December update

The end of the year is nearly here and I decided to inspect the damage caused by my neglect on the plot.

I was pleased to see that overall it was not too bad but in no way is the tidiness as good as Bernie’s which is dug and covered already. On my plot, a few hopeful weeds are clinging on and I need to tidy up generally. The manure I spread around the raspberries seems to be keeping weeds down but still needs hand weeding to get on top of any sneaky dandelions.

My own compost bins should be almost ready (she writes hopefully) and spreading that around once I've turned the soil should help nourish the earth and keep weeds down (unless it activates weed seeds that have been lurking in the compost). I can't see the likelihood of getting any help with that back breaking job.

I noticed we also had a massive pony poo delivery - I must nab a bit to mulch with. It should have rotted down by planting time. Not sure if I'll have time before Xmas though to transport it to the plot...

Mental note on general fertilisers: if you have rotted down root perennial weeds like bindweed and dandelions for fertiliser, don't forget and try to wash your hand in it at a later date. It is revoltingly stinky and it takes a lot of soap and hand gel to shift the lingering stench.

Looking around other plots, it looks like others seem to have put chard seedlings in. Too late for me. At least I have 3 PSB seedlings/ plants established. Admittedly this is a bad return on the 20 or so plug plants I started with but the way I see it these are strongest by natural selection.

I should have covered PSB as they have suffered pigeon damage. Maybe I’ll do it now (or after xmas) so they have time to recover in spring.

While it looks like rosemary is the only useable thing in the plot actually the Jerusalem artichoke is ready. I will leave in the ground until I’m able to use it as they go wrinkly quickly. Never the prettiest of veg, wrinkles don't enhance things.

I decided to try out a Jamie Oliver recipe:
2 handfuls of large Jerusalem artichokes or new potatoes
1 radicchio or treviso, outer leaves discarded (I left this out as I don’t like the bitterness)
3 little gem lettuces, leaves washed, dried and stalks removed
a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley or chervil, leaves picked and finely sliced
extra virgin olive oil
8 rashers thickly sliced smoked streaky bacon or pancetta
1 small red onion, peeled and finely sliced
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Scrub the Jerusalem artichokes and boil them in salted water until tender. Once cool, cut them in half and set aside. Wash and dry salad leaves in a salad spinner.
Cut your bacon into slices and fry it. Add the sliced onion and the Jerusalem artichokes. Fry on a medium heat until the bacon is golden and crisp, the onion is sticky and soft and the Jerusalem artichokes have sucked up all the flavours and turned crispy.
Divide half the contents between four plates, then add 5 tablespoons of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the pan, with a little pinch of salt and pepper. Mix everything together so the flavours improve and then pour immediately over the salad leaves waiting in the bowl. Toss lightly and quickly.

Incidentally the rosemary sprigs made pretty festive flourishes for the Christmas table

In other cooking news, I made Trucklements relish with shop bought beetroot and horseradish (bought in chapel market). Not quite in the grow your own spirit but delicious. You can find the recipe here

Review of the year

Well this year is pretty much acknowledged to have been a dreadful year. Bad weather affected most growers and combined with a heavy work schedule and a slightly slap dash confidence in my abilities, 2012 was my annus vebetablus horribilis.

It wasn't all doom and gloom:

• The fruit did well and raspberries and rhubarb were great
• My (bought) butternut squash plant worked well and yielded 5.5 squash (even if I did then let them go a touch mouldy)
• This was the first year I had success with Alliums and the yield was good as they were given an autumn head start
• Mixed success with broad beans - I wonder if I should leave them in longer as I have a harvest around May but then I read about their season being later in summer in cooking magazines so wonder if they are a result of successional sowing rather than a second flush from autumn sown plants.  My experiment for next year I suspect.

On the whole though, my plot under-performed with usual favourites failing me:

• Potato yields were tiny in comparison to previous years
• Tomatoes hardly even had enough fruit and even they didn't turn red before being feasted on by slugs
• Salad leaves never really got started (slugs again) - the only exception was rocket which is pretty much a weed
• Strawberries are probably in need of a move to refresh themselves
• Jerusalem artichokes, like potatoes, had a small harvest. Considering that they are near perennials I don't think moving them will help (and the place they are in is good as they don't over-shadow other plants) but I do think I need to water them more (both more often and just more water)

I did measure harvests (sort of) but the depressingly small amounts may have meant that I gave up in disgust this year.

Great expectations

OK, I admit it, I have been really lazy/ busy/ practical (delete as appropriate) and haven't been on the plot as often as I would like.  I mainly blame travel, bad weather and the fact there is precious little there to look at. I certainly don't blame myself (well, maybe a little bit).

When I find them (in an 'obvious' bag in the kitchen), I will plant autumn onion sets even though they are a little late and I should have done that in November. They will follow on from the Butternut Squash and go in the area cleared in front of the Jerusalem artichokes.  I bought them at the RHS show (which also had some funky late night drinks run by the Midnight Apothecary) along with garlic (Solent White variety and elephant) I reused some of mine from this year too.

I have also planned the location of my potatoes for next year which was pretty tough. I needed to avoid where they been before which narrows things down.  Especially as I put 2 lots in this year in different places and they take up a fair amount of space. The issue is I'll want to plant them around St Patrick's day (17 March) and the purple sprouting broccoli will be in full flow and the onions won't be out till June.

Luckily, looking at the plot recently, only a few seedlings of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli (PSB) have survived. This will create potato space and save us from eating PSB ad infinitum in spring. a bonus of failed seedlings I guess - silver lining etc.

Other things to consider now:

• Keep weeding
• Protect young brassicas from late cabbage White butterflies and pigeons love a brassica seedling. I clearly didn't do this enough as mine have struggled to fight off the attacks.  At this stage in the year it's probably more the birds than the butterflies that will be the problem (even the latest of late cabbasge whites must surely have gone 'home' by now)
• Cut back and divide mint if looking woody
• Start digging and cover with tarpaulin or sow green manure - think I'll leave that till spring.

My Butternut Squash (BNS) has been flourishing and we ended up with 5.5 squashes from one plant (5 normal plus one tiddler). unfortunately the bad weather and my impatience made me bring them into the house before they had cured. They developed mouldy patches alarmingly quickly so I have had to improvise BNS based recipes and stews to avoid some of my rare successful harvests this year going to waste.

For reference next year this is how you cure BNS without them going mouldy (hopefully):
1. Place butternut squash on a dry surface with good air circulation. Some gardeners may keep them outside provided the temperatures are at least above 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), but inside works just as well.
2. Wait. Butternut squash will take about 10 to 12 days to cure in 50 to 55 degree F temperatures. You can tell when the squash is cured if the skin is hard and not easily bruised. Properly cured butternut squash can last for several months.

Harvest festival

This is cheating slightly as the apples that are the main ingredient in this recipe were not grown in my garden but they were given to me by a colleague and it's a great way of using cooking apples. It's even a little healthy I like to think as it has yoghurt in.
Natalia's Apple tray bake cake
1 cup yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cooking apples, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix yoghurt with the bicarb of soda and then all the rest - the dough will look really sticky. Add the apples and add the cinnamon. should have more apples than dough. Pour into a brownie tin and cook for 160 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The second set of potatoes did OK but I only harvested 3.3kg from the 8 or so seed potatoes. In comparison with last year's haul 2012 has not been a stellar year. I suppose I could have left them in longer but the slugs had already got started on themand the top growth was less than perky looking.

I also harvested 950g of rhubarb which I was going to make apple and rhubarb jam but unfortunately I burnt the jam by leaving it on the heat too long while I was focussing on sterilising the jars. Now I have sterile jars but no jam. Damn.

I have 4 more beetroot which I roasted and will make beetroot houmous with using a Nigella recipe (below but with sesame seeds substituted for cumin which is verboten in our house because it's horrid) though I am also partial to a Beetroot horseradish dip where you combine 250g of beetroot with 2 tbsp of horseradish and 100 ml of creme fraiche or yoghurt and blitz in the processor.
Ingredients

• 400g Chickpeas in tin, drained.
• 2-4 fresh Beetroot, peeled & boiled until soft.
• 2-4 cloves Garlic, crushed or chopped
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 90ml Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon fine sesame seeds
• 1/4 Cup Tahini (optional)

Method

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and process till smooth.
2. If it is too thick, gently drizzle a little water into the mixture until just right 

As a final fling the yellow courgettes have done me proud (ish).  I gathered 2.5kg of yellow courgettes including one that got out of control -1.7kg alone.  I'm not sure yet what to do with these monsters (along with a gifted marrow). Thoughts on a postcard please.  Maybe Nigella's courgette and raisin pasta...

The butternut squash look promising and I planted some Charlotte seed potatoes by the Jerusalem artichokes as an experiment. Even if there is no sign of growth I will leave tehm in for an early start next spring. Broad beans were sown in the potato area and deep rooted weeds dug up (mainly). A productive session.

Back to school

It's the time of shiny pens and new exercise books for school kids (do they still have those smelly rubbers and pencils too?). For gardeners, it's also the start of a new year. This is when we lay the foundations for the growth we hope to see in the following year.  It might seem that by cutting down old growth and tidying up in general we are putting the plot to bed but, in fact, by digging up perennial weeds and spreading compost and covering the bare earth, you are preparing the ideal growing conditions for new plants (or plumping the earthy pillows to carry on the slightly over-stretched metaphor).

It's a time to review the performance from the last growing year to see what has worked well and not. That one is easy this year - most things didn't work very well at all.  Really the only successes were the rhubarb and the raspberries (whose lack of autumn raspberries indicate they are summer fruiting).  Even the usually prolific Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes suffered this year.

The second planting of potatoes are looking a little sorry for themselves and may have suffered blight as the tops are wilted and a bit brown.  There are minimal signs of any new courgettes after the 2 giant yellow ones.

Luckily I was given 2 enormous marrows which I have used in a Moroccan stew.  The grape leaves are still languishing in the fridge as on the day I was planning to make dolma we decided that we preferred lasagne.

The year is not over yet though - we are still able to plant. I will give early potatoes given another go (Charlotte), and I will also plant some bulbs for spring displays, sow broad beans, onion sets and garlic onto the plot.

With all this planning I need to think about crop rotation. My brassicas (mainly sprouting broccolis) are already in the beds where tomatoes and courgettes were before, so my main decision is what to grow where the potatoes, onions and garlic were.  I think I will put the onions and garlic in front of the Jerusalem artichokes. This isn't the case for me but if you plan to plant brassicas in land where potatoes were then you need to lime your plot once taking up the potatoes.

The wrath of grapes?

At the weekend I cut back the grape vines which had got totally out of hand. They were so overgrown I couldn't even see the compost bins (even if I was really looking hard for them which I wasn't). 

This manic moment of pruning (well, butchering) revealed many but tiny bunches of green grapes below.  This made me think how clever people are and that there is a marvellously clever symbiosis of using grape leaves as wraps for food when there is a surplus of leaves once you cut back the branches to allow sunlight to ripen the grapes underneath. which then get made into wine (in places like Greece where they actually have sunshine - I just get dark red bullets). 

I have saved the largest leaves and will be making Quorn dolma at home when I get around to it.
Quorn/ beef dolma

Ingredients

• Dolmades
• 2 cups short grain rice, washed
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 small red capsicum, char grilled, skin removed and finely chopped
• 1 small aubergine, sliced and grilled then diced
• 50g currants
• 3-4 eggs
• Fresh black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 3 lemons, (1 cut into slices and 2 made into juice)
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 200g vine leaves, approximately depending on the size of the vine leaves, approximately 70-80
• Lemon, garlic dipping sauce:
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1 clove of garlic finely minced
• 125g low fat natural yoghurt

Method

For the dolmades: wash the rice well and drain well. Bring to boil 3 cups of water and add rice and stir until boiling, reduce heat to very low and place lid on. Cook for 15 minutes then turn off the heat and let the pot stand for 10 minutes. Do not lift the lid.
Tip the rice out into a bowl and add the minced garlic, onion, red capsicum, eggplant, currants, pine nuts, oregano, and dill and combine gently, add 1 egg at a time and gently combine keep adding eggs until the rice hold together when you squeeze it into a ball, season with pepper.
Wash the vine leaves well if using packaged ones, leave soaking in clean cold water while you use them.
Take 1 vine leaf and place it on a board, shiny side down and add teaspoon of mix and roll into a small cigar shape folding in the sides as you go. Place then in a steamer, seam side down and pack them tightly together and steam them until cooked about 20-30 minutes, once cooked place them in a flat bottomed container with a lid and add sliced lemons and lemon juice and pour over olive oil, let marinate.
For the lemon garlic dipping sauce: Mix ingredients together in a bowl.
To serve: Remove dolmades from marinade, serve cold with dipping sauce.

Nutritional Analysis (average per 135g)

Energy	863kJ,
Protein	5.6g
Fat	8.0g
Saturated fat	1.2g
Carbohydrate	26.7g
Sugars	4.7g
Dietary fibre	2.5g
Sodium	320mg

A happy accident
Unfortunately I cut off the growing tips of a few Jerusalem artichokes in my over-enthusiasm of cutting. Luckily , it turns out that was the right thing to do - as was ignoring watering them! (though I still worry that the grape vines created a situation of extreme drought).This is the advice from RHS:

When stems are around 30cm (12in) tall, draw soil around them to a depth of 30cm 15cm (6in) to help stabilise plants as they grow. Cut back stems (including flowerheads) to around 1.5m (5ft) in midsummer so plants won’t be rocked by the wind, thus avoiding the need for staking. Only water in cases of severe drought.  When foliage starts to turn yellow in autumn, prune to leave 8cm (3in) stumps above ground level. Place the prunings over plants to keep the soil warm and aid lifting of tubers in frosty weather.

Now I just have to pick up all the debris, turn the compost, plant the potatoes, sow the broad beans and beetroot.  Easy.

Medal winning plots?

While Team GB may have won a record haul of medals the plots of Great Britain are unlikely to have flourished in the sporadic weather. Or certainly judging by my plot.

People generally seem to agree that this has been one of the worst summers on record and we are seeing productivity way down on previous years. There is very little happening on the plot at the moment but all is not lost - I planted purple sprouting broccoli seedlings (16x Extra Early Rudolph plants from Marshalls) and more potatoes (some of which have already curled up and died) and will plant my living salad (mustards which survive colder weather better and don't bolt) at the weekend.

I cut down the old wood of the raspberries and saw that the grape vines are hugely overgrown - time soon for a trim and some dolma (stuffed vine leaves) soon.

Keep on top of weeds and check your potatoes that are in storage. I had an unpleasant and stinky experience with an exploding one - most unpleasant!  Keep them dry and in the cool but allow them to breathe.

The courgettes are still under attack but 2 beautiful yellow monsters appeared when I wasn't looking.
Cut them into thin slices, griddle, serve with feta, toasted pine nuts and mint. (The BBC recipe also says chili but I wimped out). It's a really delicious, fresh and summery dish - great as a starter or main depending on how greedy you are.

The hungry gap comes late

The recent (ongoing) weather has been a disaster for the crops this year - yields are down YOY and the cupboard is bare. There is little hope of anything else coming off the plot in the near future - the beans have not survived brutal slug attack and the Brussel sprout/ curly green kale plug plants were devoured by snails in our garden.

The beetroots are looking ok though so will plant more of them (much to Tom's disgust) and I will try the supermarket salad trick again. Basically buy a tray of supermarket living salad, separate out into plantlets and replant in real soil with a decent spacing.  Surround by copper barbed wire to deter snails (I may be over-reacting here) and wait for your instant salad to grow.

With my brother-in-law over at the weekend I didn't get much allotment time but I did hear tales of prolific tomato and cucumber plants in greenhouses in Germany. No such luck here. Even friends who grew tomatoes under cover have reported that plants didn't really flower enough for a good crop.  I have a measly couple of chili peppers on the grafted pepper plant I bought last year from Hampton Court flower show. Clearly, I will have to find an alternative source for this year's chili jelly.

What I do have in abundance are weeds. They are knee high now and a source for shame when I viewed them on Sunday on a flying visit to pick 1.4kg of raspberries.  Luckily I have the weekend free so I will rip up the worst offenders to compost them and reveal the brave remaining plantlets still in the allotment.  Perhaps I will also have to resort to larger ready to pick (almost) plants to at least give me a reason to visit the plot.

I did harvest a handful of blueberries which was fun but perhaps not the best yield from 2 bushes. No sign of currants (red or black) or gooseberries though being overwhelmed by raspberries may have cramped their style - must move them this Autumn.  The good old Jerusalem artichokes seem to be ok though I will cut back the grapes to allow the torrential rains to get to the roots as it would be ironic if this year of all years they suffered from drought (as my container potatoes seemed to).

According to gardenorganic.co.uk these are things I could be sowing now:

Swiss chard

until mid August, or end of August undercover. To brighten up your winter plot, try Rainbow chard. Stems can be orange, yellow, red, bright pink or even white!

Peas	maincrop, mangetout and sugarsnap until end of July

Pak choi

until end August

Kohl rabi

until August. Try Azure Star, striking blue/purple ‘bulbs’ with white, mild flavoured  flesh

Calabrese

until end July

Beetroot

early and maincrop; until July. Try 'Boltardy', good resistance to bolting, with fine   texture and flavour

So mainly leafy things and brassicas - roll on Autumn and the new crops on the block.

Time to get serious

Written 18 June in a brief dry period.

Up until now I've had the excuse of unrelenting rain to keep me from my allotment duties. Now the deluges have stopped (for now) I need to whip the plot back into shape.

Having been away over the weekend, the best I could do was to dedicate an hour to weeding on my way home from the airport in Monday. The rain has been a blessing before the water ban was lifted but it watered the weeds as much as the vegetable plants. Once the sun cane out there was no stopping the weeds. I still have a way to go until the plot is as tidy as I would like but the worst culprits are out now.

As the garlic seems to have developed rust (at least it looks like it to me) I harvested them and I will use that space for some bought squash and courgette plants (as I am so far behind). A few fancy beetroots won't go amiss either. Maybe a few beans and the 4 tomato plants still languishing in the kitchen. The garlic have been put on the back step to dry and we are well and truly protected from vampire attack - at least from the back garden. I do hope foxes and/ or cats don't feel the need to mark the bulbs. The garlic are a striking purple - really appealing. Not bad for a crop that more or less looked after themselves over the winter.

The broad beans are romping away and I harvested 600g of beans worth which, according to Sarah Raven you should be able to get from 2kg of pods. Delicious boiled and mixed with fried bacon bits, avocado and a citrussy dressing.

Even though they say you shouldn't harvest from rhubarb in June I got an extra harvest from the strongest most established plants. The strawberries are under attack by snails which are the bane of my life (clearly it's a relatively untroubled life at the moment!).

A jubilee cake what I made...

And the rains keep coming

Well where did June go? What a wash out! We have just experienced the wettest June since records began and July hasn't started off much better with warnings of a month's rain falling in a day (which was scheduled for when I went to the open air Hampton Court Flower show but think it's this Sunday judging by what I can see out of the window).

While the water means I save on watering duties (the hosepipe ban was lifted as it seems to be the successful British equivalent of a rain dance) it also is bad news for the allotment. My main two crops seem to be weeds and snails. Not being French or having the inclination to do odd things to clean the snails enough for eating the snails are an unwelcome addition to the plot - eating my strawberries, baby squash and bean plants. Which weren't growing well anyway to be honest even before they were beheaded.

The tomato seedlings are still tiny and the ones I bought in are developing yellow leaves (I assume the nutrients are being washed away). To tackle the snail invasion my colleague has been experimenting with a number of methods - beer (diluted by rain), nematodes (expensive for large area), salt baths (unpleasant in the morning and involves a regular gathering process) and pellets. The jury is still out if there is anything you can really do against this plague of pests.

The weeds, on the other hand, I could have tackled. And I will. As soon as the weather dries out a little (please, please, please). It's important to clear weeds as they are competition for the few plants that are growing.

I could claim that in the spirit of enquiry I have been letting things follow their course but actually I'm just lazy and haven't visited the allotment enough to sort things out as I don't fancy gardening in a flood. All this inattention has taken its toll on the usual star performers. The potatoes were indeed useless - yellowing leaves usually means they are ready with their pot of gold waiting underground but this year the yield was pathetic. I must feed the ground more and try a different planting method. One variety (British Queen) was making much larger (but fewer) potatoes than the salad tubers (Swift) that were on border of getting scab. Avoid next year?

By this time last year I had harvested 12.5kg of potatoes - quite a contrast to the 6.7kg I have sitting in the kitchen. I can only hope a second sowing will have better yields. The potatoes include red and blue (a misguided jubilee idea)  and, until I looked at last year I was worried I had harvested too early especially as Bernie's are still in ground and looking healthy.   Next year...

The broad beans weren't bad (the uncovered ones seemed to have yielded a few more pods to the untrained eye but it's not really experiment conditions and I suspect location (slightly less overshadowed by the grape vines) had more to do with it. A stir fry with bacon and a garlicky houmous type crush was very tasty.

Apart from the star performers, rhubarb, another real success were the raspberries. One cursory visit on a rare dry evening yielded 1kg of the berries - they were so eager to be picked that they were falling off the plants. I haven't even ventured into the centre. The fruit seem to be on old wood. Does that mean summer or autumn fruiting? I guess this is some sort of summer. I'll cut the stems down after fruiting and see if newer stems crop in autumn. With the slightly bruised fruit (a carrier bag is not ideal transport) I made microwave jam. The recipe is on allotment.org.uk and is really easy and reliable (so far).

Onions

Just as I was running out of space the onions were ready for harvesting. By far the best and largest were the yellow onions - the white and red were small in comparison. I also lifted the elephant garlic which, while not exhibition size, was big. I have left the garlic and shallots in the ground in the hope they will get better. Who knows?

I have slow cooked the onion in readiness for a caramelised onion tart. Meanwhile the elephant garlic was trimmed, wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven.

The onion, along with some griddled courgettes, made a healthy and delicious topping for a pizza.

The rest of the onions and garlic are drying in the sun but in a sheltered place as there are storms predicted.

Most plants have been coping well in the drought and hot weather we have been having. I gave the seedlings and potatoes a good drenching with a bucket to make sure the establish well. I also sowed two varieties of courgette - yellow and golf ball size. I sowed straight into the ground which is new thing for me so I hope the do well. I also managed to harvest a tiny 200g of potatoes as I was transplanting the Christmas potatoes in the front garden. More than enough for a little potato salad.

I have to cut the raspberry canes down as they are obstructing the path. This is a real shame as they are just starting to fruit. I just didn't expect them to go this wild. Maybe retying some wires will control them long enough to allow me to harvest the fruit?

And it keeps on coming

Finally the rains seem to be on their way out and the weekend was dry enough to visit the allotment and do something useful. I weeded a bit and harvested an elephant garlic early. Not a bad size but very stinky to wander around the supermarket with.

I planted the borlotti beans, butternut squash, White sprouting broccoli and mystery tomatoes. I also bought a black cherry tomato at brockley Market so that is the only named variety I can identify for sure. As the plot seems to be a nursery for snails I hope they all make it.

The rhubarb seems to be calming down a little but I was still able to harvest 880g of rhubarb. I decided to try a new recipe - rhubarb clafoutis from River Cottage Everyday.

Rhubarb Clafoutis
from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Every Day
serves 6 (but that's generous portions each)
550g rhubarb
a pinch of cinnamon
grated zest of 1/2 orange and the juice of the whole fruit
110g sugar
50g plain flour
a pinch of sea salt
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
Preheat the oven to 200degrees. Cut the rhubarb into 2-inch lengths and put it into a baking pan with the cinnamon, orange juice, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Toss well, and roast for 20 minutes until just starting to caramelize. Let it cool, and drain it in a sieve.

Turn the oven down to 180 degrees. Butter a 25cm round baking dish or springform. Arrange the rhubarb on the bottom of the dish.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the center and add the beaten eggs. Stir the flour into the eggs, and then whisk in the milk a little at a time.
Pour the batter over the rhubarb and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the clafoutis is golden and puffed. Serve warm or cold, with icing sugar to top.

So that's breakfast sorted for Tom all week then.

Bank holiday washout

I would usually would be busy in the garden - maybe tidying it up for a BBQ or planting out the butternut Squash seedlings. However a combination of rain, work and Tom being in Vancouver (marathon #2) meant the bank holiday was a bit of a wash out.

As the rains lashed down, new parents seriously considered renaming their newborn Noah and tools for ship building grew dramatically (I may be lying about some or both of these points).  I did, however, spend my days indoors reading magazines instead of doing anything useful outdoors. 

In these magazines, and the accompanying flyers that drop out of them, I found hopeful adverts for hoses despite a hose pipe ban, offers on BBQ family packs languishing on shelves and I became increasingly aware of a pile, nay box, of seeds lurking with intent in my gardening zone (also know as a dump) in the kitchen but not put to use.

It wasn't all inaction though. I repotted the tomato seedlings - burying stems further down so they grow roots from a greater surface and are more sturdy. Doing it in a hurry meant that some were damaged but that was an easy way to reduce the number of plants (I must remember I don't have a farm). The stowaway snails that must have hitched a ride indoors also helped keep the seedling numbers down. I also repotted the chilies and put the grafted chilli outside in the hope of it finding a passing pollinator in all the rain. Unlikely. But I remain hopeful.

Fruits of the freezer

If, like me, you are facing a new growing season with a freezer full of vegetables you never got round to eating in the last one, you may well appreciate recipes that help you use up the last of them. Especially if they are a little past their prime.

I love runner beans for their scarlet flowers, the traditional feel they give to an allotment and for their prolific cropping. However they are not the most versatile of vegetables. Basically it pretty much seems to be a case of with or without bacon. I did dabble in chutney but there is a limit. Therefore I had a lot of blanched beans in the freezer along with some mushy courgettes (which, I have discovered, don't freeze well).

This is where the secret veg mush comes in. Admittedly I may have to refine the name a little. But basically you chuck unloved veg in with tomato, onion and garlic and reduce. Blend and serve with pasta. Maybe not the most complex or thought through meal but bloody useful. And pretty healthy.

With a simple name change and the subtraction of pasta and addition of butter nut squash you can call it 'BNS ratatouille'. Or not. The choice is yours.

Foraging in your own back garden

The other day we made a rather unusual discovery in our shaded vegetable patch at home. Firstly I know a shaded veg patch isn't ideal - it was the result of bad planning on my part when we erected a trellis fence half way down the garden and sited the veg beds immediately behind it in its shade. Oops. The area is also overlooked by trees but is hardly a woodland glade where one would expect to find what we found. But enough teasing...

We found a large growth looking a little like an alien brain. It was clearly a fungus but was it edible? Consultation with some eastern European colleagues who professed to be more in tune with the land and self sufficiency (despite being transplanted to this metropolis) yielded ominous results.

They declared it best to steer clear and they didn't recognise it from the perhaps vague photos sent through by Tom.

However I had a hunch. A hunch that we had a prized morel in our back yard. Online research showed morels to look similarly pitted and to have a hollow stem. There are false morels which are poisonous but they have solid insides. With trepidation we cut open the growth and to our delight it was hollow.
The next challenge was how to eat it. After worried enquiries by my mother when I told her we were about to eat an almost identified mushroom, we quickly checked where the nearest A&E was (Lewisham I believe). We went for one of 10 easy morel recipes - mushroom and butter pasta. Chopped and added to sweet sweated onions and garlic in butter and served with angel hair spaghetti made for a wonderful meal. Delicious and we are still here to tell the tale.

A word of warning: Do be very careful when identifying mushrooms and if in doubt leave it out.
Other foraged foods that could be found pretty easily are wild garlic (ransoms) and nettles. As usual avoid plants near paths and busy roads to avoid exhaust fume pollution and "doggy messages".

Rhubarb rhubarb (and chard)



Chard stalks before being blanched

Before the deluges came I harvested a vast harvest of rhubarb and chard. With 2kg of rhubarb and 1.612kg of chard I had to get out all the recipe books to use up the bounty. I made three dishes with each so it's been a week of rhubarb and chard for us.

The recipes were:
- Rhubarb and cinnamon cake for Riverford Farm Everyday and Sunday cook book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Sunday-Riverford-Farm/dp/0007388268/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335172840&sr=8-2#reader_0007388268
It comes out a little 'puddingy' - I like to call it moist (apart from hating that word).
60g unsalted butter
380g sugar
3 large eggs
drops vanilla extract
300g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
250ml creme fraiche (I used used up left over custard and 0% fat Greek yoghurt)
450g rhubarb cut into 1cm pieces

Rhubarb cinnamon cake

Oven at 160 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla. Add flour (sifted if you can be bothered - I couldn't), bicarb and cinnamon, fold through creme fraiche and rhubarb. Cook for 40-50 mins until skewer comes out clean.
- Rhubarb and custard cake where they advise using ready made custard - I used more than the recommended quantity but then I also used a low fat version.

Rhubarb and custard cake

- Pickled rhubarb. This is something I first tasted at Mike and Ollie's supper club in Deptford and it was great with mackerel. I liked it so much I got the recipe and here it is in Mike's own words "Boil together cider vinegar, 1/4 of the vinegars volume in sugar, a few bay leaves and juniper berries. Pour over chopped and cleaned rhubarb and hey presto! It will keep for some time."

Chard gratin

- Chard gratin using stalks. Basically layers of blanched chard stalks (save leaves for the 'risotto' below. Top with a reduced tomato sauce (mine was left over from a pasta). Mix chopped onion and garlic into creamy mix, with cream cheese and 0% Greek yoghurt. Finally top with breadcrumb mixed with Parmesan. Pop into the oven for a bit until browned on top.
- Chard stalks and anchovy mix, served with pasta. Essentially chopped blanched stalks mixed with melted butter, garlic and a few anchovy fillets. From 'Vegetables from an Italian Garden' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetables-Italian-Garden-Season---Season/dp/0714860808/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335173364&sr=1-1

Chard 'risotto' with barley

- I used the left over chopped chard leaves in a pearl barley 'risotto' (I think it's called orsetto in Italian) inspired the latest series of Two Greedy Italians. Here they made it with pork mince but I kept it veggie and substituted chard for spinach. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pearl_barley_with_21752

The rain has limited my planting plans but in fear of running out of space at home I scraped a trench into the plot with a hoe and plopped the pea seedlings into it and left them to the garden gods. I must remember to provide pea sticks for support but they will have to muddle through for the moment. I also created a little line of beetroot seedlings on the garlic onion borders.
Apparently I can't harvest the onions and garlic until early to mid Summer. The internet informs me that this is probably June at the earliest. Perhaps I can care for the tomato and courgette seedlings long enough to delay planting them out till June?

Checking in with the changes

B.W. Before Weeding

After heat and drought, temperatures are back to seasonal norm and Easter onwards gave us rain. However now half the country is in drought (predicted to be the worst since 1976) and we are unlikely to have hosepipe bans lifted until December.

Temperatures at night dropped so much that the emerging potato tops have browned a little in the frost. This weekend it was time to plant last Shetland black potatoes and earth up others. This is done easily by using a rake to drag the soil from the mounds to cover the green (and brown) leaves. Damage to the leaves is noticeably worse on the plot than near house where there are no signs of frost damage.  The house itself must give them a little protection.

I finally got around to weeding the onions and garlic which are shallow rooted and hate competition. This should be a lesson to me to regularly weed rather than do a marathon job - two wheelbarrows later and I was exhausted.  But as you can see, it made a huge difference. Now I just need to fertilise them and water the Jerusalem artichokes which are in the shadow of the grape vines so don't get rained on even if it does rain.

A.W. After Weeding

Great excitment was felt (well, by me anyway) after the weeding revealed our very first stems of asparagus. 2 weedy little specimens but mine own no less.
Window box salad is through as are some spring onion shoots (I think).
We had a mini disaster with the chili seedlings. Tom knocked them off the window sill and all but 3 seedlings are no more. I suppose it's a crude form of survival of fittest. Mind you I don't need many just enough to make chili jelly. Plus  the overwintering grafted one we bought from the RHS Hampton Court flower show is coming back to life. Both tomatoes and chili are actually perennials but our winters usually kill them off and they grow so easily from seed that they are usually treated as annuals.
Other seedlings that are doing well are the butter nut squash - I need to pot them on as can't plant out yet but I want to make room for sowing giant pumpkin seeds. My beetroot and PSB (purple sprouting broccoli) probably need repotting too as they are too fiddly and tiny to plant out but I will also try to direct sow as they look unhappy in their seed trays.

Some tomato seedlings are out but I have let them get leggy and should really pot them on deeper (ie plant them with half the stem submerged) to allow for roots to form further up the stem and make sure they are sturdy.  I also want to sow the black tomatoes to test them out.  Where will I find all the place?

And they're off!

St Patrick's day saw me down at the plot harvesting the last of the Jerusalem artichokes - 4.88kg of them to be precise. This is where all my recipe books will come in handy I hope.

To start within made a Jerusalem gratin from Sarah Raven's book 'Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook'. I used what looked like a sweet potato but it was white in the middle so have assumed it was a yam. We have a kilo of prosciutto we brought back from Sicily so I was a little more generous with that. It tasted nicer than it looks here, I promise (we started eating before preserving it for posterity!)

I have also been busy on the seed sowing side.
3 types of tomato - black, moneymaker, mixed cherry
Purple sprouting broccoli
Chili

There are also now four large potato tubs on the patio with Charlotte x 2, British Queen x 1 and Ratte in. Plus a mixed lot in the old bean planter.

Last year, the planters were an unexpected success so fingers crossed for this year. The dry weather won't have helped the potatoes and garlic that need lots of water in the early growing stages. Annoyingly, having ignored potatoes most of the year they are the one thing I really want to eat but have no more in store.

The broad beans sowed on 20 February have come through. The experiment is inconclusive. I can see no difference between those exposed to the mild weather and those protected by a cloche.

Times of extremes

In the week the clocks went forward the days were reaching 22 degrees by lunchtime but the clear skies allowed temperatures to drop at night.  A quick visit to the plot saw a touch of frost on the strawberries but everything else untouched. Yorkshire has just joined the South in suffering from drought and though temperatures are due to return to a seasonal average, there is still no sign of rain.

Of the 3 potato trenches I planted, Sharpe's Express and Swift are poking through but Pentland Javelin is still staying under the soil. At home, the potatoes Bernie and I opportunistically planted in pots in the front have survived their January planting and are coming through.

Saturday was a day of action - clearing side passage, taking out the last of brassicas in raised beds, pruning and pressure washing before the water ban comes in on the 4th April.

In contrast to the highs of March (It's official. March 2012 was the sunniest, driest on record in the UK.) April temperatures are back to a seasonal average and we even had some rain on the 3rd. (the right sort of rain not just flash flood heavy rain that washes down the drain.)

A tale of two days in one



Foggy New Cross

What a funny old day it was on Thursday 15th March 2012. The day started with dense fog all over and frost in some areas outside central London. The puffa jacket was definitely brought out of seasonal purgatory (the coat pile in the next room).

But, and it's a big but, the BBC were predicting 20 degrees later in the day. How is a girl supposed to dress for a day like that?!

Sure enough, lunchtime saw me sunning myself, a tiny bit sunburnt and regretting wearing thick tights.  The scene on Islington's Upper Street reflected the day's quandry - a jumper passes by someone with bare legs.

How are we supposed to know what season we are in and what to plant when we seem to be experiencing early winter and early summer in the same day? 

Sunny Islington

Hosepipe ban due 5th April

With the announcement of a hosepipe ban due to start on the 5th April, my thoughts go to ways of preserving water.

One of my water butts is in place on the allotment and I must remember to reclaim it and initial it so that I can use it.

The water butt in the front garden still needs to be fixed by Bernie as he still hasn't fixed a diverter at the end of the downpipe that stops the water overflowing down the side of our house.

Another way to improve water efficiency is to mulch (after it has rained or you have watered) to keep water in the soil not block it out.

I will be following the example of my Turkish allotment neighbours this year and create little sunken beds for the plants so that plants create a reservoir of their own.  Perhaps for the more vulnerable plants I will also bury at time of planting water bottles to allow water to seep down to the roots.

I am also probably planning to install a water meter at home as apparently if you have more bedrooms than people then you can end up paying less per year - there is a handy Uswitch calculator that can help.

Consider using grey water ie water saved from baths, washing up, dehumidifiers to top up water levels in the garden.

Don't pander to plants and over water them as they will become dependent on you and not send roots down into the ground to find water for themselves. Like a disciplinarian parent you must allow them to stand on their own two feet. Or roots. Save watering for when they really need it ie when they are establishing themselves after being first planted and at fruiting times to help the fruit to swell.

Use gel crystals in pots for the most water hungry plants. Avoid terracotta pots that, though attractive, are porous and allow water to leach out. Don't use metal pots that heat up and fry the plants (sort of). Group plants together when watering so they all get the benefit. Water at the root where it will do the most good and so water doesn't evaporate off leaves and scorch them.

The best laid plans of mice and men and all that

To (sort of) quote Robert Burns, it is time to plan out what goes where on the allotment. And to realise there is never enough space both on the plot and at home on window sills. I guess that is where the second half of the quote comes into its own and said plans 'gang aft agley' ie often go awry.

The rotation system means that I should move the potatoes so they don't get blight. They have ended up (almost) where they were in my first year(ie 2 years ago) - not quite the ideal 3 year rotation but it will have to do.

The shallots, onions and garlic can't move unfortunately until at least midsummer so I will have to interplant them with courgettes or tomatoes if I don't want the land to be a dead zone come June/ July. Perhaps the land could be used for PSB (purple sprouting broccoli). I am currently lusting after some ready grown pot plants (to save me seed space at home) from Dobies.

Then there are the perennial plants (asparagus, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb and herbs) that can't be moved. The Jerusalem Artichokes cast shade so are tough to site and can cope with the dry soil under the overhanging grape vine so they will probably stay put by the wall.

That means that, roughly speaking, the plot will look a little like this. But not as neat.

















PS I may have been over optimistic that the plot is 7m x 14m but I was brought up in a metric/ imperial limbo which means I have no idea of what a metre or a yard looks like.  I have been reliably informed by co-workers that a metre is about a stride's worth. 

The measurement isn't helped much by the allotment society calling it 2 rods. Now, I looked up a rod online and there isn't a general agreement on what one is. It seems to be anything from 1.5 metres squared up to 7 on the continent. In the UK, all I know is that the standard allotment outside of London is 10 rods so I have a fifth of what those lucky out of towners have.

As the hungry gap approaches, my thoughts turn to making the most of the last of the season's bounties especially those in the raised beds at home.  The kale is fast going to seed and the broccoli is probably common old broccoli not BSB so the challenge is to use them up before the next lot of plants come through.

To this end I made a simple supper/ lunchtime snack.  I stir fried tender baby kale leaves with chicken stock and a little tomato paste and a drained can of kidney beans (it was supposed to be chick peas but I had run out). It would also be nice with crumbled feta in it (or bacon).

Spring has sprung

The blossom has just opened up on the plum tree in the garden and the blueberries are coming into leaf.

Temperatures are averaging 15 degrees and the weeds (sadly) are springing back to life. (Note to self: hoe between garlic, onions, shallots etc. which are looking a touch jungle like).

Though the saying goes "ne'er cast a clout till May be out" (see the excellent phrases.org.uk to learn more about the phase) implies we shouldn't discard our winter clothes till May (or indeed till Hawthorn (also called May) is in bloom) weeds actually start back into life from 7 degrees so keep a vigilant eye open and a hoe ready.
With the joys of spring growing within me and limited chances to sow seed, I made a mad dash before a flight on the 10th to plant some of the potatoes I have had chitting in the kitchen.  In went the first earlies and a couple of Shetland Blacks.  I had dug 4 trenches and I filled 3 of them (30cm or a foot's length separating them and in the pit not top of the piles and gently firmed up the soil above them) in this order:
- trench nearest plank pile: Sharp's Express PLUS Shetland Black x 2
- middle trench: Swift
- 3rd trench from plank pile: Pentland Javelin

That leaves one more one more trench which I shall save for the rest of the Shetland Black x 4 and the British Queen. Though I also have Ratte chitting madly so they will need a home.  I have 3 patio potato planters which I think I will use for Charlotte and Ratte. The compost is already waiting by the kitchen steps though I plan to stagger the planting of these to see if I can spread the inundation of spuds.

Delicious magazine (April edition) have got 6 lovely sounding recipes for use with Jersey Royals so I might use the last of the stored potatoes for chips, tartiflette and sauteed but paired with Chorizo rather than black pudding.
Jersey Royal chips with Saffron Aioli - 500g potatoes sliced lengthways in quarters, cook in boiling water 3-4 minutes, toss with 2tbsp olive oil, roast 30-40 minutes till crispy + cheat's aioli (thanks to Donal Skehan) 3tbsp mayonnaise, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 chopped garlic clove
Jersey Royals with anchovy gremolata - finely mince 1 garlic clove, zest of 1 lemon, parsley, toss with potatoes, 25g butter, 2 sanchovy fillets finely chopped.
Jersey Royal and fontina frittata
Jersey Royal salad with hot-smoked salmon, dill and mustard creme fraiche - 4 tbsp creme fraiche, 2 tbsp olive oil, squeeze lemon, 1tsp Dijon mustard
Tartiflette
Sauteed Jersey Royals with black pudding and fried egg

According to the books this si the time to be planting jerusalem artichokes so it is also time to harvest the last of them (leaving a few behind int he ground for next year).

I intend to use another recipe from Delicious magazine for Mother's Day: Jerusalem artichoke and potato bake with welsh rarebit topping. Considering that the last 2 plants I dug up yielded 1.9kg I may need to consider making a Jerusalem Artichoke Flan too (from the excellent BBC website).

Mistakes I have probably already made

The growing season hasn't even started properly yet and I have already been making mistakes here there and everywhere.

When trying to spread the manure mulch I knocked the growing tip off the rhubarb - hopefully it will recover but at least I still have many other rhubarb plants scattered around the plot thanks to dividing it up last year (and rescued abandoned bits from the compost heap).

I am also worried that the manure I used was probably too fresh so may burn young plants and roots. Technically I should have let it rot down for 6 months but I wanted to mulch before the weeds started coming and wanted to feed the ground ahead of planting (which will have to take place the weekend of Mother's Day as travel and work will stop any earlier activity on the allotment.

The only planting I did was to sow broad bean seeds (aqua dulce) but I wonder if I didn't plant the seeds deep enough. The RHS magazine 'The Garden' suggests 5cm. I don't think my hoe-created trenches were that deep and I certainly didn't dig in any manure. Oops. Along with the other planned sowing indoors maybe I will sow some extra bean seeds in case this lot fail to take root (they are popular with mice apparently).

Finally I harvested tiny sprigs of broccoli in the raised bed in the garden but I'm now wondering if they weren't the beginning of a Purple Sprouting Broccoli harvest I have cut off in its prime. Left a few on just in case.

Delicious ideas to borrow from a pop up restaurant

Now, I know that pop up restaurants were very fashionable and it has become almost as fashionable to knock them but I have come to them late. When I say them, I actually mean just one that has started in the last month in Deptford, Mike and Ollie. They have been serving up wonderful concoctions at Deptford and Brockley markets and have now introduced a supper club element.

Quite apart from being delicious and a great way to meet like-minded locals, it was also a source of inspiration for future home cooking sessions.

The pickled quince was delicious served with pork belly on toast and I intend to recreate it using Nigel Slater's recipe if I can find quinces easily enough at this time of year - they were foraged by Mike in Crystal Palace before Christmas I believe.

Enough for 2 medium-sized storage jars.
750ml cider vinegar
400g golden granulated sugar
3 medium-sized quinces or 4 smaller ones
12 juniper berries
8 black peppercorns
a bay leaf
Pour the vinegar into a stainless-steel pan. Add the golden sugar, juniper berries, black peppercorns and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to a merry simmer.
Peel, halve and core the quinces, cutting them into six lengthways. Lower the quince into the simmering vinegar and leave the fruit to cook for 15-25 minutes, until it is soft enough to pierce effortlessly with a skewer.
Lift the soft fruits out with a draining spoon and lower them into clean storage jars. Pour over the liquor, then seal and leave to cool. They will keep for several weeks.

Another revelation was pickled rhubard with mackerel. These were whole forced rhubard stalks and their tartness were delicious, off setting the salty fatty taste of the mackerel.  I shall try this recipe from www.platethrive.com  which seems to offer the best combination of sweet and sour:

Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar (I suggest using raw and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, such as those by Bragg’s or Eden Organic)
• ¾ cup filtered water
• 1 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1 ¼ – 1 ½ pound rhubarb, thin stalks if possible (about 1/2-inch thick)
• 1 ½ inches peeled ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp whole allspice berries
• 1 tsp whole fennel seeds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 dry chili peppers



Directions

1. Place vinegar, water, and maple syrup/honey in a saucepan over medium heat. While mixture heats, cut rhubarb stalks into lengths that fit inside the jar with approximately 1-inch headspace (about 4-inches long if using a pint jar). If your rhubarb stalks are much thicker, slice them in half or quarters so they are about 1/2-inch x 1/2-inch before cutting into 4-inch lengths. Set rhubarb aside.
2. Divide cloves, allspice, and fennel between the jars. Then place rhubarb stalks inside, tucking sliced ginger, chili peppers, and cinnamon sticks between the stalks.
3. Pour boiling vinegar mixture over rhubarb until jars are full, leaving about ½-inch headspace and making sure rhubarb stalks are fully covered. If you have leftover brine, save to use for salad dressings or other pickling projects. Screw on jar tops and let cool on kitchen counter until approximately room temperature. Then place in the refrigerator. For best flavor, let sit for 1-2 weeks before consuming.

makes about 2 pints or 1 quart

Preparing the plot

We have been having freakishly warm weather recently with temperatures being close to June averages. The perfect weather to get ahead with jobs to do on the plot and prepare the ground for potatoes that will be going in soon.

I dug trenches and piled up the soil next to them and set up plank pathways so that I don't compact the soil when tending the plants. I also scattered some chicken manure pellets in the base of the trenches to feed the potatoes during their long growing season. As usual I am running out of land as potatoes need a good amount of space and I have only dug 4 trenches - I doubt this will be enough to accommodate the 6 varieties I have bought and plan to grow this year. Luckily I have 3 potato planters so might be able to give some of them refuge on our patio at home. I still need to find space to later fit in tomatoes, courgettes and squash. 

I did get on with other chores though.

• I finally tied in the raspberry wires to stop them flopping over.
• I mulched the fruit bed with manure. Though I didn't dig it in and the weight of a bin bag full of pony poo snapped some twigs when landing - very bad.
• I hoed the shallots and onions which are resolutely poking their heads through the soil but not doing a great deal. apparently this is the last month to sow garlic but luckily I did all of that last autumn. My one worry is how soon I can harvest them to make space for the aforementioned squash etc.
• I weeded the coriander/ asparagus raised bed - fingers crossed for some home grown spears this year though technically should wait until the second/ third year to harvest and they only went in last year.
• I cleared the plastic off the slightly tired looking strawberry  raised bed - the remaining plants may well be moved into open ground and I will use the bed for salad leaves.
• More clearing: I finally gathered up the home made water bottle cloches/ watering systems as they were my allotment versions of tumbleweed - blowing here and there on the plot and being relatively useless.

Still to be done:

• Cover bare earth with the cardboard I saved from a delivery
• Prepare a bean trench (am I going to do runner beans again? really?)
• Mulch and check the cherry tree at home
• Sow lettuce
• Sow peas
• Sow chillies
• Prepare seedbed for PSB
• Sow radishes (and develop a liking for their taste)

Chutneys, pickles and all that jazz

Despite having many preserves in the cupboard and not getting through them fast enough I have still been indulging in a little pickling/ chutney making.

Spiced apple chutney was a real success paired with simple slow cooked (bone out) shoulder of pork. It provides a good balance of sharpness from the vinegar, sweetness from the fruit and spices from the... well you get the picture.

I used a recipe from Marguerite Patten's The Basic Basics Jams, Preserves and Chutneys
Here it is in its original form but I added a little more vinegar as I was worried it might end up being too apple sauce-y (also good but different):
Ingredients:

• 450g chopped onions
• 300ml white malt vinegar
• 900g apples, peeled and cored and diced into 2cm inch dice
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 350g soft light brown sugar
• 100g raisins
• seasoning to taste

Simmer the onions in half the vinegar for 10 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and then simmer steadily, stirring occasionally until you have the consistency of thick jam. Check for seasoning, spoon into steralised jars and you’re good to go. I steralise my jars by microwaving them slightly damp in the microwave.

One learning I had was not use up the boozy fruit from making 'fruits of the forest' vodka (used a supermarket frozen bag) by putting them in a trifle. They are overwhelmingly vodka flavoured and make the dish inedible unless you like the taste of neat vodka. Boiling them up and creating a 'jus'/ 'compote' and hopefully burning off some of the booze may be a possible option.  I only hope the vodka tastes as much of fruit as the fruit tasted of vodka. Not a personal culinary success.

Lovely Rye on a gorgeous sunny 17 degree day

It is also time to crack open the beetroot chutney, paired with horesradish, mackerel and watercress. (We picked up a couple of mackerel in Rye which we visited for the Scallop festival - more a top billing on restaurant menus than a real festival but lovely none the less). The beetroot chutney should also work with goats cheese - the unpickled version being a classic combination.  Once back from Sicily, I feel a salmon, beetroot and goats cheese tart coming on...

Looking for signs of life in mid February

A quick dash to the plot on Saturday was worthwhile if only to remind me what it looked like.

It is a constant source of hope and delight to see plants emerging despite all signs to the contrary.The rhubarb is an ealy star and is gradually emerging. Raspberry canes are developing buds (some even have tiny leaves). Onions etc are mainly just sitting there and need a good hoe.

I cleared the obvious perennial weeds eg dandelion. Apparently you can grind dandelion roots down to a sort of coffee and eat the forced young leaves but I gave it a miss. In the mists of my memory this plant is called pisse en lit in French - which I can only assume refers to diuretic properties. Not appealing. I also cut down a small patch of raspberries as an experiment to work out if they are autumn or summer fruiting. I suspect the majority are summer fruiting (while the ones in my garden are definitely Autumn fruiting).

Summer-fruiting raspberries

• Cut back fruited canes to ground level after harvesting; do not leave old stubs
• Select the strongest young canes, around six to eight per plant, and tie them in 8-10cm (3-4in) apart along the wire supports
• Remove the remaining young stems to ground level

Autumn-fruiting raspberries  - Cut back all the canes to ground level in February. Reduce the number of canes slightly in summer if they are very overcrowded.

Finally I sowed broad beans in a hurry in two patches - fingers crossed as the seeds looked a little withered and are close to their best before date. In another experiment I have (almost) covered one row after watering with a long cloche to see if that speeds up germination. One neighbour has proper little plants on show - maybe they have a greenhouse at home. The garden green eyed monster strikes again.

Plotting for potatoes

Our potatoes are happily chitting - some more than others. The two packs from Poundland (Swift and Pentland Javelin) are racing away despite not being in the regulation egg trays (left over from duck egg folly at a great Asian foods wholesale shop). In fact their stalks may be too long and pale. The Charlotte, British Queen and Sharpes Express (from a friendly 99p shop - we have all the best stores in my area!) are doing ok - short and healthy stubs of growth.  The Shetland Blacks are the slowest and were gleaned from a local (amazing) farmer's market where there is a potato specialist. I believe they are not really black but dark purple. It's a heritage variety that is a second early and are floury in texture and so make excellent chips or roast potatoes. British Queen is also new to me and a heritage potato (1894 apparently) that is supposed to be good for mash.  Sharpes Express is another traditional first early (1901) - very floury texture if left to mature, when it is best baked. I am informed the yield suffers in dry weather so keep well watered. Must watch out in the upcoming drought.

I especially chose mainly first or second earlies as that allows me to clear plot and either try a second lot of potatoes (first earlies) for Xmas or put in another plant group (beetroot, french beans? I'll make up my mind later).

Anne Swithinbank suggests trying an early potato sowing in the February edition of Grow Your Own magazine. Apparently you create trenches, plant in the bottom of the trench and pile up the earth next to the trench (and use it to 'earth up' later on) and cover the trench with double layers of fleece to protect from frosts. Essentially the fleece is anchored to the top of the earth piles. Worth a go - maybe with the easier to source seed potatoes like Charlotte.

I decided to finally clear most of the stored potatoes at the weekend. Jansson's Temptation will feature again for supper (again with bacon instead of anchovy).

I have my friend Katie to thank for the inspiration for my layered lunch. Essentially it a is a potato terrine. You layer in a loaf tin sliced par boiled potatoes with any veg you have to hand - in my case blitzed Brussels sprouts with shallots and bacon bits and then pour 4 beaten eggs over it and cook at a lowish heat in the oven (I did 160 degrees).

Slice very thickly and it makes a filling healthy lunch.

A week of extremes

At the weekend we had overnight temperatures of -1. As visitors to the gorgeous Brighton we had to scrape frost off the car on our way to a half marathon (ouch!) but were bathed in sunshine as the day warmed up.

London fared slightly better I believe though the nights are still chilly.

We are being lured into a sense of security and optimism about planting later though as Thursday temperatures are predicted to rise to 16 degrees. 

After a relatively dry winter (the second in a row) there are warnings of possible drought measures in the future and families are being urged to start saving water. Apparently, the average rainfall this winter has been lower than the months preceding the severe drought in 1976, which brought a summer of water rationing, damaged crops and wild fires. The worst affected areas are the east of England, the Midlands and the South East.

I recently had some good news - I am to be the reader of the month in April's Garden Answers magazine. Apparently there is a prize associated with it.  I'm seriously hoping it will be a collapsible water butt as they look awesome. And it will help with the upcoming drought.*

*Please note that predictions of drought often precede an unbelievably wet and unimpressive summer (see 2011).

Garden treasures

Despite PSB (purple sprouting broccoli) not working out for me this year (mainly due to labelling errors and then neglecting plug plants) I have still had some home grown broccoli. Or calabrese. 

According to www.allotment.org.uk the way you can tell the difference is not to go by supermarket labels which confuse matters. Apparently the main variable is that broccoli is an over wintered crop but calabrese produces its crop the same year before winter. and that the flavour of calabrese is milder and much preferred by many to sprouting broccoli and it is an easier crop to grow.

My versions are small and growing in the raised bed border where they were supposed to be adding a vibrant purple.  But that is the problem with mislabelling - heyho.

They have still been put to good use. I steamed and added the spears to a skinny minnie macaroni cheese from Cook Vegetarian magazine.  I couldn't find the exact recipe online for you but it isn't too different from this one. The one I made had more vegetables (carrots, leeks, onion, asparagus and peas) and less pasta - 175g. And the topping was grated parmesan (didn't have breadcrumbs to hand) though if you were really vegetarian you wouldn't use parmesan because it uses rennet (which is apparently something to do with cow intestines - oh yum)