My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…
The scepticism of my allotment neighbours has not proved right, at least for this one year. The grapes have a sharp burst and a rather sweet aftertaste. A pleasure for the eye and the tastebuds. Which, before washing, was home to a tiny snail and a 7-spot ladybird.
Blight struck.
On Friday my tomatoes pleased me beyond belief, lush, green, with two orangey ripe… and on Sunday night they were a rather messy heap of brown and mould.
So I picked all of the ones big enough & not damaged and have just discovered that I have to process them quickly to avoid deterioration, as they won’t ripen but rather get the disease.
On the plus side, you can compost the leaves as spores don’t survive on dead vegetation, only on seeds (so don’t save any). Too late for my own plants which I threw in the bin as I was not sure, but the source being Garden Organic, it is reliable information.
Also on the plus, there are plenty of recipes for green tomatoes and you are not stuck with chutney – something I would have dreaded. They can be fried, made into pasta sauce and preserved in oil, for example, which I will try tonight, and someone apparently even eats them raw!
— Post From My iPhone
As I mentioned before my short holiday break, I have been doing more preserving, particularly of wild berries – something that this year has really possessed me: I have to do it, to try how it tastes and can be saved for later.
I tried an early hawthorn jelly, which set so hard because of the unripe berries that it stuck to the lid of the jar: as my colleague observed, the first ever upside-down jelly… But elder berries are what really fascinates me. I have tried two recipes for liqueur, and the one from the German-speaking part of Italy which is called Holunderlikoer tasted so good that I wanted to have a go at elderberry jelly too. Throughout the holidays I could not look at an elder without coveting the berries. And as soon as I came back last night I grabbed some half-kilo and set about processing it, finishing well beyond midnight.
Here’s the elder recipes, roughly, in my own style.
My problem with jam-making seems to be pectin levels, or the setting point: mostly I get rather loose texture – even though it tastes good, as was the case with my raspberry jam – 500gr jar all vanished on our holiday, deliciously (and a bit messily) spread on clotted cream and homemade scones (not my own). Any suggestions from expert jam-makers?
And with liqueurs I had to play around a bit before I learnt how alcohol dilutes (in Italy they sell 95% vol alcohol for preserving and liqueur making and that is what the recipes suggest, so in the UK, supposing you use clear vodka, or eau de vie, the resulting liqueur will be weaker, or you will have to use less water in the recipe). You might find it useful to know the formula:
to dilute 95% to 40%, for every 40cc add enough water to make 95cc
where 1cc = 1 ml (if I am correct). So if vodka is 50% and you want to make a 40% liqueur you will have to add to 40ml of preparation enough water to make 50ml. And in the recipe below you will have to use roughly 1/5 less water.
Holunderlikoer (loosely translated)
Boil the berries in the water for 15 mins ca (depending on the quantity more may be necessary). Sieve the pulp through a muslin. Put the liquid back in the pan with the sugar and vanilla for another 15 mins ca (always depending on quantity, until the sugar is melted). Let it cool down before adding the alcohol, mixing and bottling. Leave the liquour to rest for a while to improve flavour.
Put the berries in an airtight jar with the alcohol and lemon rind and leave for a fortnight. Remove the solids.
Make a sugar syrup with as much water as needed to dilute to the desired strength and the vanilla, simmering until the sugar is melted. I guess the quantities can be made as per recipe above. Take out the vanilla and mix with the alcoholic infusion. Leave to rest for a few days before passing through a muslin and bottling.
Elderberry jelly (loosely translated)
Squash the berries and simmer on low until they look soft enough to sieve. Add the sugar and vanilla and bring to the boil until setting point is reached (cannot help you there!). Bottle in sterilised jars according to usual preserving procedure.
I did dig my new bed yesterday: as the days draw in, and the beds start to become empty, I feel like tidying up and adapting the plot based on the learning of the past seasons. Next to the shed, taking advantage of the cleanup of hollies the council did, I have carved myself some more space: all sorts of rubbish was buried on a spot that had obviously not been cultivated for years. I sowed some fodder radish as an overwintering green manure – Will see how it fares. I also recovered a wheelbarrow-full of soil, which I could use in the greenhouse to replace the spent compost from the current planting.
After clearing the potato bed on Saturday, I rearranged that too. This should provide a better arrangement for my vines, which by the way are ripening! Allotment manager John thought they might be encouraged by the windscreen that are my Jerusalem artichokes, which I planted there without really thinking about this side-effect!
Clearing the onion bed also prompted me to rearrange space there. It’s still temporary as there are leftover crops in there, but it looks as if I may have more efficient use of space for next year.
In the meantime my preserving continues: I have made cherry plums jam, hawthorn jelly and two types of elderberry liqueur. More on a future post.
And I sowed some salad that with any luck the slugs won’t exterminate…
I digged out my maincrop potatoes yesterday: 8,5kg (17 pounds). Not as many as in my first year but definitely cannot complain given that I only planted 1 kg of seed and the odd germinated potato from home.
I found that, once the potatoes were out, I wanted to redesign the beds’ layout: multiple parallel beds I now find more useful than one bed running the whole width of the plot, so I split the potato bed into two, as I did with the onions’ bed after taking them out. I’m pleased with the result. And I think today I will go and dig a new bed, on the side of the shed, and sow it with green manure, so that it will be ready for the new year.
Which reminds me I’m in a bit of a quagmire about the compost heap. It is now in a really premium, sunny spot, after the council chopped back the hollies that were making it shady and wet. It should be moved behind the shed, where the position is not ideal for growing. This is the kind of job I would normally do in winter, but the compost heap has proved last year to be a precious overwintering hiding for lots of wildlife, so I am reluctant to mess with it when it is most useful… however, I am not ready now to move it now, because I have first to hack down the remains of the previous owner’s shed: the perfect job for a winter sunny day. Mmmhhh
Finally one if the figs managed to swell, the first one this year and the first of a decent size ever! A bit dry (the draught?) but very tasty…
The courgettes are blossoming and so, it seems, are the tomatoes.
All the salad seedlings have however succumbed to slugs, and I am at risk of a hungry gap if I don’t sow something soon.
— Post From My iPhone
I have not written for a while, because I am not going to the allotment that often, because I have so many things to do at home and tiredness has started to catch up with me.
The last time I went, though, there were a few bean pods that I should probably be able to pick today if I manage to go, and many more plants of beans growing. Sweetcorn was 1 meter high, and the pumpkins expanding rapidly although no fruit was in sight.
My liqueur-making has been a bit disappointing as I am still in the process of learning dilution and dosage, but I have great hopes for the sage one, that I am going to bottle next. And I am still up for elderberry liqueur this week.
Shutting down my PC now, as I have 1,5kg damsons from the hedge to make into jam too.
M.Paola Andreoni
I got the first allotment in 2007 (in the UK) and started growing my own food for the first time. Learning as I went along was not enough, so I studied some horticulture. I am striving to abide by organic principles. Brexit gave me a new life in the Netherlands, and two new plots by a nature reserve.
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
