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

Lovely large leeks

My head is a good bit better, still a little fuzzy but okay. Thank you so much for all the kind comments; oh, Allotments can be dangerous!

So I have wanted to tell you about our leeks for a while now, I'm really rather proud of them you see. They have their own dedicated bed this year in 14b and have been going so well there. We plant ours in modules and then transfer them out into the bed, when they're settled in there we cover the lower stem with cut offs of drain pipe we found dumped in a river (waste not, want not). This gives them a great size to grow to and they get blanched whilst they're at it. Andrew told me it was in a recent gardening magazine that Pringle crisp tubes are good for this too. You'd have to eat a little more than your fair share to get enough for the whole bed of seedlings, but they do say 'once you pop, you can't stop'.

I was also introduced to the traditional way of growing them when we visited Glenarm Castle Gardens. The young seedlings are lifted here and put into a comparatively wide and deep hole, they grow to fill the hole and of course being in the ground, they get blanched in that way. Each to their own.

We've been eating ours for a good month now and of course it has just been getting better and better. Look at this beast, I couldn't believe it. Now they are all like that. I can't eat onions but I can cope with leek so this is super duper rewarding, they are very strong so 1 leek would do 2 dinners. Last week when Andrew was chopping one up in the kitchen I was crying in the living room - that's how strong they are! We have only ever grown 'Musselborough' leeks and I reckon that is the way it will stay. They did get some leaf rust this year but it's only at the top and doesn't effect the white bit, so I can't find fault in this variety at all.

Here's 2 more in amongst the autumn harvest of last Saturday. They're still in the fridge with everything else - a huge vat of soup is going to be made ~ yummy!! Perfect for these colder nights. Plus Andrew is off on Friday and has it planned that we are allotmenteering our socks off so some hearty soup will be needed!!

It being the 1st Wednesday of the month Andrew and all the other committee members are off having their meeting. Wish them well please, I don't think I could cope with that job - never going to please everyone.

I'll have a vat of that please!

Okay, shame on me for not writing much these days; I have been sick :(

Yep, mentally not good at all, not even a wee bit but on top of that an upset tummy ~ is there anything worse when the raspberries are ripe and you can't bear to eat just one!!? All I could cope with was a single berry-ette from a Raspberry. I have been puking all over the show (even in the hedgerow of the lottie, so watch out guys, I blush).

There have been a couple of up sides to this period of dicky tum. I got to sit on Sunday by the wood stove with my blanket and just watch Andrew working hard. It is lovely to watch others run around like mad and just sit there calmly. Mint tea was the order of the day, we did have lots but the pot broke with the force of all the roots and I hacked it in half and potted up two. I thought it was 'proper' to cut plants back when you did this so there are about 3 tiny mint leaves now, but hey it doesn't taste so good on the way up again anyway!

Then there is the little bit more attention you receive and the extra hugs, always nice.

And lastly there is SOUP. Oh, if only everyone could have a Hubby like mine. Well you can't have Andrew, he's mine alone and don't even think about stealing him, though I know you want to. Andrew is a whizz in the kitchen and the lottie produce does not get harvested in vain (most of the time, blush again) when he is on top cooking form. So the healing soup he made at the weekend was Wonderful! I didn't take a photo because ironically it looked like sick, ha..

Andrew's 'Lottie Root Soup' contained:

Garlic

Leek

Celeriac

Parsnip

Potato

Carrot

and bought in Chicken Stock

It was all cubed, simmered and mooshed ~ yum.

I ate it all and it stayed down, hoorah. I think I would like to bathe in that soup, so good and thick and gooey and yum. Can't wait for more and more and more.