Harvest Monday - leafy greens, Eves Hill Veg Co and a coastal walk

Phew, we largely escaped the effects of Storm Doris on Thursday....a few things were blown around on the allotment but nothing major..my shed escaped unharmed. On other sites in the city, greenhouses were demolished and wheelbarrows sent flying. Two of our fence panels in the back garden were blown out of place and bent a bit too, but our neighbours popped them back in place...they'll do for now, I don't fancy replacing the panels at the moment.

 

Inbetween the gnarly weather passing through this week I've actually made quite a lot of harvests....firstly some Brussels sprouts and a self -sown cabbage (the cabbage came from a plant I let go to seed a couple of years ago)...here's some of the outer cabbage leaves plus the sprouts -

...the inner cabbage leaves plus some of the Nero kale I've picked this week -

...more Nero kale and some self-sown chard -

...self-sown corn salad -

...a few leeks (plus there was an extra one I'd already used up by the time I got round to taking a pic)

....some dwarf curly kale -

...and finally, some Brussels sprouts which had started to 'blow'...I love these as spring greens. Here I used them with some leftover cooked potatoes and nut roast (yummy nut roast made by Jan's mum, who'd been visiting over the weekend).

A touch of colour came from some stewed fruit I made with the last of our stored apples, and frozen berries - gooseberry, raspberry, blackberry, saskatoon and red currants. I still have lots of berries in the freezer too, so hopefully they'll last us through to June (when the first strawberries should be ready).

As a bit of a sweetener I added about half a jar of my homemade apple and elberberry jelly (from 2015). I'd given away most of the jars for Christmas 2015 but still have a few left.

When the fruit starts to thaw it releases quite a bit of water, but that's fine as we mainly use it up on muesli for breakfast (along with organic milk and a big dollop of yogurt, mmm).

Whilst Storm Doris was giving it her best outside I got stuck into sowing some seeds...tomatoes, peppers and a few aubergines. I was comparing how many I'd sown of each variety last year but still managed to sow too many...couldn't help myself...but I'll give away spares. I covered them all with a thin layer of (peat free) compost, filled the tray with water to let the compost soak it up from below, then after a little while moved them to a fresh dry tray, wrapped it with bubble wrap and placed nearish the radiator. Quite exciting.

These are the tom varieties...

Last Wednesday I volunteered at Eves Hill Veg Co again. Amongst various tasks we pegged out where the beds in the new polytunnel will go. Five beds with four paths. Yes that'll be a lot of veggies...awesome. Unfortunately Storm Doris struck the following day and damaged the original smaller polytunnel next door, bending one side out of shape (the side in the photo below). But from what I've heard, it's repairable and may even have been sorted by now...phew.

We had a little excursion from Norwich at the weekend, with Jan's folks who were visiting and headed up to the coast to sunny Cromer (well, it wasn't actually sunny, but it was still lovely nonetheless)

Down on the beach we were actually out of the wind too, walking a couple of miles east to Overstrand.

But on the way back along the cliff top we experienced the full brunt of the wind plus some heavy rain joined in too - it was bracing to say the least. Nice scenery though.

So that's it from me, I think the weather is meant to perk up again soon (we had lots of rain showers again today) so hopefully I'll get some more work done on the plot too. Oh, this evening I went to an interesting Norfolk Organic Group talk on stinging nettles...that's how I like to spend my evenings :D

 

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

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Harvest Monday - kale and Eves Hill Veg Co

With some lovely sunny weather recently it definitely feels like spring is on the way. Mustn't get too carried away though as we can still get some heavy frosts (and even snow) before spring is properly here. But it's nice to have the sun on your face while getting down to allotment work.

 

I've had a couple of sessions this week, mainly continuing to weed the couch grass from around my fruit bushes, trying not to damage the roots of the bushes in the process. I'll mulch around them soon with homemade compost and then I think I'll cover the mulch with several layers of newspaper (weighed down) to help prevent the couch grass coming back. Every year I cut down one of my three blackcurrant bushes completely (on rotation) to manage a supply of medium-aged stems....I did this to the oldest bush yesterday and...mmmm....the blackcurrant scent was delicious, I can't wait to start drinking blackcurrant leaf tea again, and enjoying the juicy berries later.

 

I noticed that the kales are starting to develop a flowerhead in the middle of each plant, so have begun harvesting the entire tops, which should encourage some more side shoots to grow from below the snipped-point. Although small, the top leaves are nice and lush, with a soft texture.

Rather than faff with cutting off the leaves and trimming out the stalk (which is particularly fiddly when they're small), I pinch at the base of each leaf and pull up either side of the stalk, which neatly removes the leafy part you want to eat, leaving behind the tougher stalk...easy! I also pinched off the developing flowerheads to eat too.

Whilst slicing each stalk in half to make it compost quicker, I noticed the juicy flesh on the inside. Being someone who eats broccoli and cauliflower stalks, I thought I'd give these a go too. They were actually really yummy raw....a nice fresh flavour, even a hint of spiciness?

And quite a nice amount of greens, despite the small leaves.

Back on the allotment plot, the two hazel trees are dripping with catkins...could be a good year for them? I spied lots of the tiny red flowers too.

I mentioned last time that I'd started volunteering at Eves Hill Veg Co (not for profit market garden). I had to skip a week because of a tummy bug that was doing the rounds but had a good day out there last Wednesday. Three of us mainly focussed on trench-digging, which will help secure the cover of the new polytunnel....which is a big 'un.

The edge of the cover has to be buried to keep it in place. I can imagine the wind whipping it away easily otherwise. A secure cover helps prevent rips too.

It's strangely satisfying to finish off a nice long trench!

I'm not sure what the plans will be for this Wednesday...I'll look forward to seeing the polytunnel progress that's taken place over the week anyway.

 

And back home, I think I'll sow my tomatoes and peppers this week...exciting. I sowed some peas in the lean-to recently...for pea shoots. I think there's a rogue slug or two on the loose in there though, so will have to keep an eye out, especially when the peas (hopefully) germinate.

 

Righty-ho, thanks for reading, I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday, kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres - check it out to see what other people have been harvesting this week.

 

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Harvest Monday - it's all green

It's been another mixed week for weather, sunny one day then pouring rain the next (or sometimes both in one day). Saturday was really lovely but I couldn't get to the plot until Sunday, when of course it turned cold, windy and rainy but yippee I got a few hours in before it got too bad.

I've mainly been carrying on weeding under my fruit bushes (the couch grass gets in and around them every year) then adding compost on top, and in some cases adding a thick layer of old bramble prunings too as mulch, which I'm experimenting with to see if it'll keep down the couch grass. I also added some chicken-poo pellets and compost to one of the areas I'll plant out onion sets next month.

My robins and black bird friends came to say hello again, which was nice.

I picked some green things this week:

More corn salad

Curly kale, Nero kale, my first and last sprouts, and some tiny broccoli. There's still a few sprouts but they're tiny too so I'll leave them to 'blow' and grow into tasty spring greens

And finally, some seed excitement, I peered through the bubble wrap last night and spotted a little seed had germinated and by this morning a few more...Come on tomatoes!

 

I think that must be fastest tom germination for me, just one week! The intermittent sunny weather must have helped. I also tried to be good and brought the compost inside first for one night to warm up, plus used room temperature water. Must've done something right anyway.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - a few bits

The cold and wet theme has continued this week. I did get to the plot yesterday and collected up 4 more bags of leaves from nearby. The council had been out during the week sweeping them all up ( I saw them doing it on my lunch break) so thought I'd missed them but then a windy day brought some more along, yippee. I got a few wierd looks but that doesn't bother me!

So harvest wise, I brought a few onions back from the shed (not many left now)

Picked some chard (a bit holey)

And some kale (These are quite small leaves), a tiny bit of broccoli and found a parsnip I'd dropped the other day after digging up a short row. I roasted a few of the 'snips with some potatoes, they were rather tasty :)

And a couple of chillis from the plant I've brought in at home. One went into a curry (with the chard) and the other went into a homemade pizza topping sauce.

So just another quick one from me but nice to be picking a few bits.

Linking in with those hanging in for winter harvests for Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne's Dandelions :)

 

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Harvest Monday - ooh!

Well, this Sunday was....sunny! In the morning at least. So I finally sowed my broad beans (scattered some chicken-poo pellets on the beds and covered with anti- kitty sticks. I'll probably add a bit of compost in spring too). I sowed about 80 seeds. I'll buy some seeds for spring sowing when I put in my seed order soon as well. In spring I'll also sow parsnips between the rows to make best use of the space. The parsnips don't need to get going too much until after the beans have been harvested.

I also cleared out my leaf mould piles (and bagged them up for using in the spring, lovely & crumbly) ready to receive this autumn's leaves. I'll probably head out at the weekend and collect up leaves from where they pile- up near-ish the allotment, hopefully before the council comes round and sweeps them all up.

And I made a start at weeding round my fruit trees and bushes, so the birdies can get at all the non- friendly bugs that might be hiding out in the soil there. I'll not do too much clearing in general though as our soil is v sandy and the nutrients will leach out with the winter rain if the soil is bare. Plus there's so much weeding to do I won't get through it all anyway!

And on to the harvests:

Tasty greens

Some little beet roots (that were where I needed to sow the beans) and a few onions from the shed

I used up a butternut squash (roasted, so tasty but only one left now)

 

And picked the rest of what was left in my lean-to greenhouse at home, as the cold weather would start to spoil them:

Some basil (and chilli peppers from the plant I brought into the house recently)

And some baby aubergines and sweet peppers! These all went into a ratatouille type thing (which was a tad hot due to the three chillis) with a couple of tins of tomatoes.

The photo is quite a small chopping board, so makes them look bigger than they really were!

And I made another batch of elderberry and apple jelly (8 jars) using the same method as last time except I also added some red currants for extra pectin. I still had to boil it for ages. Maybe the fruit is particularly watery and needed to boil-off a bit first.

So a much more productive week for me. I didn't get chance to dig up any parsnips as it started to rain (yawn, more rain) so maybe I'll get some this week.

Linking in with the good folk for Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions

 

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Beans and courgettes....

...are coming fast and furious so I was having a flick through a few of my books for inspiration. In The Allotment Gardener's Cookbook (Reader's Digest) there's some good 'uns for beans so I chucked some courgette and kale in too. I also had two egg yolks let over from yesterday's Kalhua brownie slices so added them too.

So the two basic recipes were French beans with herbs ( that I added the courgette and kale to) and cheesy French beans (that I added the egg to). The cheesy recipe was meant to be done in the oven but I did it on the hob and then finished under the grill (which is broken and you have to hold the knob in the whole time so we don't use it much.) Anyway, here's how they looked......everything home grown except the eggs 'n' cheese. Ok now to make some jam.