Going beezerk at the allotment

Yesterday there was some excitement at the allotment as bees began to swarm on someone's water butt (there's a joke there somewhere). They continued to swarm there for a few hours while I did battle with what has become a rather sorry excuse for an allotment, until in the early evening they moved to the upper parts of one of our larger sycamore trees.

The allotment has been the primary victim of the turmoil in our lives of recent months. Following two house moves, renovations, work going crazy and a bout of pneumonia added to the wettest June on record and yup, you guessed it, the allotment is a war zone.

The greatest casualties have been my apple trees. Given I came first in last year's show for my apples, the fact that they have all succumbed to decease and excessive moisture is a real shame. I cut them back really hard yesterday before spraying them with anti- fungal treatments and found only two lone apples on trees that last year produced a thousand.

Katie's Pavlova with
allotment strawberries
drizzled with home made
strawberry jam

The horseradish and bindweed have really taken hold and, with help from family including my lovely nephew Tom, I fought them like mad until my back was screaming. Under a carpet of luscious green bindweed we found a pretty healthy strawberry crop, which is remarkable. The rhubarb, on the other hand, has really lost the fight with the horseradish and on removing most of this voracious plant the rhubarb plant was found with only seven leaves. The runners have at least enjoyed the rain but the courgettes have not; they have yet to produce a flower and have already developed problems associated with the damp weather.

It's not going to be a great year for me, but that is the world of the allotment. You win some, you lose some and if you turn your back for a moment you get stung.

What a night!

I am recovering from a fun evening hosting Sir Stephen Bubb, CEO of ACEVO

Down at the allotment its all Fartichokes!

Its all excitement down on the allotment as today is our first bonfire of the year! Perfect weather conditions and a mountain of weeds and cleared vegetation dried out over the winter mean today’s the day. I’ve put 12 year old Sam and his mate Freddie in charge, foolish you may think, but my view with children and danger is you need to teach them to manage it rather than avoid it. Fingers crossed. Sam has done a great job in getting things going and keeping it stoked and I have really enjoyed the ‘man talk’. High points have been comparing themselves with their forks to the soldiers of Troy and a row over who made the Bayeux tapestry, monks or women!?

Meanwhile 10 year old Katie cleared out the pond, it all looks quite healthy but sad to say no frogspawn, despite having frogs last year.

I got on with the satisfying task of putting my onions in. The couple of hundred sets I bought cost me just over a pound from our co-operatively run allotment trading shed, which is good value which ever way you look at it. I love the neat rows you can make with them, and was pleased with my soil in the onion bed, not quite Christmas pudding consistency as they often report from the Gardeners’ World garden, but pretty close.

I’m not sure if the hard frost we had this week has effected the parsnip and salad seeds I put in last week. I’ll know soon if they are a no show.

I’ve removed the plastic housing over my rhubarb as forcing it this year seems to have really slowed down its growth, and with rhubarb at a £1 a stem in Waitrose I need quantity. We really loved my rhubarb and ginger jam last year and to celebrate my first stalks, I am making a rhubarb tart for Sunday lunch. See above, its a Waitrose recipe. 



I dug up a quantity of Jerusalem Artichokes and have made some delicious soup.  I used the Abel and Cole recipe, although I par boiled them first, a top tip from the vegetable Queen Jane Grigson, to mitigate their powers of wind inducement, hence the epithet, Fartichokes! Their unique nutty flavor are certainly worth the risk, perfect with a little crème fraiche. 

A quick postscript to apologise for any confusion over the changes I am making to my blog. I am trying to sort things out but some of the gadgets might take time to become dynamic as I am learning on the job, please bare with me.