Allotment 17/8/10

Previous on Allotment blog,

“I’m impatient, is this melon ripe yet?”
“How do I know if it is ripe?”
Damn it! I’m just going to pick it and see!”

And now the concluding part of Melon of Destiny.

3 or 4 days after I picked the lovely looking melon I finally plucked up the courage to cut it in half and see what was inside. As the knife pierced the slightly unattractive skin of the melon juice flowed. This I took as a good sign.
I cut it in half and gazed upon the orange flesh. Well it looked lovely and smelt of ripe melon. So to cut myself a slice for the final test. To cut an unnecessarily long story short, it tasted bloody lovely. I rule!

One of the useful things about going for a run, apart from the getting fit, reducing the chance of heart disease thing, is being outside and watching the seasons come and go. You get to see the various blossoms of the hedgerow in spring and then as the year progresses different things flower and fruit.
As I have been running around Dorchester I have built up a little mental map of where various useful and edible plants are.
In late spring and early summer I can always find some elderflower but as we head into late summer and autumn more fun things start to reveal themselves in the hedges and on the trees, if you know where to find them.
This week I have found 2 plum trees in the hedgerows and the blackberries are coming on nicely, in some places they are ready to pick. There are also plenty of apple trees around that are covered in fruit.
Go on, go for a walk around where you live and see what you can find, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Allotment 9/8/10

I love this time of year. All the hard work that you have put in is literally bearing fruit (and veg). Just yesterday, for instance (and I use it as an example because it was a really good day) we bought home onions, peas, mange tout, 3 types of bean, radishes, lettuces, cucumber, courgette (anyone want a courgette by the way?) beetroot, carrots and my special prize, more on that later. Basically at this time of the year we can feed ourselves with vegetables. It is a joy to behold. Yes, you have to keep weeding and looking after things but it is so much more rewarding when come home with a bag full of things.

 And now back to my special prize. When I was looking on a seed selling website at the beginning of the year for tomatoes that don’t get blight (I bought a bush variety called Koralik and so far so good, fingers crossed though) I noticed some melon seeds that the website claimed would grow outside in the UK, I think I have mentioned this before. Anyway the seed were 99p so I thought I would loose less then £1 if they didn’t grow. I can confirm that my investment of 99p was well worth it,

To be honest I was a little inpatient. Some websites said that I would know when the fruit was ripe because it would smell of melon; well I think I may have detected the slight whiff of melon ness but that was probably wishful thinking. It has been looking the same for several weeks and I just wanted to pick it and see. Yes it is childish but I do have another 7 fruit to be more patient with if this one really isn’t ripe. We are giving a couple of days in the fruit bowl to see if we can make it smell melony. I tell you how it goes.

Allotment 27/7/10

Waitrose, home of the overly descriptive labels and a shop that nicely turns a negative into a selling point.
 I recently bought some nectarines from them (yes I know, air miles, but I can’t grow them yet and they only came from Italy and, and I think that this is the most important point, they are really, really tasty) and the label bore the legend “Home Ripening”. I’m sorry, what now? So they are not ripe yet? So they were picked when they weren’t ready to be? I know that bananas are picked when green and then ripened later but soft fruit? It doesn’t seem right some how. I pick my crops when they are ready.
 I know that if they were picked when they were perfect by the time they were transported here they would be spoiled but really, ripening after I’ve bought them?
 Waitrose do also, in a sort of ying/yang thing, “Tree Ripen” apples in the autumn leading me to scream, on the inside, were else would they ripen?! Although the answer to that is provided, I suppose, by the nectarines.

Would you like to see some pictures of some dogs in jumpers? Of course you would,



A patient at one of the places that I work bought this knitting book in for me after he heard that my wife knits. He did do it as a joke, I think.

Allotment 21/7/10

Last year I grew potatoes in a bag, I think I may have mentioned it, and my crop wasn’t very good. This year I grow them in the ground so that I could compare the 2 crops.
Ok, this wasn’t super scientific as I should have grown them at the same time, next to each other and treated them the same but it will have to do.
I dug out my Pink Fir Salad spuds on Saturday and it was a joyous experience. I am always a little anxious when harvesting spuds because you can’t see them so I don’t know if they are ready or not but you have to hold your breath and risk it. This I did and look at them,



Ok there is a bit of shadow of me, an odd self portrait if you will, but if you ignore that I think you will agree that it went quite well.
I will now no longer use the bags and will grow them in the ground.

I hate thinning. I don’t like to throw away good seedlings and so I try not to. Today I thinned some of my beetroot but I didn’t throw the thinnings away, oh no, I replanted them all and watered them a lot. If they take then brilliant, if they don’t then I’ve lost nothing. It worked with my carrots.

Allotment 13/7/10

When we were at the garden centre on Sunday picking out some plants for Significant Other’s bit of the allotment (yes I know it sounds like giving a child a small amount of the garden to look after but I do have a lot of space and the flowers do look lovely), which you can read about here, we noticed that they had converted the field next to the car park into allotment plots. Now that is a genius idea I thought, allotments next to a garden centre, think of the income. And of course they had. It’s a great idea, have plots there next to the shop, were else are they going to buy stuff?

 So we went round looking at all the lovely, over priced plants (I got a grape vine out of the deal) until we came to the till and there was a leaflet advertising the plots. I’ll have one of those I thought, it’s such a great idea that I’ll blog amount it. Well that was the plan until I saw the prices that they are charging for renting the plots.

 My allotment plot costs about £12 per year. This is a very basic plot, we have no on site water or anything, but never the less, only £12 per year. I don’t know how much other councils charge, I would imagine more then mine, but not too much. Yes, these plots come ready prepared but I would think that only means that they have rotivated the soil, nothing more. And what would you imagine that they charge for this? Actually that is a silly game so I will tell you, £5 per week or £20 per month or £240 per year. Now that is a lot of money.

 If you want one with a shed, a green house and water butt? Well that will set you back £10 per week or £40 per week or a staggering £480 per year. OMG! Not really cost effective I think you will agree.

 I know that they have to make a profit and that councils don’t have enough proper allotment plot available but never the less this smacks of a rip off, profiteering if you will.

Allotment, It's Not Just Me There.

We've put some new raised bed at the allotment and one of them has been planted up by my Significant Other, you can read about here on here blog Knit Knot Norris, that is all.

Allotment 26/6/10

I’m making a sad face because I have had a crop failure, one that I usually do pretty well at as well which makes it doubly annoying.

 Garlic is usually so easy to grow, last years were great for instance, but this year nothing has happened. I don’t know what it is, whether it was the very cold winter or the cloves that I planted which were saved for last year, but something went wrong leaving me with no crop, thank goodness for Waitrose.

 It hasn’t been all bad though. The old faithfuls keep plugging away and this week Significant Other took her life in her hands and offered to do the forearm shredding task of gooseberry picking. Apart from a little light sunburn and arms that look like she has a serious self harm problem it all went really rather well and a very large amount of fruit was bought home.

 We have also had a good crop of rhubarb so we have been making jams and chutneys.

 Significant Other has made 5 jars of Gooseberry Chutney and I have made Rhubarb (with a hint of Ginger) Jam (also 5 jars) and Gooseberry and Elderflower Preserve (7 jars).

 The recipes for most of things that I make often, including the Elderflower Cordial and this Gooseberry and Elderflower Preserve recipe, can be found in the utterly fantastic “Food for Free” by Richard Mabey.  It is one of the two books that I use most, as you can see from the picture of my copy; the other is “Dough” by Richard Bertinet which is a fantastic book about bread making.

 “Food for Free” is a guide to edible plants basically but it also contains recipes and useful hits and tips. Really it is great.