Growing, harvesting and food processing

Now the growing season on the allotment is in full swing. For the rest of the year I try do keep a low profile. 
Digging just isn't for me! A little weeding here and there, perhaps, but not much more than that.

The rest I leave to my husband who seems to like that kind of thing.

When it comes to harvesting, I come into my own. Checking for cucumbers every day? Picking daily over the Runner beans and French beans? Spending hours picking the gooseberries and currants? And all evening shelling peas?
That's the kind of job I find quite therapeutic. Hubby find it tedious!

So we make a good team, it seems.

Over the last month or two we have bought very few in the line of potatoes, vegetables and fruit. All is provided for!

Amongst many other things, so far this growing season we have harvested:
10 kg strawberries
7 kg peas (and more to come)
6 kg broad beans (many have been dried)
25 cucumbers (and many more to come)
20 kg new potatoes (still more to come)
2.5 kg  courgettes
25 patty pans
3 kg currants
1.8 kg gooseberries

Our storage shed is already full with jams and pickles and the freezer full of frozen beans, peas and soft fruit.

The tomatoes are only just starting and it looks like we will have a bumper apple crop! 

Allotment update

This year has been a tough year for gardeners is the UK. We have had an exceptionally cold and wet summer (the wettest in 100 years!) ... and it has shown on our allotment.

Everything has ripened (if it grew at all in the first place!) a month later than last year.

Much of the plot was waterlogged for several weeks.
It is much to my husband's credit that he continued plodding on, despite the set-backs and the bad weather.

Finally, in August, the weather improved.
We even managed a couple of cook-outs, cooking courgettes and sweetcorn freshly picked on the fire pit.


In the end, all turned out well.
We had a bumper harvest of strawberries (the first time that we had enough to make into jam!); the runner beans and French beans did very well, as did the broad beans; although the courgettes were disappointing, the summer squashes have been amazing; the brassicas are looking well and the beetroot (hubby's favourite) are great too.

Overall we have grown fruit and veg, which would have cost us over £600 in the supermarket. So all in all, not a bad return - especially for a poor growing season.

Just one final problem: what to do with all the squashes??

Back on the allotment

After a long winter break, I went with my husband to our allotment today.
Thanks to his hard work during the winter months everything is looking quite tidy and ready for the next season.

   This is the new cloche for the carrots. The cloche covering will help them stay warm, even if the weather is still quite wintery. So hopefully we will have some young tender carrots in a few weeks time!

This is our new water collection system.
Okay, it's a fancy term for a couple of pipes hung from the roof of the old dilapidated shed, leading into two old water tanks.

Last summer was very dry and there is no running water on the allotment, so we want to be prepared!

The new rhubarb is beginning to come through the ground. It won;t be too long before we can enjoy the first stems.
I am hoping to get enough of our three rhubarb plants to make some jam and - if possible - some wine.

We are quite excited about the new growing season.
We have doubled our plot in size since last year, so we are hoping for plenty of fruit and veg this year!

Spring is here!

Spring has arrived!

You might think that after 44 years I am used to that annual event - but NO, every time it blows me away!

The new growth, the sun gaining in strength, the days lengthening, the soil warming, the creatures stirring ...

How can I not feel excited?!

Welcome sun, welcome life, welcome season of growth and development! Please enter and stay for a while.