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...

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.

The greatest show on earth? Hampton court flower show

What a joy it is to live near Hampton Court if only because it makes it easier to attend this flower show which the RHS claim is the largest in the world. It certainly feels it.

It is important to approach it calmly and methodically. Be prepared - bring drink and a picnic. My friend Joy made some amazing tarts from the allotment shallots - yum. Ideally bring a strong person to help carry things. Unlike Chelsea you can buy plants at Hampton and it us impossible for any plant-aholic to get away with anything less than masquerading as a walking shrub. Quotes of woods of dunsinane come to mind.

Get there early to scope out the lay of the land and remember that if, like us, you go on the last day it closes at 5.30 not 7.30. Plus the frantic sell off including the plants and items used in the gardens starts at 4.30. If you do spot anything you like it might be wise to reserve it ahead of the sell off as it all becomes a little manic.

Whatever you do don't follow the AA roadsigns there which take you miles out of the way (maybe as a motoring association they want to encourage driving?). We wasted a precious hour following their pointless detour.

One major feature of Hampton Court is their emphasis on grow your own. This time a huge area and marquee were devoted to it. There you can quiz experts on what went wrong. I took along my puny garlic to the experts from the garlic farm who told me a) I should always plant in autumn (can't remember if I did) b) water like crazy January to May c) top dress with potash in spring. Resolutions made for next time. I also bought elephant garlic which at least swells to a decent size (nowhere as big as theirs though). Incidentally the elephant garlic is not in fact a garlic, it's a leek. Fact.

Potatoes, shallots and garlic

I planted up garlic in among the rhubarb (including the plants I had to move because they are building a new path). The elephant garlic is also looking good.

I have 2 varieties of shallot I planted - Red Sun and Golden Gourmet (two packs of the latter one of which was from Poundland and in fact had more bulbs than the pack from B&Q). Come end of July/ early August I hope to harvest a bumper crop. I planted them in furrows 10cm deep, 10cm apart and kept rows 20cm apart to allow for hoeing. Golden Gourmet is supposed to be sharp while red sun is supposed to be gentler in flavour.

I also harvested the last of the Jerusalem artichokes and replanted a few of the tubers to grow again this year.

I relocated the Swiss Chard as edging to the plot.

Finally, I planted 4 varieties of potato. Positioning the Maris Piper and Charlotte closest to the rhubarb/ garlic to allow the space freed up by the speedy first earlies Rocket and Pentland Javelin to be planted up with something else. I forked over the soil into the trenches so that it would be easier to create a furrow. The only one where I didn't was the Maris Piper and I'm concerned that the soil is too compacted.

I didn't find time to plant the Autumn Bliss raspberry canes from B&Q nor the asparagus crowns from Aldi.

Know your onions

Apparently this is the time of year to start growing onions. I am already growing chives and garlic chives which are part of onion or allium family. I also have some wild garlic growing in my back garden.

I won't be bothering with real onions which as far as I can see you plant as small onions and, after much weeding and hoeing, grow into big onions. Hardly a spectacular outcome when you consider how cheap they are in shops.

I have decided though to try growing shallots this year. Not only are they pricier to buy in shops but they often seem to be favoured by chefs for having a subtler flavour. Shallots also multiply from one bulb to produce more which seems like a better return on my time and effort.

The sort I particularly covet is the long banana style one. Varieties mentioned are Jermor, Delvad, Hative de niort and Pesandor.

I am hoping they turn up in Poundland or Aldi before I have to make a trip to B&Q. In fact I went to B&Q and they don't have any. The search goes on.

It also turns out that I have some Welsh onions. These are perennial evergreens that can be used like spring onions. They should be divided every 2 years.

Garlic also comes under the onion family name but these would have done better if I had planted the cloves in November. I did for the elephant garlic but we'll just have cross our fingers for the ones I planted at the weekend.

What to do with over 5kg of cabbage

A quick visit to the allotment to harvest the cabbages that look past their prime.

When trimming them there are more leaves discarded than salvaged. The slugs and worms are quite disgusting. Still, there was over 5kg of cabbage to process and find uses for. A mixture of crisp white cabbage and savoy cabbage rescued just in the nick of time.

Looked up a sauerkraut recipe but it seems you have to work it over tens of days and it involves skimming off scum from fermented juices. Strangely enough, I didn't feel like doing it after all. Though I made a great potato and sauerkraut bake (from a jar) tonight.

Stir fried the cabbage with stock and lemon juice and added a couple of tablespoons of sherry as suggested. Hope to find something to do with it all soon.

Vast amounts of coleslaw was made last weekend but it's a week later and I still don't feel like cabbage when I get home.

Excited to see the elephant garlic is sprouting - fingers crossed. It's amazing roasted on french bread.

When a greedy person has to give food away. The pain is made up for by roast garlic.

It's finally happened. I had to give produce away. With three freezers full and a running total of over 52kg of tomatoes and 21kg of runner beans we are feeling overwhelmed. It doesn't help that we have no kitchen. We don't even have no kitchen. We have no kitchen floor. We are surviving on food that can be steamed, slow-cooked or microwaved. If truth be told we haven't even done that - the local take-aways have done very well from us.  I must say that the novelty is starting to wear off.

So with the allotment bursting with food and nowhere to go, I took the plunge and offered runner beans to my allotment neighbour Bernie who said that he knew an Englishman who might want them (I gathered that as an Irishman he doesn't hold much truck with them). I also offered them to my friend Anna but despite having an unproductive north-facing garden they had managed to grow too many for the two of them.  I offered them to my city dwelling friends who take in an organic box but even they felt over-loaded with runner beans.  Hating to let the food go to waste I resorted to offering them to a great new cafe, The London Particular, that has opened in New Cross that serves local and organic food (and what can be more local and organic than beans from an allotment round the corner?). Thankfully they took them and I might even claim a free hot chocolate at some point!

I'm very excited as I have a new full time job. It will be a bit of a struggle to keep up the plot just on weekends but things are winding down now and the main things to do are to sow sweet peas, broad beans, move and turn the compost, relocate the giant shed (don't ask - it's all to do with planning permissions and being too greedy to sell it for a song), build raised beds and plant garlic.

I have at least done the last of these. I planted 12 cloves of elephant garlic and am hoping for a good crop in June/ July next year. As I paid £3.90 from a farm shop in Cornwall last week for a head of elephant garlic I am looking forward to being as rich as Midas. Or at least to cut it in half, wrap it in foil, roast it a low heat and scoop out the sweet flesh and spread it on a slice of good bread. Oh and use a good layer of unsalted butter. Total YUM.