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 - a new year

I hope you've enjoyed the festive season - normally we'd make a special meal with homegrown veg over this period but we were away for a few days and then at friends' for different occasions so haven't made one (yet?).

 

A couple of weeks ago I cleared the final Lipstick sweet peppers from the lean-to....there were just a few plants which I'd left to grow-on, but hidden underneath the leaves were a number of small fruits. After picking them I'd actually left the fruits on a shelf in the lean-to, then forgotten about them what with all the travelling and visiting. So today I spotted them on the shelf and luckily they were still in a good condition, thanks to the cool weather. I think they'd even ripened a bit. I used most of them tonight in a noodle soup (a handy quick one-pot meal)

I'm continuing to sprout seeds, mainly alfalfa in one jar and green lentils in another because they take different times to sprout (alfalfa are very quick). Here's a jar of green lentils, which we've had in sandwiches and added at the end of the noodle soup. I keep forgetting to rinse them twice a day but hopefully now the busy visiting time has calmed down I'll get back into a routine.

A couple of days ago I had a trip to the allotment, harvesting a few leeks, sprout tops, Nero kale and some nice corn salad. I was going to take a few photos down there but my fingers were too cold after snipping off the corn salad leaves - the leaves were wet but it was too fiddly to wear gloves, making very cold conditions, especially with a slight breeze.....the lovely leaves were worth it though.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to make a slow-cooked stew with the leeks and kale, plus red lentils, carrots etc. I still haven't harvested any Brussels sprouts... So maybe that special meal will come along soon after all.

Here's a few piccies from our trip to Jan's parents over Christmas....we managed to get out on some nice walks including this visit to RSPB Old Moor, which was particularly beautiful (and rather chilly) at sunset.

We had wanted to visit SWT Potteric Carr again but it was closed whilst we were in the area so we'll have to save that for another time.

 

Also just to mention that I really hurt my leg at the allotment in the week before Christmas....I'm not really sure how it happened, I was kneeling on a pad, weeding couch grass in between the rows of raspberries...and was probably leaning in at a funny angle, putting pressure on one leg. I didn't notice any problems at first but walking home I started getting a pain in the hip socket when stepping on my left leg. Of course, rather than resting it I walked over to some friends' on the other side of the city, hoping to exercise it off....big mistake, ending up with two days laid-up on the sofa not being able to put any weight on the leg at all (I couldn't even get up the stairs but luckily our loo is downstairs) and it being touch-and-go whether we'd be able to travel for Christmas. Oops.

 

I guess the lesson here is...listen to your body, change positions regularly when carrying out even simple tasks, especially repetitive ones in the cold...and don't be as silly as me.

 

So on that note, I hope you have a healthy and productive 2017, full of tasty homegrown produce...cheers!

 

I'm linking in with Harvest Monday, kindly hosted for a few weeks by Michelle at From Seed to Table.

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Harvest Monday - a frozen surprise

This week on the allotment I've sown my broad beans (Eleanora express), done a bit of weeding and pruned back some of the brambles. The broad beans are in one of my reconfigured raised beds - I put in 4 rows, first roughly marking out the lines for each row using the end of a cane (otherwise my rows would be very wonky) then made holes for each bean with a dibber (wooden handle of a broken fork) then went along dropping a seed in each hole, before covering the holes loosely with soil. I didn't water the seeds in as the soil was quite moist and we've been getting lots of rain anyway. Hope they grow ok!

 

My autumn sown beans are looking very sorry for themselves though. Lots have been squashed by foxes, nibbled by something or battered by the wind (or all three). But I did notice that the ones which had flopped over have started to put on new growth at the base. So I decided to leave them in and see what happens. Later on this week I'll hopefully sow my parsnips in between the rows of beans, and plant out my seed potatoes.

 

Back at home my tomato seedlings really need potting on so I'll do that this week too. They've just started to get a bit leggy.

We needed a new tub of fruit from the freezer (we have the fruit on our breakfast and I've also been taking some to work in a jar for an afternoon snack). I'd had my eye on a big tub at the bottom of the drawer for a while and this week hoiked it out. I hadn't written on the lid what was in the tub, and even when I lifted off the lid couldn't really tell what it was...mystery mush. So, when it had defrosted I dipped a spoon in to have a taste.....wow! Yep, it was puréed strawberry and so good. How could I have forgotten I made this! Weird.

On a more vegetably note, I was checking on my friend's plot this week. He has MS and needs a wheelchair to get around now but incredibly still has an impeccable allotment plot. He moves around the plot on his bum so doesn't tend to go up much in the winter when everything is damp. Anyway, I was on the look- out for the leeks he said might still be knocking around....

 

And yes, he had amazing leeks too, so I dug a few up for us both. I've removed the outer leaves here but there was hardly any rust and no sign of leek-moth caterpillar damage. As he said when I dropped them round, things always do much better when you just leave them to do their own thing!

Just like these beetroot he said I could have too. Darn, why can't I grow beet like this! We roasted a few yesterday and will probably make a borscht some other time.

But one thing did pick from my own plot....some corn salad. Which I can't really take any credit for as it sows around by itself....who needs gardeners eh.

A walk from Diss on the Angles Way

On Saturday we headed to the market town of Diss on the train. It's down on the Norfolk / Suffolk border but is quite quick and only takes 17 minutes to get there. It's a pretty town (once you're away from the train station which is on the edge of an industrial estate and a housing estate of bungalows), especially in the centre with some lovely old buildings and a large lake called The Mere...I didn't take many photos as the weather was a bit dull.

We still enjoyed the day and had a lovely walk across to Scole on the Angles Way, picking up some geocaches as we went, before taking a looping route back to Diss on some footpaths and country lanes.

 

The Angles Way crosses a small river and passes through an area called Frenze, which included this disused church (St Andrew's) dating from the 13th century....so old!

 

As with many churches in Norfolk it's open to visitors so we had to pop in for a look. There were so many lovely features, like these carved monkeys

The font dated from the 14th century I think

This door led into a small room. People could use the knocker to be given refuge

Out on the other side of Scole, the Angles Way passes another church (St Mary's)...this time only part of the tower remains. It's just in the corner of an arable field so is surprising to come across.

Where will we go this week? I haven't really thought about it yet but I expect there'll be some more geocaches involved. Or maybe I'll be too busy on the allotment (or it might be raining)....we'll see.

 

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

 

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