Harvest Friday 31 July

leaf beet - all the big plants from last year have gone to the hens now

leaf beet - small leaves to use in a salad from volunteer plants. We have replanted some and they are growing fine

raspberries - waiting for the autumn raspberries now

strawberries - no more left. I was thinking about buying a few plants new year for some fresh stock

mixed baby lettuce leaves - all gone. Just a few stubby bits that will go to the hens.
courgettes - they are growing nicely. Enough to eat and give to my family but not inundated yet
peas - not a great success this year but there have been a few to add to my lunchtime salads
french beans - just a few ready but they are lovely
blackberries - I have had blackberries with yoghurt every night this week for pudding. I can't believe how many there are that are ready to eat this early. It is going to be a bumper blackberry harvest this year. Yum!
potatoes - haven't dug any more yet but it won't be long now...

My friend, who also has an allotment, has been passing along her surplus lettuce and courgettes and I have been sharing them with the family. And the blackberries - the grandchildren just love blackberries. I shall have to find my jamming mojo soon because they will all expect a jar of jam in their Christmas stockings. The problem with early blackberries is that the apples are not ready yet to provide the pectin to set the jam.

My job at the allotment is weeding and my husband does everything else. Every time we go down there, I fill a large bucket with weeds for the hens to pick through. They get so excited when they see me coming with the bucket which makes me laugh. And I always bring back some of the rabbit's favourite plants too. He is such a fussy old thing and won't eat so many things that I always hunt for the ones that he will eat. He is an old boy now and deserves a few goodies.

Gleaning

Actually I am not sure if gleaning is the correct word for what I've been up to. I think gathering grain was in the original meaning. And there was no grain involved, just hay.

Yesterday at lunchtime our farmer friend rang up and and said he had cut his hay last weekend and was going to bale two fields. He said that the baler did not usually pick up the hay around the edge of the field very well so to come out to the hayfields and bring sacks and rakes. So we did. I was so pleased that it was not a baking hot day!  It turned out the smaller field is a bit overshadowed by the trees and tall hedges and the grass had not grown nearly so tall as in the larger field. The baler works better with longer grass so it had missed bits all over the field. When the hay is turned to dry it after cutting, it is left in little ridges up and down the field, ready for the baler. I raked the hay along these little ridges into mini stacks and my husband stuffed sacks with it. We probably covered about a third of the field and had 17 sacks stuffed as fatly as possible with hay. We just about got them all into the car with one in the footwell with me and the last one on my lap with me compressing it as much as I could so that my husband had a clear view out of the side windows. Good job that he does not mind driving using the wing mirrors and not being able to see through the back window with the rear view mirror.

Needless to say, we slept well last night! And we have enough hay in the shed to keep the hens' nest boxes well filled for the year and to keep the rabbit cosy all next winter.

Harvest Saturday 18 July

Leaf beet -         most of the big plants have gone to the hens now.

Baby leaf beet - there are just two left from last year to provide me with baby leaves for my                                          lunchtime salads.

New leaf beet - this year's self sown plants are popping up all over the place. I am letting them grow                            a bit and then picking the whole plant to eat as spinach for dinner. Yum.

Rhubarb -         there are a few new stems growing and I am looking forward to them stewed and                                 served with greek yoghurt

Raspberries -    very few raspberries around now until the autumn ones start fruiting.

Strawberries -   just literally one or two stragglers and that is it until next summer.

Mixed baby lettuce leaves - I have eaten the last of those little leaves this week so it is a good thing                             that my friend has too many lettuce all coming together and is very happy to share.
Gooseberries - We did not have a very good crop this year and ate the entire harvest for pudding last                           night. They were very tasty but I was hoping for more than one pudding : (
Courgettes -     I ate our first courgette in my lunchtime salad yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.                              The flavour is fabulous compared to the shop ones.
Potatoes -         We dug up one volunteer potato plant yesterday. It has yielded enough potatoes to do                           our dinner today. The plant was growing a bit close to some of the things we had                                   planted so we felt it was time to pull it up before it interfered with the "real" plants.

I am quite pleased with the quantity of things we have harvested this year so far. It has certainly made a noticeable difference to our grocery budget. And I love the feeling of satisfaction that I get from eating things that we have grown. We have not bought any seeds this year other than one pack of seed potatoes that my daughter spotted and brought us. Compost is made from trimmings and from rabbit and chicken poop (and also leave/bark mould from the leaves and bark that I put in the hens' runs to keep their feet out of the mud in wet weather and which needs scraped out of the runs every so often) and so is free. In fact our son and both daughters have all requested bags of compost this year and we have been able to supply eveybody's needs. I am looking forward to the next offerings from the allotment!

The Glorious Twelfth

Today is the Glorious Twelfth. And if you understand that, then you know where I grew up. As a child, it was simply a day with celebrations and parades and bands marching. I don't even know if they celebrate like that any more. There was nothing overtly political about it - just a good excuse for a holiday.

Today we celebrated by going to see our daughter and her husband and our little grandson. It was fun. My daughter and son-in-law also sorted my phone out because it was misbehaving. My phone threw a wobbly recently, deleted a couple of apps and refused to let others work although I could make and receive texts and calls with no problems. The phone also deleted my ring tone. and said that the SD card was corrupted.  This is all way above my technology skill set! Apparently there were some photos that were corrupted and this was the cause of all my problems. Anyway, they have sorted me and my phone out and I am happy again - until the next time...

It was lovely to see my little grandson and play in the garden with him. On our way home, I had a phone call from my son who asked that we call in at their house as he had something for me.  It turned out that they had been to an Asian shop and bought some real samosas with tamarind sauce and a carrot salad garnish. And, bless him, he had made sure to include enough for me. Yum! guess what I had for tea last night - as soon as I got in the door!  My husband won't eat them in case of meeting something spicy. I left him to do himself egg and beans and sat down and enjoyed mine : ) It was about seven hours since a light lunch so I was ravenous.

Yesterday I went to church for a morning service with a difference. Church but not as we knew it! We were sat in family groups all spread out across the sanctuary and there was no singing. And all of us wearing masks. It felt sooo weird. At least we can meet together for worship despite it being so different.

We have not harvested any different food from the allotment this week but just more of the same so I have not added to my list. My gooseberries are ready to pick but I just want a dry day for that.

Harvest Sunday 5 July

leaf beet - larger leaves for cooking as spinach

leaf beet - small leaves to use in a salad (just me as my husband won't eat it raw)

rhubarb

raspberries

strawberries

mixed baby lettuce leaves

Our leaf beet is still hanging in there and has not yet gone to the hens. If there is people food then the hen food has to wait. My friend who has an allotment near ours, gave me two of her beetroot this week. She had planted them quite close together and was thinning them out. I was happy to help! My husband does not like eating beetroot so they are both mine : ) We cut the beetroot leaves off and chopped them up with a couple of cauliflower leaves and three lone cabbage leaves and had them for dinner the night we got them. They taste just like spinach. Yum. I cook the beetroot in the microwave in the same way as potato and they are lovely. I like them as a veg with dinner or in a salad but they are also great in a cheese sandwich, especially with homemade wholemeal bread.