Gherkiny

My first ever attempt at gherkins....stage 1, sprinkle with salt and leave over night to draw out the water. These were quite chunky fruits so I've chopped them up a bit.

Think I might try a couple of different methods....this one will be fairly traditional, with dill (have some sown from seed). 

Storms!

This weekend we've had storm after storm, with some amazing lightning and incredible thunder. No pics unfortunately. I was about to head down to the plot this afternoon when I heard some thunder in the distance so decided against it and started shearing the garden grass instead. There was light rain for a while that I didn't mind working through, with a bit of lightning, it was quite fun actually being out and hearing and seeing it. But it wasn't long before the rain got heavier so I jumped into the lean- to.....what followed was the heaviest rain I've ever seen! Our street completely flooded (cars had water over the lower part of the hub cap) and our front yard flooded - it's paved but we have lots of pots ( they all are paved ....ex city council block), the yard slopes down slightly with a small drain at the base of the wall between the properties which was not big enough to cope with the volume of water. Luckily there wasn't any chance of it getting into the house as we have a doorstep about 2 inches high. The water was probably about an inch and a half at its deepest in the yard but that was at the lowest point of the yard so not near the door. I was getting ready with towels just in case though. 

And in the back garden the narrow tube from the lean-to gutter to the water butt was over flowing so I had a trug and bucket underneath and was popping in and out to empty them into the butt when they got full. When the rain was at its heaviest I spotted that the pipe in the ground meeting with the main drain pipe from the block roof wasn't coping with the flow either and water was starting to pool around the base of our lounge wall and creeping up towards where our cable tv comes in, yikes! I was getting ready to bail it out into the water butt next to it using old plastic milk bottles when the rain started to ease and the water level dropped.....phew.

So that was all rather exciting. The rain carried on for quite a while but the standing water in the road, yard and back garden soon drained away...we virtually had an extra pond int the back garden for a while there where there's a dip in the grass. It's easy to see how water can cause damage so quickly and take people by surprise.....our systems just aren't designed to cope with that level of water in one go. All the more reason to build my own place one day based on permaculture principles....yes....one day......

So anyway, I didn't go to the allotment today so instead here's some from yesterday's harvest of the first crop of dwarf French beans. It was only by accident I spotted they were ready as I was weeding next to them. They went into a mix of all home grown veg; onions, courgette, Nero kale and a few toms. Oh and the comedy carrot. The filo pie is most definitely not home made...they're from a lovely deli in Norwich called Clarke and Ravenscroft's :)

Rubbery surprise

...I was just sorting out my work bag for tomorrow and felt something rubbery inside......

It was a couple of holey chard leaves I'd picked earlier! Better than the pair of rubber gloves I was imagining ( and thinking, do I have a pairing of rubber gloves?)

I had good intentions of making a healthy tea but instead we had potato wedges (home grown pots of course) with quorn sausages. Oh well, may be tomorrow!

I also learnt today that it's very hard to pick raspberries in the wind...the canes keep moving! But I did manage to work my way through the rows. The wind was really chilling though and I actually ended up with numb fingers before beating a hasty retreat home ( hence the need for wedges) 

Tomato-tastic

The toms in our lean- to seem to be setting fruit really well so far this year, fingers crossed. Here's a quick run-through of some of them, I love the way even when they're small the shapes of the different varieties come through:

Super marmande, a big variety  I got free on the front of a mag I think.

Craig - a pack of seeds I've had kicking around for a while, also from a mag. Looks like a nice medium sized fruit.

Sweet cherry, as you can see, a small fruit. Good crop so far!

Red pear, a cute pear shaped fruit funnily enough. Free on a mag. (I think the same mag as the marmande, earlier this year? ) 

This is just a shot showing a bit of the jungle that is our lean-to. It's actually more ordered than it looks! Just enough space to squeeze through between the groups of toms. Although this photo has made me see a naughty extra stem that I hadn't spotted before (rhs). I might just leave it though usually I'm quite ruthless! 

That's it for now....wondering how long before the first ones ripen. The last few years I've grown a small bush variety (I nick named Tiny Tim) which ripens early but ran out and forgot to order more. Hmm the real name escapes me at the mo.....oh yes, Red Alert I think. Will order more for next year.

Crunchy broad bean snacks

So I tried the spicy recipe from here http://www.thedailyspud.com/2009/03/04/posh-spicy-beans/

The recipe uses dried beans soaked overnight etc, whereas I was using fresh cooked beans so hoped it would have similar results.....here they are

This is about half the amount as we'd eaten the rest! They turned out quite well. I didn't add any sugar to try and be a bit healthier but I can imagine them being even tastier with it. I guessed the amount of beans to add as didn't know how the dry vs fresh weight would compare. It was a lucky guess and filled a baking tray-ful. Also as the dried beans are 'split' I did this with my beans too, to try and get an even bake. It was an extra process but seemed to be worth it. I had the oven on tonight anyway, to make potato wedges with the tasty early pots (Colleen - which always make me think of jolene by Dolly Parton...there it goes gain in my head!).

Fruitful evening....ho ho

Some more raspberries and saskatoons picked tonight 

And I saw two oystercatchers fly over (I've never worked out where they're going to and from), two bats flying together and a fox (not flying).....naturey! 

Broadly broad beans

Just podded all these beauties! Should've started earlier in the evening, it takes longer than you think.

 

 

Fruity

The summer fruits are coming thick and fast.....

This delicious concoction is made up of a few last strawberries, with red currants and saskatoons. The Saskatoon bush has really come along this year with loads of fruit (most of which I've just been eating down the plot) but I saved a couple of days worth here.

The raspberries are doing really well. We've had lots if rain recently so I'm trying to go through picking every couple of days as otherwise they'll spoil. It was raining this evening and there's not enough space to get between the rows without getting soaked from the leaves so I stood with an umbrella and just reached in as far as I could. A nice way to spend the evening listening to blackbirds singing. I'm keeping the rasps separate and freezing them for later use.

Less pleasant was the snail and slug squashing part of the evening...urgh. But I did see a couple of frogs who will do their bit for slug control too. 

Back garden update

So here's a few pics from the back garden - toms Sweet Baby in the lean to. Am also growing money maker, Craig, super marmande, something pear and another I think! The iPad camera doesn't like the low light levels this evening so sorry for the poor quality.

Next up is the beautiful parsley which has gone to flower, this was from the set of plants from our Rocket Garden Mediterranean gift set last year. The flowers are stunning and the insects love it. I've pruned a few stems off already as it's pretty huge but am leaving as much as possible. 

Here's one of the courgettes, I have five in total, two in the back garden and 3 on the allotment, all in slightly different stages of growth but two of them have baby courgettes nearly ready for picking. You can also spot 3 sweet corn plants, some small peas at the bottom of the netting and some lettuces under plastic bottles. I was going to direct sow some dwarf French beans but ive got a few beans growing up the fence behind and a gherkin plant so don't think there'll be room, especially when the courgette gets going. There's also some rocket plants left from last year's Rocket Garden gift set which I keep hacking back and they keep producing more leaves so might as well keep them going for as long as possible, sort of on a rotation of coppicing! The netting is to try and keep the local cats (including our own) out of the veg plots. I've adapted the design this year and made little gates in each so I don't have to wrench my leg over every time. Have had to put in sticks and string to make the fence a bit higher too. Seems to be working now after some fine tuning! So thought I'd grow the peas up the netting to make use of the space this year.

 And finally this is the plot on the other side of the small garden with netting again and peas at the base. I have a bean wigwam this side plus beans up the fence. I had a courgette in the middle last year but it didn't do very well so I wasn't going to bother this year with a curcurbit there. However! In the tomato compost in the lean to I've had a few germinate so thought I might as well transplant a couple and see what they do.

So that's me for tonight, a rather cool, dreary evening which led me to sticking inside mostly, very unlike me for a Monday night! I might just blanch some broad beans now to at least do something veg related! Eating a whole bar of green and blacks spiced chilli chocolate probably doesn't count, oops.

Oh just finally, a pic of the chilli plant bought for 70p from a local hardware store (Thorns - fantastic shop in Norwich). Already in flower after potting on twice, I might just pot it on in to an even larger tub as only have the one plant. Lovely flowers though.

Hot tomatoes!

We've got our first baby toms forming , yay. Aside from today we've had lots of hot weather here in Norwich ( and hardly any rain) which must've helped bring them on. Will take a piccie tomorrow. If I counted correctly earlier, I've managed to squeeze 21 tom plants into our little lean to! I've saved a bit of space as decided not to do cukes in there this year ( they did ok last year but had red spider mite) so have a bit more space for toms. Also the peppers did badly, think I overwatered them, so not got so many of them either.

Down at the allot things are going ok. Lots of strawbs ( about 10lbs so far). Lots of other soft fruit on the way, rasps have just started ripening. Ooh and my Saskatoon plant has loads of fruit that's ripening , quite tasty but I think the dry weather hasn't helped them. Have given the bush a good water to hopefully make them more juicy. Also gave the rasps a water too as last year lots of these shrivelled up when it was dry.

We have our first little baby courgettes forming, yay. Had a few losses to slugs a few weeks back but have re-sown the beans and most things're ok now. Had some excess squashes as well so it wasn't too bad. I found some slug and snail hotspots so now know to keep an eye on those places e.g. Under some newspaper I was using to keep an area free from weeds.

The early potatoes are really tasty, have Colleen. I've been trying a different harvesting technique - instead of digging up a whole plant, I feel around in the soil and pull out any larger tubers. Has worked really well so will try this again. Quite often when you lift a whole plant you get a mix of sizes and the plants themselves still have a lot of life in them. So with this method, the plant carries on growing and the small tubers continue to grow. I think I'll try and make it easier to get to both sides of the plant next year ( I have two short double rows which means having to reach across between the plants)

And some bad news, we've had some thefts on the plots this week. I had some onions stolen from the ground and my shed was opened, but nothing taken. They returned a few nights later and took some tools from an allot neighbour ( wrenched open a locked drawer) and also uprooted a whole apple tree and took it away.this was particularly stupid as of course the tree will have died, what a waste. We've reported it to the police who've been round and taken it quite seriously (PCSOs) but not too much they can do without any witnesses. They did ask around the neighbouring house but no luck,  The perps broke in at night.....

But to end on positive note, tomorrow I'm going to pick a load of broad beans and cook up a soup or something :)