmm.

This week I've potted on my toms, they were getting a bit lanky

We have old, worn laminate floor downstairs so I can get away with making a mess in the house...it's easy to clean up after.

I use peat-free compost, putting a bit in the bottom of each pot, then use an old pencil to push-out the tom plants from the plug cells, drop the healthiest toms gently into each pot and then fill the pots carefully with compost around them, using an old spoon. Toms can grow roots from their stems, so potting them on like this encourages new roots and stronger plants.

I didn't make too much mess...honest! There were a few straggly toms that I didn't pot-on, you have to be ruthless sometimes....I don't have the space to grow-on too many more plants than I'll need, though I have got a few spares, which will go to a neighbour if I don't need them

They're now in the lean to, protected from the coldest weather with some bubble wrap (Including some tucked against the glass window). It can get very warm in there during the day if it's sunny, but cold at night.

Although they'd be warmer inside the house, they'll be better off for light in the lean to. It's a bit of a compromise but worked ok last year.

Also in the lean to, my early potatoes (variety Colleen) have chitted nicely. I was going to plant them out this weekend but the storm scuppered that. Maybe this week instead.

Thanks for reading....I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

(We haven't been out for a walk this week but fingers crossed, are heading out tomorrow)

 

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Harvest Monday - greeny #3

Phewee we've had another windy weekend. In places my soil is actually cracking, despite the rain, because the wind dries everything out so much. One bed that I'd mulched with leafmold had all blown away, so that was a bit of a waste of time! I need to either set up a wind break or weigh the mulch down....another job for this week.

Harvests this week have been more purple sprouting broccoli and kale sproutings from the allotment

Perfect with bangers (quorn sausages) and fried potatoes from the freezer for a Friday night tea.

I've picked a lot more corn salad from the allotment, here's some of it. I'll be picking a lot more this week as it's starting to bolt now.

Mizuna from the tub in my lean-to. This is almost the last of it now, unless the snipped plants grow some more leaves (which they may do)

And a nice surprise, some over wintered rocket from the back garden. A couple of years ago we were given (from a friend) a Mediterranean collection of plug plants from Rocket Gardens, which was really kind. The rocket plugs have lasted all this time, I cut all the leaves of each of them in turn and they keep growing back! I covered them with a plastic tunnel over the winter.

Here's one of the rocket clumps I've just cut (foreground) plus an overwintered chard. I covered it recently with a bottle when I realised the wood pigeons had started tucking in to it, which actually really brought it on. Good for some early leaves.

Which are here, plus some smaller ones from the tub I front yard. I love the stems :)

I added the chard to a recipe from here, which comes with the pack of dried fava beans. The drawings are really lovely.

I made the Egyptian ful medames, a first for me :) though actually added some other bits like the chard that needed using up too (Sorry about the angle, couldn't avoid my shadow!). I also missed out some ingredients that we didn't have (or I forgot to put in, like the sugar) And just used a tin of tomatoes instead of passata

it was delicious but looked like gloop! (Hence no piccie)

And to finish, a cute little hoverfly that landed on the flower of some oriental greens in the lean to, awww.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions.

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