The Soup of our Labour

Here are the ingredients for the joyous Lottie Soup we had at the start of the week. Made entirely from Lottie grown produce - Frugal, Warming, very Tasty, not to mention Healthy. You can't go wrong.

3 Small Leeks (Musselburgh)
2 Cabbages (Greyhound)
12 Baby Carrots (Early Nantes 5)
12 Scallions (White Lisbon)
BIG handful of Parsley (Plain leaved 2)
A few Cloves of Smoked Garlic (courtesy of 'WG')

Water
Andrew's secret ingredient ~ Ras el Hanout
(Salt & Pepper to your own tastes)

The other pure joy of this Lottie Soup was all the ingredients get bunged in at the same time and it makes enough for 2 people for 2 nights! Plus, the 2nd night, it tastes even better!!! We had ours with lovely N. Irish Wheaten Bread but I suppose you could have white Crusty Bread/Baguettes etc. It's up to you, (but personally Wheaten is the way to go...)

It was a real joy to eat and was made all the better by knowing to produce was all Lottie stuff! Hoorah for Allomenteering, it totally ROCKS.

Baby Carrots, Manly Scallions and the Case of the Disappearing Beetroot

It's all about that process of planning for a new year (stops me going mad in the winter); picking seeds to order, looking into brand new areas of Allotmeentering (Apple/Pear/Plum Arches!) clearing out beds and the soil given a bit of tender, loving, care. We've been doing this slowly for the past few weeks, but Saturday saw us clearing out, pretty much, the last bed. We still have a few Parsnips in one, Leeks in another and Spinach in one.

The 3rd bed on the right contained some Cabbages, Beetroot (Holy Moly what did he do with them????), Baby Carrots and Scallions (which where under a poly tunnel) and Parsley.

Andrew cut out the Cabbages (4 or 5 of them) before I could get near the place with my camera and I am guessing he also did something with the Beetroot at this time too. He had me distracted, in the shed or something - what happened to the row of Beetroot??~ I fear it may be in the compost bin! But no, surely not!? Then where are they all????? There must be a perfectly good explanation, I'll find out when he gets home.


(open picture for notes)

And then we started to lift all the remaining Carrots (they weren't going to grow much more) and we were surprised that some actually looked good. They ended up in the Lottie Soup, which I still have to tell you about and I swear they were packed with Carroty yumminess; as if all the carrot flavour they would have had as big specimens was concentrated down into a tiny root.

The Scallions however were wonderfully tall and as good as any we've had from the Lottie. I highly recommend the mini Poly Tunnel (or they might be called Sun Tunnels officially, I can't remember) to any and every Allotmeenter out there. A good buy indeed.

The Parsley plants are still there, though I cut a big one (that had been under a large water bottle) right down and Boy was it good. Again it went in the soup but we also had some with a stir fry - fresh herbs are the way to go, if you can get them to grow in our climate (I'm still upset about my Basil and Coriander disasters!).

So another bed ready for thinking about. I think it will be all Root Vegetables next year, if my hold on the rotation scheme is right. It was a Brassica bed last year, with some Squashes but they didn't do very well. I'll have to draw out some better plans so I can explain things clearer, eh? And I will get that Lottie Soup written down....

The Produce and The Plan

Forgive me if this blogette comes across as very dry and boring ; I am feeling very ill but like having a routine to my day ~ so it's blogging time.

We had a lovely load of produce from the (becoming somewhat barren) Lottie this weekend past. On Saturday I lifted loads of Scallions and the biggest handful of Parsley.

However, on Sunday, late afternoon, Andrew went down again and came back with this!

So, for Sunday Dinner there was a lovely Risotto with our own Leek (I'm intolerant to Onions but can eat some Leek and Scallions) and a shop bought Butternut Squash. Damn the fact none of our own Squashes took this year! Monday night we had roast vegetables (our own Parsnips and Leek included) and lamb. Then we had our 1st Cabbage last night sliced up in a stir-fry, it was gorgeous. I really wasn't expecting to say that, but it was.

I have only just realised, looking at this photo that there is a bunch of Beet Spinach in this house. I forgot about that ~ things that go in the salad-crisper boxes in the fridge usually get completely overlooked by me. Terrible, I know.

Andrew wanted his gloves to feature in this picture, to remind us all how COLD is was. What a wonderful Hubby, going to the Lottie in the literally freezing dusk to gather food for us. Big kisses.

I thought this may be interesting to look at too. 'The Plan'. I'll talk more about it and our ideas for the coming months once we get it sorted in our own minds. But at least it gives you an idea of the room we have and what we did with the 8 main beds this year. There are also a lot of scribbles over the paths, these are plans for arches and a pergola - some day!

Now I'm off to have a soothing mug of De-caff coffee; my Depression is crippling me and it's so cold. Bah Humbug to winter...even though tomorrow's frosty photos are quite nice.

Random Harvest (I LOVE that film)

This isn't about the film though, it is about the glorious harvest our wee plot gave us as a welcome home present. Here is the now standard harvest photo, but wait til you get the full run down of what's in there...

2 Pak Choi, 4 baby Lettuces, 3 Parsnips, 1 Leek, a massive handful of Parsley and 4 gorgeous wee Turnips. I was very happy, let me tell you.

The Pak Choi was used in stir fries (I was heard to proclaim "It's like real Pak Choi" - what an eejit) the Lettuces were eaten by me with a little cranberry sauce (more about that later) and last night Andrew made the best dinner ever with the rest and some couscous (which we'd grow ourselves if we could darn it!). He simply roasted the parsnips, leek and turnips and mixed it all up with couscous and lots of lovely flat leaved parsley. The only other ingredients were Ras el Hanout (Moroccan spice mixture) and a little salt and olive oil - Heaven!

So to the lettuces. They are growing away beautifully under one of our little mini polytunnels and are so tasty, especially lifted young like this. I am genuinely surprised at how well these little tunnels are doing, they were a good buy alright and to think, I almost doubted their necessity (apologises Andrew!).

Yes, the cranberry sauce and lettuce mixture. This comes from the 1st meal I had when we arrived in Krakow, I was so impressed by this dish I wrote it down in a notebook whilst eating it (never done that before). It had a Lettuce mix of course but added to that was grilled chicken strips, cashew nuts, Sunflower shoots (!) Basil mousse, a few perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes and Cranberry sauce. My socks were blown off - simple but my my so tasty. (If you've never had Sunflower shoots before - they taste a little like firm/ripe melon, beautiful.) Poor me I had hardly any of those ingredients but I made do.

We aren't the only ones to be enjoying the success of their lettuce. These ones are so cute in their little rows; they were planted in between corn until recently. I don't know the names of this lovely couple but they gave us a very big handful of said baby sweetcorn a few weeks ago and it was gorgeous - green fingers on that plot alright.

They aren't 'real' polytunnels but Andrew brought home some used Water Cooler Butts from work and cut their bums off. They have been very effectively used as cloches for 2 of our Parsley plants. Look how this plant was trying to escape (that's before I chopped it down for dinner, hehe), goes to show you don't have to pay for purpose made stuff, eh?

Lastly, for today, I'd like to mention our Leeks and how we've been blanching them with bits of drainpipe. It was found way back in the spring in a little stream along with lots of other dumped household stuff and we thought it might come in handy - we were right. I have an intolerance to 'real' onions but can eat leek, so it's an important crop for us. Using the collars around the young plants makes them grow up to have a longer, thicker white bottom half, where most of the flavour is. Gosh, I'm full of tips today! (This pic doesn't show our best ones but it gives a good idea).

Bugs, Chilli and Parsley

The weather was bright and cold on Sunday, our favourite, even though we both had the cold. We took lunch with us and after a good looking at, we started to work on the plot. Andrew did more composting - our 2nd bin is now full to the brim, I guess that means the 3rd one (that's in the back garden) will have to brought round soon.

I 'worked' on weeding and general poking about (did you know 1 hour of weeding burns off 300 calories!) . I noticed that there were a few interesting bugs about and with my trusty camera, I took photos. Firstly, Chrysalis watch! Plus 'Chrysalis Watch Too'. This second one is obviously very new, he is up on the shed door lintel too (popular place) and is still technically a caterpillar. Not sure what those yellow egg things are - they better not be evil Spider babies; all Buddhist tendencies will go out the window, I will squish them (or get Andrew to do it; that's more realistic)! Look at that lovely sky as well.

Then I saw this beauty. I've been informed that it' a 'STINK BUG', a horrible name for something so pretty. I can't believe I think that, in the past I would have run a mile in the opposite direction when confronted with bugs, now, with camera in hand (and Maggie near by - she's got my back!) I find them wonderful. Which is just right, they are wonderful and look how colourful and shiny this one is... But why, why Stink Bug, who names these things?

So apart from that I dismantled the mini greenhouse over the chilli plants. (NB. Rusty water isn't the easiest thing to get off your fingers and nails.) The Jalapeano wasn't doing anything and had a fungus just developing at the very base. The Hungarian Hot Wax has quite a few fruits and I just lifted the whole plant and now it's hanging up-side-down in the shed. The ground under the chillies was then dug over and improved with our own compost. The circle of life.

All that's left in this bed is the lovely Spinach, one lonely lettuce and Robert's windmill.

Lastly there is our Parsley, not necessarily the most exciting of plants on the plot but it is doing very well indeed. Any success makes me proud and is therefore worthy of note. Two of them have their own Cloches made from old Water bottles - big ones from Andrew's office in work.

Neeps and Tatties

On Friday night we went down for a wee check and a bit of weeding. It was lovely again and quiet - maybe everyone else has crazy social lives! We bagged up some of those potatoes, some for ourselves, some for family and a bag for Andrew's work colleagues (especially Paul - of the oak flooring/cold frame). We also lifted a couple of little Turnips (Purple Top Milan) for Mamma G. She was delighted - we grew them for her really, she loves Turnips.

We also, finally (shameful) met and spoke to Tracy. She got her plot long after us, the previous owner had a change of heart, so she's way behind. It really hasn't been helped by the atrocious weather and other commitments cropping up over various weekends. She was so downhearted, I hope she holds on in their and next year will be more fruitful for her.

Andrew also planted out the Parsley (Plain Leaved 2) I had sown in modules. We have had no luck whatsoever with herbs (apart from mint), so we aren't really holding that much hope for these either, I just wanted to try - we had the seeds anyway, free with a magazine. They have at least germinated and have 2 or 3 true leaves each, so that's a start. It's just so annoying when you end up buying herbs to go with your dinner, and think damn, we ought to have our own - wonder what have we being doing wrong?