28. SEPTEMBER

September 28, 2023 / Allotment Queen / 1 Comment

Today was a day for using the gathered harvest. The apple trees produced amazing amounts of fruit and I’m determined to use as many and in different ways as I can. I have made apple juice, dried them in my dehydrator and yesterday I discovered another recipe, apple butter. No harm in trying and tonight I’ve got four jars of this delicious concoction.

It is very rich, it will be lovely on toast.

After lunch I took with Frank’s help all the chopped up apples from making the juice to the allotment for our chickens, they were delighted. As I was there I also collected a few of my squashes, they did very well. My monsters are growing well, this is the start of the harvest.

Simon has been growing grapes for a number of years and they were especially good this year. He told me to pick the rest of them, he had enough for his wine making. I picked quite a lot and will make juice, that should be very tasty.

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My latest toy – the fruit press – is very useful. I have finished tonight, work will continue tomorrow.

A NEW START

December 30, 2021 / Allotment Queen / 2 Comments

Yesterday was an unseasonably warm day. I had to remind myself what date it was, it felt like a good day in early spring. It is too wet to do any serious work on the allotment, but saying that, all my serious work is done. The greenhouses are ready for the next growing season and as I have four of them I can spoil myself. I have decided to grow quite a lot of tomatoes, less of aubergines and a good mix of sweet peppers and chillies.

I have a good reason to grow more tomatoes, we are still using my bottled tomato soup and also chopped roasted tomatoes.

The chillies did very well and I have managed to dehydrate them, ready to be used in future recipes.

Yesterday was dedicated to work in my big greenhouse in the back garden. I have got four large grow beds there and I was able to single out and plant all my leek seedlings, also the onion seedlings. I have started those in late November. It seems to work, they are looking good.

I have also planted some garlic cloves, to make sure I have got enough to harvest later. I have garlic already growing on the allotment but you can’t have enough!

That was exactly my thought about onions and leeks so I started two more seed trays with leeks and onions. The plan is to grow quite a lot of vegetables that we like.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

October 30, 2021October 30, 2021 / Allotment Queen / Leave a comment

I was given a food dehydrator for my birthday in February and to my shame I only decided to use it today. I wasn’t quite sure until now what I could dry in it – all the produce I either bottled or cooked and we had it there and then. I grew a number of chilli plants, I found a new one that is rather prolific – Havana Gold. It has lovely little fruits, they start as pale yellow and slowly turn darker yellow to orange.

These chillies were growing in the greenhouse at home so in the early afternoon I harvested them and then started reading the instructions about the dehydrator. They were reasonably easy so it didn’t take too much time to fill the trays and plug it in. The temperature was then set and the time – there is a very helpful booklet on how to do it all. All is done and it is sitting on the table in the studio, quietly humming. It’ll be interesting to see the result. Next time I must try to dry something a bit more challenging.