In the summertime (supposedly)

Hey Guys, thought I would put a mid-week update in for you, to show how things are going. Firstly a design issue. As you know, from the outset I started using raised beds on my plot, to try to make it easier for me to keep on top of. After the first year and a bit of doing this, I have decided to take the beds out, and work the full plot as open soil. There are a couple of reasons for this; one is having to keep the paths clear all the time, as they seem to constantly develop weeds. Now this doesn’t seem like much of a problem, but our site suffers from an infestation of Bindweed and Mares Tail, so even if I can keep the beds clear, it creeps in from the paths. The other is usage. Each of the nine beds has a path of 0.5 metres between it, just enough to get between the beds and kneel down. Doesn’t sound like much, but it equates to 4.5 metres of the plot, 18 square metres of wasted space. While we were walking home on Monday night, Paula and I were looking over neighbouring plots fences, seeing how they were doing, and I have to admit I was encouraged by the sight of so many open soil plots as against raised bed plots. So, starting with the right hand side of the plot, which is yet to be cultivated, I will start using open soil next year, instead of beds. Once the beds start to empty over the coming months, I will lift the wooden sides away and clear the paths. This will give me an opportunity to double dig the plot, clearing as much of the remaining rhizome and wicken from the weeds as possible, and get some manure dug in to the soil. Realistically, the beds that I am using at the minute haven’t had any ‘rest’ for a year and a half, and to be honest were prepared in somewhat of a hurry to enable me to get stuff growing. Now having a little experience under my belt, I am able to stand back and think long term, and plan for what will be the best way of doing things in the future. One thing I have learnt from the last eighteen months is that having and working an allotment is no where near as daunting as you first think when you get your plot, and see this vast expanse of weeds that are almost as tall as you are. I’ve also learnt that no matter how hard you try, it takes time to get results, but those results are worth waiting for.

Anyway, back to matters in hand. The extra couple of weeks that I had left the Harlequin early potatoes in the ground for have done the trick. They have gone from cherry tomato size to a nice decent size potato. They are a slightly waxy variety, with a purple/pink tinge to the skin, and taste delicious, so a couple of boilings of these were removed on Monday night, along with another few handfuls of the Charlotte potatoes. The main crop potatoes are looking very healthy, with good growth above ground. This brings me to another dilemma though. Paper sacks or Hessian sacks. Now from my days of running a supermarket fruit and veg department, I can always remember getting potatoes in 3 ply paper sacks, so would tend to lean towards them, but a lot of people seem to be using Hessian these days, so what to do. I would tend to think that the paper sacks would degrade over a period of time, so Hessian would be a better long term bet (putting the environmental hat on there, recycling and all that), but would that be detrimental to the storage of the potatoes. Your thoughts and experiences on this would be welcome, so I will start a thread on the forum regarding this, (assuming there isn’t one already, will do a search first).

The peas are coming on nicely at the moment (Greensage), with the first real picking of the pods coming on Monday night as well. There is something about fresh peas straight from the pod that takes me back to my childhood, and spending time at my Nana’s house (God, that makes me feel old, I am only 33 you know). Now I know I keep saying this, but I just can’t get over the taste difference between my own veg, and the stuff the supermarkets are selling. Why have we put up with this stuff for so long? The French beans are slowly catching up, after a very slow start (and a few nibbles from some unwanted guests), and are now starting to flower. The courgettes have suffered slightly however with the wet weather, and a couple have succumbed to blossom end rot. These have been cut off the plant, and the rest seem to be doing ok.

The greenhouse crops are coming along nicely, with all the tomato plants bearing fruit, albeit very green still. The cucumber plants are flourishing this year, after last year’s poor showing, and have plenty of fruit on. Also, the aubergine plants have started to flower, large purple flowers which look fantastic, with little aubergines poking through.

The Sweet corn and Butternut Squash plants are coming on slowly, and were treated to a feed of Fish, Blood and Bone last night, to try to help them along a little.

And finally, we had the first of the Strawberries this week as well. After a little battle with slugs and birds (I won), the plants are producing lots of Strawberries, which are ripening daily, lovely.
Well, that’s it for now. Paula and I are on holiday next week, so weather permitting, we will be spending all week on the plot, so watch out for hopefully a sizeable update next time.

Cheers Guys.

Tony

Anybody seen Noah about................

Hey Guys, hope everyone is well, and this latest weather isn't causing too many problems for you all. To start off, I thougth I would just mention a little about our site here. As I am now on the blog map on the forum, you should be able to see the layout of our plots. We are quite a big allotment, split into three sites. Starting from the left, we have Chester Road Allotments, the larger of the three sites, leading to Thornhill allotments in the middle, and accross to Throston Allotments, where I reside. When I first started looking at getting an allotment, I received the usual info from the council, with maps to the various vacant plots, so I went wandering. And I have to say that everyone that I spoke to, was helpfull, polite and generally happy to talk to me. That is a spirit that is ingrained within our plots, and I am glad that I chose to take up a plot here.

Anyway, down to business. Inbetween the rain, I have managed to get a bit of work done down on t'farm so to speak. The first bit was to harvest the winter onions and shallots, as you can see, and lay them out to dry. A few were lost unfortunately, but to nothing more sinister than a tomato ragu, which went down a treat. The biggest surprise, however, was to how strong they were. I can normally chop an onion without even flinching, but I was in floods with these, my are they strong. The taste from them is in another league though, so much nicer than shop bought. Now I know that is a line you have heard from me many times, but it just reinforces the reason as to why we all do this. So, the onions and shallots are laid on a drying rack (in other words, two old freezer baskets covered in pea netting), and will stay there for about two weeks. They will then be strung up and kept in the pantry at home, to be used as and when, until the summer onions are ready. To give you an idea of size, look at this one:

This is one of the first onions that I lifted, a nice size, nice dry papery skin, and a fantastic flavour. You can see how fresh it is by the remains of the stalk, and how green it is. Believe me, it didn't last that long in the kitchen.

Right. From the onions to a rather obscure crop:chickpeas. As a member of the HDRA, I am lucky enough to be taking part in a couple of the member experiments this year. The first of those is the Carbon Footprint experiment, which is ongoing throught the year, and is based around realising and reducing your carbon footprint. The other is growing Chickpeas, a crop not native to this country, and is based around wether or not they can be grown in the UK. For those of you who are not familiar with chickpeas, they are the main ingredient in Humous (one of my favourite snacks by the way), and grow in pods like their other, better known relatives. So, the peas were direct sown at the end of May, a little later than expected, but due to the weather, unavoidable. And I am happy to say that about 60% of the seeds have germinated, resulting in what are at the moment, small bushes. (You can see three of them in the picture, amongst the weeds). The rest of the experiment is based around how many pods each plant gives, peas per pod etc, and I am happy to be able to take part. I am also looking forward to harvesting the chickpeas, to make fresh humous, to go with fresh homemade pittas (ok, I'm drooling already).

Ok, so what else has been happening. Well, the crops in the greenhouse are coming on tremendously, with all the tomato plants excelling, and bearing fruit, albeight green at the moment, but showing promise for the coming weeks. The cucumber plants are bearing fruit as well, with about eight cucumbers developing across the three plants, and the aubergines starting to set. The flowers on the moneymaker aubergines are a really deep purple, akin to a pansy, very nice to look at. The pepper and chillis are also catching up, with the first signs of fruit showing on them as well. Outside, the Jemmer courgettes have come on tremendously, with some nice fruit already on the plants, as you can see. The jemmers are a yellow courgette, and are developing nicely. I am also very tempted to take a few of the flowers, and deep fry them in a tempura batter, just to try, as they are supposed to be very nice. I will let you know if this happens, and what they are like. I hope they live up to their prolific cropping reputation, as I love courgettes in stir fry, pasta etc. I have also transplanted the first of the leeks into their final growing positions. There are two varieties here, Musslebrough, which I grew last year, and Lyon. There are five rows of each in this bed (you can never have too many leeks), and the remainder wil follow the early potatoes, once they are all lifted. Speaking of potatoes, the Charlotte are

fantastic, hopefully I will get a shot of them for you at the weekend, if they survive long enough before ending up in the steamer. Yes, it's that line again, but they taste so much better then even M&S jersey royals, and that's saying something. Ok, thats it for this update. There will be more at the weekend. In the meantime, take care guys. P