Monday, July 30, 2012

2012 Allotment Diary - Me: 63 hrs He: 54.5.hrs

My, things have changed up the allotment since I last posted photos.  I have been visiting in between rain storms and the odd day of sunshine.

6th July we very excitedly harvested our first potatoes of the year - Rocket - these were from one plant.
I remember how excited we were - you can't beat your first meal with the first new potatoes of the year. Since then we have harvested a whole sack full and they are still as buttery and creamy as these first ones.
In less than an hour from digging them up, I had made lunch with them  Salmon shanties, our own salads, and to this we added tomatoes, cucumber, beetroot,coleslaw and mayonnaise.
 For a couple of weeks we had tremendous downpours every day and storms, and even a hailstone storm with ice balls the size of marbles that covered our lawns!
 So we couldn't get up the allotment, so I kept myself busy
baking yet more bread puddings for the freezer, and 'processing' the harvests of pounds and pounds of gooseberries, blackcurrants, broad beans etc.

Too much stuff to post I'm afraid.    

So, at the weekend after two weeks of blistering sunshine, I went up in the evening to water the courgettes and squash and do some hoeing.
Some of the late sown parsnips have germinated nicely.
 Despite all the rain we'd had - after a few days the soil was parched
 These and the photo below, are the ones I planted surrounded
 by the green 'jackets' which you can see in a few posts below this one
The soil up the allotment goes from rich manured soil to dust
 just in a few days, but I planted the last of my squashes as we were due rain

 I had removed the shredded leaves of the plants damaged by the hailstorm and new ones have grown.
 I know it's a lot of courgettes and squash plants but last year
I had my whole lot stolen when we went away for just a few days, so this year I am planting loads at different times to 'hedge my bet', and have just harvested my first batch as can see in the post below, and made a lovely batch of 5lbs of ratatouille.

I also harvested my onion crop - just in time as they were nice and ripe - and luckily I did as the storm broke the next day.


2 comments:

  1. Crikey! That's terrible that you had your courgettes stolen. Apparently the big problem on our site is pumpkin theft. Apparently a week or so before Halloween they all go missing!! I will be harvesting them early and letting them ripen at home to avoid this. Touch wood!

    Martin :0)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:41 pm

    Lottie your bread puddings look scrummy :) Would love to have your recipe if you have time to pass it along.

    Lynn x

    ReplyDelete

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