October: Celebration merry berry or sad slip into winter?

Katie's birthday berry cake with fruit fresh from the allotment

October is one of those love-them-or-hate them months. I have a friend who enjoys this time of year above all others, which is unusual but autumn is traditionally a time of celebration when we welcome the harvest and celebrate the year's achievements.

And what a year it has been! We had months of warm rain and grey skies that wiped out our tomatoes and much besides, with everything else coming in late. But the upside of the early summer carnage was a late blooming as the sun finally came out and the sweet peas, runner beans and berries came into their own.

I should report that I came first in the blackberry category again this year, thanks to my allotment neighbour who went to the extraordinary kindness of entering them in my absence. I am afraid I can't tell you the variety as I grew them from a cutting from a now retired fellow allotment holder who didn't know their origin. But they are huge, prodigious and taste like a good claret, the only downside being their flesh tearing, surgically sharp thorns.

With berries a plenty and late squash, pumpkins, beetroot, brassicas and spinach, we have a great deal to help us move on from the worst summer in terms of productivity that I have ever known.

In contrast, I have been watching the party conferences and I am disappointed by the obvious fatigue of our political leaders. I know we remain in the teeth of economic hardship – oh don't I know it – but how are we to move on, out and up if there is nothing to show for the year's hard work? A sense of achievement feeds the human soul just as a well-kept larder feeds the stomach, but have we not got anything right? Have hard-pressed public sector workers sacrificed benefits and pay for a better-run service? Have the private sector employees experienced a year of job insecurity for the greater good and have our young people waited for their chance to make their mark with hope now, that a late sun will bring them opportunity? I jolly well hope so and I want to hear it, I want to hear congratulations and celebration of all that people have relinquished to a hard year with plans for the harvest to come, albeit it a late one.

Tonight I made my redcurrent jelly, enough for the winter as long as I can keep the children from spreading it on their roasts by the tablespoons. I write this listening to the satisfying pop as the lids of the jars, one by one, spring up to accomodate the temperature change and create a seal that will keep the jelly fresh all year. For those interested I use the master's formula – Christopher Lloyds – of 500g of sugar to each pint of boiled juice. Regardless of past disappointment, we will be hunkering down for log fires, blackberry jam on toasted teacakes and our family favourite, The Great British Bake Off'(what about last week's gingerbread sculptures!?) and that feeling that all in all, despite everything 2012 was a job well done. My hope is that others can feel that they too have something to celebrate, despite the long wait.

Dealing with stress while watching autumn's setting sun

Autumn treasure indeed

It's supposed to snow later on this week but this weekend, the weather could not have been more perfect, in an eerie sort of way. In stressful times we all need to find our oasis and for me it's the allotment.

Stripped of my strimmer, I ask, why bother?

Partially fanged but still fabulous, my first
 parsnips this year

Someone said to me recently that they went to my blog because I write about social enterprise and yet many of my contributions seemed to be about an allotment.

She said, "How can anyone write so much about gardening?" Clearly, she was not impressed. I do wonder what folk make of my rather eclectic mix of social commentary, horticulture and family life, but in writing about my passions, there does appear to be three themes. I hope they don't jar too much and the almost weekly gardening slot at the moment isn't too dull. My hope is based on the fact that I get as many comments about the gardening as other posts, so I know at least a few of you share my interest in the sod.

The seed bed in full production

Having dinner last night with a dear friend, she asked why I blog. I couldn't really answer except to say that when writing about what fascinates me, I do it to organise my thoughts, which I really enjoy, as much as a desire to inform the reader. Clearly, you may say, and I have had comments posted to the effect that my pieces sometimes miss the desired mark. But 28,000 unique visits to the blog this year proves something I suppose.

All of this is by way of introducing another gardening post. I must report that there have been a spate of thefts at the allotment and I have been relieved of my strimmer. It was a trusty friend, which, like its owner, needed careful handling. Good luck getting it started thief: without the usual three nods to the east and prayer to the gardening god, you haven't got a hope. Fellow tweeters have shared their allotment losses with me and theft on allotment sites does appear to be widespread.

The problem for me is not just the lost strimmer or the empty beer bottles left in our picnic area, it is of course, the violation. The allotment is my haven, where I go to feel good and at one with the world. For therapy, spiritual rejuvenation and veg. My children often go there alone either to fish or pick produce for supper, and I cannot bear the idea that on the same land, in the same space, greed and contempt sometimes stalk. So even though I had a great haul again yesterday and put another 3 kilos of raspberries and blackberries in the freezer, I worked on the site imagining someone looking at the fruits of my labour and finding it twee, smug and irritating. Or maybe I'm just over-reacting. It is after all only a bloody strimmer.

So a couple of things to tell you. The first is that I observed the Cavolo Nero I have under netting to protect it from the birds is being eaten by something, in dramatic contrast to the rest of the Cavolo Nero that has not been netted, see above, which is looking marvellous and well on course to provide us with some winter greens. I love this Italian brassica, which is as versatile as any cabbage but a stunning blue/black/green colour with a strong, distinctive flavour. Like all brassicas, it is hardy and one of the few things I managed to crop right the way through last winter.

I also pulled my first parsnips of the year, some of which are 'fanged' – a technical term for shapes like fat legs doing one half of a star jump, but still they looked glorious to me. Also, I started picking my pears, which we had with stilton last night and, like my apples, they are absolutely delicious.

So all in all a productive day and one that demands I move on. I would buy a new strimmer today, but that would break my, never-shop-on-a-Sunday rule, which has remained unbroken for 15 years. So the grass will have to wait until next weekend. That and today is really the day to remember 9/11 and a fellow allotmenter who unimaginably lost her daughter that day. All thoughts must go to her and her family, and therefore I shall worry less about unwanted two-legged visitors on plot 31.

It's show time!

Katie hangs on to them as the wind picks up

Today was the allotment show, our largest annual gathering of the 280 sites from in and around Richmond and East Sheen and a chance for the general public to take a look at the fruits of our labour.

In the laddering of tights and their proper reuse

This weekend I did the extremely satisfying task of pruning my blackberries, I finished the job as I always do, by tying them in. The tie backs I deploy are the legs of my laddered tights. They are ideal because they're so elastic yet strong and stretch as the plant grows. Although, I have to say they have raised a few eyebrows at the allotment.

Talking of tights, or at least whilst on the subject of all things feminine I had an interesting chat with some of the women ceo's at the end of the SEL board meeting today. We started by congratulating SEL coChair and Divine Chocolate ceo, Sophie Tranchell for the award she is receiving tomorrow, The International Award for Responsible Capitalism. We all agreed that it was great for a social entrepreneur to be getting it rather than a corporate with strong CSR marketing, and how good it was to see a woman was at the front of the queue. This led to a very interesting discussion where we compared notes from the varying fields of food, childcare, education, government reform and social enterprise where we all agreed that we are seeing equality sliding off the agenda. It's as if a war is on and the hard fought for civilising effects of equal rights are a luxury that we as a society can no longer afford. As an example I have spoken at three major conferences in the last 10 days and at all of them I was a lone woman in my plenary often following all male plenaries and all male key note speakers. Its becoming a suitfest. This observation seemed to chime with others. We need to watch this. I have not been fighting the cause of equalities for nearly 30 years for some Johnnie come very lately's to wipe it off the agenda with a, 'We haven't got time for all that we have to focus on the REAL issues".

Congratulations to Sophie, previous winners of the award have been the heads of Siemens and Starbucks and last year GlaxoSmithKline so a great achievement and another first for social enterprise.