July allotment recap (2/2)

Sunday afternoon saw us return bravely to 24a even though there were more thundery showers foretold by the weatherman. I will admit that I guffawed at the thought as the skies looked beautifully blue with white fluffy clouds and it was warm enough to be working only in a t-shirt. I was soon to be humbled, but in the intervening hours we managed to get some good progress made.

Upon arrival I took a photo of the climbing rose - still in full bloom and with more flower buds coming! To think I have tried to get rid of this plant twice, well again, I sit here red faced. Shame on me.

I took a moment to take in the joy of our apples, the first photos are from the Saturday - It was hard to witness the bird beak damage to some of the best ones that had happened just a day.  I love birds and am happy that the insects were enjoying them (this wasp was drinking away all afternoon) but their mine damn it!

Andrew made the first of the new paths. Here is the evolution of it in photo form..

The planks we edged our beds with 9 yrs ago are rotting and so this summer is all about refurbishment and a little less about the growing. We also decided to make the paths extend right the way round the beds inside of just down the 3 sides. It will be a lot easier to weed and tend and harvest now. Yay.

gosh you can really see how the weather changed over this period - thunder just after I took last photo..

There comes a time when you just have to reprimand yourself for growing things you don't actually want or use!

The red gooseberries that I fought gooseberry saw fly larvae for, got scraped and jabbed all over my arms for, fought the birds for the the few berries we got (still in a bag in the fridge as we aren't fussed on them) are going. I have one cut down to the ground and other still to do, then Andrew will lift the root balls out.

They also really hindered the tending to and harvesting of blueberries, of which I seem to have missed the boat on again. Damn birds just find a way into the cage every time! Next year it will be different.

Taken from Andrew's Instagram (there's a cool filter on it)

There have been some delicious dinners from the produce we have been getting though and I can't complain. Andrew does this lovely side of crushed potatoes with scallions finely chopped, some mushed up garlic and butter all mixed up = yummy :)

And I shall once again, as with every year, remind you that ROASTED beetroot is the way to go - it's so incredible. If you only grow yours to pickle them....shame on you! x

Hugs, have a great weekend
Carrie  x

Small victories

Victory No. 1 
My computer is fixed and I didn't totally freak out when it decided to pack up in the first place!

Victory No. 2
The gauntlet was thrown down on Monday to my anxiety and I planted up some pots for the back garden. Yes, after a good year of not planting anything due to an irrational fear that I'd do it wrong and kill anything I'd touch - I have overcome. (Need more to fill it up nut all in good time.)

Soil under my fingernails, terracotta pots emptied out, cleaned and reused. I have been feeling rather like a green-fingered gardener - let's hope they survive or my pride will take a darn good beating! haha. The tiny thing on the bottom shelf is some mint I am trying to grow - we'll see...

We have :

Sanvitalia 'cuzco' yellow 

Bacopa 'snowflake'

Osteospermum 'special fire'

Osteospermum 'pink'

Wee bit of mint

Allotment news from the weekend and hurrrip, more small victories :) 

Victory No. 3 
The first harvest! Spuds ahoy my friends; come on over to our house and have a nibble, haha!

Ok, as these photos prove, we were a little too excited to see how the potatoes were doing and harvested these ones a wee bit too early. But there were lots of a good size and I like them small, plus sometimes you just need some instant gratification.

You can see on the top right photo that some were fingernail size, haha. But we were happy and I could easily put up that harvest photo up on my desk 😀. The used potting compost was placed as a nice wee mulch around the growing dwarf french beans.

Victory No. 4

As soon as we arrived at the plot I scared off a bird that was sneaking in amongst the gooseberries. Ggrrr, as much as love birds, that food is mine and I've already had a battle with the sawfly larvae! So it was time to deploy the netting and now the blueberries and gooseberries are much safer. Of course the blighters have been known to get in away but hey, we've done something.

The gooseberries are so close to being ready but the blueberries are teasing me and have stayed this shade of glaucous blue for weeks now - I want to eat them! I'm going to get new recipes for both berries, any that work really well, I'll share x

The garlic looks ready to lift too - it's all starting to happen.

Victory No. 5

I just wanted to show you how happy the sweetcorn and squashes are. It'll be a long time until we eat any produce from these plants but it's a joy to see them looking good.

Lastly, Victory No. 6 is my hay-fever medication is working! Thank goodness for it as look what we are surrounded by - a couple of weeks ago I could have ripped my nose off and eyes out but now I am feeling almost invincible in the face of grass pollen!

More soon - I didn't even show the right hand side of the plot this time. Stories and even a hand-drawn plan of the site to come.

Love
Carrie

Red Gooseberry Jam

Okay, so I thought I would be away from the laptop for a few days over our holiday period but no, it's absolutely pouring down and I refuse to go outside today so instead...a recipe for you :)

I have this red gooseberry bush on the plot of shame (14b) that is so prolific that I think we could be incredibly fed up with the very thought of eating red gooseberries by the end of summer. So thinking ahead I thought; 'well, I've only harvested a quarter of what's there and there's no way I am letting the birds pilfer the rest so I need to think laterally...jam, jam for the miserable winter mornings, jam for my porridge....'

Thus I made red gooseberry jam and this is how. It only made enough for half sized Kilner jar, perfect for storing away as and when I make batches.

I used the basic BBC Good Food recipe which I thought it was fabulous; my weights were different but it's always the same weight of fruit to sugar really with any jam I've made so far. Don't skip that lemon!

 http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2303641/gooseberry-jam

* first sterilise your jar/s by washing thoroughly in very hot soapy water. Rinse in very hot water and put on a baking tray and into the oven at 140C fan oven until totally dry. I usually turn the oven off and leave it/them in the oven until I need it at the end...

* put the gooseberries, juice of half a lemon and water (enough to just cover the berries) in a large wide pan (use a preserving pan if you have one). Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes until the fruit is very soft and pulpy. Put 2 or 3 small saucers in the freezer (these will be used to test the setting later on)

I didn't get any scum and under the activity of top and tailing I just used my nails. I did start out with taking a little knife to both ends but somehow I felt the world was laughing at me and I was seriously wasting minutes of my life, haha.

The time wasting stops!!!

Stuff all the gooseberries, lemon juice and water in a saucepan, cook until boiling - BE CAREFUL

* Add the sugar and stir over a gentle heat for another 10 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Once you can’t feel or see any grains of sugar bring to the boil and boil hard for 10 minutes, skimming the surface as you go and stirring now and again to stop it catching.

* Spoon a little jam onto a chilled saucer, leave to cool then run your finger through it. If it’s ready it will wrinkle up. If this doesn’t happen boil for another 5 minutes then keep testing and boiling until it does.

Add sugar and cook for what feels likes forever. This is how mine looked when the wrinkle test was passed.

 * Do a final skim on the finished jam then pour into the sterilised jars and seal. Store in a cool dark place – the jam will be good for up to 6 months.

Pretty :) Hot jam in a hot jar - the seal works best this way as it contracts.

May the weather be less depressing where you are today but if not - bake or make jam maybe :)
Love and hugs
Carrie