Echlinville Apple Harvest

Today's post is brought to you with the assistance of a damned good nights sleep, coffee and the sweet, sweet joy of having just finished cutting Toby's hair. He didn't enjoy the experience but then neither did I; though he feels great now, a whole lot lighter and after my shower, I do too. So everything has balanced out I think...apart from the fact that I had to do all the cleaning up and he went to bed.

Before and After (arrghh those eyebrows!)

It was my first shower in some days... I know what you're thinking - "ewwww, she's gross!" - I have been super ill and too depressed, too wobbly on my feet and too tired to shower. If you have experienced poor mental health you'll understand.  In fact I'm going to add links in this post and at the side of this blog to two fabulous websites I recently found that are helping me feel supported in my fight - you might like them too, you know who you are xxx

The Blurt Foundation ~ https://www.blurtitout.org/

The Mighty ~ https://themighty.com/

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So, anyway let's celebrate the apple harvest! Hurrah! On Saturday I was the lucky one to gather up the bounty from our 2 espaliered Echinville trees, tied into each side of the archway at the back of the plot. The birds had gotten through about half of them now and I couldn't stand it anymore. Plus, though we had been told that they are ripe in September; it seems that August is more correct.

Remember these are historic Northern Irish trees, click here for the story :) 

Here's the haul we took home and the very bad ones that went into the compost. I also left about half a dozen on the ground for all the wasps and insects that were feasting on them.

Now we are slowly processing them and freezing batches. So far we have used 20 apples and made two big freezer bags of porridge topping/ apple pie filling. Just by stewing the apples and adding mixed fruit and brown sugar (to taste). Easy and so delicious!

PLUS today is the 9th anniversary of this very blog - hurrah!

Thank you to everyone who reads and especially those commentators and 'likers'. I never did intend for this to be public, but back then I had no idea what I was doing, haha. It's been one of the best decisions (if you can call it that) that I've made, though I still don't know about the title....

Big love
Carrie
xx

I weep to no avail....

I am cloaked in hysteria, saddled with despair.   My apple is gone.

Look do you see it in this photo?

No.  All because some greedy little bugger of a bird ate the most of it and left the rest on the ground. He (I am sure it was a he) didn't even do my prized Ecklinville the decency of being savoured at all; he didn't take it home and make a miniature French style 'tarte tatin', so carefully, without wasting a juicy morsel. That was my dream.

memories of my apple

I eye each bird now with suspicion, any one of them could be my nemesis. Damn them all - I shake my fist at the sky. Why?? You heartless winged demon!

We did have 2 gloriously bountiful red gooseberry bushes but the birds took those too. every. last. one.

And last, but not least, my ornithology related tears continue to fall as I gaze upon the mangetouts. Is nothing sacred? The tops are all nibbled away despite Andrew stringing up some mildly annoying pots and bottles to deter such villainy.

I must rest now. Happier news shall come soon...
Carrie
xx

March at the Plots

Saturday saw a great change in my allotment activity; instead of merely writing about it as it seems I have been doing for a while now, I went and worked.  Maggie supervised as usual, she's a slave driver though you wouldn't know it from her cuteness :) (She has had her hair cut since this photo!)

The plot (24a) didn't know what had hit it, I can tell you.

Whilst Andrew was working is redesign magic over in 14b I ripped, tugged and destroyed every blasted weed on the other plot.  It may not sound like much but in almost 2 hours the place was a spotless dream and my big pink trug was almost full (that's about a zillion weeds right there). I didn't even wear gloves, that's how hardcore it was!

Here are some sexy photos of our purple sprouting broccoli which seems really healthy this year :) Plus there are wonderful fat buds on our apple trees, blueberries and the garlic is well on it's way - happy times.

Pity the place was practically empty and still, STILL, the plots beside us are over grown wildernesses. (Though kindly a volunteer group strimmed them back). I could squeak with anger and occasionally do, at the thought of these people who just purchase a plot and do nothing with them. Gggrrr. There is a waiting list for genuine people who really want a plot!

Anyway, on Andrew's part he laid out then drew an amazing picture on top of a photo to illustrate the progress and planning for 14b. You can just tell he's a senior archaeologist and well trained in the art of capturing the scientific detail of places ;) 

OK so this may need a little interpretation, haha. The pink square denotes my 2 flower beds and the brown is the edible forest garden. All the yellow lines are box plants making up a four part parterre; the two on the left will be asparagus beds, then there's the rhubarb bed you can see and finally the back right bed is for squashes. Hurrah!! 

Now it's down to the planting of seeds...

Hugs and love
Carrie

Saturday - An OK day

Wow, I really didn't think I would get to write a title like that for a heck of a while. However today was indeed, OK :) The depression did not win and the anxiety was under control - maybe it was even BETTER than OK...

** To begin with we slept in late, oh I love my sleep ;) Then we had breakfast, made coffee and started our hour of birdwatching for the RSPB Birdwatch Weekend. This year we really did have a good time which sounds so geeky but I swear it was glorious so see the crazy amount of feathered friends that come to feed in our garden. We had seeds, peanuts and fat balls and all stations were busy.

** After that we visited Ballylagan organic farm, farm shop and tea room that (to our surprise) is just up behind Carrickfergus; embarrassingly it's been open since 1999 but we only heard about it earlier this week. Yep, it was the ever knowledgeable Mamma G that pointed us in the right direction. It's fabulous and for purely academic reasons we had to have cake and coffee = thumbs up.

** Then the best bit - we went to the Lottie. It was my first time there this year to actually work and not just to glance round it and go home. I had my lucky favourite socks on, many layers and my farmers' hat (or flat cap, that I bought in the farmers' shop). For only being there an hour, when the sun went down, we managed surprisingly a lot, well I did, Andrew did a lot of chatting to a friend ;) In his defence though he is the head gardener and has been there a few times already this year.

** His other, earlier visits have seen the apples cut back and training started, the autumn raspberries cut down and the whole back of 24a mulched. 14b also has lots of new Blackthorn hedglings planted and a windbreaker all a long the left side. It's becoming annoying to my brain that that plot is spilt in a different way than our other one.

First before and after photo of the year :)

** I focused on the flower bed and got it almost completely weeded and removed a plant of two that weren't happy. More to do tomorrow. In the plans for this season (our 8th year!) is for me to have 2 long thinner cut flower beds and I'm going to learn more about their care and maintenance :) The new plans will soon be drawn out to share with you, you know I love a good plan.

Home to a steaming bowl of tomato and chilli soup, a shower and a wee whisky..
hugs,
Carrie
xx

More Bank Holiday Work

Looking back at my photos is seriously the only way I can remember what on earth happened just under a week ago! I have the worst memory out there, oh dear, I must be getting old....*sigh*

So here's what happened on the Sunday 13th July- a revelation to me just as much as it will be for you, haha. Though it must be said, it wasn't terribly exciting.

We visited a large DIY warehouse and bought another drip hose for the thirsty tea garden - it's got a beautiful birch tree, christmas box, bamboo and wisteria in it so it really loves to drink up the H2O :) The camellia of course prefers rainwater. I also got some really snazzy gardening gloves for only £3, they seemed to be out of fashion if you can get your head around that concept; I say this as there were newer, different patterned ones there for nearly twice the price. Wow, seems pink is not the colour to be gardening in! Haha, ridiculous.

Before going round to visit Mamma G we picked her out lettuce, peas, and the first beetroots. Andrew also quickly planted out the dwarf french beans and I sort of tackled 14b (more later on that). Good grief, we still haven't made our minds up about this plot; should we keep it or let it go??

I only had my half dead phone with me on this day so sadly these 2 photos is all you get....

Tuesday 15th July
We took Monday off from the Lottie but boy did we make it up on the Tuesday; we were there all day!
First I shall show you Andrew's work cos I'm nice like that and 24a is definitely less frightening to look at :)

* The cornflowers were taking over and making the whole plot look messy - it's what you see as you look at the plot and naturally allow your eye to flow down to the pergola. So they were all strung up and really look beautiful now on mass, not flopping all over the place.

* The 2 apple trees were also tied up to wire and the espalier training has begun. The bamboo canes are there to help start and keep those branches we want to grow up and out in place. I am always amazed at gardeners' ability to do this, it looks so good and gets air and sunlight around those fruit producing stems = happy plants and happy viewer.

* Lastly Andrew planted up the rest of the leeks into the now empty potatoes bed :) Leeks are super duper important to us, due to my intolerance to onions, as you'll remember.

My work on 14b? I'll share it soon..
Your Carrie xx

Apples and Whisky

I remember telling you we got rid of the fruit arch way back at the start of December and thus lost our 2 pears, 2 apples and 2 plums, sad times. But we did get 2 new apple trees and I mean NEW as they are the Ecklinville Apple (or Echlinville, if you prefer), recently released for us commoners at a garden center in Co. Down. It's all rather an exciting tale to tell if you're a history geek like myself and my hubby :)

What?! They've spelt it wrong??

Well now, this story all stems from the rather powerful and influential Bishop of Down and Conor in the early 1600s; Robert Echlin. He was originally from Fife in Scotland and more than likely had another estate in Co. Down. His descendants built a lovely grade B1 listed house in acres of gorgeous land during the 18th and 19th centuries and it is still there today. Only now it's a whisky distillery which I think we shall just have to visit :) Anywho, that estate is where the Echlin Ville apple tree was reared and still thrives today.

The bit I like the best is that Bishop Echlin also had a 'bishop's palace' quite close to our allotments in Kilroot. Check out my super cool map :)

It's only recently that we heard about the tree being available for purchase and we knew it was the one for us (or two for us, as Andrew got money off in return for a wee history lesson given to the owner of the nursery!) Now they're planted I can't wait for the fruits, I really must start a Pinterest page dedicated to all things cooking apple - eek!

As they are going to be trained as espaliers Andrew lopped off a good bit of the stem and put in training wires as you can see above. A great wee tip when tying your tree stems to wire is to make sure there are a good few twists of the twine between the plant and the metal or you will get lots of rubbing = damage to your new favourite trees.

I just thought you might like to know that wee story.. funnily enough the idea for me telling you about it came to be a couple of days ago whilst eating an Egremont Russet Apple (one of the ones we had to dispose of - oh it was delicious!)

And just to round this whole blog post off...I am having a medical whisky, hehehe - it's a Talisker 10.

Working hard (November)

Thanks for your patience. I really appreciate the comments too, they really do add rays of hope and love to my life and give me a little more energy to fight - sort of like those video games where you get an extra life. I love you dear readers xx

These photos and developments are from a very cold and very very desolate day on the plots in November when EVERYONE else in the allotmenting world seemed to be more clever than us and had staid at home, warm and comfortable. Well, that was until we got started and then realised that no, we were the clever ones and we had the whole place to ourselves and the birds and if you work hard and steady you warm up soon enough and get stuff done :)

* So the top of 24a...and the tree fruit arch, humm, what's happened to the trees?! *

Yes the 6 trees at the arch (2 apples, 2 plums, 2 pears) all had to go; they were all sickly and the fruit wasn't ripening or even, in some cases looking at all normal. They were too crushed, there wasn't enough nutrients to go around and we were over ambitious and naive. But that is another true joy about gardening ~ you never, ever stop learning and the plot is a constantly changing, evolving place.

They weren't easy to get out. Andrew naturally did the hard bit whilst I removed all the wine bottles that had edged our lovely little shaded path through and under the arch. Goodness, there were two rubble sacks full of glass - I think it would be least embarrassing if we took them to the recycling place in smaller batches!!

Way back in July..

Anyway, I left Andrew to his work - digging out and then digging over single digging/bastard trenching and adding loads of goodness as he went, just like the last post. Goodbye path! Hello 2 very exciting new trees...

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I tackled this bed. It was a joy - loads for the compost and boy I love weeding. The soil was just perfect for getting those long tap roots from those blasted dandelions out ~ the whole thing in one go = *shudders of joy* Sadly, as with every single bed I didn't come across a single worm :( The New Zeland flatworm infestation we had a few years back has done terrible damage! Now I haven't seen one of those in a long time either which is great, but then, there isn't anything for them to eat...I am seriously considering a day were I guerrilla steal worms from roadside verges (hehehe). Don't worry I have a vis vest ;) ...

This is where I got to before home time; all those parsnips are huge and gorgeous looking - roll on Chrimbo dinner! The turnips were tossed on the compost as they were tiny and weren't going to grow anymore this year...the beetroots were lifted a few days later and pickled but shhh... Christmas pressies ahoy! Looks yum.

This is where Andrew got too before said hometime - see the way the whole field was becoming enveloped in a misty cloud? That cloud was cold and damp and rain was a-coming!

Oh but we went back since and there are more photos and stories to share - "hurrah!" I hear you exclaim. See you soon xxxx

Namaste

Why don't the plants love me back??

Sunday afternoon was fabulous, a glorious day at the lottie and hardly a soul there so I wasn't even panicky = result! BUT as I was cutting the grass and moving along between plots the grass pollen attacked and I was vanquished, left as a sniffling, dripping, itchy mess; completely bowled over :( Why?? Oh Mother Nature, why!!

I cut all that my hand and let me tell you, you cannot think when doing work like that. It is fabulous; menial work yes - but you have no room to think negatively - the mind is clear :) Plus I met a gorgeous frog in amongst it all, sadly he was very camera shy.

Anywho, I got my medication from the Dr. today and by the weekend I shall ready to once again go to my plots. But it's so cruel, my anxiety and depression hasn't been that bad the past few days, yet I still couldn't/can't go and get in an hour of Allotmentherapy - life can be so nasty sometimes. Boo and indeed Hiss

However - I shall not let this get me down :) No dear reader I have photos from the weekend and the pollen therein can not affect me through the laptop screen. So here we go, let us bathe ourselves in the beauty.....

I am loving the flowers on 14b, both my Poppies are doing really well, the red one is flowering as you can see, even though it went through a big move in the winter from one plot to the other, the purple one has loads of buds and I can barely wait :) I left the chives and the big artichokes to flower, the bees adore them and I don't eat them so its a win win situation. And ohh! look at the all the blossom on the blackberry (or as I like to call it the brambleberry - which makes life awkward for me sometimes when I call my phone my brambleberry too hahaha) Then the 3 roses, well they are now 2 :( Remember the photo I put up of the white 'Polar Star' covered in green fly and aphids, well it was worse and we just had to get rid of it, it's never been the healthiest plant...aww well I have an excuse to buy more :)

Another bed we have left for the bees is the now bolted purple sprouting broccoli - oh isn't a mecca for insects over there :)

Here is that updated photo of the garlic - so proud of it! Yet here is a photo of one of the apples that has fallen victim to the 'June Drop' and I just heard a moment ago that loads of leaves have suddenly fallen off the cherry tree.

Ahh, Nature, she teaches us so much. We can worry ourselves stupid about things but truly we are not in control, never are, never will be. Gardening is a roller coaster and such a get metaphor for life.

A good boast at 24a; weeds out - plants in

Okay, okay, I was a bit ranty in the last post, sorry. Sometimes I think you just need to get some issues off your chest and I feel much better and much more positive now, so thank you for indulging me.

I am going to be much more cheerful this time as I have happy photos and good raves about 24a (don't talk to me about 14b, that is being tackled tomorrow!) After a bad start to the year things really do seem to have caught up and the plot is filling up rather nicely thank you :) I'll start off with the fruit arch (cause I am super duper proud of it) at the bottom of the plot. Oh my lordy! the trees are doing so well this year, I think they have finally established and we have apples, pears and for the very first time, plums all set and growing!!! I hope we actually get some of each, it's been an impatient wait so far. The arch is now covered and if we ever get a really sunny day ever again, this is where you'll find me, in the shade - pale and interesting is the look I'm going for (I simply do not tan!)

And up beside the fruit arch is the Summer Raspberry patch - oh my, they are so heavy with fruit, though not one is ripe yet... I'm tapping my toe waiting.. however they are incrediblly healthy and a metre away there are new plants growing in the main path which I had to rip out - they're like a weeds those plants! They and the Blueberries growing behind them are going to have to be made bird proof - I am not sharing them this year again, in fact I blasted well didn't get 1 blueberry the past 2 years, grrrr.

The Cherry tree  ('Stella') has loads of fruit this year too. It did last year though to be fair and then it all got a bit too warm one day and they all fell off, to say I was disappointed is an understatement, I remember just standing there staring at the ground with my heart in my throat (honestly, it's daft but I was tearing up). I am trying not to get too excited but it's really hard - for goodness sake I have a Cherry Blossom Tattoo, my photography bussiness is called Cherry Blossom Tattoo - I bloomin' love all things Cherry! (apart from Cherry Coke but that's just because I hate Coke)...

The Garlic!!! Happy??? Heck yeah! This time last year it was looking good but there was rust, this time, no rust!! They just keep getting better and better - 'Gault's Wight' I call them, but then I am a total geek :p (This photo is almost a month old now - they look so fabulous now, I can't believe I forgot to take a pic!)

We (and by that I mean Andrew) had a terrible time trying to get Sweetcorn to germinate this year but in the end we have enough and have planted them out 2 sister style ~ Sweetcorn and Squash (under plastic bottle cloches) together as is our way :) Fingers crossed, I do adore corn on the cob. There is going to be a huge squash bed over in 14b as usual but I'll talk about that some other time.

Spuds are still doing great - we had to keep the fleece at hand though but this weather is so messed up but if the earlies I dug up last weekend are anything to go by, we should have a great crop (I'm pretty sure they're 'Sharp's Express' here). We also have second earlies in too ('Estima') - looking healthy.

I thought this was interesting...on the left are leeks that were sown in March, on the right ones that were sown in April - can you see a difference?? If anything the newer ones are stronger and a richer, deeper green colour - just goes to show, you shouldn't worry about getting everything planted, nature will catch up, she has her own rules!

Well my lovelies apart from all that there are great hanging bunches of redcurrants on every plant, little healthy rows of turnips and parnsips and lovely looking lettuces and spring onions. Just don't mention carrots to us, it's a touchy subject......

I think I have waffled and boasted enough - I'm off for a nap :) xxxx

Apples and things to do with them :)

All these gorgeous photographs and recipe ideas can be found on my Pinterest mood board 'Allotment food and drink'. http://pinterest.com/carrie_gault/allotment-food-and-drink/ They are not my own, I really must stress but belong to other blogs.

To find out more about any of them you just click on the photograph, the link embedded within it will lead you to the source page! But for now, just enjoy and imagine what you can do with your apple harvest. Yum

Source: vittlesandbits.blogspot.com via Carrie ~ Cherry Blossom Tattoo on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Carrie ~ Cherry Blossom Tattoo on Pinterest

Source: hatunotblog.com via Carrie ~ Cherry Blossom Tattoo on Pinterest

Source: eggsonsunday.wordpress.com via Carrie ~ Cherry Blossom Tattoo on Pinterest

Not much happening on the lottie these days - so sorry. The weather is just awful, so miserable! But we are still eating gorgeous squashes so that cheers the soul. Next time I'll show you some inspirational squash recipes (I do like the sound of the one above - squash and apple, looks gorgeous!)

Hugs