Last of the Pumpkins

A quick visit down the allotment resulted in a whole wheelbarrows worth of produce.  I KNOW the pumpkins fill most of the space, but that was the intention, the Tallest had specifically requested some that were of carvable proportions, and this year we have finally delivered.

Sweetcorn is a favourite in our household (minus Mr GT) and these are the absolute last of the cobs, the girls will be tucking into the for dinner tonight and I shall blanch the rest as half or whole cobs, and freeze them. They survive surprisingly well and make for not bad eating considering.

I promised myself that one year I would follow John Seymours directions for drying them, but once again the modern convenience of the freezer wins over – that and the fact that the Tallest can’t join in as it involves boiling water, and is then managed in half the time. I LOVE love love the fact that she is feeling useful it just tends to come at the most inconvenient of times!

Back to normal again

The distinct lack of posts has been due to actually having a social life!

And having finally returned from what will be the last engagement for a few weeks things may return to their normal pace.

Prior to going away for our first ever weekend without the children, the allotment was given some serious attention, and was completely hoed, and french beans, carrots, swede, chard, spinach, ‘leeks, broccoli and squashes were all sow or planted so that there wouldn’t be anything suffering in small pots over the four days we were away.

I am today about to sow my last attempts at sweetcorn all three other attempts have seen the seeds rotting away in the compost, and another pack of borlotti beans which did the same as the sweetcorn a few weeks previous.

I am currently picking good flushes of broad beans and digging new potatoes and cutting salad and pulling radishes the peas won’t be long so things are beginning to look up for the larder department, which will cut down on the groceries bill in the coming weeks.

Globe Artichokes

On the odd occasion I do get to stray away from only planting the things that we eat as a family and get to have a ’splurge’ on a packet of seeds. This years little treat was a packet of Globe Artichoke seeds.

Something I have fallen in love with ever since an exchange trip to France when I was 13, but I have always objected to paying a pound + for one head.

The germination rate on this packet has been 100%, so I may have to trade some of the plants off later as I don’t think I’ll have room for them all.

Globe Artichokes are a perrenial plant (but you can grow them as annuals if you wish) and I won’t be harvesting good edible heads off them until nexy year, but as the saying goes all good things come to those who wait…

I’ve never seen any growing let alone grown any myself, so although my rather informative book tells me how far apart I should place them once they are in their bed, I have no idea how large the plants will grow to, thus influencing which part of the plot they go into…answers on a postcard anybody?

Peas in

Tallest seen here posing with the row of peas that she helped plant up and stake in.

We’ll go back to the allotment tomorrow to have a recce to see how many succumed to the bloody pigeons that seem to wait undetected while us foolish gardeners plant the fruits of our labours into the ground, only to turn our backs on the plot and find the remenants of a rave the next day after we’ve left. I’m sure they taunt me whenever I’m down there…anyway that’s besides the point.

My Cut and Come Again lettuces have been rather more successful than I thought they would be, so rather than have them all in pots I think that either I’ll put them towards a swopsies, or I’ll put a row into the allotment and let them grow into full plants rather than cut the leaves.

In the turmoil that was bulldozing the garden, our beautifully well established Rosemary was done for, and given that Rosemarys are not known for their love of moving, I got the knife out and finally ventured into the unknown world of taking cuttings. I await with baited breath the outcome of my endevours (I hope they root, I think that I’ll be addicted if they do, I found it extremely satifying trimming and cutting the pieces).

My Borlotti beans, are showing very little signs of coming up, out of the five trays that I sowed I can only see two plants shooting, its the same story with the sweetcorn. Last year I sprouted these in a jar first and then planted them out when they had germinated, this year I have sowed direct into modules and it doesn’t take a genius to see whats happened.

The cucumer plants have finally began to show their heads, I am hoping to grow these on in the garden, Hubby is particularly fond of pickled gerkins, and that is one thing that I have never managed to do for him in all the seasons that we have been growing, so we’ll wait and see, although at this rate he’ll be lucky if he gets but one jar.

So late second sowings of my favourite staples seem to be the order of the weekend. We’ll see how much we get done, as the Smallest is currently on a one baby mission to deprive the whole family of sleep, and combined with all the effort that has been going into getting the garden right, we are all beginning to show obvious signs of running out of steam.

Enough for now, time for some sleep while its all quiet up there…

Did I say I was overzealous?

Okay, so leading on from my last post, I was extoling the virtues of having a mini-me on hand to help with all the sowing that has to be done at this time of year…what I omitted was the anecdote that goes along with the last lot of peas.

The Tallest and I were out in the garden, putting one pea in each module, she was having a whale of a time, poking her finger in the soil and then putting in the pea ready to cover them over with a little compost afterwards. Pretty straightforward you might think…

The Smallest then decided (before we had finished) that naptime was over and it was about time that someone let her in on the action. So I leave Tallest to it, saying “Remember Sweetheart only ONE pea in each square “Alright Mum!” comes her ‘of the moment’ reply and I exit upstairs to deal with a disgruntled baby, and to be disgruntled myself with the contents of her nappy!

So a few minutes later the Smallest and I come down into the garden to see the Tallest gently patting down a little compost over the module trays, and fetching her little can to water them in.

“Oh my, what a wonderful job you’ve done” she’s been SO proud of herself and quite rightly so…checking the compost isn’t too dry everyday after breakfast and nursery she has been carefully nuturing her seeds.

Until finally comes germination at long last…I’ll let you guess which tray is hers and which is mine…

I suppose I can’t complain about the germination rate!    I think a little transplanting is in order.

Weight Loss and (too much?) Activity

So, posts have been a little thin on the ground, but then again so have I…

My diagnosis with Coeliac Disease around three years ago seemed to be the answer to my constant battle with maintaining a healthy weight. And for a while this was so, but 11 months after having my second baby, the weight is dropping off again, so my attentions have had to turn to calorie counting and extra protein, rather than the allotment and getting the seeds in in time!

I have an extremely healthy diet, and I have never had a really sweet tooth nor been a fan of convienience foods so I have always eaten quite alot to keep my calories up throughout the day, but right now I don’t think that that alone is enough so I have had to redouble the efforts to gain weight.

Now, this will sound terribly girly of me, but this summer I have two weddings to attend, and I would like to look ‘good’ not  ’skinny’ so let battle commence!

So while I’m busy eating myself into a stupor, rest assured that the allotment is now being set with beetroot and parsnips, the lettuces, calabrese, sweetcorn and peas are all growing good in the greenhouse and the other seeds are swelling nicely waiting to spring into germination.

A Mum friend actually suggested that I should do less (growing, digging etc) and then I could ‘focus’on my weight issues, she didn’t seem to acknowledge that if I didn’t ‘focus’on the growing then there wouldn’t be anything for me to eat! Nevermind, I’m sure someone will realise one day that we grow the food because we need to, not just because we feel like it and it’s a bit quaint!

Ffffrosty mornings

All these frosty mornings, although not helping the frugal use of wood, has definately had a palpable effect on the earth at the allotment, there is a definate breaking up of the larger lumps.

I wish that I could say that I was responsible for the largest part of the plot having been dug over, but it has all been down to our retired neighbour, who after digging over his own and his daughters, helpfully, knowing that we were all ill a few weeks ago (he is our neighbour at home as well as at the allotments) decided to keep himself busy by digging the rest of ours over as well so a big thankyou to you!

I have been spending time, working out the rotation for the allotment and what will go where, although I think that I am going to start most things off at home this year and transplant them as we may not need the plot at some point this year, but more on that when things have taken a few more steps in the right direction.

Hubby and I have decided that we will also be more limiting on the varieties that we grow this year, and focus more on the staple foods that we regularly eat rather than the sort of veg that we have to keep inventing new dishes for or giving away as we are sick of eating it!

The brussels are the last things that want harvesting, they have turned a little black over the last couple of weeks, but are fine under the surface. It’s only me and Smallest who eat them so I think that we have a good years supply there! The purple sprouting broccoli is looking good and after these frosts should be tasting just as good.

As much as I love this cold and crisp part of year, I am beginning to feel the itchy fingers of someone ready to sow for the impending spring.

Overwintering Peas

Tallest has been full of help and assistance, and yesterday was no exception. After doing some painting and needing to give it time to dry. She was enlisted in the use of that marvellous invention the Pot Maker to good use, by getting ready the overwintering peas. This year we have planted Meteor, another popular variety is Dulce Provence, but Meteor has performed for us every year so we are going with what we know from now on.

We don’t use the Pot Maker for all a seedlings, but just for those varieties that really don’t appreciate having their roots disturbed. It is also used more during the winter months when not quite so much is going on, during the summer months, we tend to use module trays as these are an awful lot quicker.

So if you want some good early peas, get them in now, and put them under glass or a sheltered cloche. Don’t forget to water them, even if it is cold outside!

Spuds and Sweetcorn

Spent some time down at the Allotment yesterday, DH dug up the last of the Spuds, there were only two rows left of Cara, and they have given a fantastic yield, with consistantly good sized tubers, unlike the first rows that we lifted some weeks ago. We both felt that they had obviously benefited from that extra time in the ground, and there is very little slug damage to be seen.

Whilst the Smallest was napping, the Tallest and I turned our attentions to the Sweetcorn, even though we had been regularly picking them, I was surprised to find so many still on the plants. Tallest had a great time pushing her way through them to find the Cobs in the middle of the patch.

Sweetcorn is her favourite and I was pleasantly surprised that she understood that she had to pick them now as it was ‘going to be winter soon’ (her own words) and I think that the fact that as an only just three year old she already understood the principles behind the harvest, is testament to getting her involved – she planted the corns when Smallest was only two weeks old, and has loved the fact the while Smallest stays small the sweetcorn are ‘Bigger than Daddy!’. We’ll be using the stalks to make overwintering protection for all those beneficial insects that we love down the allotment, but that will come later.

Some of the cobs will be snapped in half and blanched and frozen on the Cob, as this is our favourite way to eat them, but they are also a fantastic weaning food for the smallest and I have found a drying method for them which would free up some space in the freezer, where they are cooked and then oven dried overnight before being taken off the Cobs and packed into jars. As I have never used this method before _ even though it comes highly recommended – I think that I will only do a small proportion in case it is unsuccessful.

Had the first of our sprouts with our Dinner last night, they were lovely, as I really like them small and tender, not like the cannon balls that you get from the supermarket – there was even enough Autumn Bliss raspberries to help wash down our rather blown about picnic lunch down the allotment.

Last of the Calabrese

This is the last of our calabrese harvested, we haven’t worried too much about successional sowing – as what with the marvels of modern living i.e. a freezer. We have just been blanching and freezing the florets once we’ve cut them and this means that they are really fresh and good to eat.

The plants have produced a good amount of shoots too.

If you leave the plant intact once you have cut the main head, then in the following weeks you will get side shoots growing which produce mini heads along the lines of sprouting broccoli. Each plant produces the same amount or if not more good calabrese to eat, so it’s well worth leaving the plants in the ground for longer to gain that extra yield.

We have left some of these plants to go to seed, and try a seed harvest, as this crop did fantastically well, with every plant making a good head of calabrese, I’m not sure of the variety I will have to check that later. (Lets hope it’s not an F1)

The plot is in need of a good tidy up, but as I only had the stitches from my thumb removed the week before last I am banned from the soil until it is fully healed – as Norfolk is a hotspot for soil based microbes, and the consultant nearly lept out of his chair when I suggested that a spot of gardening would be a good workout for the thumb!

Our squashes are coming to their last as are the sweetcorn, but the brussels, winter cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli are doing brilliantly. There’s even been enought autumn raspberries to sustain the Tallest on our mornings down the plot.

I’ll get down there soon and take some pictures, but I think that a tidy up is in order first!