An evil wind is blowing......

I recently harvested my first crop of Jerusalem Artichokes. They are known for having a windy side affect, and are also known by some of us as fartichokes. They are neither from Jerusalem nor artichokes but are related to sunflowers, as you might guess from seeing them in flower.

Mine were a bargain buy, found in the reduced bin at the end of the spring planting season. I decided I had nothing much to lose giving them a try and popped them in the ground. Actually I forgot I had planted them and nearly dug them up as a weed in the summer until I spotted the label. I'm glad I didn't because the one plant I have dug so far produced a huge crop.

I had some roasted earlier today and tonight my neighbours are probably thinking I've taken up the trombone.....

The plot is starting to look a bit neater as I continue with the clear up.

before.......

and after......
The Japanese overwintering onions are doing well

I've also planted my garlic and am hoping for some nice fat bulbs next year. Although I have to admit that this years ones may have been pathetically small, but boy are they strong!

I've been fostering a 7 year old girl this week to give her carer a break over half term. She loved the allotment and really enjoyed helping me dig up the jerusalems and the last of my spuds. Later we made chips from some of the spuds and she was amazed because she had no idea that chips were made from potatoes.

At last my son's pumpkins have met their destiny as spooky Halloween jack-o'-lanterns. The smaller ones were designed by him and the little girl, and the big one was my idea, inspired by one I saw on the net.

Pumpkins and pests

These are my son's pumpkins, which he is rightly proud of. The largest one has a circumference of 140cm (55') and weighs 20.4kg or 45lb. That is 1kg more than he weighs! We're intending to use them at Halloween, but picked them early just in case anyone took a fancy to them.

Unfortunately someone or rather some bugs did take a fancy to my leeks. This is a close up of one of the little blighters..

I had to pick the leeks early and salvage what I could. I was quite disappointed because they were doing well up to that point. It's yet more proof that I need to invest in pest barriers for my crops, although right now I feel like I should just get a giant net and cover the whole plot!

I also had another wild visitor one quiet evening

This photo was taken on my neighbour's plot but the fox investigated several plots, including mine. I've found footprints before and wondered how foxy was getting onto my plot, now I know.

My patty pan have finally given up so I've composted the remains and cleared the bed. A couple of things are still hanging on but most things are pretty much finished now. Unfortunately I didn't get around to planting winter crops this year. I've put in some spring cabbages my mum gave me and I made sure they are covered to keep the pests off.

There is still plenty of work to do over the autumn and winter preparing for next season. As well as clearing the beds and adding soil improvers I need to get the rest of the plot up and running. I left some of the ground covered for my first year but I'm going to be working the full plot from next year so I need to dig the soil over and make a few more beds. Covering it should have got rid of a lot of the weeds but I know that is the side where my nemesis bindweed is still lurking.

If I feed the soil, the soil feeds me

Despite the growing season winding down, the allotment is still supplying a lot of our fresh vegetable needs.

The patty pan has so far escaped powdery mildew and is producing plenty of fruit. The french beans have been having a second flush and the tomatoes are ripening in spite of the lack of sunshine. I also have a couple of rows of sweet baby carrots left, baby corn, pak choi, spinach beet, spring onions, cucumbers and salads.

Added to the stuff I'm still picking I have stores of onions, shallots, garlic, plenty of potatoes and a drawer full of frozen veg in my freezer.

It's very satisfying knowing I've grown all this food, but there is always room for improvement. Over the summer I noticed that some other plot holders had bigger and better crops than mine and I've been chatting to people and getting advice. I think the main thing I need to work on is soil improvement, adding organic matter and fertilizers.

To this end I've been building up my compost heap all summer and mixing it regularly. A couple of weeks ago I turned it out and found beneath the top layer I had some lovely compost ready to use. I've also got a couple of bin bags full saved from earlier in the year.

And then, while picking blackberries in the car park area last week, I made an exciting discovery - mature manure! (Yes I know most people don't get excited about manure). It was the tramped down remains of the old communal manure heap and seems to have been overlooked in a quiet corner.

I decided I'd better grab some before someone else found it so I abandoned the tasks I'd planned and spent that morning shoveling manure and fetching barrow loads up to my plot instead. It was hard work and the short steep slope up to the plots from the car park area seemed to get longer with every trip.

But it was worth it. I now have another compost bin full of lovely crumbly manure.

In a few weeks time, when I clear my beds, both the compost and manure can be added to the soil to improve it's structure and fertility.

First bonfire of autumn

After a dismal August it's already feeling autumnal down on the plot. I've been clearing my fences of unwanted weeds like bramble and bindweed and had a bonfire today to get rid of them.

The beds are starting to empty as I harvest crops and the summer gluts are over. The courgette and pumpkin foliages are suffering from powdery mildew and looking a bit sad. I haven't had any courgettes for a few days now, although the patty pan is still performing well.

I did get around to trying stuffed patty pan, and some courgettes for comparison.

These are green patty pan, round and Lebanese courgettes, which are club shaped. They're par boiled, scooped out, then stuffed with onions, chopped courgette flesh, breadcrumbs and grated cheese. They are pretty tasty, especially the patty pan.

The pumpkins have stopped growing and are turning orange:

9th August

30th August

I haven't measured this big one yet but it must be around 1.3m (4'3''). The final height of my son's sunflower was 289cm (9'6''). Some of the sunflower heads have ripened and the birds are already feasting on the seeds (this is the sunflower from 11th August post).

If the birds are eating my sunflowers at least I feel less guilty for picking the blackberries around the car park for my blackberry and apple crumbles!

My thoughts are turning to what needs doing over the coming months, preparing the rest of the plot and planning what to grow next year.

I recently found out that I came just in the top half of the points table in the site's best plot awards this year. I thought that was quite good for my first year and out of around 200 plot holders. But next year I want to do better.

Oh crabs!

When life gives you crab apples, make crab apple jelly.


So my mystery tree turned out to be a crab apple as suspected. It's beautiful deep pink blossom was much admired back in the spring, but since I discovered it was a crab several people have wondered why it was planted on an allotment?

The answer, I think, is that it was intended to fertilize an eating apple tree that used to be on the plot.

I've been in two minds whether to keep it or not. It's an attractive little tree and the local wildlife enjoy it, but I can't eat the fruit.

Before I condemned the tree I decided to have a go at making apple jelly. Lots of cooks think it's best made with crabs and they do contain lots of natural pectin, the stuff that makes jelly or jam set.

The fruits, like the blossom, are deep pink, both inside and out. I picked all those that looked sound, which was about 3.5kg (6lb) of fruit.

To make the jelly I first washed and halved the fruit, cutting away only the bruised or damaged parts. The whole fruit gets used, cores, seeds and all.

It's then put in a large pan (I did it in two batches) with 300ml (1 pint) of water for each 450g (1lb) of fruit and brought to a gentle simmer. The fruit needs to cook for 20-30 minutes and is squashed with a wooden spoon or potato masher to release the juice.

The pulp is then put into a jelly bag strainer and left to drip for several hours (I left mine overnight).

Apples can have a second cooking to release more juice, adding half as much water 150ml (1/2 pint) per 450g (1lb). The pulp is strained again and the juice added to the first batch. I got about 3 l (5 pints) of juice.

To make the jelly you need 450g (1lb) of sugar for every 300ml (1 pint) of juice. First put the juice in a pan (not more than half full) over a gentle heat. When the juice is quite hot add the sugar and stir until it's all dissolved. Then turn up the heat and boil rapidly (called a rolling boil).

To test when the jelly reached setting point I used 2 methods. Firstly by temperature, using a sugar thermometer. It reaches setting point at 104-5 °C. I also used the saucer test. A blob of jelly is placed on a cold saucer from the fridge. Once the jelly has cooled the surface should wrinkle when pushed with a finger.

The hot jelly is then poured into sterilized jars and topped with wax paper discs and lids.

I ended up with 10 jars of beautiful pink jelly, and it tastes delicious. I like it spread on toast and have also used some in a sauce for pork chops.

Sunshine on a rainy day

So much for spending more time at the allotment over the "summer".

I'm not having to water I suppose, but a bit more sun would be good. At least the flowering plants on the plot are making the effort to bring me a little sunshine.

My son's sunflowers have started to open and I'm pleased to report that the tallest one (seen below at the back) has put on another 30cm (12") growth and is now 284cm (9' 4").

The self seeded marigolds along my path are also very cheering.



My courgettes are continuing to crop well and are flowering their socks off.

This example is on the ball shaped courgette plant which has so far been the most prolific of all. I must get around to trying some deep fried courgette flowers, I've been cooking courgettes in every other way. Tonight I made a yellow courgette sweet pie.

The pumpkins are also thriving on the rain water and from being under the protection of their resident frog, who eats any slugs that dare to trespass.

Despite the limitations of the weather the plot isn't looking too bad.

Unidentified Frying Objects

No, the Martian's are not invading. These beauties are my Patty Pan summer squash which are just coming into production.

The big one is a bit too big to eat. It was the first one and I left it too long. That's what happens if you don't make it to the allotment for a few days. I also had some very large courgettes to deal with and some chunky french beans.

I was interested in growing the Patty Pan but once they were ready my first thought was how do I cook them? They are more like courgettes than squashes but have a firmer flesh. I sliced some into my allotment stir fry tonight (with baby carrots, baby corn, spring onions and french beans) and they were delicious. They keep their bite better than courgettes do.

I'm also thinking of frying some in my homemade garlic and herb butter, made with my own parsley and garlic.

I've been looking on the net for suggestions and a lot of North American recipes suggest you stuff them. I've been picking mine at about 4-5cm size and I think they are too fiddly to stuff. But I might try letting some get a bit bigger and have a go, tho' not as big as my monster one which has quite a tough skin.



As mentioned above I am also now harvesting baby sweetcorn. Until I started buying veg seed I didn't even know these could be grown in the UK but they are doing very nicely. Those available in supermarkets always come from abroad. Now it's a case of food metres to my kitchen not miles. They are another thing my son likes to eat as well, so definitely worth growing.







They are harvested when the silks (fine tassels that form the female flower) first show. Unwrapping the cobs feels like playing pass the parcel because they are cocooned in layers of leaves. When the cob is revealed the silks are easily pulled away leaving the tender baby corn. Each plant should produce up to 6 cobs so long as you keep picking them.







Another new crop that I didn't expect to see is my outdoor cucumber. I don't think these were fully hardened off when I had to plant them out prior to my trip to Canada. For about 2 months they didn't grow any bigger and then suddenly 3 weeks ago they woke up and began trailing and producing masses of flowers. Today I harvested this handsome fellow.


He was about 18cm (7'') long. Once mature the spines brush away easily (my son did it) and the skin is edible although it's a little thicker than regular cucumbers. It tasted good, which is just as well since there are lots more coming.

And finally my regular pumpkin and sunflower update....

The pumpkins are continuing to swell. The two largest are over a metre in diameter and the third is catching up. A couple of baby ones have rotted but that might be due to the wet weather.

The sunflowers are still growing and the tallest is now 254cm (8'4'') and so has put on another 31cm (1 foot). Apparently the tallest ever on the site was around 430cm (14') so my son's keeping his fingers crossed.

You win some, you lose some.

It sure has been a hot week here in London. I've been nipping down to the allotment in the evenings when it's been a bit cooler, to water and harvest crops.

My beans are still going for it and I've been freezing more as well as eating them. The courgettes are also pretty much continuous, good job I love them.

I tried making the courgette cake. It was really easy to make and it was delicious, quite like carrot cake. The recipe used mascarpone in place of the usual cream cheese for the icing and that made it even nicer.

One good thing about the hot dry weather is that I was able to lift my shallots and garlic last week and leave them on the soil to dry out.

Today I brushed off the soil, rubbed away the papery outer skins and transferred them to trays to continue drying.

I'm really pleased with the shallots but my garlic is pretty pitiful in size. I can hold the entire crop in one hand whereas my neighbour's garlic bulbs are each as big as a fist! I did plant it very late and hoped for the best but I will definitely be planting next years crop in the autumn to give it a longer growing season.

In the same vein, last time I promised a tale of woe about my failures. My biggest disaster has been my turnips. First came the pigeon attack, then some bolted (ran to seed) and when I pulled up the remainder their roots were miss shaped and bug damaged. I didn't get to eat a single one.








My pak choi initially did well but eventually succumbed to attack by something and had to be composted. I have planted more but the seedlings are being nibbled too and I'm not sure by what.









My salad has also been under similar attack by a discerning pest. First the little gems were munched and the rest ignored. Then when they had been decimated whatever it is started on the mixed salad leaves, which have a more bitter taste.

I don't think it is slugs causing the trouble since I have found no evidence of them, it looks like bug damage to me. I think it was flea beetle that got the turnips and the stems of the pak choi, but I don't know if they eat leaves?

Since I do want to be as organic as possible I have realised that I need to invest in some kind of barrier protection for my crops next year and I will be looking into this over the winter.

To end on a success story, my son is thrilled with his sunflowers, the tallest of which is 223cm (7 '4'') as of today. Here he is watering them last week when the tallest was 201cm (6' 7'') , it grew 22cm (9'') in just 4 days!

And his pumpkins are also doing brilliantly. We have had to extend the bed because the vines are getting so long. I've also been teaching him about the sex lives of pumpkins. To ensure pollination we've been taking male flowers and using them to fertilize the female flowers (easily spotted by the small potential pumpkin behind the flower. The results speak for themselves.

Bean there, ate that.

Finding time for the allotment, let alone to blog, has been a bit tricky recently. However, now that the baby I'd been fostering has moved to his adoptive family I have a bit more free time.

I'm always sad to see children go but I'm taking a break from fostering over the summer so I can look forward to spending more time at the allotment and with my son.

I had only been managing one or two short visits per week to keep things ticking over and harvest ripe crops, but since the little fellow left last week I've spent 3 days getting the plot back into shape.

The whole plot has been thoroughly weeded, especially the paths which were a low priority when I hadn't much time. We finally had a delivery of bark chips from the council so I've been fetching barrow loads up from the car park to start covering the family/work area at the back of the plot. And today I painted my shed, cleaned it out and organised the inside.

My trug has gradually been getting fuller as more crops are ripening.

4th July - pak choi, carrots Parmex (round) and Royal Chantenay, Land cress and my first courgettes de Nice a Fruit Ronde.

13th July - Blue salad potatoes, Ulster Sceptre new potatoes, carrots, spinach beet, french beans and courgettes.

18th July - Spinach beet, Epicure new potatoes, carrots, courgettes and french beans.

I hadn't been to the plot for 5 days during the adoption introductions so there was quite a lot of picking to do when I got back. In particular I picked about 900g (2lb) of assorted courgettes and 1.5 kg (over 3 lbs) of french beans.

I've frozen most of the beans, which introduced me to the joys of blanching vegetables, although there is a debate on the net about whether blanching is always necessary with modern freezers. Therefore I've also frozen an unblanched pack as an experiment.

As for the courgettes, so far I've made roasted baby veg, courgette soup, spicy courgette veggie burgers and courgette frittata. And today I had to pick a few more so I'm thinking about trying a courgette cake recipe.

Not everything is going well however. I've had some crop failures (more about that in my next post) and one night last week the allotments were broken into. About 80 of the plots were searched and some vandalised. Mine was targeted but fortunately the only damage was to a section of fence which had been kicked in. They obviously took one look in my messy (as it was then) shed and left it alone.

Not much was taken, nobody keeps anything of value there, but some people had the contents of their sheds turned inside out and their crops damaged. I can't write what I really think of the selfish idiots that did this, it's not printable. But I can write that the Allotment Association and plot holders have been fantastic. Many have seen it all before unfortunately, but everyone helped out their neighbours. It's one of the things I like about having an allotment, the friendliness of other plotholders and community spirit.

Food Glorious Food

I've been enjoying a few more fruits of my labour this week.

I decided to dig up one of my Epicure new potatoes and found a nice little crop underneath. They were lovely, quite creamy tasting. Even my son, who is not that fond of potatoes, declared them delicious and polished off his share.

I cut a few heads of pak choi. More than I needed really because the rows needed thinning out after putting on so much growth when I was away. We've eaten some in a stir fry and I gave a couple to my mum.

I also decided that I would have to pull some rhubarb since I needed a machete to get through my gate. I used it to make a rhubarb grunt (like a cobbler) for my appreciative partner.

I haven't had a lot of time on the allotment this week so I've mostly been weeding and thinning out crops. While doing so I discovered that a couple of turnips in the first row were starting to bolt (flower) which was a bit disappointing. After doing a bit of research it looks likely to be due to water or weather conditions. They were also the ones that were attacked by the pigeons so maybe it just all got too much for them.

Other things are doing well however. I had my first ripe strawberry today and there are lots more coming. I also noticed that one of my courgettes, a round variety, has small fruits developing.

And my son is especially pleased that his pumpkins and sunflowers seem to have appreciated the feeding and watering he gave them and have noticeably grown this week.

Everything in the Garden is Rosy

I had an amazing time in Canada and was too busy to worry about the allotment while I was away.

I got home on Saturday and yesterday I went to see how things were. I was preparing myself to make a list of jobs that needed doing but found that my babysitters had done a fantastic job. Not only had the weeding been done but I had a new shed roof too!

Old roof with "skylight".......

And lovely new roof......

Many thanks to my mum & dad in-law for all their time and effort.

I can see a huge difference in growth after being away for 3 weeks. The potatoes have put on a good 30cm (about a foot in old money) and some have started flowering. I'm looking forward to seeing if some are ready to eat later this week. My carrots are looking good too. I previously put up a garden fleece fence around them to try and stop carrot root fly which are supposed to only fly close to the ground.

My pak choi seedlings are now plants. They are great in a stir fry and I'm looking forward to finding other ways to cook them too.







The Salad leaves are growing well, as of course, are the radishes. Although my son's hope of growing the world's biggest radish has been thwarted. The early ones that we left to grow on have just gone misshapen and woody.

I'm very pleased with my American land cress, an easier alternative to watercress. It has put on lots of growth and tastes lovely, very much like watercress.

My dwarf french beans are coming along nicely as are the turnips which seem to have mostly survived the attack of the killer pigeons. I had planted 6 different courgettes to see what would grow well and for a bit of variety. They have all survived, though a couple have not grown on so well. The outdoor cucumbers are struggling a bit too. It was a bit of a rush to get everything hardened off and planted out before my hols, but hopefully they will catch up.

Before I went on holiday I finished filling my second Bokashi bin and drained off the liquor that can be used as a plant food (diluted). Yesterday I got my son to water this solution around some of the plants to give things a bit of a boost.

One thing that is doing well is the rhubarb that I rescued from being chucked on my neighbours compost heap back at the end of march. It was a double crown but I didn't divide it because I wanted to see how well it did. I planted it next to my gate, which was the only place I could think of at the time. I'm now having trouble shutting the gate it's so big. I didn't intend to pull any stems this year to let it build up strength, but I'm going to have to, which will please my partner who is a rhubarb fan. In the autumn I will divide it and move the crown nearest the gate elsewhere.

Finally, here are my son's giant sunflowers, which have also grown about 30cm. He gave them and his pumpkins an extra good watering with the feed solution yesterday so we're looking forward to some whoppers.