Preparation for Autumn

it is amazing how the allotment looks as though Summer is coming to an end. The beans are showing signs of dying back, the tomatoes have blight, the leaves on the squash are turning yellow and we are having cooler evenings. The ducks are also in the middle of their moult so will be getting their winter plumage. They are all very lethargic at the moment and looking a bit bedraggled. There is also a nice covering of feathers all over their compound.

As I can't get on with the harvest until the kitchen floor has finished, I have spent time in my sewing room and, also in preparation for Autumn have made a lovely waterproof cover for my bike basket.

I struggled to find some fabric that co-ordinated but I am sure one of the spots matches.

It is fully tailored with elastic round the bottom and a clip fastener at the back for extra security. I have tried at high speed and there is no risk of it blowing off so, in the event of being caught in a sudden shower, everything should be nice and secure and dry (except me).

More home projects

After Nick spent two days taking up the old kitchen floor, the new one started going down today. We have gone for a travetine tile and decided on an offset brick pattern. It is looking great so far and I can't wait to see the finished product.

I am going to have to get over my clumsy tendencies and things are less likely to bounce on this one.

We had a struggle getting the table out of the kitchen as it is a solid lump of wood on the top and weighs a ton. Nick strengthened the legs and I scrubbed and rewaxed the top as it was looking a little the worse for wear having been covered in onions, apples and tomatoes as well as jam and chutney over the last few weeks.





We have also ordered the woodburning stove today. This is what they say about the Aga, Little Wenlock Classic.



The Little Wenlock Classic Multi-fuel Stove in Matt Black

The perfect blend of old and new that combines cutting edge design with traditional casting beauty; the Little Wenlock Classic is truly magnificent. If you are looking for a stove with power, then this definitely worth a look!

This small cast iron multi-fuel stove, has a dedicated preheated secondary air and a nominal heat output of up to 4.7kW and offers either a top or rear flue connection.

The Little Wenlock Classic also comes with a high chrome riddling grate, a built-in ash pan, an interchangeable wood burning plate, combustion air control and one of the most effective airwash systems available on the market, which truly makes this stove, one of the most efficient wood burning stoves in the world!

We must be Gnomes

I found out yesterday that Gnome is an acronym of 'Guarding Naturally Over Mother Earth'

Does this mean that we are actually Gnomes?

Overripe

I have been neglecting the fruit cage since the currents finished and went in today to find eight huge over-ripe figs. So tonight we will be having pork with figs and lemon juice. I have kept the two less ripe ones but they are still very squishy.










The same seems to have happened to the peaches as the wasps have started attacking them so all have been picked. We ate one each and the rest have come home.














The main problem is raspberries i.e. what to do with them all. More jam on the way!

One thing that is worrying me is what to do with the bown of jam scum. It seems a shame to throw it away as there is quite a bit of it so I am going to leave it to cool before tasting it to see if it will do as icecream sauce.

The new teapot

Big excitment this evening when we got home from putting the ducks to bed, to find that I had won an item on ebay.

It is to add to my teapot collection and will sit beautifully alongside the onions and carrots.

Furniture update

I have now waxed the chair that I was refurbishing and moved on to my next project so here is the finished article. I think it will need another waxing but would like to leave it a week or two to let this coat settle in.










We also got an old family ottoman which I can remember as my grandmothers. Unfortunately I didn't take a before photo where it has a woven whicker side covering and wipe clean beige on the top.

I stripped it back and found some lovely orange floral 70s covering underneath but I have brought it up to the 21st century by using two different black and white fabrics, painting the legs black and putting black trim around the edges. It is new my fabric box ready for future projects.

I also made a cushion with a bit of the left over fabric.

Kentish life

I have added a new link so that you can get to know all about life in Kent as well as life in Basingstoke.

It is not all gardening

Our view of an allotment is that it should be a place for enjoyment, which means not all digging and weeding. On 53 we have a table and chairs where we can sit and drink tea and enjoy the ducks. This is also our relaxation spot so i now have my travelling tapestry kit which I take everywhere with me.

Thanks to Rebecca's sewing skills, she made me, what she thought was, a pencil case for my birthday, I have a lovely bag to keep everything clean and tidy.

Jam and Chutney

As I have been off work for a couple of weeks, and it is bumper crop time, the preserving pan has been busy again. As well as the raspberry jam, plum jam, mint jelly and Mango, peach, apple and sultana spicy chutney, I have now made a batch of red, white and black current cheese and what has been labeled as 'mixed fruit chutney'.

I took the opportunity to make a start on having a clear out of the kitchen cupboards (mainly to make room for all the jam and chutney) and as well as finding about 20 jars of unlabelled chutney and 5 jars of beetroot that I didn't know I had, I found that there was quite a selection of dried fruit that we crying out to be used up. Along with some onions that wouldn't store and some of the apples that are still sitting in a bucket in the middle of the kitchen, I made 'mixed fruit chutney. I seem to remember that there were sultanas, apricots, almonds, and jar of something without a label that looked like raisins.

Potatoes and onions

We seem to have a good crop of Onions this year and I have almost run out of space to hang them in the kitchen. I still have a cat litter tray full of shallots. I am not sure why I grow them as they are so strong that I can't prepare more than three without having to give up as I hvae tears streaming down my face. I am thinking of getting a swimming mask to wear.

We have made up one sack of potatoes already and dug some more this week which were (we think) Anya. They are lovely waxy salad potatoes so I can't wait to try some.

The trailer

Having changed the car from the Beverley Hillbillies wagon to an Alfa Romeo we would that we couldn't transport as much as we used to. In fact, something that we moved a few weeks ago that needed moving again, is going to have to wait as it won't fit in this car.

So........ never missing an opportunity to go to the tip and look around the shop, we happened to time it with there being a frame for a trailer which we bought for £10. We had no way of getting it home so we had to get our friend with a van to pick it up for us and after another £10, the trailer has so far cost us £20.



We are hoping that apart from getting a towbar on the car, the cost won't be much more than that.

When we had to get all the furniture out of the house following the great flood, our bed wouldn't fit out of the room without taking it apart. We bought a new Hypnos bed at the Grand Designs show so the base was obsolete but we didn't like to get rid of it. Now we are glad that we didn't as the wood from the surround has made the base of the trailer, the slats for the base are the sides and the headboard will make the ends.

It has reasonable tyres and has the lighting board so the only other cost should be, possibly new inner tubes, lighting covers (as one has a crack) and a number plate.

This is the big project for next week so watch this space for it in action.

p.s. I will need to make a cover and have some particularly pretty floral material but I am not sure Nick will approve.

Size matters

It has worried me for a while that it is difficult to show the scale of things on the allotment so I decided that, for fruit, a Tesco's standard banana should be the gague.

So here is the fig I picked at the weekend. There are about 6 more that should be ready soon but this is a test fig.
















The peaches continue to grow but I am not sure when they will be ready. I am reluctant to squeeze too hard, but they still feel fairly firm. They are pinking up a bit though so I think it won't be long.














We are getting ready for the dahlia show by making sure that we pick regularly so that we have some good samples coming on the week before the show and hopefully at their best in time.

One hospital case was so heavy that the stem broke taking with it a couple of buds so I am hoping more develop quickly.

The best is being kept under wraps but hopefully it will be shown with its winners prize.

My bike

I realise that I haven'd done a blog entry for my bike. It its first real outing yesterday when we cycled to the allotment in the morning. So here it is....



At the allotment










In Eastrop park on the way home (stopped for an ice-cream) having been to the library and carrying some fruit. salad leaves and a cucumber.








Outside Tesco in Chineham with a basketfull of shopping

Angel's first day out

Today was a big day for Angel as we opened the doors to let her out in the garden. It could have gone either way - she could have run and not come back or been very cautious.

Thankfully it was the latter. The was very wary about stepping outside the safe haven that we have provided her with and it was ages before she got further than the edge of the decking.









Everything had to be sniffed and identified. She worked the boundary of the garden before checking out the front.












She even did a bit of butterfly chasing. I have a feeling she is going to be the sort of cat that regularly shows her gratitude but bringing us presents i.e. mice, birds, frogs etc. Can't wait.












She wasn't very keen on coming in at dusk but we were too unsure of how she would be left alone while we went to put the ducks to bed.Just to be sure she had to get a view from about so tried out the fence for height and scratchiness.

Good harvest

Todays harvest consisted of: a bucket of apples, raspberries, plums, red, black and white currents, blueberries, beans, red cabbage, carrots and red Gooseberries.

Good home cooked food

Good home grown and cooked food


I made a bowl of crunchy coleslaw with our own red cabbage, onion, apply, carrots. Even if I say it myself, it was lovely.












Nick will not be able to complain about not getting the most of our efforts. For lunch we had quiche made with our own courgettes and spinach and of course the ducks eggs; home made coleslaw, potatoe salad made with our own potatoes and spring onions; freshly pickled beetroot, mixed salad leaves that were sown just a couple of weeks ago, and our own cucumber. The only ingredients that weren't home grown were the tomatoes (ours are just turning orange so not ready yet, the ingredients for the pastry for the quiche and the cheese on top of the quiche.




For afternoon tea we had tea cakes kindly provided by Tesco topped with the plum jam and raspberry jam I made yesterday - yummy.

Getting fruity

It seems like it is Autumn already as the apples are dropping so we are having to start picking.

The trick is to make sure that we don't mix the types - eating, cooking, cider














More exciting news from peach watch. We still have five and with the rain they are plumping up nicely and getting some colour. If the taste is as good as the apricot, I can't wait for them to be ready.










Of course, a glut of applies means it is chutney making time. My all time favourite 'Mint Jelly'. I had trouble getting it to set, so just kept boiling until the liquid reduced. I finally gave up and poured it into the jars and thankfully it set as it cooled.









Another was using up some left overs and a clear out of the store cupboard. This is 'Mango, peach, apple and sultana spicy chutney'.

Ingredients
A bag of dried mango cut into small pieces
Three over ripe peaches
Five cooking applies
Two onions with soft necks so they wouldn't store
One elephant garlic finely chopped
A handful of golden raisins
What ever type of vinigar you can find - cider, white wine and white distilled
Sugar

It looks like chutney, it tastes like chutney, and added to a Thai Green Chicken currey, it certainly has kick back.







One other item we have obtained recently is the Head Gardner mug. It is currently on the kitchen window sill as we don't want to discuss who's mug it should be.

A sunny weekend

What else is there to be but curl up and have a good sleep under the apple tree. Ok if you are a duck but not the case if you are being taken over by Fat Hen, Bindweed and a pesky Rabbit.


I have had disaster this year with beans as about half have all been chewed off about six inches from the ground. The ones that have survived are growing like mad as they have so much light and space but that is not the point.

It seems we have a rabbit, and he had the cheek to wander along the path to face me. If only I had had a bit of netting I could have caught it in the style of gladiators, but all I could do was stand and should 'NICK' at the top of my voice. Unfortunately, that only made the rabbit run for cover, so he is still there and still eating my beans.

I have left the gate open so either he will get out or 10 of his mates will go and join him. We will have to see.


Thankfully, due to the sterling work of Nick and Matt in building the brassica cage, no damage has been done in there.

The cabages I planted late are growing well and, now that I have weeded them so are the sprouts, kale and red cabbage.







The tub of weeds you can see here is from one bed only. Most of it is Fat Hen which is an annual weed and as long as it hasn't gone to seed can go into the compost bin.

Talking of which, having mowed the grass and the veg waste from all the cooking, we have half filled the third one already.

The large green compost bin has been sitting for 18 months, so come the autumn should be beautiful compost, to sift and add to the beds.




We are getting a good supply of cucumber from the greenhouse, but sadly this one was growing close to the glass and got behind one of the struts. I hadn't seem it because of the leaves so it just kept on growing either side of the metal strip. I had to very gentry ease it out otherwise it could have broken the glass.









We have never had much success with carrots. Either the carrot root fly got to them so they were full of holes, or the shallow soil meant that they forked or were short and stumpy.

This year we added a lot of compost to the bed to make it deeper and I sowed later so avoided the fly. The result - lovely long, wonderfully smelling and tasting carrots.









More from the brassica cage. Most of the lettuce went to seed so was bitter. Not that the ducks minded as they love it like that. The one salad leave that has been a great surprise is the chinese leaves, which just keep on growing long and sweet. We have had a good supply and I would highly recommend.

I have started sowing winter salad leaves in the place where I took out the seeded ones, so we should have a good supply throughout the next few months.






I was worried about the sweetcorn as it hasn't grown very tall but cobs are forming so I am haping that they will be just as good as last year.













The cabbages are hearting up nicely and I have resorted to organic slug pellets under here as there is no chance of birds getting in.

There is sign around the edges of nibbles but it seems to be keeping most of them at bay.









I have also been watering regularly with rhubarb mix. This is rhubarb leaves soaked in a tob of water. The resulting mixture, if watered over the crops gets rid of caterpillas and stops the cabbage white laying. It seems to have worked too. The red cabbage is the same, it seems to be only the outside leaves that have been chewed.










I have never been able to grow cauliflowers before as they always 'blow' before I get to them. We have five beauties although for the time they take to grow and the amount of space they take up, I am not sure it is worth it.