Tidying up and harvesting

You would be so proud of me last weekend when I went to the lottie on both Saturday and Sunday :) The weather was doing okay so we needed to spend time there before it's just raining all. the. time. ... November, how did it get to be November already?!

Anyway, I started off in a good mood >

And then went over to the top of 14b and saw this>

It put me in an even better mood! Hahaha, there is nothing better than constructive destruction, it's my favourite activity. This mess is our Jerusalem Artichoke row and for a while now it's just been allowed to do whatever because basically, it's way up there at the end and it's easy to pretend it belongs to someone else *blush* But no longer, I have taken ownership of the disaster area that has been 14b and it is slowly being tamed.

After :)

Plus this is all from one plant. I know! no need to screw your face up, they aren't pretty. They have a look about them that only a mother could love, well I am that mother and I love them, see their potential and will have them roasted up and eaten soon. (Disclaimer - I do not have human children but I do realise that you don't eat them)

So as always happens to me when I do a big clear out and I have my head phones on (lucky it was just me and Andrew at the plots - I was singing Emeli Sande quite loud and probably very badly indeed) I got carried away. I started pulling a few weeds up and then ended up destroying one of the worst weed patches we have ever had. Up there between 'the big bed', the compost bins and next door's shed isn't somewhere we tend to go often, especially as this year the pumpkins were in a different place, not that bed.

So I shall very happily and with a bit of pride it must be said, show you a before and after :) There is more to do but I had so many weed flowers up my nose I felt dizzy and we have also decided that we need some sort of netting fence/ windbreaker up there too so why dig it twice?

On Sunday I moved on to the bottom of 14b and ripped out the beans. Oh it was joyful to grab handfuls of bean stalks and rip, tear and pull them from their bean pole wigwams. I imagine it all looked a little horrific from afar, as if I was fighting for my life, but nope I was just having fun.

We got some Borlotti beans from the far wigwam but not much, it was a pretty disappointing year really. I have saved seed though for the first time ever off this. And Andrew has eaten a good handful in some soup and he's still alive, I think he actually likes them.

 

The runner beans? They all just went into the compost, seriously there are only so many a person can eat and they just kept coming and going stringy really quickly, it was a battle, they won. Though I guess I had the final say.

The hubby ventures forth to the lottie

I am still ill, this is week 4 we're into now and the phlegm just keeps on coming, the cough is really irrating and I am blooming exhausted! Saturday was a glorious Autumn day, the sort that really makes you want to be outside skipping; crisp with deep blue skies and sunshine galore. But of course I had to stay inside and fill a bin with used hankies :(

Andrew though ventured forth to the lottie alone for the first time in weeks as he too has been ill. I decided to badger him into taking photos of everything and then interogated him afterwards so I could feel I was involved. Thus the next few wee updates will come from Andrew but through me :)

Andrew went with the purpose of getting the Garlic planted and harvesting some delicious crops for dinner, we were in desperate need for a homegrown, homemade lottie soup to soothe our souls.

Here is the view of 24a when he arrived. I personally don't think it's too bad after so much neglect just a little weedy and that grass - ggrrrr. Look at those lovley leeks and the chard in the background!

Well I saw a photo of Andrew planting the garlic but I have to put my hands up - like an great big idiot I have deleted it. It was a good photo too, but here is one from after the event where Andrew got some prickily branches and placed them over the bed to try and keep the birds away. I guess it's not a huge stretch to the imagination to think there are garlic cloves under there *shy smile*

Here, this will cheer us all up - a glorious harvest (and my belly is full of these ingredients right now as we have just had our second day of amazing allomtent soup!)

1st Parsnips and Jerusalem Artichokes

 Borlotti Beans

 A beautiful Leek and a Crown Prince Squash :)

And just to make your mouth water even more there was also butter beans, garlic and beef shin - yum!

I shall return with more of the story, more photos, a wee chat about the compost and Andrew's plans and dreams for the lottie :)

hugs

Hey, only me :)

I feel bad, I haven't been writing much these last days, but then again I haven't had much to say, so...

Happy (belated) World Mental Health Day! (it was on Monday). I hope you are all well and are with me in fighting the stigma of having a mental health illness - there is NOTHING to be ashamed about and we ought to talk about it as openly as say a broken arm. 1 in 4 of us will experience some poor mental health in our lives, it doesn't discriminate, oh no, it cares not what age you are, your social status, your intelligence or believes. Please, if you are experiencing problems or know someone who is - talk about it!

Rant over :)

And incidentally that is why I haven't been blogging - I had a nervous breakdown last week and I still haven't recovered. I am a bloody stubborn girl though and am fighting my way back to some semblance of 'normality', but not with out a lot of support and understanding from my loved ones.

The weather here has been a reflection of my inner turmoil ~ dull, grey, heavy and raining lots. So nothing has been achieved at the plots at all and quite frankly it's all a bit miserable. But on Sunday Andrew did go over and collected all this goodness!! He made a damn fine soup out of it all and it was healing and restorative, not least because we had that wonderful glow inside us that we grew all this!! Isn't it fabulous - garlic, rainbow chard, potato, celeriac, kale of various types, leek, borlotti beans and some of an utterly delicious, sweet pumpkin (Crown Prince). I can genuinely say there was no anti-bacterial cleaner in it though!! Sometimes photos do lie, hahah.

I have heard that it is also National Egg Week and National Chocolate Week - so if ever you needed an excuse, I think we all ought to be eating lots of chocolate sponge cake - you know, to support the cause ;)

This last photo just goes to show how close I have managed to get to any gardening since my breakdown. You have to laugh! This is a pincushion for wearing around the wrist and was made by your truly, especially for one of my bestest friends. Please do contact me if you would like one, hahaha!

Hopefully I shall speak soon xxxxx

lots to share

I have to tell you about the weekend and week past before a whole new one begins. I don't know where the time has gone but it is Friday! and I am exhausted as usual. I don't know what I have been writing about that could possibly be more important than all the hard work and artistry that we did on the plots!

This, as you will know by now, is my flower bed in 14b. I ripped out everything that was tired and looking awful and now I just have the permanent inhabitants left and a few sunflowers still struggling on. So that means there is space and I can see where things are and where things can be planted for next year. I have loads of bulbs (they'll probably get started this weekend) but I also had 2 birthday present windmills and three arty rock mounds that Andrew and made (we stole the idea from a lovely garden in Brittany).

Then joy, my 1st blog birthday present was able to be planted out too, a sunny Coreopsis. Poor thing has just been sitting there for a month in a pot, probably not feeling wanted. It may even have thought I had forgotten about it or maybe life was just all about living in pots and feeling cramped and terrible. Well, no, I now had the space cleared for this little beauty to go into her home and be free to spread those roots and settle into life on the plot. Isn't she a darling?

Whilst doing this Davy walked past with the most massive of cabbages this girl has ever laid her eyes on. Boy was that a good plant, very firm in the heart and hardly a nibble in sight. He was taking it over to a lady friend's house - better than flowers, eh?

Then during the week I attacked the sweetcorn bed. All done for this year and we only had 2 fresh off the plant. Though to be fair both Mamma G and my sister-in-law have lots in their freezers for us that they rescued from the plot in the bad weather Northern Ireland suffered when we were in glorious France. If frozen sweetcorn is the price you pay for going on holiday at the end of August/start of September. It's one I am willing to pay!

In France we bought an adaza, we'd been finding it very hard to get one here and the on-line shipping costs for something so heavy were nuts. So we gave it a try and oh!, it's great. Unfortunately we were in such a tizzy of work I didn't take a photo but I'll post one soon. We also bought a bell for the shed. It's for me to ring when Andrew wanders off around the fields and inevitably gets chatting for a long time. I can ring it and get him back again - that's the idea, I have my reservations about it actually working. Men (especially once they become husbands) seem to have very selective hearing!!!

The one and only harvest of Borlotti beans took place last night and the vines were cut back too. I had really enjoyed them growing up the gates, I think we'll do something similar next year and the climbing rose will be there too. As you can see I really did like them there as a good lot of them are way past their best. Our first squashes were lifted too - so cute looking, I hope they taste well. We did a 2 sisters approach with them and the sweetcorn, growing them in the same bed, it worked really well.

Then just as leaving last night we picked our first leek of the season - pretty good. And Andrew went mad collecting brambles, it was infectious and soon I was in the hedgerows too. We got quite a lot! Jam making tonight, us over the bubbly saucepan and a glass of wine, uummm. x

Potatoes, Beans and Peas

Oh last night was utterly stinking on the lotties - the weather has just been rotten and we're on the final countdown to the outdoor Family Fun Day; it's on Saturday! Eeek. Things have to clear up or else we need to find a 4-field sized marque. At least the roads have improved look at this >

So although working for a rather short, damp time, I managed to tie in all the billowing Raspberry canes and harvest lots of runner beans. The runners are going very well again this year despite the weather. We love these 'Enorma' ones, they live up to the name and they taste excellent. We're going to have a glut soon as this year they are all pretty much at the same growing point and the yield is high on this variety. I cut a good few which we'll eat tonight, the one on the far right is 38cm long, and that isn't the longest we've had.

Although the weather has been bad we have done well so far, bar the fact that the wind has knocked down a good few of my precious sunflowers (no photos of that, just to upsetting, it may even give you nightmares!). I've finished lifting the peas ('Greenhusrt longshaft?', 'Longshaft Greenhurst?' or something completely different; we grew 2 types and head-like-a-sieve-girl here can't remember) now and just have the remaining bagful in the fridge. We have mangetout coming now and boy are they sweet and tasty and more broad bean seedlings and borlotti beans coming along. That's just the start of it! There's also French Dwarf beans and green beans; legumes rule!

We've had some fabulous dinners too. Simple food but done right. The 'Maris Piper' bed had to lifted due to blight starting to get into the tubers, so we'd had lots of lovely spuds. Plus we've also been slowly chomping at the 'Maris Peers' and have some 'Duke of York' for tonight. I took this potato/tomato picture last week, growing on one of the Maris Peer plants. Of course I knew these things existed but I'd never seen it before - nature is marvelous.

So here's a little taster of what we've been eating. A simple dinner, yes but as I said, done right. These are little individual layered pies with our own courgettes (doing very well this year, growing in an old chicken manure pellet bucket!) sliced and seasoned with herbs and white wine vinegar on the bottom, and mixture of thoroughly roughed up boiled potatoes and peas (our own again) and a little cheese sprinkled on top before a light grilling. So good! On my goodness. Andrew (as usual) finished before me and then proceeded to stare at my bowl until I'd finished. Like Maggie I think he was hoping for a little leftovers ~ no such luck!

A 'harvest hat' for a change, I forgot my basket

So, yes, once the raspberry canes were dealt with and the runner beans harvested and photos taken I had to run back to the car. Taking my Strawberry and Mango fruit tea with me. I sat there whilst Andrew had some committee stuff to attend to. It was cold and raining and blowy - this is August. Look at it!! And it just got worse!