Our patch of earth: shallots

Showing posts with label shallots. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 March 2009

It's rhubarb time!

I'm still not entirely sure that I like rhubarb all that much. But you have to admire its almost fluorescent pinkness. And I'm trying some new things this year. It's out with the crumbles, and in with the compotes, jams and syrups. But in the meantime, when we have our very first shoots of forced rhubarb, I guess you can't beat just dipping the end in sugar like a rustic dib-dab.

Anyway, more on rhubarb later.

Things are growing! Yey! Shallots, onions, spinach, chard, broad beans, peas, and the potatoes are chitting away nicely. No carrots yet though.

The parsnips are sulking, I think, even though I've covered them with another sheet of kitchen towel and am keeping them damp. I think I'm going to have to set up a second lot in the airing cupboard in the dark and see if a two-pronged attack may result in some success. And if nothing sprouts on kitchen towel then I'll 'throw them away' in a trough of soil and see if total neglect has any better results.

What else is going on... Adam dug over another bed on the plot ready for something to go in. I say 'something' as we don't have much of a plan yet. Probably potatoes... I weeded the onion beds and picked off the dead leaves from around the chard. And after all the hard work, it was time for some sustenance, so I made cheese scones, beef stroganoff (with the almost-last of our onions and shallots from 2008) and... wait for it!... rhubarb and orange schnapps. Wahey! (there's the bottle, look, at the back among the kitchen chaos). I think the general consensus among my friends is that if you have some slightly suspicious fruit or veg which not everyone likes, it can be greatly improved by steeping it in alcohol of some sort for a number of weeks, then removing the fruit/veg, and quaffing the results. Sian's rhubarb rum (or should that be 'rhum', Sian?) was proof of that.

I'm hoping the sweetness of the sugar and the flavour of the orange will counteract that tangy 'bleurgh' of the rhubarb which usually makes my teeth go funny. And I'm looking forward to some rhubarb and orange cocktails in the summer.

Sunday, 22 February 2009

Mud, mud, glorious mud

We popped to the allotment last weekend, only for it to start raining and the ground slowly turn to mud under our boots. I guess everything was still waterlogged from the rain, sleet and snow the previous week. We picked some brussels sprouts and Adam put some manure on a few more of the beds, but really it wasn't the weather to be outside. There's nothing worse than tramping around a muddy allotment, your feet twice their usual size because of the clogging, oozing, sticky, gloopy, murky, mucky mud, and three times as heavy, and the rain somehow seeping down the back of your trousers when you bend over to dig. Yuck! So we went home.

But today we've spent a couple of hours catching up. Adam carried the compost bin from home to be added to the big heap - all that chicken poo (chickens poo a lot!) is going to do some good - and I carried the last of three big ex-olive-importing drums to use as a water butts. After getting the cricks out of our backs we sowed the first double row of broad beans, and also planted about 100 Centurion onions and sixty-something shallots too. In the picture above, the first three beds on the right are now full of onions, shallots and garlic... plus a patch of chard which went in before the winter.

The rhubarb is starting to make an appearance, breaking through the earth like some kind of weird creature. We'll have to find a big bucket and force it again as it was really tasty last year.

It's a good feeling to have got some things in the ground, especially as it's Six Nations season now, so we keep getting distracted at the weekends. Ah well, as long as we get the parsnips sown in time, I'm sure everything else can manage without us for a little bit.

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Lots of stuff

We've been shopping. Yesterday we went to the allotment shop to buy our seed potatoes. We've ended up with 'Arran Pilot' first earlies, 'Wilja' second earlies and 'Cara' maincrop. I'd post some pictures, but I think you can all just imagine what a string bag of potatoes look like...

We also got a bag of 'Green Windsor' broad beans, ready to sow when the weather warms up a little bit. And we got some 'Centurion' onions and 'Yellow Moon' shallots. We've already planted some red and some white onions on the plot, but we use onions in everything so a few more won't go to waste!

We had some garden centre vouchers from Christmas so today we decided to use them to buy our seeds, rather than send off a big long list and pay postage. And - extra bonus - the garden centre had 25% off all seeds! Excellent! We had a list of things we'd chosen from a catalogue, but there weren't as many varieties available on the shelves so we didn't always get the exact variety we wanted. But then, a beetroot's a beetroot, when it comes down to it. As long as it grows and can be eaten, I'll be happy.

Ready for a list? We've bought...

'Cobra' climbing french bean
'Firetongue' borlotti beans
'Oasis' and 'Twinkle' peas
'Cobnut' butternut squash
A mixed selection of winter squash
'Marmande' beef tomato
'Alicante' regular tomato
'Golden Sunrise' yellow tomato
'Marketmore' cucumber
'Sundance' sweetcorn
'Bosworth' brussels sprouts
'Autumn Giant 2' leeks
Perpetual spinach / leaf beet
'Kilaton' autumn cabbage
'Ruby Ball' red cabbage
'Neapolitan' basil
Mixed leaf salad
Rocket (great on pizza!)
Swiss chard 'Bright Lights'
'Parador' yellow courgette
'Defender' green courgette
'Globe 2' beetroot
'Purple Haze' carrots (purple!)
'New Red Intermediate' carrots

And left over from last year we have:

'Scarlet Emperor' runner beans
'Panache' parsnip
'April' spring cabbage
'Rainbow' mixed radish
Dwarf green curly kale
'Marian' swede
Acorn mixed summer squash
'Tasty Trio' beetroot
'Emilia' spinach
'Rainbow' mixed carrots
'Golden Ball' turnip

Plus (plus!) Suttons were offering a free pack of certain seeds when you bought two other packs... so we've also got three (three!) packs of 'Purple Dragon' carrots, two (two!) packs of 'Hilton' Chinese cabbage and a pack of poppy seeds, called lilac pompom.

Can't blame a girl for sneaking in some flowers...

Saturday, 28 June 2008

The old methods are best

If at first you don't succeed... delete the post completely, and try again.

I've had problems with line spacing, words jumping about into Places They Shouldn't Be, and then the issue with the whole blog getting smaller and smaller down the page.

Anyway, I deleted the problematic posting - no dealing with coding and HTML for me, oh no - and re-wrote it. And now it seems fine.

So, back to the important allotment stuff. I'm on the Queens Park Allotment Association Committee, and we had a meeting last Monday evening to sort out, amongst other things, the best way to distribute The Rules (which some people had never seen, despite having a plot for 5 years... we'd certainly never seen them either), when to have a skip on site for a general clear-up, and how best to organise the Annual Show, which is in a couple of weeks. Some of the cups awarded in the past have gone missing, or at least haven' t been returned, so I'm going to use my Word skills to make some certificates for the winners in case we don't get them back.

We're off to the plot today to do some tidying up - the grass around the edges is getting a bit long but we need Mike to have a tinker with our petrol strimmer to get it going. Then we also need to hack back at the brambles from the nest plot - which are trying to take over. We're also planning to build a bench seat (an allotment essential I think you'll all agree) so I manager to pick up a few small pallets. (Also, it gives Adam something to hammer and nail at, which keeps him quiet for a while...!)

Also - panic panic! - we were reliably informed that you don't need to worry about shallots and onions flowering, that you can just leave them to do their thing until they're ready to be harvested. BUT now I find that other bloggers and websites recommend chopping off the buds as soon as they appear! Aagh! What do other people do? Any advice? Here's a pic looking along our rows of young leeks (leeklets...?!) You can see all the shallot flowers in the background!

Saturday, 26 April 2008

Spring greens and a tiny invasion

Finally, I've got around to updating what we did last week...

Here (as promised) is a pic of some of our tomato seedlings as they were last week. They've grown a lot more already! I'm amazed that so many have germinated, so it looks like there'll be a lot of thinning to do. (Is it just me, or does the one in the middle looks like it's going 'taa- daa!' ?)

At the allotment last Sunday Adam finished digging the far end of the plot - the section that's been covered over for the past year. Apparently he still hates bindweed... There were so many roots in the soil it was impossible to get it all. I think we're going to have a problem for a few years to come!

I sowed some more spinach for some greens in the summer. We also sowed a double row of mange tout and a double row of sugar snap peas. I'll need to get some twiggy sticks to protect and support them and keep the birds off.

The radishes are coming on nicely. Speaking of which, Phil came over to show us his first 'crop' - a small but perfectly formed radish. Can't wait 'till ours are ready.

We've decided to make one of the cabbage beds into a salad bed. It's already got the radish growing in one corner, and the lettuce along one side, so as we pick the cabbages from now on we'll sow beetroot, more lettuce and radish, and maybe some basil and salad leaves and see how things go.

No sign of the carrots or parsnip germinating. How long do you give things before you give up and sow some more???

We picked a couple of cabbages for dinner - and on one of the smaller ones I discovered an aphid invasion...

Aaah! Gerroff!!!

I also cleaned out my shed and had a bit of a sort out. I used a couple of bits of carpet and some water containers to make a bench seat at the back of the shed. So now visitors have somewhere to sit and we can hide from the rain in comfort!

I hope to get lots done this week - I've got a week off work and a friend coming to stay who's really keen to help out. And that's great because I was looking at the packets of seed last weekend and we have LOADS to do! All of a sudden it's 'all systems go'! It only seems like a few weeks ago it was the middle of winter and I was longing for spring - and now it's here I wish I had a bit more time for planning things!

Someone has also started working on the plot behind ours - one which had a massive blackberry bush on. Somehow they managed to clear it in one day! That's what I call hard work! It's nice to have more people around us - last year we felt we were slightly on the edge of the 'good' plots, but now we have neighbours all around which is great for sharing tips and seeds. Plus, the more plots that are cultivated the fewer weeds go to seed and blow onto our nicely tilled earth.

Here's a bit of an update...

The front left bed has cabbage, lettuce, a few radish on the far left and some spinach just sowed (This'll be the salad bed). Behind that is the carrots and parsnip (supposedly, no sign yet), then there's the broad beans with 2 artichoke plants on the left. Past that is the onion-y bed (onions, garlic and shallots), and then in front of the compost heap there's the seed bed with kohl rabi, leeks and brussels sprouts which will germinate any time soon, I'm sure...

Then, front right - well, there's nothing in the first bed yet (!), then there's some peas sown under netting, with more cabbages behind. The next one has the first rows of mange tout and sugar snap peas, then there are 2 beds of potatoes (picasso, then home guard), and that's as far as we've got!

Monday, 11 February 2008

Spring-like sunshine

Wow, busy weekend. Kate and Tim came to stay on Saturday and (yet again) watching the rugby in a nice pub with beer and tasty treats took priority. We managed to squeeze in a visit to the plot on Sunday, but spent the best part of an hour just enjoying the glorious sunshine with a cup of shed-brewed tea and reminding ourselves that it's actually February.

(This tulip was in a vase, by the way, I don't have obscenely early tulips in the garden or anything.)

I'm having to control myself, and not forget that IT'S NOT SPRING YET. Even though it's been nice and warm during the day there's been frost the last couple of mornings which new tender little seedlings really won't like. So I mustn't get carried away and plant anything yet, give it another month at least. It could yet snow...

No sign yet of any growth on the onions, shallots or broad beans. But the garlic is going great guns (strange phrase)... Our local market has a stall, which sells everything from chilli sauce to chutneys, and they did a fantastic sweet garlic chutney which was just gorgeous when swirled through mashed potato. But they don't do it any more, which makes me sad. So I'm going to attempt to make my own in the autumn.

I made lamb meatballs today, and, as an aside, will share my made-up recipe with you, loyal blog readers...

Minty-lamb meatballs with parsley and coriander

500g fresh lamb mince
2 onions, very finely chopped
2 slices brown bread (stale-ish) made into breadcrumbs
2 eggs
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons mint sauce
Generous sprinkling of salt and pepper

(this will serve 4 people, about 6 meatballs each). Simply bung everything in a bowl and mix it together (use your hands, don't be squeamish). Then shape the mix into balls, golf-ball sized or smaller. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour to chill and firm up. Roll in flour and fry in a little oil 'til brown and crispy on the outside. Serve in a tomato sauce. Yum.

Sunday, 27 January 2008

"Oh, to be young and in shorts"

After hearing the above said on Scrubs on TV, Adam seems to have adopted it as his motto - to be quoted when the sun is shining and he wishes his legs were on show. Today was a gorgeous day - felt more like April than January - and so the shorts were most definitely on.

It hasn't rained for a couple of days so the ground was dry enough to plant our onion and shallot sets. We've created a big bed specifically for oniony things, except leeks, which'll go somewhere else where they can stay put over the winter. We've now got a few rows of garlic, the earliest of which were planted about a month ago, and are already growing, plus about 45 shallots, which will multiply, and at least a million onions. (More like a hundred, actually, but still - I think we may have overestimated our onion consumption.) Here's me (or at least my legs) watering the onion bed.

Also made a start on The Biggest Strawberry Patch In The World, which may have developed its own currency and capital city, it has got that huge. Seriously, the little blighters have sent runners off everywhere. The patch came as part and parcel of the plot, and last summer produced tonnes and tonnes of strawberries. I'd made a feeble effort to weed the patch when we first got the plot in late April 07, but the ground was baking hard and I only got about a third of the way through before deciding that in fact it would probably be ok, seeing as how it'd survived at least one year of total neglect. But, this is the season of Getting The Allotment Organised, so the dreaded task could be put off no longer. It had to be tackled head-on. After attempting to weed between each individual strawberry plant, I decided that was a silly idea and would take the best part of a year. The thing to do was to dig the whole patch, pull out weeds and strawberry plants alike, and then re-plant the best strawberries in sensible rows - all the easier to put straw down between them and to pick the tasty fruit in the summer.

Didn't get very far. There are so many weeds - including bindweed roots - that I only dug about a quarter of the total amount in 2 hours! But we do now have one nice strawberry patch - one of an intended four - looking all neat and tidy.

We also met some new allotmenteers, Peter and Jenny, who have taken on a plot near to ours. They're friends of Phil, who's got a plot next-door-but-one from us, the other side of the giant blackberry bush. It's nice to see some more people in the area around us, not only for the purposes of having a chat, sharing tips and getting to know everyone, but also because the more plots near us that are tended, the fewer the number of weeds that'll set seed and blow onto our freshly turned earth, where they'll decide it's nice and put down endless roots.

And it's nearly February already! Time to plant broad beans methinks...

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Rainy Saturday - but bargains galore!

It rained a lot on Saturday, so we decided to go to the Allotment Society shop which is based at some allotments to the other side of Bedford. We ended up with seed potatoes - Home Guard which is an early cropper, and Picasso, which is a main crop and should get nice and big, big enough to use as baking potatoes, anyway. I'm looking forward to our first home-grown jacket potatoes, crispy skins with lots of butter.

We also got Centurion onions, which are the little yellowish ones on the right - each little bulb should just get bigger and bigger - and also shallots. Can't remember the name exactly, it's Red something... The shallots'll create clumps of up to 10 or 12 bulbs, which got me thinking - why do shallots do that when onions don't? How do they know? It's like garlic bulbs which also create a whole bulb from a single clove. Ain't nature clever!

Oh, and we also got some sugar snap peas, in the bag on top there, which we're going to try this year as well as mange tout, which were really tasty last summer. That whole bag was 50p! In fact, everything in the picture came to a grand total of £7.50! Bargain! Just think how many packs of mange tout you could buy from any well-known supermarket for that amount... about 4, if you're lucky.

We also wandered down to the plot to have a quick check up on stuff. Waaaay too wet to do anything really, but I got to wear my wellies and splash in some puddles (big kid). These bricks in the pic are just outside my shed - we uncovered them when we were tidying up last spring... need a bit of weeding now, but nice eh?

Adam also fixed a bit of fence next to the compost heap that had come loose in the wind, using his double-edged billhook. Here he is, whittling away and looking very pleased with himself. A very handy item, that billhook, especially if you're wanting to make things pointy and stick 'em in the ground, or hack at brambles which are trying to take over the world. (Grrr. It's lucky that blackberries are so tasty, 'cos the goddamn plants haven't got anything else going for them.)

Using the billhook is good fun, too - makes you feel like Ray Mears. I think Adam was Mearing very well in this instance.

After a bit of pottering, I mainly sat in the door of my shed, out of the wind and rain, hoping for a rain-free Sunday.

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