The very last harvest of the year

Very barely boiled and dressed in olive oil, djon, red wine vinegar and tabasco. It will be served with quorn sausage and left over kase spaetzle

Pakora

Allotment neighbour gave me masses of chard. Since i learned how easy they are to make i always make pakora from surplus greens.

Coir blocks got big

Collecting wood for a spring bonfire

Two beds tucked in for the winter

I have added coir blocks to one and covered both in raked up leaves to act as a mulch.

Preparing for the winter

We have a council inspection of the plots next week so I've been trying to make sure it looks passable. This means hard work clearing ignored corners. This is where i uncovered a large amount of beasties who have since mysteriously vanished. I'm concerned they may have been maggots.

The sun has still got his hat on.

Even this late in the year it's gloriously warm and the allotment feels like a piece of paradise. I'm getting some of the plot ready for the winter and the October inspection by the council while nasturtiums and sweet peas are still in bloom.

I'm still harvesting courgettes and growing beetroot and other squash.

Beetroot and chocolate cake.

I needed some new ways to use beetroot as I've got tonnes. So i made this delicious and surprisingly light cake. Delicious with a bit of cream. The recipe was Nigel Slater's. It also gave me the chance to use the whisk attachment on my food processor for the first time. 

I have been busy in the kitchen all day

Now i am tired out. Made a loaf of bread (from a packet mix) beetroot leave pakora as an afternoon snack. Dinner, which we will be eating soon is tian of courgette with home grown courgette, potato and spinach. There is an accompanying salad of home grown beetroot, rocket and broad beans with avocado and onion that i did not grow.

This is how to make them

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=13427

Beetroot leave pakora

Harvest

Quick visit today as I'm going out tonight. Got a pretty good harvest though. The very last of the broad beans, spinach, rocket, beets, courgettes and potatoes.

Spinach and ricotta pasta.

Wanted to use up some of this lovely spinach. So we made this
http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/pastaandricedishes/r/spinricpasta.htm

Allotment Soup

Looks a bit odd but tastes good. Beetroot, broad beans, spinach and a courgette. I added an onion, garlic, stock and a tin of tomatoes.

Borlotti beans

I've attempted to grow borlotti beans before and had no success. I really like them though so this year was my very last try if they failed again. But today i found these.

Tortilla

With home grown pink fir apple potatoes

Home grown broad beans and beetroot

In a salad with avocado, onion and leaves.

More radish and some helpful advice

A couple of my potato plants don't look well. I posted a photo on facebook and the hive wisdom says lack of water. I am pleased that it's not something that will spread to other tubers.

I picked some more nice crunchy radishes. They seem to be ready in groups of five.

Firsts

I got a new phone so this is the first time I've been able to blog live from my plot. It's too hot for hard work but i'm sitting in what passes for shade on my plot and listening to Ella Fitzgerald.

It's also my first day of harvesting broad beans. It's a lovely job sitting in sun shelling beans. This already beats the sum total of last year's bean harvest.

Tonight we'll be eating primavera minestrone and tomorrow paella as it's a favourite in our household. Beans will be rashioned out between the two.

Second crop of radish and some beetroot i had to thin out.

I'm gonna need to make an effort to water more often in this heat. We've not  had weather like this since i worked shifts and it was easier to find time for the plot. Went mid week as well as weekend last week but i'm going to up the frequency to every other day. I'll save adding dried fertilizer till the weekend watering though.

So far, so good

The summer was slow to start this year but now it's here it looks like it will be a good harvest. I'm already on second planting of radishes. I've been more proactive against slugs and snails and so far they've only been eating the squashes.

Getting started

It took one long weekend but for the first year in a long while i'm starting the year feeling like i'm not already chasing my tail.

Debate on the plots around whether it's still too  cold for potatoes. I've decided to wait a week or two but the broad beans are in,   carrots, parsnips and radishes. I'm not that optimistic about the roots though as i think i planted them too deeply.

Happy Eostre

I always regard the Easter break as the start of the gardening season which makes sense given the pagan origins of the festival. Yesterday i went to the homebase garden centre and purchased some supplies for the year and today i got down to work.  I turned my compost and riddled the finished stuff into one of my raised beds. I planted broad beans, set slug traps and set in sticks to protect from birds. I also finished hacking down  a blackcurrant bush and various entangled branches of something with thorns that i don't know what it is. I'm sore and tired now but pleased to have got off to a good start.

Start of the season

Today was sunny and warm. It filled me with enthusiasm for the plot. I spent an hour digging over my raised beds and adding in some chicken manure. I also got on with sawing off branches and cutting back bushes and overgrowing ivy.

We had a visitor from a different allotment site who came to talk about composting. It was quite poorly attended and i didn't learn much that i didn't already know. I always feel good about meeting other plotholders and feeling part of the community so it was still worth while.