Harvesting preparing freezing storing eating..

These past few weeks I’ve been eating the fruits of my labour and very lapse  on taking photos of what I’ve grown..

Most of my beetroot has been harvested – A favourite of mine is to roast it and have with goats cheese.

The cauliflowers are now blanched and in the freezer..

I’m cutting Swiss chard “yellow lights” weekly and and using this as an alternative to stuffed vine leaves.

Broad beans – of which I have plenty still in the freezer make a delicious  Moroccan stir fry..

Marrow – will have to post my north African stuffed veg recipe!

Swede – now all eaten along with my carrots and sante potatoes. I still have rooster and golden wonder..

Fennel – will grow more next year as 5 was not enough..

Tomatoes – we’ve been picking the cherry toms for a few weeks now and the plum toms are ripening nicely..

I’ve been trying to come up with some different ideas for cooking my mini pumpkins  ” savoury fillings” not sweet  Any ideas?

Finally…  I’ve been busy knitting

And

Visiting here here and here

With

She’s back to school next week.The following week I’m away for a short holiday.. Yeah

My cauliflowers have now all been harvested and soon I’ll be planting out some spring cauliflowers / cabbage that I sowed a few weeks back..

Mini pumpkins have gone mad this year. I’ve had 11 so far with more to follow from two plants.

Runner beans are driving me nuts. I cant pick um/eat um quick enough! Chutney me thinks!

A few of my Roma toms had blossom end rot due to the lack of rain along with irregular watering from me. They seem to be fine now after i cut back on their feed,watered more and put more compost around their roots they are looking really healthy and are starting to ripen nicely.

The potatoes in the photo are sante and are delish, definitely growing these next year and I’ve still got a row to dig up along with 2 rows of rooster and 2 of golden wonder..

Failures so far have been my…

Celeriac – about the size of golf balls

Aubergines-they haven’t even flowered yet ” Unbelievable” you would think they would be thriving with the summer we’ve had..

And my red onions – again the size of golf balls. The brown and white onions are great and are hanging up in my kitchen..

Just back from a flying visit to the plot this morning “chilly out there” and my onions, potatoes, peas, beetroot, carrots, broadies are all up. Still no sign of my asparagus. I need to ask my lottie neighbour “when I next see her” how long her crowns took to come through – I thought there would be signs of life by now..

Off now to tackle mount wash-more..  *sigh*

Arrangements have been made to water recently sown seeds at the plot- if needed!

Check  on my plants at home and water

Water and feed my cats – definitely needed!

Back in a fortnight!!

I’ve got onions to put in and maybe my spuds and prep for my peas – All are late going in this year

The exhibition documents the governments ministry of food campaign during world war two for growing your own. Leaflets were handed out during the war on how to grow your own veggies month by month “dated 1945″ and these can now be downloaded on the site

If your in London I highly recommend  visiting  the exhibition which is on until January

There are also some books published alongside the exhibition ..

Two that I couldn’t resist are…

dig on for victory

Mr Middleton had a gardening radio show at the time..  Here’s the review I swiped from Amazon..

Mr Middleton was the Alan Titchmarsh of his time, and that time was during the last war, when the nation hung on to his every word during his BBC radio programmes on gardening. He was the first media gardener, exhorting us to Dig for Victory, Dig for Dear Life, and (as in this book) advising us that “An Allotment is like the army. The first month is the worst: after that you begin to enjoy it”. In 2008 Aurum re-published with success his wartime book Digging for Victory; now here is a second, first published in 1945 – a guide to what to plant, and how, and when, all through the year, from Celeriac to Strawberries. Reproduced in facsimile, it is full of sensible tips, as well as period advertisements for Mushrooms as a War Food Crop and The Value of Cloches (since, “as Mr Middleton advises us, ‘Available food will have to be shared with a starving Europe, which may mean even greater sacrifices for us’”). Qualcast advertise their mowers, even though they admit no new ones have been made since 1940, forcing the old ones “to do sturdy and efficient work through the war”. And, as Mr Middleton reflects, looking towards a new post-war dawn of peace, “Won’t it be grand when we can sit on the old garden seat, and listen to the birds instead of the sirens…?” Sage, gruff, touching and especially relevant to these new times of thrift, Mr Middleton’s All-Year-Round Gardening guide is the perfect gift for 2009. Mr Middleton was the BBC’s “famous gardener” on the radio during the war.

Eating for Victory..

How would you survive on wartime rations? Eating for Victory (subtitled Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations) makes for absolutely fascinating reading — and may answer the question as to what the reader might have made of these more straitened times.

The book reproduces official Second World War instruction leaflets (which have never before been published in book form) and demonstrates how millions of people in Britain endured food shortages during the hardships of WWII. With a perceptive foreword by Jill Norman, Eating for Victory shows that the government endeavoured to keep morale high by producing a host of the upbeat leaflets included here on such subjects as ‘using up stale crusts’ and ‘foods for fitness’ (the leaflets are most amusing in this area, showing how much thinking has changed over the years — the use of fats and lard looks very quaint in these more enlightened times). But what gives particular pleasure here is the verbatim reproduction of the original artwork and typefaces, which vividly conjures a lost era. To read this entertaining little book is like climbing into a time machine to take us back to the 1940s. –Barry Forshaw

*******

It’s  a lovely bright sunny day here today; hopefully spring has finally sprung and sometime this week I can get down to my plot to get my potato bed ready for planting later this month “No more rain please” My plot needs to dry out a little so I’m not wallowing in a mud bath..

Dee  xx

It’s now dawned on me that I’ve been buying seeds in bulk! I somehow have six packets of  Gladiator Parsnips, all unopened and useless. As you know Parsnip seed should be bought fresh every year… And, I have unconsciously stockpiled enough peas/beans to plant a field. I vaguely remember Mr D asking for some cherry toms the year before last. I now have 11 packets… How!!  Admittedly some  were free with magazines.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one who’s come down with this affliction and its comforting to know I’m not alone. Otherwise I would have to face the fact that I’m getting on a bit and loosing my marbles..

I stumbled across this site Recently..  I’ve printed a few off to give some seeds to my Daughters and a couple of friends. Not necessary I know but its a nice sentiment..

I’ve  finally faced the fact that most of my knitting works in progress will never get finished. [ after languishing in bags for 3 years] They have all been ripped back now, after such a promising  start with my needles clicking away merrily, then moi very quickly loosing interest and the will to live..

I have three knit projects in progress – more on those later

My kitchen: My tiny kitchen, has had a reorganise, de-clutter and a new coat of paint. Something I should of done last year when we replaced the cupboard doors and worktops. I can find things now – way hay, and I’m no longer risking a trip to casualty every time I open a door.. Ouch!

I’ve made Marmalade, lots of Marmalade or so I thought. Most of it followed family and friends home. So I now need to make more..

My Camera has died. I’m not sure if it can be brought back to life, resulting in this picture less post.

My other camera has been brought  back into service though, remembering where the lead is to upload photos would be a great help..

And I seem to have developed a passion for roses.. Not for growing, not yet anyway but roses that you stitch and roses that adorn objects/fabric.

Um.. Think I’ve gone all Doris Day 50s chintzy, probably a reaction to all the grey this time of year.

My Allotment probably thinks I’ve abandoned her. Yes. My allotments a she. If I whisper quietly that I’m planning a visit this weekend what’s the chance it’ll not rain…

Tomorrow will be spent turning my bedroom up side down looking for the elusive camera lead, while I’m there I will de-clutter [time to be ruthless] as i seem to spend a third of my life looking for things..

The second batch of paper whites are now shooting up {I still have some bulbs in my fridge for later to look forward too}  Hopefully I’ll remember to take a few pic’s when they flower.. I’ll be quite sorry when they are finished for this year. I  so do love having white narcissi dotted around my home and with the dire weather we’ve been having they have cheered me up and put a smile on my face..

Roll on spring!!

One of my 4 Amaryllis I have.

Every year i try to get them to re – flower  without success ..

I feed them every two weeks  after they flower then give them a dry/resting period around Sept/Oct.

Only to throw them out and buy new.. Think it’s time to admit defeat…

I’ve also sown some pepper and aubergine seeds along with some tomato…

Thought i would try and get some tomatoes a little earlier than I normally do. Usually i sow my tomatoes in March and plant out in June, never starting any sowing before March, so most things are only on my windowsills for a few weeks not months..

I don’t have a greenhouse but, there is method to my madness of starting so early….

I have a lean too that’s still in pieces to go down the side of the shed…. So. My plan is.. if i start sowing earlier than i normally do, hopefully it will give Mr D the push to put it up. He’ll soon get fed up with plants everywhere and i cant put them out while there’s a danger of frost can i.

TeeHee