Harvest Monday and allotment peep

I'm just back in this evening from a really interesting talk on hedgehogs, given to the Norfolk Organic Growers group, which I joined just before Christmas (I was lucky enough to get a gift membership as a Christmas pressie). The talk was given by a lady who volunteers her own time to run a rescue centre for these lovely little creatures....and she even brought in one of her current lodgers....so cute. Anyway, there's a lot that we can do as growers and gardeners to help these vulnerable mammals, so I'd encourage people to do a quick internet search to find out how.

 

Back to veggies, this week I've managed a couple of trips to the plot and have even brought some goodies home. I lifted a few leeks, picked some chard and snipped some corn salad.

Jan used up the chard and a lot of the corn salad almost straight away, making a delicious pizza. She also added some homegrown purple basil pesto, which I found another jar of in the freezer, in a place I wasn't expecting it to be - a nice surprise.

So as the chard had been eaten quick-smart I popped down again today to get a bit more greenery - first some small leaves of Nero and curly kale -

And a lot more chard - I leave some chard to go to seed so it pops up all over the place (and can easily be transplanted if it's in the way). I also got some more corn salad but didn't take a pic.

Talking of corn salad, here's the main bed that I have it growing in - I let it self-seed too - this bed originally had my maincrop potatoes in, with the corn salad germinating later - I also transplanted some clumps from where they'd germinated on top of the hay mulch which I had over the potatoes. They germinated on top of it because I'd laid some dried corn salad stems on top too.

Yum. I tend to snip off the bigger plants at soil level, and leave the rest to get bigger.

The Nero kale is still looking ok - the top leaves are quite small but picking from several plants gives a reasonable yield.

The autumn-sown broad beans (super Aqua-dulce) are looking healthy so far. I took a bit of inspiration from Sue Garrett of Our Plot on Greenlane Allotments, and sowed double seeds in some spots, because I had a few spare seeds after filling the bed. If I recall, Sue sows double at each station and gets a good crop. I'll see how my doubles do this year and maybe extend it across the whole bed next time. I'll be sowing a bed of spring beans too (Eleanora Express).

The garlic looks alright. This was planted in two sessions, so the ones at the back are only just coming through. I used broken-up bulbs from the organic veg stall but I think next time I'll buy a proper variety suited to our climate more. On the surface of the soil you can just make out the dissolving chicken-poo pellets I scattered when planting out the garlic. I'm wondering if it's better to scatter these in November or spring, as maybe some of the nutrients will wash through the soil over winter (or maybe it doesn't make much difference).

Still a few leeks to harvest. They're not very big but I try to harvest alternately-ish to leave space for the remaining leeks to grow-on.

And a shot across the main rotational beds on the plot (The two in the foreground are strawberries though). I have a lot of weeding to do! but am prioritising weeding under the fruit bushes, so the birds can get in and eat any overwintering pests in the soil. Plus I don't want to leave the soil bare as the nutrients will wash through otherwise. I've weeded and then covered the beds with large sheets of cardboard in previous years but I don't have any at the moment.

Oh, I've started volunteering at a community veg farm (Eve's Hill Veg Co) and will hopefully share some photos next week.

So that's it for me. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday, kindly hosted this month by Michelle at From Seed to Table.

P.S. Am posting a day late due to technical issues yesterday

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Harvest Monday - nettle soup and a touch of colour

It's been quite a sunny week but windy at times. I haven't had too much time at the plot but have been chipping away a little bit at all the things that need doing (a looong list). Good news is I've spotted quite a few berry flowers - gooseberries, redcurrants and black currants. It's not looking promising on the plum front with only 3 flowers though!

Looking back, I've picked quite a lot this week:

Perpetual spinach from the plot, that I had under a small plastic tunnel. This is from one plant, which has really come back to life

I added it to a cauliflower & butter bean curry

Tonight I picked some chard from a small tub in the front yard and some purple sprouting broccoli yesterday from the plot. That's all the PSB for now but some more might come if I'm able to leave the plants in for long enough before needing to plant the next crop in that bed:

I've picked mint a few times from a tub in the front yard too, nice in a lemony drink (simply lemon juice and water)

The less-glamorous tub of mint (the tub's getting quite old, I made it from scrap wood years ago)

Some rocket that overwintered in the back garden

My splash of colour : Overwintered rainbow chard (hooray) from the plot

Some curly kale re-shoots. I cut the top off the plant and picked all the side leaves a while back and this is the re-growth

I was especially pleased as I managed to make a funny face :D

Some lambs lettuce (the green leaves) from the last ones left on the plot. I can't remember when I picked this but it took a few meals to get through it because I picked a whole load at once as it was startling to bolt and the stems were getting tougher. I've left a couple of plants to go to flower and to seed around for more plants this year or next. We had a chopped up home-grown gherkin too.

Nettle soup

Ive never made this before but thought I'd have a go as the small nettle patch on my plot had some nice leaves growing.

So the recipe I looked up in my book Wild Food by Roger Phillips was basically: onion, garlic, stock, cream, nettles (2 gloved handfuls).

For the potatoes I defrosted some home grown ones that I mashed recently, with some carrot and leek

The washed nettles - I had to keep stopping myself swoosh them around with bare hands. A glove is essential for picking and washing these!

I held the End of the stems (without gloves, ooh risky) and snipped the leaves off straight into the pan

It didn't take too long, because the potatoes were already cooked, just a few minutes really. I whizzed it up and added a swirl of goats yogurt instead of cream (as that's what was in the fridge).

All I can say is YUM! I might make this again tomorrow :)

Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday

 

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Home made...

borscht.....

From these beauties

Yum

Improvised jelly straining set-up.

We now have many jars of redcurrant jelly (with a hint of cinnamon). Really easy recipe from Deila Smith's website originally I think. Basically, equivalant amount of berries and sugar, cook the berries first, add the sugar and disolve, (at this point I also added in cinnamon) then boil for 8-10 mins .....except I forgot the boiling bit and hence they are a bit runny but I have decided to call it redcurrant syrup ;o)

bird's eye view


How colorful is that? Loverly rainbow chard.

Harvest Time!

Yay we had a good afternoon down at the plot on Sunday and got stuck in to some serious weeding (though of course there's still lots more to do) and also....harvesting! The autumn onions were just about ready and had started going a little bit mouldy on their bums so Sunday was the day for them to come out. Same goes for the garlic. Plus we need the room to put other stuff in. Don't think either of them will keep very well but am drying them out as much as possible in the lean-to at home.

Here is our stash from Sunday. In the back garden we've also got some peas that are ready (sooooo tasty) and a few raspberries and wild strawberries, on top of masses of lettuce (not literally of course).
Potatoes, broad beans, onions, garlic, strawbs, beetroot, carrots and a couple of radishes. Oh and I nearly forgot we also picked over 5lbs of red currants, with loads more still to pick.

Our main onion crop (Jetset)

Our first teeny courgette (Nero) of the year (this is one of those I accidentally planted instead of a pumpkin. Seems to like it in the compost heap)

Rainbow chard!

Sweetcorn - varied success, some doing better than others. Undersown with dwarf french beans.


PS - whoop I have my own log in so now you know if it's me or JB (Ms Idler)