A long overdue plot visit

In the weeks where I have been enjoying events such as Duxford airshow, yes the parking was awful; London Open House, queues were pretty bad; and several visits from family members, the weeds have been playing havoc with my allotment. Finally this weekend was free so I managed to get down to the plot twice, although to be fair I could have done a lot more work whilst I was there...


The brassicas are growing incredibly well despite the weed competition. The white fly were so bad earlier in the year that I though all my brassicas would be sucked dry but it did have the unexpected effect of giving me my first cabbage white free year and that was without covering them. On Saturday I picked a few of the larger kale leaves and we enjoyed them baked and salted.


The leeks are looking very good (again there are a few weeds...), I am growing my usual 'Musselburgh' which are a very late variety along with 'Monstrueux de Charentan' which are almost ready. I used the dib a hole, drop leek in and fill with water and it has been very successful.


Quite a few of my early, and mid, sowings failed to germinate but the rain and sun we have been having for the last 6 weeks has done wonders for my late sowings. Hopefully the fennel will have time to bulb up before the cold weather really hits, but if not I'll use the leaves as seasoning.

Finally, the very odd fungi that appears on my allotment, it is about the size of a football and seems to grow and grow. Anyone got any ideas what sort it might be?

Goodies

Last night I arrived home to this:


So thanks to Lands' End for the seeds and thanks to Damo for hosting the giveaway. I think next year is looking like a colourful one!

The end of summer

Now that we are mid way through September you really notice the dark mornings and the dark evenings not to mention the cool breeze and regular rain but when I see the sweetcorn ripening and the pumpkings swelling I remember that I love this time of year. Soon will be the time for hearty soups and stews and soon the whole plot will be dug over so I can ignore the weeds for a while yet.

A Potimorron squash


The giant pumpkin plant has decided to fruit


One of the many small aubergines ripening on a tiny plant


The warm weather and rain has made late sowings possible, but here come the weeds

Tomato tart

Hopefully you're all wallowing in delicious home-grown tomatoes and are in need of a quick and easy recipe to put them centre stage. Or if, like me, that hasn't exactly gone to plan then I would recommend buying some ripe tomaotoes just so you can enjoy one of the tastiest tomato dishes I ever tried.

I followed the recipe to the tee using pre-rolled puff pastry to save time and effort. Do make sure you use good quality goats cheese to complement your lovely tomatoes and don't worry if you don't have a food processor, mushing the paste ingredients together worked for me.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/14/tomato-galette-recipe-vegetarian-ottolenghi

The beginning and the end

Today I picked my first tomato, it was a 'Latah' which is an early ripening variety from Real Seeds, warmed from the sun it was delicious. Sadly today was also the end of my tomato bed because all the plants are showing the dreaded signs of blight, I had hoped that evening waterings and the blistering hot heat would delay the inevitable but sadly not. The are plenty of also ripe and unripe fruits which will be turned into sauces and chutneys; the bed will be used for some over-wintering kale and next year I will be growing blight resistant varieties.

The hot and wet weather should hopefully provide perfect seed germination conditions so I have sown Pak Choi, Mizuna, Fennel, Swede, Endive and Mispoona to hopefully provide crops in the coming months and over winter.

The new potatoes are continuing to delight, 'Charlotte' has proved to be an excellent masher so we are enjoying plenty of potatoes in all forms. The courgettes have started to go mad, I returned home today with 1 marrow, 1 very borderline marrow and a baby courgette as well as 6 cucumbers and another pot of raspberries. Now I'm off to dig out my stash of courgette recipes to turn these beauties into something truly delicious.

Enjoy your plots.

Fruits of July

The first cucumbers

The hot weather has made germination very difficult so despite the plot being much clearer than in previous years I have far fewer crops growing. It looks like I'm going to have to try again and then keep my fingers crossed if I'm going to see any swede, pak choi or endive this year.

I have lots of healthy plants sitting in pots at home but it seems to shock them when they get planted out at the allotment; I think it must be the increased heat and strong wind which causes the problems. The courgettes have finally found their feet, hopefully I'll be picking my first 'Black Beauty' next weekend and the squash are starting to stretch out and produce flowers, maybe they'll decide to take on the weedy patch which is growing next to them and save me a job. 8 of the aubergine plants are planted out and I have another 6 waiting at home, this is my first year of growing aubergines so I'm not sure how this is going to turn out but it feels like I'm running very late!

On the plus side the cucumbers are making up for everything! This is a new one for me but my four 'Wautoma' plants are all growing very happily and today I picked my first two cucumbers, I think they'll join the 'Reine des Glaces' lettuce to make a homegrown salad; I just wish there were some tomatoes to join it! Interestingly the plant I kept in the cold frame the longest and which got planted out last has produced the first fruits so it just goes to show that you should wait until the plants are ready and the conditions are good before planting out.

Now that we are almost at August it's time to start thinking about winter crops, I'm going to sow some more cabbages and lots more kale ready to plant out in a couple of months, if you're very lucky late sowings will miss the cabbage whites whilst still having enough warm weather to establish before winter really sets in.

Journeys, fruit and the first potatoes

The last few weeks have been very hectic; we have spent 2 weekends away visiting friends and family, I have been training for and then running in several races and then the rest of the time I have been flopped from the heat! Luckily I have managed to fit in a few morning visits to the allotment to keep things ticking along.

This year there has been a bumper crop of berries, first with the strawberries and now with the raspberries. Today I picked the first of the gooseberries, hopefully the rest will be ready soon, and also a glut of blackcurrants from just from 1 shrub. Strangely I have some raspberries growing under the apple tree and about 4 metres away from the actual raspberry bed, I have no idea how they got there but they seem happy enough and are fruiting already; I just wish I had cut the nettles back before I started picking the fruits!

The potatoes are flowering which is a relief after the poor chitting and then the late frosts, we enjoyed a few of the Charlottes last night but they were a little small. The peas were delicious but a little sparse and are already nearing their end; I grew Karina with were very early and then 2nd Early which did lengthen the picking season a little but from reading your blogs it seems this just wasn't the year of the pea.

I have followed Toby Buckland's advice regarding sweetcorn and them into modules a month apart, sadly the 2nd batch were planted out just as the weather started to get really hot but also when there was a very cold wind so they decided to give up the ghost. The first batch are now about a foot tall and look very sturdy, and I actually have quite a few plants anyway because Toby also said that sweetcorn is quite happy growing close together so you can sow 2 seeds to a module, I hope he's right.

The end of the asparagus season

Summer solstice marks the end of the asparagus cropping. Now you should let the spears grow into lovely wispy leaf stems to feed the crowns ready for next year's crop. The leaves are really pretty but I am sad that there will be no more asparagus for at least 9 months.

Rhubarb Relish

Around this time I year I start to get bored of eating stewed rhubarb which is a shame because the plants are still producing loads of juicy stems. This year's solution is Rhubarb Relish from the River Cottage Handbook No2:


Ingredients:
500g granulated sugar
100ml cider vinegar
1kg rhubarb (untrimmed weight)
125g raisins
50g fresh root ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cloves

First bruise the ginger with a blunt object, I used a rolling pin, and tie into a spice bag with the cloves and the snapped cinnamon sticks.

Put the sugar, vinegar, 100ml water and the spice bag into a preserving pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar and then remove from the heat and allow to infuse for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim the rhubarb and chop into 2-2.5cm chunks.

Add the rhubarb and raisins to the sugar syrup and cook gently for 15-20 minutes until the mixture is thick, but the rhubarb still discernible as soft chunks. Remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jars and seal with vinegar proof lids. Use within 12 months.

This was my first recipe from the River Cottage Handbook and I was very impressed, it has been complementing my mackerel pate all week. Somehow I don't think I'll have any trouble using it within 12 months.