Yesterday J went to the allotment and brought back a trolley full of joy!

It's a 3 mile walk to the allotment and a 3 mile walk back and when I can't drive that's what he does - sometimes a friend will give him a lift back and yesterday he managed to get a bus back part way. He mowed and tidied and harvested and then brought all these wonderful things back to me using an old shopping trolley pressed into service many moons ago. 

Rudbeckia, sedum, yarrow, penstemon and sunflowers for the living room

Close up in the living room

Rudbeckia, tagetes and yarrow for the kitchen

Sedum, rudbeckia and tagetes in the kitchen

Last few courgettes

Box of beans

Apples galore

The courgettes were popped onto last night's homemade pizza and today we'll pod the beans and set them to dry in the dehydrator. The apples are destined for cakes and fruit leathers. The flowers are just bringing a smile to my face whenever I look at them.

And then there's this little video of picking the apples with the picking pole which made me smile as I could see the orchard corner and feel like I was there!

I may not be able to get to the plot at the moment but he's making sure I know it's still there and that means more than I can ever say xx

Saturday stories

Chemo number three went ok yesterday - I was very tired by the time we got home but as usual J looked after me and I managed to stay awake to enjoy the delights of Gardener's World and some of the evening comedy shows before crashing out. My hair has now started coming away in earnest which was distressing on Wednesday when it began and is now irritating as I keep finding myself with a furry keyboard and trackpad. I've got plenty of hats and scarves at the ready for when I need them but could really do without the fur-balls!

This morning I'm not too bad so J has left me with everything I might need and headed up the plot for a harvesting trip - with a bit of luck there should be beans, spuds, apples and flowers to look forward to later today.

Talking of beans J brought some dried pods back from the community allotment in Loughborough on Thursday night - really ugly looking pods but look at the lovely shiny treasure held inside.

dried ugly and brown pods

Shiny black runner beans ready to finish drying.

Harvesting

After chemo on Friday, yesterday was a bit of a wipe out for me but J wandered off to the allotment first thing to see what the wildlife has allowed us to keep and came back shattered but with a trolley laden with apples, potatoes, squashes, courgettes, carrots and beans plus a lovely bag of tomatoes from a pal. Whilst up there he'd also cleaned up and re-netted the brassicas and tidied away all the dead sweetcorn stalks so he was really grateful for the lift home from the tomato-donating friend too! Walking through town he'd stumbled across an Isle of Wight Garlic stall at the Food Festival and picked up a new batch of seed garlic. For the last few years we seem to have hit a problem with voles or similar undermining our alliums so he's hit on a new ploy:

Wish us luck - we really really need a new harvest of garlic!

This morning's job for me (before I doze back off again anyway!) has been bean sorting - the second harvest for some of the frames and hopefully at least two more to come if the weather holds for the next few weeks. Once they've finished air-drying they'll join the others in their jars - these store brilliantly for months if not years and make winter meals so much more interesting. 

Borlotto pods

Blue Lake pods

Beautiful speckled borlottis

Creamy white blue lakes

A few stray little cobras

Hope your harvests are going well

Six-on-Saturday 7th September 2019

Afternoon Blog-land today is my September link-up with The Propagator's Six on Saturday meme. I missed August but please check out The Propagator's post here for instructions on how to join in and take a look at his blog for links to lots of wonderful gardens from all around the world. My previous posts can be found by clicking on the #SixOnSaturday label.

Today was a trip to the allotment to see what we could harvest and to plant out the leeks, spinach beet and beetroot that has been languishing on the shelves here at home for far too long. We picked courgettes, Uchiki Kuri squash, dried beans, chickpeas, spinach beet, beetroot and apples plus a couple of lovely bunches of flowers. Then we had a look round to see what was to come.

1. Butternut squash doing well - 8 decent sized fruit on the now stopped plant. Cleared away the leaves to help them ripen.

2.  Some lovely sized eating apples on the small apple tree

3. The Borlottis are ripening well and in a few weeks they will join the bag of already dried beans that we harvested today .

 4. The first of the Achillea Cerise Queen has flowered at last adding their colour to the Rudbeckia rows in the cutting bed

 5. Their stems may be too short to cut but these sunflowers are still giving so much joy as bud after bud opens.

6. And in a sure sign of the changing seasons the sedum is putting on colour in the front border.

Bonus picture - we love our wildlife but it would have been really nice if the badger had left us just one sweetcorn cob to enjoy....grrr....

Some like it hot....

Not a cloud in the sky but plenty of birdsong in the hedges. Sunflowers abound and the bees are loving them, the climbing beans are living up to their name and the lentils are drying well ready for harvesting in a week or so, there may even be sweetcorn if we can get to them before the badger. On the other hand poor J was busy melting whilst watering and finishing the mowing and I was hiding out in the car as we have yet another day over 25⁰c and we were soon heading home to shade, cold drinks and the TV. 

When our allotment gives us marrows instead of courgettes...

It's time for pie...

I first had a version of this many, many moons ago when I worked in Northern Greece, this is the closest I've been able to get to what I remember eating although a hunt around the internet shows that traditionally grated raw courgette is used. I also use shortcrust rather than filo pastry as it takes five minutes to make and costs pennies whereas filo needs to be bought in. It's also really easy to make a double batch and freeze half for days when life throws you a curve ball but you want real food. Some marrows can end up being quite watery so just bubble off the liquid until you have the desired consistency.

Marrow and cheese pie (works with courgettes that haven't got too big too!)

Shortcrust pastry (a batch made with 8oz flour is plenty for a four serving pie)







Filling 
1 medium brown onion (3 small ones in my case)
About 750g of marrow or courgette peeled and diced
1 dessert spoon dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried Sage
appx 1tsp ground dried garlic (about 1 clove)
200g wensleydale diced (I usually use Feta but didn't have any today)
black pepper & salt to taste ( if using Feta don't usually need salt)
1 beaten egg

In a large saucepan, heat oil and slow fry onions to soften. Add diced marrow and herbs, stir well and cover and cook until soft.  This will take anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes depending on density of marrow and size of pieces. Add salt and pepper and allow to cool a little (about 5/10 minutes) then stir in the cheese. Once cool enough to not scramble the egg stir it in as this will help bind the filling.

Line pie dish with pastry and spoon cooled mixture in. Cover with lid. Seal by pinching the edges and trim away any excess. Make a hole for steam to escape, glaze if wish and bake in oven Gas Mark 6 for approx 30 minutes until golden brown.

I often find this is sufficient as a meal in itself but it can be served with a green salad if you prefer. This is a lovely herby substantial meal that makes great use of sometimes tasteless veg and the chief taste tester approved and of course, went back for seconds!

Beans, bees and baby squashes...

A trip to the hospital for a blood test was followed by a far more relaxing (for me anyway) couple of hours up the allotment today. Whilst J ran around like a mad thing strimming, mowing and lifting potatoes I pootled around picking things and taking photos in short bursts before hiding out in the shade of the car.

The beans are bulking up really well now with the Portuguese beans showing lots of glorious red pods as promised by the Heritage Seed Library catalogue way back in the depths of winter . The borlotto, cobra and blue lake beans are doing just as well so the winter stores should be well stocked again.


The Homeguard spuds we picked a few weeks ago were really tasty and as good mashed as they were boiled in their skins so I was chuffed when J dug the next row of them and produced this lot from just 5 plants. We've still got the second earlies and maincrops in the ground so keep your fingers crossed the dreaded blight stays away!

A quick check on the butternut and uchiki kuri squash plants didn't disappoint with about 4 butternuts including this baby one and at least 4 uchikis that I hope ripen over the next month or so to join the beans in autumn and winter stews.

Back to summer veg and our lovely yellow courgette had plenty for us to pick today, including one oversized one that's destined for pie tomorrow. I think I'm glad only one plant made it as it's keeping us well stocked.





And the flowers? Well they are keeping the local buzzies happy as well as providing beautiful bunches for the house. 

Whilst it was really cloudy when we set out by the time we got up there the sun was at full beam and it's promising to get hotter and hotter as the weekend progresses so today's visit was a fairly brief one but with a good haul and a tidy plot to show for it. A bag of beet leaves; several beetroots; onions; potatoes; blackberries; cooking apples, courgettes, rudbeckia and sunflowers all came home with us ready for a long weekend in the kitchen.

Happy weekend all.

  

Sunshine on the sideboard!

Soggy sunflowers

After a wonderful day catching up with friends over lunch yesterday and dodging high winds and heavy showers, this morning we popped up to the allotment to see how the sheds, beans and sweetcorn had coped with the stormy weather. Luckily the tee-pees are still upright and the beans are climbing high, the sunflowers are continuing to give us dozens of beautiful heads of yellow, copper and rusty red and all but one sweetcorn plant standing proud - and this one looked more like a casualty of falling apples rather than high winds so it looks like the hazel windbreaks and hedgerows are working well to filter out the worst of the gusts. The sheds at each end are also still steady on their bases so we count ourselves lucky. A quick potter around the beds yielded well-washed crops and well-watered plants, so we picked more courgettes, peas, spinach beet and a few berries for the kitchen as well as a couple of bunches of sunflowers, rudbeckia and yarrow to brighten up the living room. We managed just a little bit of weeding before the rains quickly came hammering down, thoroughly watering us and everything on the plot. A short but productive visit.

Rudbeckia amongst the squash plants

Glorious multi-headed sunflowers

Peas, courgettes, onion and berries

Growing nicely...

It wasn't just the spuds that were thriving at the weekend. 

There was plenty of wildlife around on the beds, in the path edges and circling above all adding to the joy of being outside for a few hours

bees on the sunflowers

crickets in the paths

ladybirds on the edges

and rooks and buzzards overhead

The other plants were also bulking up nicely for our late summer and autumn harvests. The beans will be left until fully formed and dried for winter stews and soups. We hope the squash will start setting fruits soon - it's first flowers are already peeking through the leaves and the sweetcorn is looking healthy if a little short but there's still time for them to set cobs.

beans podding up nicely

butternut squash taking over the bed

Sweetcorn spreading

Colours of August

Whilst there are still a few soft pinks and blues in the back garden the vibrant reds and yellows of late Summer are really starting to come to the fore now as the geraniums and lavenders start to hand over to the dahlias, the rudbeckias and the really pretty new Summerina which is a lovely cross between an echinacea and a rudbeckia.

The Summerina came to us as a dormant plant much earlier in the year from the lovely folk at Paddock Plants who grow their plants in Peat Free compost and ship with minimal plastic (just the re-usable wallet that the paperwork was in). They even included a note that if this particular plant didn't pick up then to get in touch and they would replace it as they were worried it was a little bit too dormant! As you can see it's thrived.

Summerina

Rudbeckia Marmalade

Tomato Nova

Dahlia Mignon series 

 And whilst the lavender and hollyhocks may be fading now they are still completely covered in bees and butterflies and bringing lots of joy to the garden.

Bumble bee feeding on lavender

Hollyhocks fading beautifully

Happy Gardening.