Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Reaping what you sow....

Having had a second week of exclusively picking our wonderful produce & not so much as pulling up a weed seedling, I am getting a bit worried that I am ‘taking out’ a great deal more than I am ‘putting in’ – will there be anything left to harvest in the bleak mid-winter?

Obviously, that concern has not stopped me gathering FRENCH BEANS (blue lake), RUNNER BEANS (reg-next-plot), a wonderful PARSNIP (white gem), TURNIP (snowball) & a fantastic CARROT (multicolour) when I went to the Hill this evening!

I saw Novice-neighbour-Jody – he’s been hard at work starting to manure his plot – with it having been dry for some weeks, all the plots look pretty dusty, so the manure can only help with the soil structure. I can’t start our over-winter manuring of the roots bed until some of the carrots/parsnips/beetroot are lifted, not to mention the celery which (lack of forethought here) are slap bang in the middle of the roots bed.

Jody kindly let me have some of his chilli peppers which look like they could kill at 10 paces – as they will keep (either left to dry in the kitchen or chopped & frozen), there’s no rush to make chilli con carne just yet.

This week’s preserving project has been beetroot chutney – funny how half a dozen beetroot, half a dozen onions & a couple of bramleys shrink into one pot of chutney? It did smell very good in the pan, so I’ve high hopes for it in a month or so.

I’ve also ordered some rye seed for sowing as green manure on plot D (potatoes as was) so hopefully the molehills will not soon be quite so visible, even if our ‘guest’ is still in residence….

3 comments:

  1. any chance of having that recipe for beet chutney? i have the ingredients but would like to know the quantities.

    thnx
    jody

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of couse, matey - here's the link:

    http://www.oliver1.com/recipes/beetrootchutney.htm

    Super simple - and it did smell divine as it cooked. I've plenty of beet so will be doing another couple of jars myself this weekend.

    You don't know anyone growing bramleys do you? It grieves me to buy them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. i dont sorry. I had a few off barrys tree but i think theyre all gone. Its only very small! I do however know someone with a plum tree who is moaning about the amount of plums they have!

    ReplyDelete

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