Reap What You Grow

Kew Botanical Gardens - rediscovering an old friend

2011-08-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

When we first moved to London, we became members of Kew gardens. This was perfect for us, being obsessed with gardens and indoor plants. We got free entry plus guest tickets that we could use to take visitors and house guests. After visiting many times, we got restless and ten years ago we moved on to join the RHS. Wisley replaced Kew as our regular haunt for days out. Then after years of Wisley, we moved on again and joined the National Trust. This allowed us to go to some superb country gardens round the country like Sissinghurst and Scotney Castle in Kent, and Cotehele and Anthony in Cornwall.

Now we've decided the rotation has come back to Kew. Wow, what a decision. In the ten years I had forgotten just how much I love Kew gardens, and how much I've missed it. It's like meeting up with a much loved old friend and being delighted to find that you still have so much in common.

For a start, the sheer diversity of habitats and growing conditions means that they can fully represent the planet's flora. It's just mind-blowing that one minute you are in a tropical rainforest and then when you go through a door you're in an amazing desert.

We literally travelled the planet in a day. The most varied glasshouse in terms of plants is the modern styled Princess of Wales Greenhouse, which to my mind contain most of the interesting specimens. There is a huge range of both temperate and tropical plants, including some of the biggest and oldest cacti in cultivation, carnivorous plants, and a large collection of orchids.

I think Kew preceded the Eden project by displaying "plants for people", and they have such plants alongside information about how they are used by humans. I particularly enjoyed seeing the chocolate plant for obvious reasons.

The large range of environments and plants makes this my favourite glasshouse.

However, for sheer beauty of construction, you can't beat the Victorian glasshouses. They house impressive specimens from all the continents of the world. You can also go upstairs and view the plants from the "rooftop".

There are some wonderful plants to look down on:

Some of the plants look more impressive from below:

Some of the outdoor plants are just as exciting as the indoor ones. I was particularly thrilled to get the following pictures of ferns unfolding:

There's a traditional walled garden, which for me is enhanced because every single plant is marked, so you can take note if you want to get one for your own garden.

All in all a plantswoman's paradise.

A very welcome visitor from next door

2011-05-14T06:23:00.001-07:00

My next door neighbour has the most amazing rose in her garden, and by some miracle of luck, it has grown over to our side.
I think it started last year when we notice it had climbed up a tree on our side. This year it kind of collapsed onto our side, and the spur grew so much that I swear we are getting more benefit than they are.

What do I do? It seems an absolute travesty to cut it off, but I have a sneaking guilty feeling that we should be offering it back?

There is a saying that you should offer back anything that you take off the plant, so I guess that means if we pick any.

The whole thing makes me feel somewhat like a character out of the fairy tale Rapunzel.

Bluebells

2011-05-13T14:52:00.001-07:00

A quick post in admiration of Bluebells.

Apparently the British Isles have over 40% of the world's bluebell population.

These ones were snapped at Kew Gardens a few weeks ago.

The best things come to those who wait

2011-05-13T14:45:00.001-07:00

I have a theory that the longer you wait for something, the sweeter it is when you get it. In our modern consumerist society, we don't wait as long as we might for most things, and I am particularly guilty of frittering away money on instant gratification in the form of seeds, plants, pots etc.

However, one thing you can't buy easily in London is space, and we have waited a long time to have a garden with a patch of sunny space for a greenhouse. When you add this time to the time we lived in flats with no private garden, we have waited fifteen years for that patch of space.

Fifteen years of indoor plants crammed into corners. Fifteen years of Jamie running out into the garden late at night to put straw and bubble wrap on tender plants in the first frosts. Fifteen years of seedlings covering every windowsill and of citrus plants dying of too little light in the heat or too much water in the cold.

But after all that time, wow, what a beauty. It was well worth the wait. I can hardly contain my excitement.

After waiting fifteen years, we decided to make it worthwhile, and while others may drive nice cars or take foreign holidays, our extravagances have usually gone into plants and the garden. So we invested our life savings in a gorgeous red cedar greenhouse. We are very, very lucky people.

It was ready for plants in mid December, and is now home to some prize new plants that wouldn't have thrived even through the mild 90s winters. Exhibit A: A new peach tree whose blossom is spectacular at this time of year.

There are also a multitude of seedlings, which are healthier than anything we have seen on the windowsill over the years. They just do so well in there. Some of them have started to be planted out. Coriander and Lemon coriander:

Globe artichokes:

Finally the peas that were put in a month ago are ready to go it alone outside:

It's amazing how life can change so much in a year.

Marmalade and Cake

2011-01-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

Just as I was thinking that there was nothing interesting in season, I remembered oranges. Oranges, synonymous with walnuts in Christmas stockings, bringing colour and cheer to the winter months.

Today I'm bringing two very different recipes for oranges. The first is a gorgeous and surprisingly low fat cake. I urge you to try this if you haven't already. It works every time and it always tastes special.

Nigella's Clementine Cake (with Maya Gold)

4-5 clementines, skin on, to weigh 375g (13oz)

melted butter for greasing

6 large eggs

225g (8oz) sugar

250g (9oz) ground almonds

1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

100g Maya Gold Chocolate

Put the clementines in a pan, covered with cold water, then bring to the boil. Simmer for 2-3 hours, then drain and set aside to cool. Cut the clementines in quarters and discard the pips. Pulp the rest (skins, pith, fruit) in a blender.

Beat eggs, add sugar, almonds and baking powder, mixing well. Add clementine pulp then stir together. Pour the mixture into the cake tin, then bake for approx 1 hour, covering with foil or greaseproof paper after 40 mins to prevent burning.

When done, take out of the oven and while still hot, dot squares of chocolate over the top. These will melt, then use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate over the top of the cake. Leave to cool.

As you can see from the photo above, the cake didn't even get a chance to cool before we had a couple of slices! This is a moist, adult kind of cake, which adds a bit of sophistication to an afternoon tea or coffee. It is lovely to make for house guests as it is a bit different and feels like you have gone to some effort, without taking too long such that you spend all day in the kitchen.

Seville Orange Marmalade

Every year Fanny's Farm Shop have a marmalade competition. Every year I mean to give it a go, but this year, buoyed by the success of two years of home-made jam, I decided to take the plunge.

I bought a kit which included a recipe, all the jars, fruit and sugar. However, as soon as I opened it up I realised I needed a muslin bag, so this took me a fortnight to sort out. In the end I made do with a clean facecloth that had come with Liz Earle hot polish (which incidentally is really good).

The recipe said 5 honey jars, but I filled a lot more. To be on the safe side, I would have 7 or 8 normal sized jam jars available and sterilised in the dishwasher (just run them on a normal cycle with their lids, and leave them in the closed dishwasher till the minute you use them.

1kg/2.2lbs Seville Oranges

1 large lemon

2.5 litres or 4 1/4 pints of water

2kg of sugar

1. With clean fruit, halve each one and squeeze out the juice and pips into a muslin sack over a bowl. I used a sieve to hold the muslin bag aloft. Remove some of the pith from the citrus peels and reserve, then cut the fruit into half again. Slice the peel into narrow strips.

2. Add the reserve pith into the muslin sack with the pips and tie loosely together. Allow plenty of room in the bag so that the water can bubble through the bag and extract the pectin from the pips and pith.

3. Place the shredded peel, juices and muslin bag into a large preserving pan with the water.

4. Slowly bring the mixture to the boil, then simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until peel is very soft and the contents have reduced by half. The photo below shows it half way to being done.

5. Remove the muslin sack from the pan, set it aside to cool down. Once cool, squeeze as much of the liquid back into the pan as possible.

6. Add the sugar to the pan over a low heat and gradually dissolve sugar. Bring to boil, then boil for 10-15 mins. It will set at 105C, 220F.

7. Leave to stand for 15 mins, then give it a quick stir to distribute the peel evenly.

8. Pop your jars out of the dishwasher, fill, seal and cover.

The end result with this recipe was floating pieces of peel in clear gold coloured jelly. I was very impressed with the colour and taste of the batch, and will be saving the spares for serious marmalade lovers only!

Fanny's Farm Shop are having a marmalade competition in February, details of which can be found on their website.

Indoor Bulbs - trade secrets

2011-01-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

At Petersham Nurseries last weekend, the kind lady behind the counter gave me an intro to potting up bulbs for indoors. I feel as if I have peeped behind a curtain and discovered something really useful, so I wanted to share it on the blog. It's impossible to tell whether anyone else in the world will find it quite as revelatory as me, but here goes. First, Exhibit A - I bought a pair of gorgeous urns (below), intending to plant them up and put them on either side of the mantelpiece.

The only problem was that after about 5 years, I had never really managed to do anything useful with them. I resorted to stuffing them with some dried flowers in dried oasis. It looked okay, but missing any real va va voom.

So, at Petersham Nurseries, seeing their gorgeous bulbs potted up, I asked for some advice. They told me that the bulbs can go in with very little soil, and that they sell layers of the spaghnum moss to finish it off.

With this basic concept in mind, I bought some bulbs, a combination of ones already potted up and dry ones for sale in packets.

The packeted ones were very cheap as technically they are past their time, and have started to sprout.

The next step was foraging around the garden to find any potential pots. Luckily, as well as the urns, I had some zinc pots waiting for inspiration.

I potted up the bulbs with compost, packed in tightly together, with a moss carpet on top. This makes so much difference, it turned something quite ordinary into something much more interesting.

You buy it in layers, then break it apart to let the shoot through (no lewd comments on the photo please!)

I can't think how much this might have cost to buy them already planted up (or even to make if the bulbs weren't in the sale!) , but it wasn't a huge dent in the wallet.

Finally:

Of course, all this enthusiasm will be pointless if they don't flower properly. As with all plants, I will have to patiently wait and see.

I watered them, put them in the brightest, coldest part of the house, and will keep the blog updated if they work.

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

After all the snow, illness and Christmas in December, it's no surprise to be starting January with a renewed vigour and energy. This has been helped by the brighter, less frozen weather. We went to the Stanley Road plot today, and what a wonderful sight.

Firstly and unusually for us, the shed was still in the same place on our plot, instead of half-way across the site crushing someone else's plot.

Secondly the site looked lovely bathed in cool winter sunlight, showing to best effect how much effort has been put in on the part of many plot holders.

Finally, we managed to get loads of digging done before the whingeing started. Maybe the novelty effect was at work, or it could have been the picnic lunch that kept the girls going for longer?

Tonight it'll be time to get out the crop rotation plans from previous years, and work out the plan for this year.

Current thoughts are that we will dig out even more of the couch grass paths. The stuff is relentless, and never stops spreading either by invasive roots, overhead suckers or seed. Once dug, the size of the beds shrinks every couple of months under constant pressure from the sides.

It's also decision time for the strawberry patch. It was such a disappointment last year, the crops were so puny and it now takes up almost half of the main growing area. One option would be to dig them all up and go for something else.

Alternatively we could dig them up completely, pick the very best looking plants, manure the bed, cover it with weed membrane, replant the best along with some new vigorous ones and hope for a better year. Not sure which one we will do at present. Tempting to give it up as a bad job.

Other ideas are to use the beds for a Sarah Raven type "Cutting Garden", or to give annual crops another go. One lesson I have learned is that I need a proper dedicated annual bed, with no perennials or shrubs which just make weeding too difficult. Time to get those seed catalogues!

Decisions, decisions.

Winter crumbles

2010-12-02T15:47:00.001-08:00

I have to confess that I prefer most of my food fairly plain and unadulterated. Apple crumble is a case in point, because I normally like to keep it plain.

However, I've spent the last two weeks being ill with flu and a chest infection, so I decided I needed a few more vitamins to fight off the winter germs. We have got a wealth of red fruit in the freezer, just waiting to be put into pies and crumbles, so I decided on a change.

I sprinkled a load of sugar on to taste.

The red fruit adds a nice pink colour to the mixture.

I included coarse oatmeal in the crumble to add a bit of bite:

The result was pleasantly tart, and a very vivid red colour!

Home-made Christmas biscuits

2010-11-20T07:02:00.001-08:00

I love this time of year. The pre-Christmas excitement and planning is my favourite part of the proceedings, and I know exactly why. It's all the creative possibilities, the baking, the making, the shopping, the goodwill, the thinking, the planning. It's my favourite time of year, closely followed by the short-lived bit of summer where camping in the UK becomes a pleasant pastime.
Inspired by the amazing "Biscuiteers", my friend Clare and I decided to make some home-made biscuits. This activity was squashed in during the twins lunchtime nap and my school run, more of which later.
We based the biscuits on a wonderful recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I have seriously never tasted such great biscuits, and would thoroughly recommend this one. From what I can remember, we used:

400g plain flour

200g butter

280g unrefined caster sugar

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

These ingredients were mixed together like a cake, as in: butter and sugar creamed together, add the egg, fold in the dry ingredients, making a dough. Usually you would put the mix in the fridge to set a bit, but we had no time, so just rolled it out straight away, cut out some Christmas shapes and stuck them in the oven till they went golden brown.
We then made some royal icing, which has lemon juice and egg white added to make it harden properly.

300g icing sugar

1 egg white

1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice

You whizz the lemon juice and egg together, then add the icing sugar gradually, mixing well throughout. Then add colours.

My collection of icing colour pastes and sparkles came into their own. But the unfortunate thing is that we ran out of time, so rushed putting the icing on, and only had spoons to apply it, hence they are a bit rough and ready. Next time we will have a small piping bag etc.....

Unusually for these sorts of things, the best bit of them is the taste. They are the best I have ever tasted.

The second batch of biscuits were supposed to be for the school Christmas fair, but in the event I was too ill to go, so we had to eat them all ourselves.....

Fallow period

2010-10-15T02:47:00.000-07:00

When I look at this blog, it reminds me of how little we have done on the allotment this year. I think after years of graft with fairly small yields, we needed a break. The strawberries in particular were so disappointing that I was on the verge of giving up altogether. Mostly it was just losing the habit of going there all the time.

We have been lucky enough to have a lot going on this year. I lost the end of my finger in December, we moved house in February, and then we seemed to spend every weekend or holiday going up North to see our distant families. We had two wonderful family holidays in the Isle of Wight and Scotland, then Fern started school this Autumn. Only now are we catching our breath back!

Nature was still kind to us. We got some fantastic crops with very little input, like the potatoes.

Later this year we are hoping to get a greenhouse for the first time, and I think this will give us renewed enthusiasm for growing. I think having had a fallow period will do us (and maybe the soil?) good. I am just about to pay this year's allotment invoice, and this was definitely a moment to reflect on the next stage of our allotment progress.

Ode to strawberry jam

2010-10-07T11:02:00.001-07:00

Despite trying my best to grow strawberries and raspberries year after year, we have never really had much success (see picture below for this year's harvest!)

We have a relatively huge space dedicated to them, and have painstakingly planted, weeded, watered and checked the crop. We got a handful this year, but it was all very disappointing.
Things came to a crisis point when we recently ran out of the 2008 supply of homemade jam. As we used the last drop, with no sign of our own glut, something had to be done. So we went to Garson's pick your own farm, in Esher, Surrey. What a find! There are as many as 40 crops you can pick throughout the year, depending on season. They have popular crops such as strawberries in succession, so you can pick them more or less any time from spring to autumn.

I can't quite put my finger on why our home-made jam is so special and so essential in my kitchen.

It could be that the jam is made with fresh and ripe fruit, usually on the same day as picking?

It could be the dash of balsamic vinegar that Nigella recommended?

It could be the gooey lumpiness which it has, rather than the pert jelliness of shop bought jam?

Whatever it is, it makes it well worth the hours of picking, preparing, cooking and putting into jars. I am so looking forward to that first batch of scones with cream and jam.

The Star Rock Shop

2010-08-31T12:17:00.001-07:00

Well, this is nothing to do with gardening, and everything to do with my addiction to sweets. However, I found the most perfectly retro, intact sweet shop from days gone by.

There were jars of sweets that I haven't seen since childhood. I didn't even know half of these still existed?

They make their own sweets as well. The speciality of the house is the eponymous Star Rock. I bought some, but I haven't yet had the heart to break into the packet, so I will have to report back on what it tastes like.

To my delight, they also make and sell Scottish tablet. My scottish granny used to make it, and once I learnt the recipe I could make my own. It sustained me for years as a teenager.

This place also sold home-made tablet. The normal sort that you can get anywhere had the same grainy texture and sugary flavour, and was sold in squares.

Also in the counter I noticed another basket of what looked like tablet, but it wasn't wrapped in a nice package with ribbon round. Instead it was in blobs, and wrapped in ordinary food bags. I pointed to it and asked the lady behind the shop counter what it was. She told me in hushed tones that this was the stuff from the pan bottom. Apparently for tablet aficionados this is thought to be smoother and something of a delicacy.

No prizes for guessing whether I bought some. It's nice to know whatever your poison, there is somewhere in the world where they are on the same wavelength.

Apple bonanza

2010-08-30T07:50:00.001-07:00

This has seemed like a year off tending the allotment. Although we have visited often, the daily/weekly visits have not been possible. Aside from mowing the lawns and paths weeding (of course), there hasn't been a vast amount to maintain. We definitely aren't aiming for prize-winning standards, or even keeping up appearances. The plot has to take its place alongside the other demands on our time.
We have also had a very odd year of weather for gardening. It started off with a freezing cold spring (May), then overnight turned boiling hot and dry (June to mid-July), and late summer (Jul/Aug) seems to have been a monsoon (good old St Swithun). In early summer, our crop plans were defeated by the difficulties of watering through a drought, whilst accomodating two full time jobs, two kids and a full calendar of holidays and long distance family celebrations. We have had a fantastic year as human beings, but less so as gardeners!
So we were thrilled to find that the apple trees have been busy while we were away.

Every year seems to bring something special from luck rather than judgement, and here it was. Jamie has promised to make a tarte tatin later, so I will post photos of the results later.

Espalier fruit trees, House of Dun, Montrose

2010-08-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

The House of Dun is near Montrose in what I think of as "Golf" Country (Carnoustie and a billion other golf courses). The Montrose Basin is nearby, with the nature reserve. However, what I found most impressive about this National Trust property was the espalier fruit trees against the kitchen garden wall.

I have honestly never seen such amazing fruit. The leaves were dark and glossy. The fruit looked sumptuous - rich, ripe and plentiful . My garden envy was at an all-time peak. I want their secret!

It must be the climate, and I was quite prepared to up sticks and move to Scotland that instant. That day, my eyes were opened to the possibilities for fruit trees, and one day I will fulfill those.

The Birthplace of Peter Pan

2010-08-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

We went on holiday to Scotland this summer, and it was a very pleasant oasis of cool and damp following our long, hot summer of drought. The green made a vibrant contrast to our brown and yellow, and when the sun came out, you didn't feel obliged to run for cover. The reward for the changeable weather was a lush natural world and stunning landscape, with nature teeming from every pore.

We were staying in Kirriemuir, the hometown of JM Barrie, writer of Peter Pan, and were lucky enough to be staying in the cottage next door to his birthplace, pictured above.

Kirriemuir is known as 'the Gateway to the Glens' and I could not more highly recommend anywhere for a restful break. The traffic levels were non-existent, and the gentle pace of life was the perfect antidote to city living.

It will come as no surprise to some to hear that most of Scotland started out as a separate island from the rest of mainland Britian, and in prehistoric times the continental plates 'crashed' together. The rocks are radically different in composition, and this explains the different landscape of the highlands to the lowlands, and the 'granite city' of Aberdeen compared to the red sandstone of Edinburgh. Well, the Angus glens are formed on the boundary of that historic join. Where the two types of rock collided, you get the most fantastic waterfalls imaginable.

You can see salmon performing almost miraculous jumps up the waterfalls. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I couldn't have believed it. As well as stunning natural features, there were lush forests full of wildlife.

I have to say that it was very easy to start believing in magic too! The Glens are peppered with castles, both inhabited and ruined, leftover from the days when the fertile lowlands needed protection from raiders from the mountains, known locally as 'Caterans'. The one pictured below is a ruin at Inchmark in Glen Clova.

Scottish Heritage maintain some of the remaining ones, including this one at Edzell, which has been enhanced with a picturesque knot garden.

In keeping with the emblem of Scotland, wild thistles grow everywhere, and along with heather were fully in bloom, adding a purple tinge to the green and browns of the countryside.

A Tribute to Elspeth Thompson

2010-07-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

: Photo courtesy of http://www.elspeththompson.co.uk/

Today I found out the sad news that Elspeth Thompson, gardener, writer and craftswoman died four months ago. For those of you who haven't come across her work, she wrote books such as The London Gardener :Guide and Sourcebook, and The Urban Gardener. More recently she had written books on crafts and making things, such as Gorgeous Things to Make with Love.

Her writing was a real inspiration to many including me. Sometimes felt that if I liked something, it was only a matter of time before she would have written a book on it. This sometimes spooked me in a "parallel lives" kind of way, but more often made me feel connected in some way to something bigger than myself. I loved the way she transferred so much enthusiasm into her writing, and passed on that creative urge to her readers.

The very sad thing about this is that I didn't know until I read a very moving account by her husband in this weekend's paper. She had battled for years with depression, and despite the fantastic talent she possessed, she was unable to go on. She left notes to people including her 6 year old daughter, telling them she loved them and she was sorry. Then she took sleeping tablets and put stones in her pockets and walked into a river.

Perhaps because of also having a 6 year old daughter, perhaps because of the shared interests, I found this unbearably tragic. Depression is a terrible illness, and one that isn't taken seriously enough in our society. I constantly hear colleagues whingeing about someone being "off sick with depression/stress" as if it is a skive. Crikey, there are better ways to skive.

Someone who clearly had so much talent and so much to offer the world finding it so hard to go on that they took their own life, leaving behind their beloved child and husband. It rings true, though. Because if we are honest, many of us go through low patches in life where it seems too hard to carry on. Each person has a lot to offer, especially to those who love them, and it is all too easy to forget that. When I read the moving account from her husband about how him and their daughter have had to carry on, it moved me to tears. How terribly tragic that if she could take back that last action, she almost certainly would. Her husband was certainly right when he concluded that she was so ill that she did not know what she was doing.

So here, in tribute to Elspeth Thompson The Wonderful Weekend Book . Enjoy every bit of life while it lasts. None of us ever really know when the end will come.

2010-07-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Lancashire is a land of contrasts.

On the one hand, it has some of the most urbanised and densely populated areas of the UK. The industrial revolution has left a legacy of dark satanic mills (most of which are now trendy loft apartments) and the town planners of the 20th century have left some fairly drab town centres and huge, unloved housing estates.

On the other hand, there is some of the most lush, untouched countryside in England. There are lovely villages, towns and a standard of living that those of us in London can only dream of. The combination of superb countryside and rich urban commuters have led to some brilliant places to visit to celebrate the local cuisine and culture.

As someone who grew up there and has since been a frequent visitor to the region, I get an increasing sense of regained identity in a region once so demoralised by the loss of many local industries since its industrial heyday.

At the weekend, I was lucky enough to be taken to one of the places celebrating Lancashire's gourmet culture, Bashall Barns. This is a farm shop and restaurant in a remote location near Clitheroe. As a dairy farm, they use their own milk to make their very popular ice cream, which is sold in the resturant and in tubs at the shop. Flavours that day included toffee, chocolate and vanilla, as well as seasonal British flavours such as gooseberry and rhubarb.

There is also a delicious selection of local specialities for which many ingredients are sourced in Lancashire, such as Goosnargh chicken and duck, Lancashire cheese and Bury black pudding. The food was served in generous portions, (as I have come to expect in the North) and the friendly staff gave a very warm welcome. Overall a fantastic experience. The farm shop itself had the famous ice cream, as well as local vegetables and beer brewed on-site.

They also had a really good selection of gardening and self-sufficiency books.

Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area, which of course is very unlikely! You might need to take a detour especially.

Scorchio!

2010-07-11T14:45:00.001-07:00

It has been so hot and so dry, I am starting to feel like we are in a record drought, at least locally. Surely a hosepipe ban must be just round the corner? Perhaps I have a short memory, but for all the grass to be brown, dry and dead by this point in July is unusual. There's been no decent rain for 6 weeks. Plants in the garden look very stressed, and are succumbing to weird, new insect attacks with strange symptoms.

Because we can't get to the allotment every day to water, our crops are pitifully small. I have peas that have barely grown out of the ground before flowering, potatoes that look more like chilli peppers in terms of plant size (photos will follow). I know from friends who are managing to water often, this could be a record summer for the diligent gardener. Sadly for me the lazy gardener, this will not be the case. Our soil is very dry at the best of times, but now it is like a desert. I have learned to welcome the highs and the lows equally, knowing that without the failures, the successes aren't as precious. Gardening alone has taught me this valuable life lesson.

The lavender up at Mayfield is looking brilliant at the moment, and really is an inspiring sight.

The lavender festival at the Stanley Road Plots is a couple of weeks away:

Carshalton Lavender Weekend 24th - 25th July 2010

Fortunately lavender thrives in dry conditions! When it comes to gardening, the expression that springs to mind is "every dog has its day".

The cutting garden

2010-06-29T13:29:00.001-07:00

Well, this was going to be the year when I concentrated on flowers for cutting rather than vegetables. On the whole, flowers have proved a lot easier to grow. I wonder if this could be our soil, with about 3 inches of chalky topsoil before you hit the bedrock. This means its very poor in nutrients and prone to frequent and long droughts, both of which flowers seem to handle better than veg. I think to build up sufficient bulk in a vegetable crop you need to either water it constantly, or improve the soil every year for about 10 years??

Having said that, obviously where people are vigilant they have got fantastic crops. You only have to see Ali's blog (from the same allotment site!) to see the potential.

I think until I am able to commit more time in the summer evenings, I will have to resign myself to the lower maintenance crops like flowers and herbs. We are planning to get a greenhouse in the garden later in the year, so this means we can do tomatoes and so on there. Watch this space to see if we do grow anything interesting this year, or whether my moans, groans and excuses fill the WHOLE BLOG! Ha ha.

So in the meantime here are some more of my finest cuttings from this week. First up my Charles de Mills rose was magnificent. This yielded me a whole bush of fragrant, dark mauve blooms. The best ones were cut with a stalk attached and put into an arrangement with some cornflowers.

Ones that were too late to pick for cut flowers were picked just below the flower and placed in water to keep them fresh.

And because I couldn't bear to waste them, I even picked the petals from the deadheads to be dried in saucers and saved. The smell in the room was fantastic!

Rumours of stolen strawberries

2010-06-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love about Stanley Road allotment site is the gossip that gently feeds its way round the plots. Sometimes gossip can be hurtful and harmful, but other times it's a godsend, like when tomato blight is working its way down, or when a site inspection is imminent.

We recently heard a rumour that someone has been stealing strawberries. Other plotholders have noticed them going missing. I did wonder why we hadn't got any yet, because normally we would reap the first harvest at the end of May. Every time I have checked the plot there have been none ripe, despite lots of rain and sun recently.

It was disappointing as we have been building up to this strawberry harvest for years, weeding, feeding and watering vigilantly. Some of the plants are supposed to be at their peak this year, and we were hoping for enough to make jam.

On the other hand, we've no evidence that anyone has taken any, and so for now, I think I will jump to the conclusion that it's our own neglect rather than someone else taking our crops!

If this is austerity, I like it

2010-06-12T03:30:00.000-07:00

Last week we went camping on the Isle of Wight for my first visit to the Island. I had read that it was 'the new Cornwall', and one of the homes of 'cool camping', thanks to Vintage Vacations, who rent out various vintage caravans and locations including the converted chuch below:

Originally we planned to stay in a yurt, but as we have got all our own camping gear, it seemed like a bit of an exgtravagance. Since the election, David Cameron and George Osborne have got us scared witless facing ten years of tax rises, pay cuts and redundancies, so we are trying to save every penny.

In the end, this had to be the cheapest holiday we have ever had, with the ferry to the Isle being the biggest cost at £80. The camping cost £55 for five nights, which paid for this view out of the tent:

We stayed at Chine Farm campsite on the South coast. It is right next to an old derelict and vandalised holiday camp, which was a bit eerie, but as long as you didn't look in that direction, it didn't really put us off. Even the petrol didn't cost us that much as it is quite a modest distance from London, and the Island itself is only 27 miles across at the longest point.

We brought all our own cooking gear, and it was the first time we had gone camping with the dutch oven and the firepit/barbecue, so we were eager to get cooking.

I was desperate to explore and form my own opinions of the Isle. Looking at reviews on tripadvisor, it is either a paradise of picturesque countryside and old-fashioned seaside resorts or incredibly dull and past its best. I suppose both of these could be correct, depending on which part of the island you are on. The Isle of Wight has a surprisingly dense population, and it feels as though there are too many hideous 60s bungalows ruining picturesque seaviews. Parts have a feel of a fading resort that was once very busy and developed, now fallen out of favour. Things such as the deserted holiday camp and the Isle of Wight Pearl have a quite tragic air about them.

But to judge the whole island on these alone would be a travesty. The rolling hills and idyllic beaches combine to make you feel you have stepped into a 50s advert for Anchor butter. You can't ignore the fact that the place has the highest hours of sunshine in the UK, something we really appreciated as we drove round the stunning coastal road.

The surf at Compton Bay on the south coast was like nothing I have ever seen before in the UK.

The National trust offers great value leaflets showing walks round the nature reserve of the Newtown estuary, which we almost had to ourselves, even on a sunny day in half term.

Ignoring the more run down gift shops selling cheap imports from China, you can find some real hidden gems by scratching the surface. These ranged from Liz Earle's skincare shop in Ryde to a small farm which was selling 100 flavours of home made ice-cream (I had elderflower).

There are picturesque villages such as Godshill, which didn't even lose its charm on the rainiest day of our break:

For gardeners, Ventnor Botanical Gardens have the largest range of tender and half-tender plants growing in the UK. You can buy great value seeds from many of the specimens in the gardens, which are collected each year by enthusiasts and volunteers.

To top it all off, we visited Shanklin Chine, which is a pictureque gorge running towards the sea:

The Chine is the embodiment of green, and very soothing on a hot day.

I think it's safe to say we'll be back!

Crocheted dishcloth

2010-05-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been spending a lot of time crocheting things for my new house. Above is a dishcloth made out of cheap cotton bought in car boot sales or on ebay. The inspiration and the pattern were kindly given away for free by crochetspot here. I wonder if I will ever get the courage to use it for something as mundane as wiping the surfaces?

There is something so satisfying about making your own stuff around the place. I have always loved making things, and growing somehow fits into that.

When I lost my right little fingertip in November, overnight I realised how lucky I had been to be healthy and able bodied. The ability to make things was temporarily on hold. I realised that I had spent the best part of my life taking this for granted . I had moaned and whinged every time things didn't go my way. I somehow felt entitled to have a job that wasn't stressful, for everyone in my life to do things my way, all the time. For everything to work out just as I believed it should.

Today I am back to that restless feeling of hurrying round my busy life, even the spare time when I seem to feel obliged to do something useful or constructive. I find it very hard to just 'be'.

This is why gardening has always been a great panacea for my soul. It's a way of doing something but nothing. Even five minutes on the allotment seemed to refresh my spirit. It makes me slow down. Although sustained neglect is a recipe for disaster, a bit of neglect often yields unexpected rewards. Gardening, and in particular growing your own crops is a fantastic way of seeing a little investment of time reap a harvest. Since I have got the use of my right hand back, I can't seem to fit enough life in, gardening, knitting and crochet, amongst a busy job, house, husband and children. But how lucky I am to have that full an in-tray again.

Springtime flowers - Irises

2010-05-16T09:03:00.001-07:00

I am so proud of these irises. The plants were bought from the Hampton Court Flower Show in 2008. It was the first time we had been to a big flower show like that and I was overwhelmed by the choice and variety of plants available. As I wandered round the specialised nurseries I found it near impossible to choose which plants to buy. Two irises caught my eye, this one, and one which looked like its opposite, with purple centres and white edges.

I took them home, I lovingly planted them, and then I watched and waited. And waited, and waited.

Last year they looked half dead, and at times it seemed touch and go whether they would even survive. We supposedly have near perfect soil type and conditions, with our chalky soil being reliably alkaline and well drained, with British rainfall to keep it watered. As if to compound this, someone in a neighbouring allotment has a whole field of irises which do brilliantly well.

Just a month ago, this is what it looked like, with a load of manure on in the hope it might do better this year. You can just about see its partner, buried under manure next to it.

Then a few weeks ago, this:

You can imagine my reaction when I saw that it had actually flowered. Despite a month with very little rainfall, they have flowered prolifically. I've got three vases round the house already, pairing them off with some bamboo from our new garden.

Yet again, patience and a touch of neglect works wonders in the garden.

Spring in full force, where do I start?

2010-04-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

I sometimes think I should change the name of this blog to the Lazy Gardener, (watch this space actually....) My gardening efforts have been regularly rescued from disaster by my husband, a well timed shower of rain (thank you British climate, I could never survive anywhere else!), the sheer persverance of nature and sometimes just pure luck.

It is now on the brink of May and I have so far done absolutely NOTHING towards this season's crops. And although there is part of me that feels terribly guilty, there is also a part of me that knows that in the UK, this doesn't really matter. Not terribly much growth happens earlier than now, except indoors, and there are always plenty of crops you can get in.

So, my saving graces this year have been:

My amazing darling husband who has been keeping the plot mowed and 'sort of' weeded. He loves his perennials like asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb, so at this time of year he is there more often than me. I do look after the kids meanwhile, so perhaps I am doing my bit?

The fact that someone tipped me off about the tradition of sowing potatoes on Good Friday. Inspired by this folk tradition we sowed them Good Friday morning before the heavy thunderstorms of the afternoon.

Also, hubby has been planting his crops of the year, cherry tomatoes (he'e gone for Gardener's Delight) and butternut squash, as well as some rocket.

As for now, I am frantically sowing sweet peas and beans. I am also setting up a herb and salad box outside my back door, now we have a space with some light at the house. I am planting lots of flower seeds accumlated over the last year. Hoping for a good year of flowers for the house. And I have bought some fabulous perennials for the garden. All very exciting.

The lemon tree at the top of the post is now in our conservatory. After many, many, many years we have got a conservatory which means we can grow citrus plants and indoor bananas. There really is no way to express how exciting this is for us. Twelve years ago, Jamie and I lived in a small flat with a huge south facing window from ceiling to floor. The whole of our very small living space was filled with tropical and indoor plants of many types. For the last ten years we have watched our once impressive indoor plant collection dwindle. We still have one hardy yucca and a Musa Cavendish banana from this era, being kept alive in a greenhouse at Jamie's work. After a very long wait, they can finally come home!

And now as I sit down for my evening scan of everyone's blogs, I fully expect to get lots of inspiration for this year. It's time to put the knitting down and get outside!!!!

Rhubarb Season is here again

2010-04-09T14:48:00.001-07:00

When the first rhubarb comes in, it marks the start of the cropping year for us. There is something fantastically symbolic about it, because it is the first spring crop to come through on our plot. Technically there are other crops coming in all year round, but at this time of year they are mainly leftovers from the previous season.

For example, we picked the last of our sprouts and ate them on Easter Sunday. Spring onions are now cropping prolifically. Last year we were astounded by a perfect cauliflower that sprouted in March after a long, unpromising dormancy over Winter.

Rhubarb on the other hand marks the start of the growing season. It is the new season's growth that you crop and eat. Something that was lying dormant in the soil sprouts in a very short time, and provides you with an all-new crop.

Forcing it gives you an even earlier crop, and a tastier, rarer one. By excluding light from the sprouting plant, you force it to reach upwards and produce pale, tender stems. You can only force each plant once every few years, then you need to leave it for a couple of years to regain its strength before cropping it at all again.

It has become a tradition in this house to herald the first forced rhubarb of the year with a bit of a fanfare. This year it feels very late, although we aren't sure if this is to do with this year's cultivar or the cold spring. Obviously the classic partner for rhubarb is custard, and I have to say that rhubarb crumble and custard is a firm favourite for the rest of the year.

However, the perfect, pale pink stems of the first forced crop demanded something more glamorous, so Jamie made 'Rhubarb Creme Brulee'. Which, at the end of the day, is actually just a posher version of rhubarb and custard!

A real spring treat for Easter Sunday.

Spring break in Wells

2010-03-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

I recently described this blog to my husband as "Me gallivanting round the UK while my husband maintains the allotment"! He is always with me on our travels, but I have to say that without him there would be no allotment.

This weekend we went to a christening in the Bishop's Palace at Wells. As it is a three hour drive away, we decided to make a weekender of it. I found a hotel in Wookey Hole near Wells offering 'cheaper' rates online than normal, so decided to go for it.

First a bit of info about Wells, the smallest city in the UK. As its name suggests, since medieval times it has been a place where natural springs emerge within the grounds of the Bishop's Palace.

The city itself is more like a large village, completely charming with an impressive Cathedral dominating and presiding over a picturesque town centre. Jamie and I spent our honeymoon here, we are always glad of an excuse to return.

You can see in the photo above that the natural springs run down channels round the town centre.

The chapel where the baptism took place is within the grounds of the Bishop's Palace, and what a fabulous place to be baptised!

Beforehand, we had a quick wander around the grounds of the Palace, which are spectacularly romantic. Apparently the remains in the picture below are of a great hall that was erected in honour of a visit from Edward I, but subsequently pulled down by one of the bishops who felt it looked more romantic that way!

There happened to be a rare plant fair in the grounds earlier today, so I picked up some interesting plants for our new garden, including a raspberry ripple rose called 'Ferdinand Pichard' that apparently smells like raspberry.

The key to this rose for me was its advertised ability to 'grow well in poorer soils'. Even though I have high hopes for our new garden, the chalk rock that we used to have has definitely dented my confidence.

Anyway, the hotel we stayed in had fabulous grounds and a really quirky interior. It seemed to me that if you wanted to experience what it would be like to have your own stately home full of servants, then a stay at Glencot would satisfy your curiosity.

The place had a distinctly gothic and romantic air, and you almost felt as though you had stumbled through a trapdoor in Alice in Wonderland rather than staying in a hotel. As we played chess on chairs within the inglenook fireplace, I felt so comfortable it was as if we could have stayed in that room forever, watching day and night pass by.

The interior was full of quirky antiques which have been assembled by its eccentric owner, Martin Miller, writer of the Miller Antiques Guide. He seemed to be in residence while we were there, entertaining guests.

I have to admit that 4 and 6 year old children may have been a mistake in such a luxurious hotel (!), full of expensively breakable objects, but we survived, and they were actually quite good considering. The little one only weighs about a stone, which was good because jumping on us as we tried to rest was so irresistable for her:

Everywhere there are books, lining every shelf, windowsill and corridor. You are encouraged to take paperbacks home if you haven't finished them by the end of your stay.

The gardens are well worth a walk round, even in March before they really get going. They would be magical on a warm midsummer's evening as there are lots of tables and chairs strategically placed for whiling away hours.

The ultimate one had to be the 'Romeo and Juliet' balcony, which can be booked for special occasions:

It looks even more spectacular at night, candle and chandelier lit (like most of the house interior), but alas my phone wasn't up to the task of taking a decent photo at night! Next time, I will remember to pack a proper camera.

Goodbye Albion Road

2010-02-10T03:50:00.000-08:00

Well, after years of pondering the future of the housing market, and fretting over whether we could leave our lovely flat behind for pastures new, we have taken the plunge and sold our flat. Even though we have spent tens of thousands on improving the bloomin place, it was the garden that is hardest to leave behind.

We moved here before we had children, and looking back our plants were more like pets than plants. We collected, we categorised, we watched them grow. We poured our hearts into this garden, and to be honest we filled it with our dreams and aspirations of life.

As our first garden, it gave us the chance to put into practice all the garden designs we had locked in our heads over the years of living in flats without gardens. All the plants we were desperate to grow, all the ideas we were desperate to try. Now it is time to move on. The children need more space (as do we), and the new garden will give us the chance to design it around them.

I hope the new owners enjoy the garden as much as we have. It has become rather neglected of late, because we spend all our garden energy on the allotments, but I hope they will restore it to something of its former glory. I daren't post a photo as it looks today - it is a ruin and a sad shadow of its former self. Five years ago, our cleaners thought we were gardeners for a living, which was flattering. Since then, all our tender plants have been killed off by two successive freezing winters. Now no-one could think this garden was cared for - as we have become more and more frustrated by all the setbacks in trying to move house, we have become more and more resentful and neglectful of the place we once loved.

This makes me reflect on how quickly nature takes over where man leaves off. The circle of life and the way that we busy ourselves creating stuff during our lifetime and then hand it on to someone else to do their own thing when we depart. Moving is a time of reflection anyway, so my emotions are finely tuned.

So here is the swansong of our flat garden, a place where many many happy times have been had and many memories will remain, before we say a welcome to the new garden at the new house, pictured below.

Midwinter magic and fairy dust

2010-02-09T02:43:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you plan things for ages, and other times an idea just hits you from out of the blue. I was browsing through one of the girliest shops in the world in the town of Arundel in West Sussex, when I found this:

In case the picture is unclear, it is a phial of glitter which says 'Fairy Dust'. Costing about 50p, it was irresistable to a mum with two small girls of 3 and 6. The possibilities! Bear with me on this one...

While growing up in the wild moors of Lancashire, believing it to be the back end of nowhere, (subsequently proved by the long journeys back from civilisation later in life), I couldn't wait to leave and live in a big city. I was never sure which city, but I knew it was going to be a bigger and more interesting place than the rainy wilderness of home.

Of course, when I had my own children I was very excited to be bringing them up in London. WOW, I thought, how lucky are they to live in such an important and cosmopolitan place? The history, the culture, the museums, the markets, the endless life opportunities. A truly enthralling place?

So I was very surprised when my daughter announced that she thought Tottington, the Lancashire village I grew up in was the most amazing place in the world and that she was going to move there when she grew up. They do say life comes full circle! Curious to find out more, I asked her why Tottington was the best place in the world to live. She replied that it was because there was more magic there than there was in London.

I realised that when we had visited Granny there, the girls had got to make spells in the garden and, by magic, some gifts from the fairies appeared when they got up the following day. Now of course, spells had never worked at our house in London, and we had speculated that there weren't any fairies in our garden. However, when I found the fairy dust, we wondered together if it might make our spells work? Obviously Granny must have her own magic which Mummy can't do?

So we tried:

The girls had a pot each, and collected an assortment of grass, leaves and other ingredients from the garden. They mixed them up with a stick, and then we added the fairy dust to see if it brought any fairies overnight?

Well, the next morning we checked:

The fairies had been! Well, my 6 year old confided that she had started to think that fairies didn't really exist, but this confirmed that they did. The rest of the fairy dust went a long way. We made magic wands using real magic glitter, we made the teddies move, and we even made facepaint out of it later that day.

All in all a magical midwinter day.

Some winter entertainment while we suffer indoors

2010-02-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

I try to resist it each year, but have to admit that at times I really do hate winter. It just doesn't come naturally to me to sit indoors while it is cold outside. Everything I like doing is outside - the allotment, gardens, camping, walking, sitting out and so on. I am generally happy as long as I can be outdoors comfortably. All winter I feel like a battery hen and by the start of February the cabin fever is reaching its peak.

So far this winter I have read the whole Twilight saga, watched umpteen films, scoured the internet for bargains, and generally trodden water in any way possible till the warmer season hits.

I do suspect that perhaps the hibernation every year recharges my creative batteries for the year ahead?

So it is an especially lovely bit of light relief when someone in the blogosphere remembers that I exist, and sends a lovely comment my way. After a particularly drab but stressful day (if that combination isn't too much of an oxymoron), the lovely mangocheeks at Allotment2Kitchen woke me out of my restless boredom with her lovely my favourite photo meme. We have blogged together through thick and thin, and I am in awe of someone who can create so many new recipes so often. A true talent and a fantastic inspiration.

And I instantly knew which one I would choose:

I may be cheating here by putting a photo of the girls rather than myself. It also may be cheating to put a photo on where they can't be recognised, in these days of internet paranoia. It's not even the best quality photo I have by a long stretch. And yet...

It sums up for me that warm, sunny, carefree childhood feeling. My little girls in a haze of sun, their fine hair shining like halos round their heads. Surrounded by lavender in our local area, our main claim to fame and the plant that connects me to the land here in so many ways. The loveliest thing about the photo is that it will always remind me of their complete childlike joy that day. Their fresh enthusiasm for every new experience that comes their way, their excitability when I take them places that I love. Their love for me, which I never feel I deserve, and their love of life. I hope I can give them a childhood that captures that feeling for them, and bottles it forever. In some ways, my girls feel like two halves of me anyway - they share my looks in totally different ways, they share different character traits. For me, it is like watching a ying and yang of different halves of yourself - if that isn't too selfish a way of looking at it.

I have never done this before, so I apologise if it is intrusive, but I would love to pass this sentiment on to just some of the bloggers that make the online world so colourful.

First and foremost, my amazing sister-in-law at Marble-Rose. I can't really describe how much inspiration and camaraderie I have got from her over the years. Her beautiful, talented and fun personality has brightened some of the darkest days we have had. I would love to see what photo she would choose.

Nic from Nipitinthebud has been a constant presence and inspiration, and yet I would be intrigued to find out more about her.

Kella from Kellasmusings would have been my next one, but she started it off, so I can't ask her to be involved.

Kilbournegrove provides me with so much inspiration and house/garden envy from Canada, and I would be intrigued to learn more.

From the Stanley Road allotment site, Alithefrog has a fantastic blog and puts my gardening efforts to shame!

The ScatteredGardener is another brilliant inspirational blogger from sunny South London, and I hope you won't mind me namechecking you here.

I would also love to pass this to Matron from Downontheallotment, who provides lots of ideas and brilliant competitions that I will enter one day when I have something worth entering!

I hope this brings a bit of cheer to someone during the long winter season.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Favourite Haunts - Wimbledon Village

2010-02-04T09:39:00.001-08:00

Charity shops in areas where rich people live can be a great source of quality cast offs. I love charity shopping in Wimbledon Village, and then window shopping in the boutiques there.

Oxfam and British Red Cross have shops there, where I have picked up some fabulous stuff in the past.

Cath Kidston is always worth a look:

The stuff in the window is always an inspiration:

As well as a good browse to see what is new:

Some of the hand made stuff looks lovely. In particular I loved these little children's slippers. They look quite easy to have a go at making (or do they??):

I wish my home looked more like this:

There is also a vintage shop, which was closed the day I went:

The ties and scarves alone look worth a visit (sorry about quality of photo):

As well as the vintage tea dresses:

Graham and Green have lots of quirky interior decorations:

I found these cushions in the sale:

There are lots of lovely places to go for a coffee stop. Boulangerie Paul do the most amazing French patisserie and pastries:

If you want something more substantial, Strada do great pasta and pizzas and even offer free filtered water on the tables:

I have never been to Giraffe, but I have heard it is very child friendly if you have little ones in tow:

My final stop before heading back was to get some knitting inspiration from the fabulous and expensive Brora shop:

I was not disappointed, and although cripplingly expensive, the stuff there is absolutely gorgeous:

The little fair isle gloves were just adorable:

And the teddy has to be worth making:

I went home full of inspiration for knitting and sewing.

Columbia Road Sunday Market

2010-01-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

Last time I posted about Columbia Road Market, I had forgotten to take my phone or camera, so when we went back today I took some photos of my favourite haunts there. The iphone isn't the best camera for a dull day, so I apologise for the quality.

I will start with a general overview of the market, before taking you round some of my favourite haunts. First and foremost, the Sunday morning market is a fabulously cheap place to pick up plants and flowers. It's a gardener's paradise.

There is a mind-boggling range of market stalls offering everything from bedding plants to seeds to herbs to cut flowers. It reminds me of Hampton Court Flower Show in the variety and quality of the items for sale, but about half the usual price. Most of our favourite specimen plants have been lugged back from here at some point in the last 10 years or so.

But although the flowers and plants attracted us there, it is the boutiques and shops that bring us back time after time. Here are some of my favourites.

First up, the Fleapit, one of the fantastic retro coffee shops in the area.

All the furniture and even the crockery feels like it is straight out of my childhood home. Well, if my parents had stuck to their original 1970s style, I suppose.

It is a great place to get a home-made cupcake and a coffee to start you off on a cold morning.

First stop after coffee was Vintage Heaven, where they have the most fabulous collection of vintage crockery, kitchenalia and fabrics.

It's an absolute treasure trove of bits and bobs, and not so expensive that you can't pick up something quite reasonable to add to your rapidly expanding vintage fabric collection (eek).

This time I got a set of chair covers for some dining room chairs that haven't made it out of my head into reality yet.

Next up, Treacle the cupcake shop, which is the only reason my girls still get excited about the whole experience.

They definitely have a way with icing and pink sparkles that hits the spot:

The smaller cupcakes are £1. Although it's a lot of money for a mouthful of cake, it is worth it for the rapturous reception the girls give it, and the 10 minutes peace and quiet it buys me to browse the other shops and galleries to follow.

Fred Bare, a shop dedicated to interesting handmade hats:

Lots of shops full of vintage inspired nicknacks:

A retro sweet shop:

Beyond Fabrics sell a range of haberdashery supplies and lots of fabrics sold by the metre:

I love the range they have, again many either vintage or retro-inspired designs.

This is really just a very small selection of some of my favourite places. There are baby boutiques, vintage clothes shops, as well as many places to buy unusual gifts. It's very hard to come away without buying anything, but you also bring with you a hoard of ideas and inspiration.

Columbia Road market and the Museum of Childhood

2010-01-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the long break in blogging. There are various reasons for this, some important and some trivial. The main one is that I was involved in an accident in November where I lost the end of my right little finger (eek). I have had various operations since then (including one on Christmas Eve), and I had effectively lost the use of my right arm until now as I was having to wear it in a sling and with a huge bandage. I am starting to get some use back, and am testing the waters by entering this post, but it is going to be a long road to recovery. I am tentatively starting to type again, a bit slower than before, but thankfully with less agony than it was late last year.

But enough of that already. It is now thankfully 2010, and I am making a fresh start on many fronts. As there is very little to report on the plot at present, I thought I would do a series of some of my favourite pastimes when I can't do much on the plot.

The cold makes the finger very painful, so there will be very little going on this winter. Come April there will be a frenzy of activity! We are trying to move house, so this may be the first year that we are able to grow seedlings in a greenhouse at home. The reason we haven't put a greenhouse on the allotment already is that we don't get to visit reliably as often for watering as I think you need to. Really for us it needs to be out the backdoor or on a windowsill.

Our flat is now just too small to accomodate the various propagators we have acquired over the years, so we have waited until we get a small garden with at least one sunny spot for a greenhouse. Anyone who has ever tried to sell and buy a house can imagine how fraught and stressful the whole process is, and so the sooner it happens, the better for our sanity.

Onto the main topic of the day:

Idea 1. Visit Columbia Road Market

A fabulous market for garden and plant lovers, and well worth a visit to London if you live further away. Every Sunday morning, rain or shine, the market is a hive of activity, from fantastic value plant and bulb stalls, to flowers seemingly straight from the suppliers.

In addition, the road itself is lined with shops selling vintage and handmade stuff, as well as a sprinkling of unique and interesting cafes. Nearby at Bethnal Green, is the recently refurbished Museum of Childhood. The V&A have taken it over and made it a fanastic experience for young and old alike, with vintage toys from your childhood as well as lots of sensory and play areas for children of all ages. Well worth a visit while you are in the area.

Photo Gallery of the Museum of Childhood:

: Thankfully there are still lots of toys before my time!

: My kids still play with these classic building bricks, although the packaging has changed over the years...

: Enid Blyton - Essential To Childhood

: Snoopy Dog - how many of you remember this one? We had one at home.

: Who could forget the story of Dogtanian, which brought serious literature to pre-schoolers?

: This set brought back memories that I didn't even know I had until I saw it!

2009-10-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

I find Autumn a bittersweet season. On the one hand, it is quite nice to settle down to cooler weather and darker nights. There is something relaxing about calming down and getting ready for winter, heating on, warmer clothes and hot dinners. On the other hand, it is a sign of worse weather to come, of a long hibernation before the next growing season and of plenty of indoor days.

Tempting though it is to start planning ahead for Christmas, autumn is worth savouring for itself. Halloween and Bonfire night sit nicely half-way between end of summer and Christmas.

In the vegetable patch, pumpkins have got to be the autumn king. Despite all the weeds and the weather, the pumpkin still grows huge.

This autumn has been amazing for weather - lots of long sunny weekends, perfect for long autumn walks. I took this photo in Kensington Gardens the other day. The birds were all perfectly lined up on the posts. You would never guess you were so close to the city.

Anyway, now for the useful bit - at least for those of you with children. This recipe for home-made playdough comes from our local toddler group, Tots and Toys, and it is one of those fabulous 'don't think this is going to work' recipes which feels a bit like magic when it does work. Or at least that's how we found it.

Home-made play-dough

2 cups plain flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

4 teaspoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons cooking oil

a few drops of food colouring, (you can also add glitter etc.)

First you put all the ingredients in a large saucepan over a low heat. Stir until it forms a ball, keep stirring the whole time (it takes a while!). When it has formed a ball put it into an ovenproof bowl to cool down. When cool, knead and wrap it up in cling film. Keep in an airtight container until playtime. TIP: soak the saucepan straight away!

Happy autumn - enjoy it while it lasts!

Neglect and an Autumn Pot Boiler

2009-09-28T14:16:00.001-07:00

I have a confession to make. It is at least a month since I have even got to either allotment - I have just been too busy, too ill or too lazy. I have spent the summer gallivanting around and have loved every minute of shirking my duties. Jamie has been running there as part of his evening run to keep it ticking over, and he had reassured me that they looked okay (ish).

Today I got the shock of my life when I revisited them both. All the crops that I had carefully sown have gone to seed or been overgrown, and generally looked very neglected. This cabbage sums up the damage:

The plot now needs some serious weeding and replanting for next year.

Despite the complete wasteland that the allotment seemed, I was still able to bring home some great picks of the day,which I have rinsed ready to put in the pot later:

I am going to put the mix of sweetcorn, potatoes, carrots, peppers, chilli and borlotti beans into a huge cooking pot over a bonfire, along with some braising steak, onions, beef stock and some fresh tarragon picked today.

This is all going into a dutch oven on the fire. Watch this space, I will post the results tomorrow, if they were worth a look.

I am going to eat my stew with oven roasted tomato and parmesan bread that I made earlier:

This was made using the tomatoes from the plot a few weeks ago, which had been overnight-roasted according to the recipe on Make Grow Gather. This created the perfect addition to home made bread:

So, two hours later, here we are with food cooking on the fire:

I haven't tasted it yet, but I can't wait:

It looks a lot better and browner after a few hours of cooking. Here was the final result. It actually seemed like a real Ray Mears kind of meal, with lots of whole veg and a bit of spice.

Granted, it still looks pretty grim with the flash on the camera, but it tasted amazing, with a Central American accent, with sweetcorn, Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, chillis, peppers and potatoes.

Update on Chateau Costello wine

2009-09-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

We have been in our flat for 8 years, and during that time, the vine growing under the canopy at the back door has been one of our favourite features. It looks very old, and in fact could almost be as old as the house which is 100 years old, as grape vines were popular in Victorian/Edwardian times.

It has never yielded edible grapes in any quantities, but this year Jamie decided to nurture and cultivate it, and in combination with a very warm and quite rainy summer, we have something worth harvesting:

He tested them and the grapes are already edible so there are good prospects for ripe and sweet grapes that we could attempt to make wine with. Even if it comes to nothing, it should all be good experience for when our vines at the allotment start producing. We got some good tips chatting to John Dickin from the Iron Railway Vineyard, who sells locally produced wine at the farmer's markets round here. He grow the grapes and gets them made into wine by a professional winemaker. This year we have also adopted a vine from Godstone Vineyards, so hopefully we may pick up some tips at their harvest time.

Another option would be The Urban Wine Co. This collective is a really interesting project started by two guys, Richard and Tim from Tooting in South London. They decided to pool the local harvest from back gardens and allotments in the area, which were sent to a winemaker in Sussex and made into a batch of 30 bottles of 'Chateau Tooting' wine, as they named it.

Apparently winemakers in the Champagne region are buying up land in Kent and Sussex, so watch this space!

Late season strawberry jam

2009-09-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

Last year, a very kind lady on the site gave us enough of her strawberry surplus to make jam. The batch was so large that the very last jar is still in the fridge.

Unfortunately, this year we got quite slim pickings from the strawberry plot. We had enough to eat fresh, but no major gluts of strawberries to make into jam. I wasn't even a real fan of jam before we made our own, but it turned out to be one of those home mades that are really worth it.

The fresh, intense fruit taste was better than any shop bought equivalent. I have to admit that I am not that keen on the usual array of home-made combinations, like rhubarb jam with ginger or whatever, but plain old strawberry jam has been made into a million cream teas, puddings etc.

Punnets of strawberries going for a song in the supermarket, which I just couldn't resist. Only 80p each, but they had to be used quickly. Luckily it is one of the easiest things to make, even though I did only finish just before midnight.

Strawberry Jam

1 kilo strawberries

1 kilo preserving sugar

2 tbsps of balsamic vinegar (or balsamic glaze in my case)

juice of 2 lemons

Lots of clean jars, freshly run through the dishwasher

Comments: It doesn't actually taste of the lemon or balsamic, but they give it an extra kick. In the case of the lemon it provides the pectin to set the jam (or it is supposed to). In my experience, the recipe above with preserving sugar never bloomin sets, but it does look and taste gorgeous. An easier version is to use jam sugar, which has pectin added. It is cloudier and a bit more like the ones in the shops, but it does set.

First you measure out 1kilo of strawberries and 1 kilo of sugar.

Put them in a pan. I ripped up the strawberries because they were very large, but smaller ones can go in whole.
Heat up slowly, but not too slowly, stirring every so often.

Once it reaches the boil, time it and start testing after about 5 mins. Check by putting a teaspoon onto a saucer, and if it wrinkles, it is ready. Leave for a little while to cool down before filling jars and putting the lids straight on.

Tip: Leave the jars in the dishwasher until you are ready to fill them. I find this keeps them totally sterile and no need for further sterilising.

Serve with home-made scones, heated in microwave for 20 secs, plus clotted cream. Yum, and totally unhealthy.

Sissinghurst - an unfinished history indeed

2009-09-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

I am a member of a book club, and this month we were reading 'Sissinghurst, an unfinished history' , by Adam Nicholson. What better excuse to visit this legendary garden, rescued from ruin by Vita Sackville-West in the early 20th century, known principally for its famous 'White Garden'?

Adam Nicholson inherited the National Trust run property from his father in 2005. He brought a wealth of history of the house that had been his childhood home, as well as a great warmth towards the place. In the book, he takes you through the history of the area from prehistoric times through the middle ages to the current day, explaining the soil type, the fertility, the land use and so on. He also gives a vivid account of the various characters whose lives had been played out in and around the locality and farms.

When his father died, he was struck by a vision of a Sissinghurst as a working mixed farm, as it had been when he was a child. He felt the heart had been ripped out of the place since it wasn't a working, 'real' place. He wondered if the farm could be viable by supplying fresh fruit vegetables and meat to the restaurant and farm shop at the garden.

: The courtyard garden

Here began a personal odyssey to return it to its former self, going in to detail the long and arduous process of getting funding for the project from the National Trust. You start to realise that something on that scale needs more than vision. The economics didn't really make any sense, and it was a surprisingly difficult task of getting support from the existing management of the garden. This was perhaps understandable as their ideas and suggestions seemed to have been ignored for the past 30 years. I have to admit that I would have given up long before he succeeded in getting it off the ground, so you had to admire the tenacity.

Unfortunately, as I walked around the vegetable garden a year after the start of the project, I couldn't muster up any feeling that they had succeeded yet. The vegetable garden was fairly neglected, and didn't even look that productive, considering it was August.

The restaurant itself looked tired and more like a 'back of beyond' motorway services than an organic cafe, with wall to wall varnished pine furniture and self-service. You could definitely understand why the staff had felt it needed to be refurbished.

Although the sign boasted that their own vegetables were used in the restaurant, the only evidence of this was the courgettes and green beans. Any allotmenteer knows that these are absolutely abundant at this time of year - sometimes you can't even give them away. In fact they are probably the last thing that any kitchen gardener wants to eat, having probably been working through a glut of their own for months. I have to say the courgettes were very tasty as courgettes go.

All in all, I think I will go back in a couple of years, once things have started to take hold. The idea is a lovely one, but I do think the team there will need to get fully on board with the concept if it is ever going to work. And I think something would have to be done about the restaurant area, to bring it up to date.

You couldn't help conclude that the resentment caused over the whole change was the main obstacle to progress, especially considering how beautifully kept the garden itself was, in contrast to the vegetable garden. The whole thing is fascinating to watch and read about, even in a slightly voyeuristic 'neighbours at war' kind of way. It was still a lovely day out, and worth a visit for the famous garden. Hopefully one day there will be even more reason to go.

Midsummer sun and sunflowers

2009-08-16T01:48:00.000-07:00

The Met office has sheepishly apologised for predicting a 'barbecue summer' that has been resoundingly rained off. I have to say I don't understand why they feel personally responsible for the maverick weather we get in this country - but all the same it's quite enjoyable watching them eat humble pie when they get it wrong.

I am not sure whether to moan about this summer's weather or not. It has been warm enough to ripen tomatoes, peppers and chilis outside in August, whereas I can remember previous years where even in Autumn I have been desperately holding out for some sun to ripen crops. In addition, the watering duties have been negligible compared to the usual fretting every other day. Crops have swelled beautifully, although weeds and lawns have needed more maintenance. The humidity has made blight more likely, which has been devastating for those affected.

But for me one of the mixed blessings of gardening is that each year brings its successes and failures. One plant's meat is another plant's poison, and I quite like having gluts of different crops each year (and of course courgettes every year), and I accept the outright failures.

This week's surprise bonus was the sunflowers, which have done really well. They can be seen here towering over the roof of the wendy house.

The beans and courgettes have gone over while we were away, but the outdoor tomatoes, chillis and peppers have been an unexpected bonus. I can't claim any credit for this, but hats off to Jamie for a fantastic year.

Unfortunately haven't been to the Warren yet since coming back from hols, because of a heavy cold. It is bad enough to worry it might be Swine Flu, but not bad enough so that I feel like I am going to die, which as I remember is a giveaway sign of actual flu. So another false alarm probably.

Inspirations from the Champagne region

2009-08-14T02:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we just got back from our road trip to France in a VW campervan. Not recommended for the faint hearted, with two small children, but what an experience! We travelled down through the Champagne region staying in Troyes, then on to Burgundy and back through Nancy, Brussels and Bruges. It was so amazing to see the regional differences, all united by a common language. From a medieval timber city, through dusty French villages and grand gothic cathedrals to the tidy topiarised landscape of Belgium, there were a lot of contrasts.

One of the most interesting parts of the journey was travelling through the Champagne region. Before the introduction of the 'method champenoise' the local wines were apparently not renowned for quality at all. It seems that over the years a huge mystique has been created around the wine in Champagne, which is more to do with the skill of the wine makers, blenders and marketeers than any inherent quality of the climate or soil. Within the region, you can buy for 95p a bottle of sparkling wine that tastes very similar to anything coming out of the grand Champagne houses.

You have to admire them for it, but as we have a similar soil and climate here on the chalk hills of Surrey, I felt a tinge of envy at their ingenuity, mixed with the extremely tantilising prospect of making our own sparkling white. Denbies vineyard near Dorking have based their enterprise on the similarity of the soil and climate to the Champagne region. We have already started planting vines at the Warren, so watch this space....

The plants in the photo above aren't actually our vines, but the ones at Fanny's Farm Shop in Merstham. Having said that, with many local producers like these starting to emerge in this area, who knows, one day Surrey vintages could be just as famous as Champagne?

Down house (Charles Darwin's home)

2009-08-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

The other day we went to visit Down House near Orpington in Kent, where Charles Darwin made his family home. He was an avid nature-watcher and collector, and loved this quiet location in the Kent Downs. It was apparently 'relatively cheap' in its time, which meant he could concentrate on his work as a naturalist, rather than taking on another career. As I consider taking some time off to look after my little girls, I can really empathise with that philosophy.

I very rarely get 'house envy'. Yes it was a bigger house than mine, but you can only really experience one room at any one time, so I never feel particularly envious of more space.

Nor garden envy. My small patch of earth on the allotment gives me all the growing space I need, and the small garden at the back of our house is plenty for us to maintain.

Having said all this, I have to admit getting greenhouse envy at this place. It was one of those fabulous Victorian lean-to greenhouses, part brick, part wood. Painted the most gorgeous turquoise blue colour. I wonder whether the colour was a twentieth century development, or whether this was the view that Darwin had as he pondered the origins of life on earth.

Either way, it has stuck in my mind as something that one day I would like to imitate.

And actually, even a turquoise cold frame would probably satisfy me.

By the way, I am in the running for the dorset cereals blog awards.

http://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/little-blog-awards/nomination/1094

There are lots of other great blogs on there to look at, so it is worth a browse, and you can vote for your favourite.

Carshalton Lavender Harvest 2009

2009-07-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, what a fantastic day. Many, many people picking lavender at the Stanley Road site in the name of the local community project, Carshalton Lavender. It is so spiriting to see how many people came and enjoyed picking Lavender, buying lavender products and generally joining in.

We even had a few Far Eastern tourists taking photos of the allotment, making us feel a bit like one of the exhibits. All great fun - as our plot is right next to the bit where most people pick the lavender from, we are used to being a living demonstration plot. One year we almost had a creche going on in the Wendy House, with lots of children joining in with our girls playing. It is always so nice to talk to people, who are invariably interested, and if it means people see the possibilities of gardening with children, so much the better.

http://www.carshaltonlavender.org/p_2009_Harvest.ikml

As I sit here typing, Jamie has arrived back with some more lavender. The smell of the lavender is very powerful, almost medicinal, and has already filled the house. It is supposed to be relaxing, so that bodes well for a chilled out evening. I can feel the lassitude washing over me - it seems to be willing me to rest.

Happily, this co-incided with possibly our best harvest ever. We have an abundance of fresh produce at present, and this is heavily influencing the menu in the Costello household. We are getting large numbers of extremely tasty potatoes. I have to say that although they make a very boring photo, but they are delicious boiled and coated with butter and a bit of salt.

Next on the menu is the set of novelty courgettes. Novelty because there are different varieties, and also because some of them have grown into marrows - oops. That will teach me to be more vigilant. How they have soaked up enough water from our soil to get that big, I will never guess? We did have thunderstorms last week I suppose, but they must have a decent root system. The round ones look worthy of a new recipe, probably involving rice and parmesan.

Other elements of today's harvest are some french beans, delicious with the potatoes and some black-and-redcurrants from Doug's plot.

He offered them to us, as they were so small it hardly seemed worth him picking them. He has got a LOT of fruit bushes. I am hoping to make this later on, blackcurrant ripple parfait.

I will take photos if I make it later - that is if the lavender induced lethargy doesn't get to me too much.

Finally, we have discovered that the plum trees on the new plot yield the most delicious, tiny, fragrant plums. They taste almost like cherries, only sweeter. The girls had their fill, and this is what was left. With a fruit-laden damson tree in the garden and three of these plum trees on the plot, I am looking forward to a glut and to all kinds of plum jams, crumbles and chutneys. Friends be warned to expect plum related presents this Christmas, especially if I do give up work.

Happy gardening!

The cutting garden

2009-07-20T14:14:00.001-07:00

Well, neglect has turned out to be my friend as well as my enemy. I have been so busy at work that inevitably everything else has fallen down. This includes the allotment. However, this means I have a glut of flowers which made a lovely surprise when we eventually did get there.

As well as the Swan River Daisies that had sprung from nowhere, I found some ragwort that had sneakily flowered while I have been off weeding duty, so I decided they went quite well together.

The sweet peas made the house smell lovely, and somehow the whole thing just reminds me of midsummer - the best time of year for all kinds of reasons.

Also, I took a photo of the plants I picked up at Hampton Court last week.

The echinacea has been raided for the flower arrangements, but the hydrangea is just stunning. The astilbe was inspired by the Enchanting Escape garden.

Off now to the allotment, where we are about to do a plot to plate challenge. I reckon the potatoes will be in the pot within 15 mins of being dug up, along with some french beans. I am salivating at the thought of it!

Hampton Court Flower Show 2009 Part 3 The Show Gardens

2009-07-14T15:32:00.001-07:00

I know I am milking it now. I just loved it - there were so many things to see and so many lovely images to capture.

I think I have saved the best till last, but I guess it is all a matter of taste.

There is a part of me that understands why this won 'Best in Show', but then there is also a mystery, because I had two completely different front runners.

'Enchanted Escape', on the Garden Walk, which I felt looked better from the side, when I tried to peep in the sides, trying to avoid the crowds:

Than it did front on, although it captured something beautiful and somehow of its time:

The colours and the planting were just sublime, and the overall feel was one of contentment and escape.

The other garden that captured my heart was a small garden 'A teenager's escape'. I could empathise with the innocent heart that it was trying to capture:

I think the colour combinations are the thing that makes the garden for me. Not the landscaping or the clever concept, although I also appreciate these things in smaller measure.

There was something incredibly harmonious about these two gardens, that I think struck a chord with me. For me, they share something of the romance of gardening.

Finally, a parting shot of a garden whose name I can't even remember,but it did make that first visual impact where I noticed that they had matched the colours very carefully....

Hampton Court Flower Show 2009 Part 2

2009-07-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about the flower show is the Floral Marquee, where specialist growers set up displays to exhibit their latest varieties. What is interesting is that there is a nursery somewhere specialise in every sort of flower you could imagine, from fashionable plants like echinacea to old favourites like chrysanthemums.

I was particularly drawn by a display of lilies. The frangrance was so strong that it literally filled the whole marquee, and at each door, there was a strong current of warm, lily scented air coming out.

There were colours I had never seen anywhere before, and I am determined to get some in the plot for next year.

One of the great things about gardening is that your garden is never complete - you can always add something else, like a never finished work of art. If one year doesn't work out as well as you had hoped, you can always look forward to the next one.

I am already thinking that next year might be a cut flower year, where I try to cultivate enough flowers to keep the flat supplies with gorgeous flowers all year. Now there is a new challenge.

Hampton Court Flower Show 2009 Part 1

2009-07-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

WOW. This is the third year that I have been to Hampton Court, and I just love it more each year. It's just so full of inspiration and ideas.

The growing tastes area was a great mix of exhibition plants and suppliers of seed and edible plants. The girls really enjoyed the children's part of it, with sand.

This picture doesn't look too impressive unless you know that the cabbages were bigger than beach balls. Giant veg aside, there were some lovely inspirational allotment gardens.

All very nice to see what the world would be like if there were no weeds, no insects and no stunted vegetables, but actually I prefer the real world, where there is more challenge.

I just can't wait to get back to the plot to see my own little corner of the horticultural world, but with more motivation.

New ideas to put into the allotment were as follows:

Amaranth as an edible and ornamental plant.
Growing squash and courgettes over a frame like an archway or pegola.

Will post more tomorrow on the ornamental and garden theme.

Carshalton Lavender

2009-07-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Lavender has held a very special place in my gardening heart since I have lived in this area. A bit of digging into local history reveals that the areas round here were renowned for their lavender fields in the days before housing occupied most of the land. Mitcham, Wallington and Carshalton were all very well known for their Lavender crop, and there are still hints at that past if you look carefully at the insignia on village signs and local landmarks.

I always tended to think of lavender as a French crop, with French lavender holding the finest reputation as the best in the world, but it wasn't always so. Apparently even the ultimate patriot, Napoleon, once commented that Carshalton Lavender could not be bettered. An accolade indeed. The chalk soil and the clement climate of the North Downs, and presumably the proximity to London make for ideal conditions for these plants. Even now, you don't have to travel far to find evidence of that legacy. Firstly, our plot is right amongst the lavender rows that are part of a local community project - Carshalton Lavender. The 2009 harvest will be held on the weekend of the 25th/26th July.

http://www.carshaltonlavender.org/p_2009_Harvest.ikml

Another local Lavender project has taken that success even further. Mayfield lavender was started by the same group, and has now become a fantastic part of the local landscape. Driving down from Woodmansterne to Carshalton at the moment, you are faced with a fantastic glimpes of purple through the trees by the roadside. We stopped off at the end of a lovely day to see what was going on, and found a coffee shop and sale of other lavender products. What a treat.

You feel as if you could be in Provence, when in fact you are just outside the ring of suburbs in South London. Well worth a visit.

And yes, I really do need to go on a photography course to learn how to take proper photos.

Can you help - what is this plant?

2009-06-30T06:14:00.001-07:00

A plea for help. This thing grew on our plot. To our knowledge it is nothing we planted, although it did spring up like a bulb in early spring. It has only just "flowered" and produced this thing. I have no idea what it is, so if anyone has any ideas I would be thrilled to hear from them.

It's just so weird. It also had a spirally looking leaf. The head has got what look like tiny bulblets all over it. We were intrigued and then I cut it for the vase because I thought it looked quite nice with my bolted leek flowers (seen also in the background). As Jamie rightly pointed out, we now don't know what it would have turned into (cringe). I should have thought really.

I'm sure it is an allium of some sort....

Homemade Cure for Sunburn?

2009-06-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well, just in time for hottest weekend in about 3 years, the smallest member of the Costello family (Fern, 3 years old) has contracted chickenpox. The poor thing is covered from literally head to toe in sore itchy spots. None of us have had any sleep for days.

Anyway, a bit of research on the internet revealed that oatmeal baths are good for irritated skin, including chickenpox and sunburn. I also know from experience that lavender is great for skin disorders, and honey and tea tree oil have anti-bacterial properties, so I made my own recipe for a bath bomb. On such a long hot weekend, I thought it was worth sharing the bath formula that we are using on her, in case any fellow gardeners get caught out in the sun too long.

Oatmeal and lavender bath bomb

3 handfuls of oatmeal (can be any type - mine is a cheap bag from Lidl)
dried or fresh lavender flowers
few drops of lavender essential oil
2 tsp honey (runny or set)
about 8 inch square muslin, organza, or other porous fabric
String for tying
tea tree oil (optional)

Instructions:

Put the oatmeal in the blender and whizz until powdery (optional - I couldn't be bothered with this bit). Spread out the muslin square and pour on the oats with the lavender flowers and the essential oils. Put the honey in the middle and cover with the dry mixture, tying with string at the top.

Put the bag into the bath as it is running and leave to soak during bath. Squeezing it makes more of the white liquid come out.

Having tested the recipe, it really seems to have soothed the itching, so I feel entitled to recommend it. In fact I can't wait to try it myself.

Finally, the peas are finally coming through in numbers, so I picked some for dinner tonight.

I expect many more where these came from:

Fathers Day 2009 - Blackcurrants and Garden Visits

2009-06-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! We managed to fit in both allotments, twice, and go to Petersham Nurseries for some inspiration. The activities culminated in making a batch of blackcurrant cupcakes.

First I must show you the photos I took at Petersham Nurseries. It is one of my favourite places for inspiration - whoever runs it has got such a good eye for colour, and puts things together beautifully. I noticed they had a job going and boy am I tempted.....

The displays really make you want to buy something, but the price tags are breathtaking. It makes me wonder whether it would be fun if money really was no object. I think it is more satisfying to get ideas, then try to recreate your own version in a thifty way.

If you look at the objects, there is nothing inherently special about any of them, but the arrangement together just works somehow. Having said that, they just seem to have a knack of picking objects that work together.

There is also a fabulous restaurant there, run by Skye Gyngell and a tea room for those like us on a more limited budget.

There is usually something interesting there in the way of plants too. This time of year, they have gigantic dahlias.

We bought one for Jamie for Father's Day, and brought it back to the plot. I have to say it looks a lot more modest than the one in the shop, but they do flower continuously from June to October, so there is plenty of time!

Last year we made redcurrant cupcakes, and they were a great success, so we decided to use some of our bumper crop of blackcurrants to make some more. The secret was not to add them to the mix, but to press them onto the top just before they go in the oven.
Blackcurrant cupcakes
375g Self raising flour
115g butter
200g caster sugar
2 very large eggs (or 3 medium)
1/4 vanilla pod
1 tsp vanilla extract
175ml milk
Some blackcurrants - a few handfuls

Beat together butter and sugar till fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Split vanilla pod, scrape out seeds and add to mixture. Fold in the flour, then when mixed, add and mix in the milk. Spoon the mixture into muffin cases, then add blackcurrants to the top as shown below. Then pressed in the blackcurrants into the mixture, but so they were still on top.

Put into a preheated oven at 180degrees C, and leave for 20 mins or until golden on top.

I know it is a cliche, and one I use very often, but the tartness of the blackcurrants against the fluffy sweetness of the vanilla cakes turns a childlike treat into something more interesting for adults.

Finally, one more photo from 8pm this evening - the peas flowering. I picked a handful of yellow podded peas, just in case I can't get back to them for a couple of days. It looks as though there will be a lot more where they came from!

Sweetcorn sown direct!

2009-06-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is the third year of having an allotment, and I have to say that the initial burst of energy has eased to a slower pace. So it is really nice when something genuinely captures new enthusiasm. One of these was the sweetcorn that I sowed direct in the soil a couple of weeks ago. Horrendously late, it needed a soil temperature of 18 degrees C according to the packet. I wasn't sure whether UK soil ever reaches this temperature, but it really was my last chance to get them in before June began.

Here is the patch on the 29th May:

And again on the 12th June:

18 degrees and counting......

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw them! They will even need thinning at some point because I was so pessimistic about their chances of success that I have crammed them in, expecting the odd seed to germinate. I have got two varieties - Ashworth Early and Hopi Blue. Another way of looking at 'early' crops is 'faster growing', so I am hoping this means I will still have time to get sweetcorn cobs before Autumn.

The other surprise this week was that the dark blue lavender bush is ready to crop:

Lavender ready to pick

It is a darker blue than the Carshalton Lavender plants which we inherited. I thought it would be good to dry out the heads for decoration rather than scent:

Lavender heads drying on the patio

The later crop will be in July, when we will pick some of the silvery heads for lavender bags etc.

Finally, we got our first crop from the blackcurrant bushes given to us by Jamie's Gramps and Mum. The recipe of this week is a glorious blackcurrant frangipane tart, from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook. A bit like bakewell tart studded with blackcurrants, it is one of those recipes where the tartness of the fruits is perfect with the rich pudding. Lovely with an afternoon coffee on the patio after work:

Frangipane and blackcurrant tart

I will put the recipe on to follow:

Following the loss of almost all our Dahlias in the frosts this year, I bought a two at 70p at Chipstead fete this weekend. Not even knowing what colour or type they are will add a frisson of excitement later this summer.

Open Farm Day 2009

2009-06-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

It was Open Farm Day 2009 today, and we popped over to Shabden Park Farm in Chipstead where they had a variety of animals on display for the children to see. Eden has started getting a bit distressed about the idea that animals have to be killed for meat, and I don't think the sight of the incredibly cute baby animals, most of them a few days old, did much to dispel her reservations. There were baby goslings, little lambs and tiny baby pigs, which put the sausage we had eaten into perspective. The day really reinforced for me the value of buying properly reared meat, that has been treated well. The small farm shop sells only their own meat and that of other selected local farmers.

After a lovely sunny day, we went back to the Warren to see what was going on. The brassicas have grown amazingly in only a week.

Cauliflowers

The gooseberries have come through and are looking extremely good, even though the leaves are getting eaten by something.

Red gooseberries

Dinner tonight was roast duck with vegetables roasted with thyme and bay leaf.

Roasted vegetables

The final crop of rhubarb came from the plot this afternoon which we roasted in the oven for about 30 minutes with sugar and vanilla.

This afternoon

Saturday is baking day

2009-06-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

These days, although we would all love to eat fresh, fully prepared, home cooked meals every day, it is sometimes hard to do much more than re-heat a ready meal in the evenings after work. Especially, ironically if you have been at the allotment till 7pm (!).

But Saturday is our foodie day. We love to think about what we can incorporate from the plot on the menu that night, and we have the time and energy to try something new, rather than a tried and tested recipe.

This weekend we had little else to do, so we worked in four new dishes with our own home grown stuff.

First on the menu was Chicken in Marsala sauce. This is cheating a bit, because the only ingredients from the allotment were bay leaves and thyme, but it is worth noting nonetheless.

Ingredients:
Chicken quarters or thighs, skin & bone on.
1/2 bottle of Marsala wine
A few sprigs of Thyme
2 Bay leaves
1/2 head of garlic
Splash 0f olive oil
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to season
Fresh parsley
(optional) mushrooms

The basic recipe follows the standard chicken one pot meal, like chicken and tarragon. You fry off the seasoned chicken in olive oil till it goes brown, then add the other ingredients, leave it bubbling away for a while, keep an eye on it, then reduce down the stock that's left.

Reducing the stock is particularly important in this case, as you end up with a really nice sweet, sticky sauce, which coats the chicken really nicely. The final step is to chop the parsley and add just before serving. We followed this with:

Strawberry and Vanilla Custard Tarts.

Strawberry tarts

These were made with Colin and Gail's eggs which we think explains why they have an amazingly yellow colour.

Ingredients:
Ready made sweet pastry
Vanilla pod
300ml Double Cream
5 egg yolks
75g granulated sugar (or vanilla sugar)

Line small tart tins with sweet pastry. Bake blind for 10 minutes then allow to cool.

Make the vanilla custard, by heating up cream in a saucepan with the vanilla pod. Beat together the egg yolks and the sugar in a separate bowl. Carefully drip in slowly some of the warmed milk, and beat until smooth. Continue doing this with about 1/3 of the milk then return the mixture to the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Heat carefully. When the custard begins to cool it will set, and then you can add the strawberries and custard to the tart cases.

One day like this a year

2009-06-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Days like these are what allotmenting is all about. A horrible first day back at the office, with everything as usual in complete crisis and over schedule, blah, blah, blah. I finally got out at 7pm, and went straight to the allotment, carrying the cares of the world.

A balmy evening and we arrived to the sight of fellow gardeners happily tilling the land. In our case an explosion of strawberries and flowers meant there was a bumper crop in store for us.

Little hands collecting the crop

The girls were squealing with excitement as they picked the ripe strawberries. We ate some off the plants, but had enough to bring a whole bucketful home.

Allotment June 1 004

Eden noticed that her rose had flowered, and was thrilled to find it has an amazing fragrance. The rest of the roses have bloomed, along with the peony.

Sarah Raven eat your heart out!

As we packed up and headed for home, there was contentment mixed with excitement about having ice cream and strawberries for supper, and the prospects of a great summer ahead.

First strawberries of the season

2009-06-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, look at these little lovelies that were picked at Stanley Road yesterday.

First few red strawberries

They tasted wonderful, and the girls enjoyed them straight from the plants, with no added sugar. Amazing how they will eat things straight from the plant that they would never try on their own in the house.

There are lots more to come, as we have dedicated two full strawberry patches at Stanley Road to them. My favourite crop by far...

Flittons to the rescue...

2009-06-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Despite my efforts to grow everything from seed, we don't have a greenhouse, or a decent windowsill to propagate seeds. Sometimes garden centres can produce such great value that it seems a waste not to take advantage.

Flittons were selling a whole tray of brassica seedlings for a pound today, so I had to go for 8 plants of each of:

* Savoy cabbage
* Cauliflower
* Broccoli
* Brussels sprouts

They have gone into the Warren plot alongside the sweetcorn and squashes. Roll on Autumn!

Netted to keep pigeons away

The Savoy cabbage will have to wait until we have dug out some space, but the others have gone in.

Chicken and tarragon

2009-06-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well, following the cultivation notice (that apparently we shouldn't have got because we have had it less than 3 months) Jamie has worked incredibly hard on digging and planting the plot.

The new plot

The plan is to have mainly perennial fruit on this site, so that it is lower maintenance. Also, fruit takes up a lot of space and you want to give it plenty of room. There were already three small plum trees on the plot (seen at the back of the photo below), and some Rhubarb (also at the back). Jamie has added raspberry canes with a frame, and gooseberry.

Fruit patch

Once the asparagus seedlings are well established, they will go in and already have a dedicated row. The yew trees were in pots in the garden, but have been transplanted in as have a number of box plants (of course!).

This year I am going to get some space for annuals (the bare patch at the front). I already have some Charlotte potatoes chitting on a windowsill. I don't think there's any danger of putting the potatoes in too late. The girls have planted a lot of different flower seeds this year, so we will see if any of those are successful.

Finally, there is going to be a very small vineyard in the space shown below.

You never know, Costello home-made wine might be coming your way in years to come? Jamie has taken some cuttings of the vine that currently runs over the canopy at the flat.

Grapevine cuttings
Grapevine cuttings

We met a local grower/winemaker at a Farmer's Market from the Old Railway Vineyard in Merstham. When we described our variety, he identified it as a good one for wine. It has a good pedigree, having successfully grown on the patio for what looks like the last century.

Finally, the first French tarragon of the year is coming through, so we picked some for our favourite dinner, recipe below.

Tarragon Chicken

For this recipe you can use either quarters, legs, thighs, breasts on the bone, whatever you have in.
Chicken pieces (see above)
Butter or olive oil for frying (depending on cholesterol count)
1/2 chopped Onion
Mushrooms
1/4 bottle of white wine
4 or 5 sprigs of French Tarragon (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons Creme fraiche (this can be low fat or full fat)
small amount of chicken stock (optional)
lemon rind and juice (optional)

Tips: This recipe has many variations, depending on what you have in the cupboard. Stock can be added for flavour, but you can use a chicken Oxo cube, gravy granules etc., or leave it out altogether. I find if you use chicken pieces on the bone, you don't need to add stock, but if you use chicken breast fillets, it might need the extra flavour. Lemon isn't essential, but goes very well. The basics are chicken, white wine, creme fraiche and tarragon.

Fry the chicken pieces in the butter/oil in a heavy bottomed pan or casserole, until nicely browned on the outside. Take them out and reserve on a plate. Then use the same oil to fry the onion and mushrooms if using, followed by the garlic (chopped or crushed as preference).

Once the onion has gone slightly brown, add the chicken pieces back to the plan and add the white wine and half the tarragon, stirring to get the brown glaze off the pan into the sauce. Add water or chicken stock to cover the pieces. Add the lemon juice and rind (you may need to add a tiny bit of sugar if using a very dry wine and lemon juice).

Simmer for about 30 - 45 mins on the stove, or put the casserole into the over, checking occasionally. Strain excess oil if needed. Add salt and pepper and more stock to taste.

When you are sure it is cooked through and ready to serve, add the creme fraiche along with the rest of the tarragon.

Serve with rice and mange tout or french beans.

Spring and the good weather makes a difference

2009-06-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

Jamie has worked so hard since we got the improvement notices, and I think the results will speak for themselves. I didn't think the plot was particuarly untidy anyway, but I feel as if we are entering some sort of gardening competition within the next 28 days.

Apple blossom in the girls' plot

Potatoes

Potatoes have already gone into Stanley Road (Picasso). We chose this type because Paul gave us some of his crop last year and they really did roast well as described. He had got the tip from Doug, and so we guessed they would work well on our soil as well. They were a nice balance between a floury and waxy potato - not too extreme in either direction.

The Perry and George system in action

Jamie has put them in using the 'Perry and George' tried and tested potato planting system. They dig a trench and a mound, ready for earthing up the potatoes. Once the initial plants show through, you just heap the soil over the plants. Apparently this leads to a better crop, and it keeps the frost off the small plants.

Legumes

The second annual planting of the year went in - the pea and bean beds. This year is going to be a rainbow of colour, as I have saved last year's seed and have bought some new ones to try. There are purple-podded peas and French beans, a rare yellow-podded pea from the Real Seed Company, as well as the green Sugar Snap Pea 'Cascadia'. As well as the purple peas, I have acquired some interesting French beans, again recommended by the Real Seed Company. These have the rather fascinating name of 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' and are an old Native American heritage variety.

Not much to see yet really....

Sweet Pea 'Fragrantissima, grown for flowers, finishes off my legume beds. I just can't wait the month or so till they start to flower. Although I am leaving it quite late this year, I can't say I am sorry after the spring we have had. I am sure any plants that had gone in earlier would have died or been stunted with the combination of cold and rainy weather we have had.

All that remains tomorrow is to put in some catch crops of salad and beetroot to make the most of the bare soil. Jamie's tomatoes and peppers are doing brilliantly under cloches. The only worry is whether they will outgrow the cloches before the frosts are over....

Tender plants under cover - is this too early for them to be outside?????

Planting plan 2009:spring-20091

Easter in Somerset

2009-06-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

So that's why it is so green

We went to Somerset to get away from it all after Easter. The green, misty views were refreshing (for which read 'unbroken rain'!) and a bright spot of the trip was going to the "Rainbow's End" cafe in Glastonbury, a fantastic vegetarian cafe. It gave me lots of inspiration to cook fantastic recipes with our vegetables this year.

Rainbow's End

Now we are back, it feels as if all the allotment tasks have hit at once.

Both our allotments have cultivation notices. The main problem seems to stem from the bleak midwinter timing of the inspection, plus our lack of concern about size of yield. Although we are cultivating all our space, it is combining a grass lawn with flowers, a herb patch with lavender, a strawberry patch with a wendy house. Really it is a productive garden to us, not a farm.

It seems this is not really enough for the inspectors, so we had better dig up some more of the space I suppose. We are keeping the place tidy to our eyes, but maybe others have higher standards?

It is so depressing to have looked forward to crops that take a couple of years to establish, only to be told that is not enough. The council's own guide says we should be toleratnt of people's own use of the land, be it a garden or a children's play area, but times seem to be a changing....

Asparagus shoots

2009-06-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

Asparagus is one of those plants that it is worth having an allotment for. It is very expensive to buy, and better as fresh as possible. There are two ways to start yourself off with a row. Firstly you can plant the crowns, or it is a little known fact that you can plant the seed as well. I read a tip somewhere that said seed will produce as quickly as crowns, because they are the more vigorous F1 hybrid varieties. Always eager to put a theory to the test, we bought some asparagus seeds.

Two weeks later, hey presto:

Sucess!

I have also created a list of all my seeds, and when they need sowing etc.

flower-seed-plan

vegetable-seeds-plan

Herb and salad sowing plan

Fruit planting 2009

2009-06-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

Jamie has been at the allotments all weekend. A pattern is emerging where I tend to look after the girls while he does the hard graft in the cold/rain/wind, but he is keeping me up to date on progress - photos to follow.

Stanley Road - he has uprooted most of the raspberry canes, which were too close together through overenthusiastic planting last year. These have been transplanted to the Warren which will have most of the perennial fruit. This leaves blackcurrants and the Christmas tree in the back bed at Stanley Road. Stanley Road will have the crops that need more maintenance, and strawberries are the main fruit on the patch.

The Warren - the row of raspberry canes has been planted in much more space, and in honour of this, our first fruit support structure - I will have to wait and see this next weekend. There are already three or four well established damson/plum trees on the plot (we will wait and see exactly what they are), along with a gooseberry.

Seed planting: We need to get going on the seed planting. The coldframe at the Warren will be really helpful to get things started. I am waiting for this latest cold snap to pass, just in case we get a repeat of the severe frosts that have been commonplace this year.

Coming soon: A plan of the whole two plots, with crop rotation diagram.

Rhubarb - First crop of the Year

2009-06-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

Jamie checked the rhubarb that he had been forcing, and decided to pick it. "Forcing" is achieved by putting a cover over the plant, which keeps light out. This convinces the plant that it is still underground, so it doesn't make chlorophyll - which results in the characteristic blanched pink colour and delicate texture. But only once a year. Forcing puts a strain on the plant, so each one can only be cropped once a year. Knowing this just makes the whole experience even more exciting.

Fresh pink stalks from the allotment

Jamie makes a lot of recipes, but the best one has to be rhubarb creme brulee, below:

The best creme brulee in the world

There is nothing quite like the taste of forced rhubarb in early spring, and it goes really well with the creamy, custardy taste of creme brulee.

I will try to get him to put the recipe in later on.

And look what we found on the new allotment! So there should be many more where that came from.

Imagine how thrilled Jamie was to uncover this?

The Warren

2009-06-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Not much going on yet, but here is the plot

Shed, water butt, compost bins...

Not to mention...

A wheelbarrow!

Snowed in

2009-06-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

Feb 09 Snow

Well, I finally picked up a key and we visited our new plot at The Warren site last Sunday afternoon, which was a bitterly cold day. We stayed long enough to survey the site, which has what look like 3 fruit trees, a shed, a compost bin and plenty of couch grass to be dug up (groan)!

However, it was a very good job we had gone straight away, because that evening we got 11 inches of snow, which seemed to bring the whole of London to a standstill.

At least there was no worry that the weeds would get a headstart on us.....

The garden

Just had to tag this photo on the end.

Check out the icicles!

New Year 2009 and the arrival of the seeds

2009-06-18T11:43:00.002-07:00

Midwinter

Reflections on winter

Although nothing really goes on at the allotment during Winter, plants are hibernating and starting to prepare for their next season of growth.

In the same way, gardeners are musing the possibilities for next year. One of the things I love about the British seasons is the necessity of downing tools for a couple of months. Each year offers a second chance at things that didn't work and excitement about trying something new.

First visit of 2009

We popped to the allotment today to put the Christmas tree back and get some digging and weeding done. It was great to be back out in the fresh air. The strawberry patch was looking overcrowded by weeds, so we cleared them and the annual beds, ready for the year ahead.

This year's seeds have arrived

I have heard from many sources that newer varieties are bred for uniformity and qualities that make them suitable for cropping on a large scale (like maturing at the same time). I am not really bothered about mass production, but I really want my crops to taste good - otherwise what is the point? I thought it was worth trying older varieties that were bred for flavour.

I have bought a selection of interesting seeds from 'The Real Seed Company' and will be growing these alongside some more modern versions.

This year's selections are as follows:

'Ashworth' sweetcorn: reputed to be a very early variety - so should ripen while we are visiting the allotment every day in summer, rather than ripening once we have slackened off and the birds get to it first.

'Long Lisse de Meaux' Carrot: Red blunt tipped carrot for late season harvest, and old French variety chosen for its excellent keeping qualities in a cellar, apparently.

'Waltham' Butternut squash: An improved butternut that is mostly neck, with a rich flavour. Also stores well. Hopefully this will be a nice tasting squash - they are such good value to grow if they taste ok.

'Patisson Blanc' Patty-Pan Squash: French heirloom variety of white scallop squash with flat white fruit. Delicious used young as if a courgette.

'Cherokee Trail of Tears' Climbing French Bean: A very rare bean. The tall plants have purple flowers and beans with green or red tinged pods. One of the best beans ever from the Cherokee Indians.

'Golden Sweet' yellow-podded mange-tout peas: Incredibly rare. Tall plants with lemon yellow pods. This will be a good addition to last year's purple podded peas.

'Gardener's Delight (supersweet Irish version): small red cherry tomato with very sweet flavour. I am on a search of a tasty home-grown tomato which will ripen properly outside.

'Leaf Selection' Coriander: slow to bolt coriander. The usual problem with Coriander is the speed with which it sets flowers, changing the leaf shape. This will hopefully avoid the problem.

'Winter Marvel' Winter butterhead lettuce: A cold resistant lettuce from France. Something to fill in the gaps before spring gets going.

Hot off the press

We got a letter today telling us that we have been given a plot at the very sought after 'Warren' site, which is walking distance away. There are only ten plots there, and I have been on a waiting list for a plot there since September 2000. Of course we could never leave our beloved Stanley Road plot, but having one walking distance away might prove useful, especially if we ever move house closer to it : ).

The new one will be for growing vines and fruit cages, whereas we will keep annuals on the Stanley Road site, because the social aspect means we will probably go there more often to keep an eye on things.

Winter days

2009-06-18T11:43:00.001-07:00

It's hard to get to the allotment in winter. Firstly the dark nights mean we can't go after work. Secondly the rain, wind and cold mean that even weekends are often tricky.

However, we have checked on things a couple of times:

1) I popped up there to check on the place and to give everything a final once over before winter. Clearing the last of the final greenery.

2) Jamie dug up the Christmas tree about a week ago. After a couple of nights on the patio in a pot, and a night in the cold outside hallway it came into the living room for Christmas.

Although it is looking a bit fragile, it is still going after 3 years. Who knows whether it will be here next year, but it is a worthwhile experiment.

Finally cooked the green squashes

2009-06-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness. I finally had a cooking frenzy and stuffed the squash with a mix of red onion, garlic, mushroom and parmesan.

Ready to go in the oven

They looked fabulous but I have to say that I agree with Doug's analysis. They weren't unpleasant, but didn't really taste of anything. Next time it will have to be a stronger tasting filling. If I could just find a more interesting flavoured variety then it would be a fantastic vegetarian meal.

Still not enough cheese

Oh yes, and Barrack Obama won the US election. What an exciting moment of history.

Autumn at Westonbirt Arboretum

2009-06-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Just as you catch yourself thinking that it is far too warm for bonfire night, the autumn hits with a vengeance. We haven't been able to get to the allotment for a fortnight now - the sunny days of late are a distant memory as snow, wind, rain and frost takes hold.

What do gardeners do in winter? What can you do once the long dark evenings put a stop to weekday gardening? Well, in some ways, a rest period is welcome. The grass and weeds slow down, the frosts kill back tender plants. Only the hardiest and most self sufficient plants survive the winter, and they can all seem to look after themselves. Most of your annual beds are cleared and ready for next year (or a green manure?), and thoughts turn to seed catalogues and inspirations for next year.

So we went to the Cotswolds for a weekend to visit Westonbirt Arboretum on a 'garden lover's break'. A weekend of autumn leaves, good food and log fires with a bit of ancient English history thrown in for good measure. We stayed at the Old Bell Inn in Malmesbury, in the shadow of Malmesbury Abbey, where King Athelstan was buried and the location of one of the infamous 'Crosses' of 'Banbury Cross' fame (When Eleanor of Aquitaine died, every place that her body was placed en route to London was marked with a cross).

The maple avenue at Westonbirt

The hotel was superb, with at least four separate lounges with log fires, and incredibly helpful staff.

The food was brilliant, and most definitely inspired us to do a bit of winter cooking. We came back brimming with ideas, including my usual 'open a garden centre with a cafe' dream. Maybe one day....

The starter!!!

The pumpkin, incidentally, got a Halloween makeover, and is now the proud wearer of lip gloss and eyeliner - a mummy pumpkin, obviously.

What ever happened to the green tomatoes?

2009-06-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post a photo of the tomatoes now they have ripened. They have pretty much just sat in the kitchen since the last photo:

Jamie had heard that if you put the green ones together with the red ones, they ripen. Something to do with some chemical they give off. Another tip is to use ripe bananas which apparently give off the same chemical (I wonder if that is the same one that is supposed to make wasps angry?)

Anyway, whatever it was it seems to have worked - this is about 3 weeks after the first photo (below) and they have literally just sat on the kitchen floor in a bag.

Now we just need to eat them. For me it just isn't a raw tomatoes time of year, so they are just sitting there making me feel guilty. (Since doing this blog I am realising what a large part 'guilt' plays in my life!) I think they will have to be oven-roasted with garlic and oils or something, just to make them more appetising. For next year, Perry and George have given us one of their 'Black Russian' tomatoes to save the seed from. Hopefully these will taste better - they swear by them!

Also, Jamie wants me to put on a photo of the bouquet garni he made from the allotment herbs.

Ta da......

Catching the last crops before the frosts begin

2009-06-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today we had a lovely day working on the plot. The weather was quite warm - almost weirdly warm for the time of year. Nearly everyone we know was on the site when we arrived at noon.

The girls seemed happy playing by themselves, so we got lots done. I cleared the last of the squash plants, to replant with strawberries. The kind lady who let us pick her surplus earlier in the summer offered us some of her offshoots. Her strawberries made the best jam I have ever tasted - so I jumped at the chance. We now have three small areas of strawberries. Along with herbs they are one of the best and most useful things we have got from the allotment, so it is worth dedicating the space to them. As instructed I dug in some manure first to make sure we get a good crop.

It is the end of the season for herbs now, so I wanted to pick as many as possible for drying, before they all get killed by frost. I stripped the lemon verbena plant which completely dies back in winter and have hung bunches upside down on the back of a chair to dry. I did the same with the tarragon, and also picked some thyme, rosemary, mint and sage. These can be dried and put into jars for storage and use over the winter.

Lemon verbena - the smell is just amazing

Finally, before we left, Doug insisted that we take some of his redcurrants that were still on the plants from summer, but wouldn't survive the first frosts when they come. One of the highlights of allotmenting as a mum has to be watching the girls' excitement as they pick fruit. I took them over to pick a small crop and they were so thrilled with the ruby red jewel-like fruit. The only problem with redcurrants is that although they look exquisite, they do taste very sour straight from the plant. Fern did try one raw but her face said it all really. However, good old Sarah Raven has a recipe for blackcurrant cupcakes, which was well suited to using our produce. A bit of sugar definitely helps fruit go down. Not sure if that is particularly healthy, but it was a lot more fun.

It makes a pleasingly pink cake mixture

I really must cook something savoury out of our produce one day..........

Drying herbs for winter

2009-06-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

I have to admit mixed success with growing and eating vegetables. This is probably down to too-high expectations of fabulous flavours from your own home grown produce. In reality, the vegetables often taste the same as those you buy in the shops - I suppose it's obvious really!

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Sweetcorn and peas were both well worth trying straight from the plant. Delicious. Carrots were fantastic fun to pull up and eat. An endless supply of fresh tomatoes and salad is well worth the effort. One of my crops of potatoes had a great flavour. And even saying all of this, I have managed to get the girls to try stuff on the allotment that they won't eat from the fridge. Their usually sweet tooth is tempted by fairly tart strawberries and blackberries that they just wouldn't eat in our kitchen.

But it has been worth having the allotment for herbs alone. We have endless supplies of thyme, rosemary, french tarragon, mint, bay leaves and sage. We may not have the rich soil to grow exceptionally tasty veg, but the same soil makes perfect growing conditions for most mediterranean plants. During the summer, these herbs can be picked on the day you need them, ensuring complete freshness. However, it seems like a waste to leave all the leaves on the plants, knowing full well that as soon as it gets colder, the leaves will all drop off.

So I have harvested and dried some of them, for use during winter. It is always nice to have an abundance of herbs to put in cooking.

Bless her, Eden was really pleased when the herbs appeared in the jars. "I wondered what they were for" she said.

aha!

Dried Lavender

2009-06-18T11:32:00.001-07:00

One of the perks of the plot is that it has a number of lavender plants, inherited from the community project when they used to hold the plot. We have reached a kind of agreement with the lavender people that they pick the lavender from those plants, but in exchange we can pick lavender from what is left over on other plants near our plot. They also maintain the lavender bit of our plot - mowing etc.

In any case we always have more than enough for our own needs. During the week, Jamie took the lavender that has been drying around the house, and picked it off the stems ready to put into lavender bags. Then I made some lavender bags with Eden and proceeded to stuff them. They do smell a lot stronger than the ones you can buy, and they make a nice additional present for people.

Lavender bags

Another pleasant surprise was to find that the lemon verbena leaves which I had picked and dried smell amazing. I have visions of lemon and lavender bags this Christmas.

Fried green tomatoes?

2009-06-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last week we picked about a hundredweight of tomatoes, most of which were green. Fortunately, the blight that was affecting most plots had only just reached ours last week, so Jamie decided to store them to see which ones were affected. Hardly any of them started to go the trademark brown colour, which left us with the dilemma of what to do with them all......

what's left of the tomatoes

Jamie started a pasta sauce, with tomatoes, old red wine (vinegar!), garlic and oil. We'll see later on whether it tastes nice.

tomato sauce in the making

Out of interest, the dark green squashes are still sitting by the side of the stove, waiting to be used. : D

Still here.....

They have got very hard skin and don't seem to have deteriorated yet, so hopefully we will still get time to do something cool with them. Even tempted to see if they will keep till Halloween??

Although that is a month's time.

Huge Pumpkins

2009-06-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

Doug gave us these small and very dark green squashes, which look interesting. He said to fill them with cheese and admitted that they are fairly tasteless (hence the cheese I suppose).

However, I can't really picture them tasting nice with salmon which we are having tonight, and they look as though they will probably survive a day in the fridge. We absolutely must remember to eat them and not let them go off in the fridge.

To be oven-baked stuffed with cheese:

The main attraction on the plot at the moment is the giant pumpkin that has emerged from one of my squash plants. I bought a variety pack and had no idea what was going to come out till they fruited.

Taking pride of place...

Where's the harvest festival when you need it? Hope we get the chance to exhibit it with the girls - maybe at the usual Wisley autumn thing?

Late summer sun

2009-06-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those gorgeous still, sunny autumn days. We took the girls to the allotment to see what was left to harvest of this year's crops.

The dahlias are finally slowing down. In some ways I am sorry to see them end. The house has been full of flowers all summer. No-one in the plots nearby particularly wants any more of them, although we have managed to repay a few of our gifts by giving them away. I hope it's the thought that counts, because we don't really have a surplus of anything else worth giving away!

I read a couple of weeks ago that Northern parts of the country should start taking up their carrots, so decided to pull ours out before the risk of any frost. Much to my surprise and in contrast to the ones I had impatiently plucked out back in July, we got a fairly decent crop. Admittedly the carrots resembled something grown in the aftermath of Chernobyl, with their multi-forked mutilated roots, but I suppose they will taste the same. With our stony soil and my rather disastrous use of supposedly 'degradable' peat pots to plant them in, I was just pleased to get a result at all.

Carrot cake! That's what I will do with them because they don't really look that appetising. The girls have been begging me to make cake for ages. Back later.

Fern is determined she won't eat carrots, but the same recipe will do for carrot and banana cakes, and luckily there are 3 bananas going brown on the kitchen windowsill.

Carrot / Banana Cake

450g self raising flour
450g light brown muscovado sugar (although various store-cupboard cakes have included white sugar, golden syrup and honey - which does tend to dominate the flavour somewhat unless it is a very mild version like acacia)
350ml sunflower oil
450g grated carrot or 6 mashed bananas (or in this case half of each)
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
2 pinches of salt
6 eggs

Mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients. Then mix the two together, place in tins and put in the oven at 180 degrees C. Leave for approx 50 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

As you can see, the banana cake didn't even last long enough for me to take a photo of the finished article: