My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…
4 pounds’ raspberries in two days: that’s a proper gluttony! My husband made a tasty sauce (with flour and vinegar) for our chicken tonight and I am trying to freeze some individually…
It took ages to pick them, and while I was inspecting the last few plants last nigh around 10 I saw the fox I had thought might be visiting the allotment: beautiful she is, and bold – she did not leave when I tried to scare her. But obviously we have a problem.
… to go home and see what’s happened to the allotment over four hot days without my care – hopefully we have had some rain in the night as forecasted, but i’m especially worried for the greenhouse. If they have not wilted, though, I would expect plants will have grown massively!
Speed of growth is certainly increasing. On Friday morning when I last was there, I picked a big punnet-full of raspberries and strawberries, all ripened over Thursday. Pity the strawberries are not doing too well this year, with taste ranging widely from foul to heavenly.
The last time I saw the plot someone had also trashed through my nettles, damaging some broadbeans in the process, which did make me really sad, adding to the depressing experience last week of damaging two trays of seedlings while reorganising the greenhouse around the vent that I hoped would prevent overheating while I was travelling.
On the other hand, with the positives, the new grape Phoenix that I bought at T&M’s to expand my vine was bigger than expected, with flowers on it and seemed to take really well.
Some butterflies have started to appear too and I saw a small white and two admirals on Thursday.
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Chenopodium capitatum, of the family of weed goosefoot and the seed quinoa, is a pretty little plant that produces edible leaves (to be eaten as spinach – cooked, or raw but in moderation) and red berries at each leaf node, which American Indians used as a dye, and when ripe should taste like wild strawberries.
I have tested the leaves, which bulked up my salad for work very nicely and look forward to try the berries!
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The salad cardboard collars are regaining ground as slugs have annihilated one unprotected head.
Tree spinach have got leafminers, though.
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Although I had to spend the last two evenings behind a watering hose (which you know I hate) the heat has pushed all the crops and last night I had salad made with my own strawberry spinach and broadbeans, followed by a handful of sift fruits.
Oh the joys of reaping…
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Wood pigeons like to land on the gooseberry bush, all staked and netted as it is, in search of fruit, but they only manage to break branches and make all the berries fall on the ground. I recovered a good bowl-full, but they are too hard to eat yet and too few for jam-making, so I thought I would cook them somehow, and like I discovered last year, elderflower cordial is an ingredient in most of the recipes… so I set about making some.
I made some last year too and I enjoyed drinking it over the summer.
There’s plenty of recipes out there, with roughly the same ingredients but in wildly differing quantities: difficult to decide which is best, especially with regards to the use of chemical preservatives: citric acid use varies from 2 tsp to 75 g!
I have decided to try a variation on the BBC’s recipe as follows:
I have not tasted it yet but it has been infusing for a day and smell deliciously citrussy, maybe a bit too much for an elderflower concoction…
PS Argh it IS DEFINITELY too citrussy, and not quite enough sugar! Why didn’t I use last year’s recipe in the first place?!?
PPS doubling the sugar and halving the citric acid does the trick
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… I did forget all about borage’s use! It is true that at the time when I was writing about it last year my mind was set on my degree, still… Borage can be used in salads and stir fries, and I have been pulling it, because it was taking over the asparagus bed!
I will try some tonight: all the plant outside the soil is edible: stems (fried in batter in Spain), leaves and flowers!
I might find it as exciting to use as I did mint: I am now making mint tea every day – dried & fresh leaves make a slightly different taste, both fresh and naturally sweet, though!
— Post From My iPhone
Guess what the seedling is…
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.
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