Allotment 19/10/10

The first frost of this Autumn, in Dorset anyway, was on Sunday. Sunday was also my birthday. Do these 2 things occurring on the same day have any significance? Is it like the groundhog thing? Probably not, it just shows that winter is on the way so it's best to be prepared. If you get some of those dull jobs done now, such as digging over, then you don't have to do them in the middle of the cold, cold winter and that is why I spent about 6 hours last Wednesday moving my raised beds.
When I first got the allotment I had no experience of such things so the spacing between the beds was far too big and there was fair too much wasted space. It was a job that I had been putting off and finding excuses not to do as I knew it would be hard work but I had a surprise day off and the sun was out so no excuses.
I'm not going to bore you with heroic stories about how hard I worked but I did have blistered hands afterwards.
I did have to move a few plants but I'm pretty sure that they'll be ok. My chilli plants, however, have come inside. Last year I left them outside and the fruit didn't ripen leaving us with a lot of green chillies, which was ok but I wanted red ones. Having dug them up, replanted them and placed them next to my indoor chilli plants I noticed something interesting. The outdoor fruits are so much bigger. Really much, much bigger.




See. I have no idea why. Ah well, as long as they ripen I'll be happy.

Anyway, on to the main event. Nettle ale. What does it taste like?

Allotment 29/3/10

One of the things I like about this time of year is the appearance of wild garlic or Ramsons. When the flowers come out you will know about it because of the overwhelming smell of garlic when you wonder through the woods.

 If you don’t like garlic I would ignore this next bit. The leaves of this plant taste fantastic (good mixed with salad leaves or chopped into a risotto) and you can eat the flowers as well (they are also great sprinkled on a salad). For many other recipes you can click here.

 As usual I am quite lucky with living where I live as I have wild garlic growing just up the road from me so I can pick it fresh when I want to. It does have a season so I recommend that if you see some pick it and give it a go.

You may remember that in the last post I made a bit of a fuss about the over complicating of germinating seeds.  It is only fair that I put my money where my mouth is and show you how my seeds are getting on.

Here we have cucumber, melon, courgette, and chillies but you will note that the squash seeds are yet to show,

And here are cabbages, cauliflowers, chard but no celery yet.

Is it going to be cold again because I want to get my potatoes in?