Allotments abroad

Last month I was lucky enough to celebrate a family birthday on a German allotment which allowed for a little cultural compare and contrast.

Unsurprisingly it was very well organised and tidy.  The one thing that stood out among the German flags and that hinted at a secret other side was the Che Guevara flag proudly flying in one plot.

The main difference of the allotment movement in Germany is that they were set up for relaxation and recreation for working class people rather than the focus being purely on food production.  Mainly they are known as Schrebergarten after the founder of an allotment movement in Leipzig however there are also two other accepted names.

Generally the plots are laid to lawn with a smaller growing area.  Every plot has a shed and they are larger - they are treated more as a living space and tenants can stay overnight in them (just not permanently).  For some, their plot is even their summer holiday destination.  The plots tend to be bought rather than rented and the allotments serve a real social function with a dedicated open area for long tables and celebrations.

This particular spot was in a truly idyllic setting with mountains around and a little stream - perfect for a busman's holiday.

Less than legendary legumes

The legumes family includes broad, French and runner beans, mangetout and peas and asparagus peas.

I have discovered I like broad beans and these are the earliest to harvest. Their one drawback is that you seem to need a lot of plants to get a substantial crop. They also suffer badly from blackfly which is a bit gross. I definitely plan to sow some in November to get a great harvest early next year as the Hungry Gap hits. If you pick them young enough you don't have to faff about with taking the inner membrane off.

Peas are definitely off the cards next year after yet another lacklustre performance. The purple flowering mangetout will be repeated (if I remember to save the seed) if only for their lovely flowers. Asparagus peas were something of a novelty and grew well but were rarely eaten as they taste of neither asparagus or peas. Not convinced.

Runner beans are just now coming into their own and even though I only have 6 plants they provide more than enough for two without us suffering overload.  They are nice lightly boiled and served with red pesto.

The dwarf french beans are slow taking off but should be OK and I frankly have not idea what to do with the Borlotti beans which looks pretty but I think I have to dry and then cook later (why bother? Canned beans are great).

Whatever variety you grow, once the plants have stopped cropping, cut them down but leave roots in ground so they can give back nitrogen to the soil.

Weeding out the weeds

Self seeded coriander

I have been bad and neglected weeding recently. While still dashing down to collect the last of the raspberries and fast swelling courgettes I just haven't had time to tackle the weeds. I am now regretting that haste as I am faced with an increasingly daunting task.

The advice is to hoe weeds however as I have seedlings in among them I am worried I will cut them too down in their prime so I have to hand weed. All fine apart from the nettles that sting my hands.

There are several types of weed. The weed that is beneficial like the stinging nettle whose tap root digs deep and brings up nitrogen from the soil. This means you can create a liquid (stinky) feed from it to feed other plants. You can also eat it a little like spinach but I am less excited by that though I have made soup out of it.

There are the dubiously edible or medicinal. Bittercress is actually edible (as the name implies it tastes like, you guessed it, bitter cress). Chickweed is a herb and chickweed water used to be a treatment for obesity. Even goosegrass (the sticky one that has velcro balls that get stuck in your pets' fur) is supposed to help cystitis, psoriasis and eczema. You can use the seeds of fat hen (if you REALLY want to) whole or ground into a flour for bread.

There are the weeds that serve no discernible function other than to self propagate and to annoy me.  Like the evergreen bugloss that is related to borage and comfrey but is a pain to uproot and spreads like mad. The petty spurge is also pretty prolific so keep on top of it if you don't want to be overrun but at least it can be easily uprooted.

And then there is the mystery weed that is prolific on my plot but that doesn't feature on any online guide to weeds I can find.  Any suggestions?

Potato feasts

We are snowed under by potatoes.  Once again I forgot that we tend to prefer rice and pasta to potatoes.

After sorting the good unblemished potatoes by type and storing them in breathable canvas bags in the dark to stop them from turning green or sprouting I turned to the rejects.

These were either mainly scabby or damaged by a stray fork when lifting them though it also included some of the mystery spuds that popped up unasked for.

I prepared roast potatoes for freezing (par boil and freeze on a baking sheet to stop them from freezing in a clump) and pseudo oven chips (cut and bake until slightly turning colour - remember to use oil to prevent sticking which is something I forgot and resulted in a bit of a mess). I still had tiny potatoes that I didn't want to compost for fear of them reseeding but that were too small to peel. With these I made a potato salad loosely based on Lucas Hollweg's excellent German potato salad recipe from his recipe book 'Good Things to Eat'. I didn't remove the skins because it was too fiddly and I thought the fibre was good for me but I did crush them to allow the sauce to penetrate them and infuse them with flavour.  I used  my own puny garlic but supplemented with more.

Serves 4

- 750g waxy new potatoes, evenly sized
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- ½ tsp sugar
- 50ml mild olive oil (not extra virgin) - think I only used the olive oil (health again)
- 50ml vegetable oil
- 1 bunch of chives, chopped - I substituted with a clove of garlic and chopped shallot

Boil the potatoes in salted water for about 20 minutes until soft. Drain and leave to cool. Meanwhile, make the dressing by mixing together the dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, sugar and some salt and pepper in a bowl. Gradually beat in the oils. Mix with the crushed potatoes and leave for an hour or two for the flavours to become acquainted. Scatter chives over the top and dig in.

Since my trip to Germany I am also searching for my mother in law's version which seems to involve cream, pork fat and mustard and very slow cooking the potatoes.

Tidal waves of squash

Not orange squash that you drink but summer squashes that you eat. These include edible gourds, pumpkins and courgettes. There is a great variety and among my harvest I have collected striped, pale green and yellow courgettes.

The problem I now face is 'what to do with them all?'. If I weren't trying to be healthy I would definitely make courgette cake which is delicious and moist. But I am on a health kick so avoiding too much sugar.

I discovered a recipe in a free booklet from a cooking magazine: Quinoa, courgette, tomatoes and feta. Now I had neither tomatoes nor feta and rather than wait I improvised slightly. I mixed the 1tbsp of red wine vinegar and 2tbsp of olive oil in a pasta sauce jar so infusing it with tomato flavours and then stirred it through 75g of quinoa (a great protein source). The courgettes were finely sliced into ribbons and mixed in. As I had no tomatoes I used a little green tomato chutney from last year. Finally I chopped up a little Turkish cheese but unfortunately it is more like a waxy mozzarella than feta so I doubt it will add the right sort of crumbly saltiness. It's lunch today so hopefully is tasty.

At the same time I made courgette lasagne from the same booklet. It also serves 2.
2 courgettes grated
1 garlic clove (I used 2)
Parmesan grated
Lasagne sheets
100g ricotta
Jar of tomato pasta sauce
(I left out the chilli and substituted low fat yoghurt for the ricotta and strong cheddar for the Parmesan)

Fry the crushed garlic and grated courgette until soft. Add the ricotta and 2tbsp of Parmesan. Place 2tbsp of the mixture into a small dish, layer on a quarter of the tomato sauce, place pasta sheets on top then repeat until you run out. Make sure the top is tomato and sprinkle with cheese.

Spud-not-alike

I have a mystery. I planted Charlotte seed potatoes on the plot and have recently started harvesting them. That's not the mystery, hang on. I also got a 'free' patio potato planting set. I have previously had no luck with these at all (getting fewer potatoes back than I planted). This year however when I dug down deep enough i got a decent amount of salad sized potatoes. Which is how Charlotte potatoes are supposed to be. Now back to the mystery. This photo only shows the half of it. Why have my plot charlottes turned out to be such monsters?
More room and time to grow?
Richer soil?
Magic?

Who knows but it will be hard to make a dainty summer potato salad with them!

1st March 2012 Addendum: reading back over my posts I realised that I planted the patio Charlottes later than the plot ones (as late as 29 April) so that explains the smaller size. The plot Charlottes were planted 6 March so almost 2 months ahead of the patio plants. Harvesting everything at 14 July meant the potatoes on the plot had over 18 weeks to mature while the patio plants took 10 weeks to mature - that would explain the difference. It also suggests I can start harvesting earlier I guess or stagger planting - in an ideal world I would have two rows for each variety one planted in early march and one end April to spread the harvest.

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.