Our harvest

 I realise that I haven't written my list to remind me what the harvest has been from the allotment. We have done really well this year. We have provided most of our own veg and a lot towards feeding our three kids' families too. So we are really pleased with the crops - mostly (see list below).

purple sprouting broccoli - wonderful crop. I love this and was really disappointed when it ended. You can tell how good the crop was because one set of grandchildren rebelled - oh no, not that stuff for dinner again : )

mangetout - another brilliant crop. I loved them raw with my lunch as well as a veg for dinner.

french beans - still ongoing although there are not so many left now

runner beans - these have been following on from the french beans. I love these young and am not so keen when they are more mature

asparagus kale - a very prolific plant and my favourite form of kale because of its milder flavour. We leave these in for the second year and eat the flower buds like sprouting broccoli. Yum. It is a very tolerant plant and the "volunteers" do not seem to mind being transplanted. We have supplied all three of our kids with homemade compost this year and all three have had "volunteer" asparagus kale plants growing in with whatever they used the compost for : ) It is still going strong and I have been cropping it for about 5 months now.

leaf beet- this is another stalwart whose "volunteers" don't seem to mind being transplanted to a more suitable location. We have been eating this one for about 5 months too. I also leave this one until the second year and pull the flower heads off because it then produces lots of little leaves which I like in salads.

raspberries - we have had lots of raspberries but only enough for desserts. Next year I am hoping that we will have enough for some jam too.

strawberries - not a single one this year. I was very disappointed but hoping for better things next year.

rhubarb - this year  we have had the best crop ever from our rhubarb. I love this stewed and serves with lovely this greek yoghurt.

gooseberries - just a handful this year as we moved the bush

redcurrants - we moved that bush too so only a very small handful.

blackcurrants - or rather, worcesterberries, which are a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrants. Think gooseberry sized blackcurrants which are so much easier to work with. We moved that bush too so again, just a handful.

Baking and more baking

It is Monday so I have been down at the church coffeeshop all day. Baking and more baking. I was quite pleased with myself when I opened the freezer door and found that I had to push things around a bit to get in what I had made today. That means that if there is a week when I can't make it down there, for whatever reason, they will cope without me for a few days.

Theoretically, in the freezer there is a shelf for "speciality" cakes, one for "large" cakes, one for "medium" cakes and one for "small" cakes. In practice, you can't stack freshly made cakes in the freezer because the bottom one will get squashed. So fresh cakes get tucked into whatever space I can find and then they get put away properly the next time I am there. So, after this baking session, there are no flat spaces left in which to put a fresh cake to freeze - until customers have eaten more cake, that is. I have been trying out various new recipes and they seem to be going down well. Cakes don't just have to taste good but have to be fairly straightforward to make and also not too expensive to produce. We are a charity and we aim to try to break even and cover our costs rather than make a profit. At the moment, some of our furniture is showing signs of wear so a small profit would be good so that we can buy some more chairs. I seem to spend a lot of time working out how to save £1 here and 50p there and shopping in whichever local supermarket has an ingredient on offer that I can use. It all keeps me out of mischief!