Harvest Monday - greeny

Well, what a weekend of weather. Saturday was pretty rubbish and raining most of the day (though warm). But Sunday, whew! Really heavy rain, strong gusty winds, lightning, hail, thunder....so, funnily enough decided not to head to the plot!

So my usual Sunday trip to the plot for doing and picking was thwarted. Being stuck at home I was tempted to start sowing more seeds but decided to hold off until next weekend (when I'll have 4 days off work for the Easter bank holiday)

So, in the lean-to (which does leak, but earlier in the day it wasn't raining too hard so I was dry for a while), I've got these two sweet pepper plants that survived the winter. I pruned them back the other weekend so thought I'd give them some fresh compost yesterday by lifting them out, brushing off some of the old compost and putting in some new stuff (from a bought bag, it was too rainy to try and get some of mine from the compost bins)

Also in the lean to, Here's my tub of oriental greens (mainly mizuna). I had it covered in bubble wrap for extra protection before it got too big.

And a couple of other tubs - the seeds were sown at the same time as the oriental greens (before Christmas) but have only just got going (corn salad). Even though they're under cover in the lean-to, over winter I give them extra protection. In the summer I'll have 2 tomato plants in each of the tubs.

Close up of corn salad. I sowed some peas in here too but they either haven't germinated or have been eaten by a naughty slug or snail.

The toms are still doing ok in there too, more are getting their second set of true leaves.

The rest of the potatoes are waiting to be planted out (I planted out the earlies last week). The ones at the front are Setanta, and the 4 at the back are anya (I swapped a few with a friend). The Setanta haven't chitted much but should be ok to go out when I get chance.

Inside the house I have some basil seeds that have germinated really quickly (in only a week). I've sown a green variety and purple variety.

They have been kept toasty warm under bubble wrap and near a radiator. I think I'll keep them under there for a while longer. I've put a little stick under the bubble wrap to raise the plastic off the seedlings. You can see my chilli and aubergine seedlings in the background too. I'm keeping them inside until they're a bit bigger, then I'll pot them on and put them in the lean to.

Earlier in the week I picked some lambs lettuce from the allotment, for sandwiches

And some mizuna for a noodle soup (added in just at the end so they keep their nice green colour). I picked a bit of chickweed too that was just growing as a weed in the same pot but decided after nibbling some that I don't like it. Which is a shame as there's a lot of it growing in the lean-to pots. I'm leaving it for now as it at least is nice to look at something growing rather than empty pots!

Some greens....a mixture of side shoots and tiny cabbages

And my first purple sprouting broccoli, yippee. It was pretty small but there's more growing. I was going to pick more yesterday but the darned weather scuppered that.

But I did get to the plot briefly in my lunch break today (it's in walking distance) and snipped some off with a pair of scissors I borrowed from the office! Plus some other bits of greenery and more corn salad (Not pictured). I didn't have any storm damage, phew, unlike some other Norwich allotment sites where greenhouses and sheds have been smashed in the winds and from falling branches. Some people have lost all their seedlings, such a shame.

So I count myself fortunate for not a bad little harvest from a wet March week, it's raining tonight too.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - an eclipse?

A mixed week here in Norwich.....for the solar eclipse we were meant to have a clear time but instead it was really cloudy. It got very cold because of the eclipse and on my way in to work that day I could see my breath, brrr. I work flexi-time and was heading in 'after' the eclipse but something caught my eye - The cloud had cleared a bit and I accidentally saw it as the moon was moving off. So that was pretty cool, I thought I wouldn't see it at all (I did look away very quickly to avoid eye damage, though!). No pics of it I'm afraid. Of course, later that morning Norwich was bathing in beautiful sunshine with not a cloud in the sky, hey ho!

And on to the veggies.....

I lifted four more leeks this week, This pic is from two of them. I like the mix of dark and light. The darker parts tend to be a bit tougher so I cook them a bit first before adding the light parts.

And this is some Nero kale side shoots that have grown after picking all the big leaves and nipping off the top of the plants.

My tomatoes have been growing a bit too quickly so I decided to pot them on (I.e. Choose the healthiest looking ones and pot them into something bigger, ditching the rest.

These didn't cut the mustard and ended up in the compost. They were either too small, too tall or too wiggly.

Here's the toms in their new homes for the next few weeks. I still have too many but will probably lose some due to neglect!

I've taken a bit of a gamble and put them out in the lean-to, because I think they would get too leggy if I kept them inside any longer, stretching to get to the light. Being colder outside it should slow them a bit aswell. I'll keep an eye on the overnight temps and if it's looking too cold I'll bring them in. I've surrounded them with bubble wrap around the trays as a bit of extra protection and put some bubble wrap against the window as the glass gets cold. Last night it was meant to be 4 degrees but this morning I saw frost in the cars out the front (North facing). The toms were fine, phew.

 

I've seen a few bees around but no more butterflies. I spotted one bee going into a soil bank that I've left on purpose for them, so it was good to see it being used, bzzzz. A blackbird keeps singing out the back at home at 4am. Such a beautiful song but the ear-plugs need to go in at that time of the morning!

 

Sunday I decided to use up my last squash, as I'd noticed a couple of spots forming.they didn't go very deep fortunately. It was rock hard and difficult to cut through but worth the effort...a really good flavour. But a bit sad there'll be no more for quite a long time.

I made a chickpea and squash curry, enough to last us two days

And picked a few bits of perpetual spinach and chard to add in too

That's me for the week. Oh I put in my early potatoes yesterday (variety Colleen, that always makes me think of Dolly Parton's Jolene). I'll try and get my mains in next weekend.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - leaking leeks

We had guests this weekend so I didn't get a proper allotment session (had a very nice weekend though despite this, ho ho), but I did have a very quick trip to the plot to take down a bag of manure (still in my front yard) and dig up some leeks. It's only 10 mins walk away after all.

I was pleased with these 3 leeks and put them in a carrier to take home. Nearing home I thought 'these leeks feel a bit light' but continued on my way. On getting in the house, taking shoes, coat off etc I spotted some leek roots peeping out the bottom of the bag and on closer inspection there was a large hole, perfect for a leek (or two) to slip out. Sigh! So I quickly headed back out to retrace my steps and try to recover my missing leeks. I could see a lump on the pavement a long way down and, yes! It was one of my leeks. Hurrah. But no sign of the other so I continued all the way back to the allotment and *drum roll*.....you'll be pleased to hear I found my other leek on the main path, phew! So my quick trip turned into a bit of a pallava but ok in the end.

Here they are, nice looking specimens. I think I'll use them tomorrow in a giant potato / parsnip mash for freezing.

I also picked a bit of corn salad

And earlier in the week picked some of my oriental greens from the lean-to for a noodle soup

A quick update on my toms - they're doing ok, the true leaves are forming well. The chillis and aubergines have started germinating but not the sweet peppers

A pic from the other end. You can see the six empty pepper modules

I was going to try sowing some more sweet peppers, doing a pre-soak as recommended by Margaret but discovered I've run out of seeds, so instead have snipped off these 6 modules, given them more of a soak from below and put them in their own bag. Fingers crossed.

And finally, unfortunately these were not my eggs (no chickens myself but maybe one day) but from the organic veg stall in the market. And what's unusual with them? Three double yolks in a row! They were yummy too.

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Harvest Monday - a giant parsnip

It's warmed up this week and on Saturday I went to collect some really well-rotted horse poo from a farm owned by the dad of a friend of a friend, (with said friend). It was nice being out in the countryside, with skylarks and yellowhammers singing (the first yellowhammer I've heard for a while, with its 'little bit of bread and no cheeeeese' characteristic song).

I don't have a car anymore so we went in my friend's and filled up 10 bags (5 each). We dropped off hers first (she has an allotment on a different site to me) and then went to drop off mine. It had been a lovely morning so far but all went awry when we realised the housing estate next to the allotments was cordoned off by police and there were police cars and ambulances blocking the area, including the allotments. My friend did a skilful turn around in the narrow road and we instead dropped the bags off in my front garden (where they still sit). A police helicopter was overhead for quite a while too. I found out later that there had been a serious incident. I won't go into detail but this kind of thing is fortunately unusual in Norwich and they caught the person responsible that afternoon.

So I'll have to take the horse poo bags down to the plot one by one on my little trolley, which can take a surprising amount of weight. I'll also keep one of the bags at home and use it on my tomatoes. There's still a huge muck heap left so we'll probably go back another time. I'll use this lot for the potatoes and the next lot for squashes.

I had a few hours on the plot yesterday and got carried away doing none of the things on my list. I did move my leaf mould pile nearer to the edge of my plot so that it's less in the way, as and when I clear that part. My two robin friends came to say hello and when my back was turned, they decided to get active - I'd put a small stack of pots on their side, on top of a bag of leaf mould that I'm going to use soon. Over the next half hour they started filling it up with leaves! Ok, so whilst this was really sweet, it was a terrible place for a nest, completely open and at the mercy of the local cats. So I moved it a couple of feet away, wedging it into the low branches of my buddliea, facing away from the prevailing wind, and cut a load of brambles and stuck them all around it as some protection. The robins were a bit confused and one kept going back to the place the pot had been but they were also hopping around where I'd moved it to so I hope they realise what had happened. I don't know how long it might take for them to lay eggs but I'll have a very careful peep next time I'm down.

In other naturey news, I saw my first butterfly of the year (a small tortoiseshell) and also sadly the remains of a dead fox in the undergrowth at the end of my plot. I hope it died of natural causes. I left it untouched as other beasties will make use of it and I'm not doing anything with that space this year.

It started to rain and I realised I hadn't picked any harvests yet so I did a quick whip round - the parsnips had started shooting again(after losing their leaves over winter). This means they start to get woody, so I dug them all up. This included two huge specimens! A nice surprise. Here's one of them, that got roasted with some potatoes.

I picked a whole load of greens too - most of my Nero kale, so that it will produce some tender side shoots from the remaining stalks this spring. I also picked my last tiny cabbages as I'll be planting out early potatoes in the patch soon, after weeding and adding horse poo. I picked some curly kale too. Didn't get any photos of all of them but here's the Nero, not a bad crop.

I meant to pick some more corn salad but forgot in the rush.

Oh and here's how my tom seedlings are getting on (pic from yesterday morning), they're starting to get their true leaves. And one of the chillis had germinated too.

My potatoes in storage have started to shoot so Friday night I made a big pan of mashed potato and mixed it up with some fried onion and garlic and froze in portions. I still have a huge bag of potatoes though, so this week I really need to get mashing!

So a bit of a wierd weekend and sorry for rambling on!

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - bit of a fail? And a seed swap

Not much to report on the harvest front this week - I haven't been down the plot to pick anything as I had a busy weekend. So I thought I'd share this harvest fail instead!

Last year I grew gherkins for the first time and they were REALLY prolific. I wanted to try a couple of different ways of preserving them, and one was the natural fermentation method. You basically mix up a brine solution to a specified ratio (that I don't remember right now) and pour it over your gherkins/ chopped onions/ spices etc that you've packed into a jar. Then you cover the jars with a cloth or similar, so that the pressure doesn't build up, and let the natural bacteria on the veggies develop and ferment for a few days, skimming off any white froth from the surface. When it gets to your required sour flavour, you seal it and keep in a cool place (to stop the fermentation continuing).

I made loads of jars of these and they took up the whole bottom shelf in the fridge. Now, as far as I was aware I was making these all in the same way. But, left to their own devices in the fridge, some developed a really thick white gloopiness on top, and those batches are inedible.

Here's a good jar (left) and a bad one (right) - see the thick white gloop on top

I've had to compost several jars because of this. Anyone know what might have happened? Should I have just kept more of an eye on them in the fridge and started scooping off the scum as it grew?

Hmm, I dunno, but I'll try again this method again this year too.

On to more positive things, my tomatoes are continuing to germinate. They're getting a little bit leggy but when I come to pot them on, I'll plant them deep, so that the stem is covered (toms grow roots from the stem when it's been buried, so it's not a problem at the moment)

Another thing to watch out for when growing on a windowsill is that they lean to one side to reach towards the light. You can keep turning them round each day to even them up but they can get leggy this way too. For some reason this year I haven't had to so far. It might be because I've made them a bubble wrap wig wam that seems to diffuse the light more evenly. I'm just using a pencil to keep the bubble wrap off the seedlings, acting like a tent pole. Also I've put a white bag beside them to reflect the light more evenly too.you can use anything reflective like tin foil etc. or even a white piece of paper would do I guess.

 

The peppers haven't come up yet but they need more warmth than toms to germinate, so if they haven't come up soon I'll probably take them out into their own little protected area.

And on Sunday, Norwich had its first big seed swap event ever! (In one of our dozens of flint medieval churches that have been put over to community use. Honestly,you would not believe how many of these lovely churches we have in Norwich. This is one of four on one street!)

I went quite late in the day so it had quietened down a bit but I heard that it had been really successful, which is great. You could take along seeds to swap or just make a donation if you wanted seeds but didn't have any to swap. There were stalls there too, like a couple of the local allotment associations. I didn't actually swap any seeds or take any as I'm pretty full on the seed quota for this year but wanted to show some support for the event. (The day before I had also bought a magazine that had 11 free packs of seeds on it!!).

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions.

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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.

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Harvest Monday - a secret weapon

I had a day at the allotment yesterday...it was meant to be sunny but wasn't, booo. But it wasn't rainy either, so that was alright. I was glad I had an extra body warmer in the shed though as it was a tad chilly (especially as I was expecting sun).

When I took on the plot there were several rose bushes, all in the way, so I've been digging them up over the years and moving them into the bramble boundary hedge. They're mainly lovely fragrant varieties, so I didn't want to get rid of them completely. The last one was next to my shed and was always rubbing against it in the wind, plus I want to grow a grape up the side of the shed, so it had to be moved. I pruned it quite low and set to work with a fork and spade to get as much root out undamaged as possible. It came out easier than expected though I did have to chop a couple of roots off a bit. It'll take a couple of years to settle back in as no doubt I'll forget to water it this year. The last couple I've moved are still hanging in there!

I then got sidetracked pruning brambles, cutting out the old dead ones and trimming those growing out over the path. I basically wanted to make it as easy as possible to pick the delicious fruits later in the year, the old dead stems would get in the way when I reach through, and those thorns are vicious. I also pulled some of this year's stems closer to the path for easier picking.

I continued to weed around the base of my fruit bushes too and discovered a lovely little froggy when digging out the compost heap. It settled down into a corner and seemed happy enough, protected.

My two robin friends came to say hello in the afternoon, such a beautiful song. I think I might try and train them to eat out of my hand :) a blackbird came to say hello too, pecking around as soon as I moved a little bit away from the area I was working. This is good news as they'll be eating up grubs from under the fruit bushes, like the gooseberry sawfly larvae.

So what's my secret weapon? Well, not quite as exciting as it sounds but in the lean-to I have the tubs that I grew tomatoes in last summer. In late summer I sowed some oriental greens into one of these and they've been coming up over winter - I gave them a bit of extra protection with bubble wrap over the top of the tub too. Because it's dark in the evenings when I get back from work I've kind of ignored them for a while but decided to pick some the other day to add to a noodle soup. I wish I'd done a couple more tubs of these.

We've had the last tub of strawberries from the freezer this week :(

But spring must be on its way because I've just sown my toms and peppers etc

Here they are before I covered them with a thin layer of compost and soaked them from below for 20 mins or so. Where I have lots of seeds of a particular variety I've put two or three per module but otherwise just one.

I have them under bubble wrap on the top of the drawers by the window. Grow little seeds, grow!

Linking in with Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions.

 

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Harvest Monday - a little cabbage

It's warmed up a bit this week and was even sunny on Sunday, which was great as that was when I fitted in a few hours on the plot. I did a few different jobs, of course not all that were planned (it's so easy to get distracted).

I did have a couple of little friends to keep me company - two robins that were sooo cute kept coming right up to where I was working for a peck around, and when they weren't looking for morsels, they were singing beautifully. One got a treat, a tasty green caterpillar I found, gobbled up as soon as I threw it over to them.

Jobs included; topping up my garlics with compost (some of you might remember that I planted them a bit high, so I wanted to cover them up a bit), clearing the brambles from around my hazel tree (I have a little one too, that was in shade and crowded-out so recently I cleared back an overhanging privet tree to give it more space and light), the hazels have catkins on, which is a good sign for more nuts this year.

I also weeded round the base of two of my dwarf apple trees (I have 4) and added some compost on top. I've been clearing out a huge old pile of cut brambles that I'd been mounding up since getting the plot - it has some really good leaf mould in it (that I'll use for my hugel bed) and masses of tougher broken dead stalks, some of which I've already used as a layer for my hugel bed. But with so much material available I decided to use some of the broken up stalks as a mulch on top of the compost, to try and stop weeds a bit. There's about 8 years worth of stalks so I'll be trying it round lots of my fruit bushes. Not sure if it'll work!

And on to the harvests this week -

A little savoy cabbage,

 

Some parsnips (no sign of canker), a leek, some little beetroots I'd forgotten about, and a little potato I found when digging out the compost heap

I also noticed that one of my squashes had a bad spot on it, so roasted it up, with some of my foraged chestnut roast from the freezer (the chestnuts were foraged, not the roast!), my own potatoes plus the cabbage. Yummy

There was enough leftovers for lunch today too.... bonus! But I only have one squash left now, sigh. It's a big'un though so should go a long way. I'd better keep an eye on it to look for signs of deterioration. It's not ideal keeping them in the lean-to greenhouse - I think they need to be kept warmer but I don't have anywhere appropriate at the moment.

Linking in with harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions :)

 

 

 

 

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Harvest Monday - corn salad aka lambs lettuce

So this week I've had two small pickings of corn salad, also known as lamb's lettuce, a hardy salad leaf, with lovely dark leaves. I left a few plants to go to seed a few years ago. This year, after harvesting potatoes and disturbing the soil a bit, I had a surprise crop spring up. I've got some leeks and chard in the same bed too, that I transplanted there after harvesting all the potatoes. I've now covered this bed with environmesh.

The first picking, which went into sarnies for lunch,

And some more I picked today, for more sarnies made this evening (with egg and carrot). There's quite a few little corn salad plants, and rather than leave them to get big and picking a whole plant, (which would take a long time to grow) I've been picking a few leaves from each, a bit like 'cut and come again'. These were only little sandwiches so I made 3 to have one and a half each :) Nice to have some fresh greenery.

And a bit of a beige but tasty meal yesterday (I didn't realise how bad the photo made the meal look, I was rushing to eat! ) with home grown veggies - cabbage, potatoes and plum chutney. Also a celeriac roasted as chips but not home grown. Plus I made another two of Shaheen's chickpea loaf (I froze one). It was raining all day so I felt like a bit of baking.

And finally, nothing to do with harvests but....how cute is our cat Minxie!!! Enjoying a sunny spot.

Linking in with Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions.

 

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