Walnut Tree Allotment

Best winter Thai pumpkin soup and acid fried blues

2009-12-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

WTA's winter wonderland

Winter is glorious primordial time of the year on WTA. There's time to rest soil, rest the bones, go inward, contemplate, rejuvenate the soul...and write a Master's thesis! There have been 'gutsy' frosts and snow round these parts (it's snowing as I write this post) and the ground is rock solid. Summer's hard work is still paying dividends in the form of parsnips curly kale, and there's even some good feeds of carrots to be had.

Leeks and Jerusalem Artichokes destined

for the Christmas table.

WTA managed to provide more than enough parsnips, carrots, Romanescu broccoli, leeks and Jerusalem artichokes, Brussel sprouts pumpkin and runner beans to feed nine at this year's Christmas table. Digging the parsnips and carrots out of the snow was a little problematic but definitely worth it when to came to eating them.

WTA's fresh, 'naturally frozen' sprouts and broccoli

WTA's Crown Prince pumpkins have been a roaring success this year. The Brits have finally caught onto what a eating vegetable pumpkin is (something the Aussies knew yor years!). I've come up with the following recipe for a brilliant Thai-style pumpkin soup I've been enjoying over the last month so. So here it is...

WTA's Best Thai Pumpkin Soup.

1kg of raw pumpkin (peeled)

1tbsp of Thai fish sauce.

Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger (grated)

1 tbsp Schwartz Fragrant Thai Hot crushed curry spices

3 tbsps Schwartz 'Cook art' green chili, lemongrass & cardamom spice blend

2 medium red onions

1 litre of light coconut milk

1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock

Method
Preheat oven to about 190 degrees c.
Peel the pumpkin and cut into small chunks. Cut the onions into quarters. Place pumpkin and onions in a baking tray and coat with couple of glugs of olive or rapeseed/canola oil. Sprinkle all the spices over the pumpkin and onion Place tray in the oven and bake pumpkin and onions until both are beginning to soften.
Remove baked pumpkins and onions from oven when soft. Transfer to large heavy-based pot. Add chicken stock and simmer on cook top for half an hour. Liquidise stock, pumpkin and onion mixture. Slowly stir in coconut milk and grated fresh ginger. Add fish sauce. Season with sea salt or freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve garnished with basil or corriander leaves.

Steve's 'Acid Fried Blues'

The dark evenings have also given me time to catch with some of the music that inspires my depth psychology and gardening. Western Australian Steve Tallis - http://www.stevetallis.com/ - is one such musician whose music has been feeding me over the dark months. Steve is playing around Paris right now and is definitely worth seeing play if you're in that neck of the woods or indeed anywhere the man happens to performing his 'acid fried blues'.
Listen and grow well!

Invocation and the ritual dance of the young pumpkin and cider making

2009-10-17T04:30:00.001-07:00

Normal service has been resumed from WTA ...Still harvesting some good feeds off WTA...not too much work on the blog or WTA due to the 'day job 'and thesis...but things are under control ... don't panic! Winter green seedlings (cabbages, sprouting broccoli) have gone in along with over three hundred winter onion sets... The last runner beans and summer carrots are also being picked.

Visitors and noteable absences

Mart the chief of staff and Author Jan have swung through and had their first full tour of WTA this morning. Mart the chief of staff picked a massive Orbit pumpkin that had been sitting proudly in the pumpkin patch ready for harvest and I also picked my first 'crown prince' pumpkin this morning. It's been the highlight of the WTA year to have them here. I also butter nut squash over the past few days and made the squash into stonking butter nut squash soup that has gone down a treat in this breezy and darkening autumn days of late. My own exclusive WTA butter nut squash soup recipe will go up on the blog soon!

I as wondering where my mate Johnny Bridgmeister had got to after long noteable absence from WTA this year. I was a little perplexed by his no-shows until but finally got a letter from one of his 'handlers' - one Howard Bigot Johnson this week informing me that Johnny was too busy to help out with weeding due to his commitments to contributing to one http://www.bizarrebridgeworld.blogspot.com/ which has had now taken on the mantle of the blogosphere's NO.1 satirical bridge playing sites!

Old Sleningford farm

Went one of my annual off-allotment forays into the North Yorkshire wilds today with Mart the Chief of Staff, Author Jan and the Hearing Scientist today and visited the folks at Old Sleningford farm (see WTA links)to press my own apple/cider juic gathered from apples from Annie's place adjoining WTA. The Sleningford farm crew are a brilliant lot and have set up community apple juice pressing operation that is inspirational in it's social vision and community inclusivity. We maged to get about 18 litres of the most fragrant and luscious apple juice from the 37 kgs we brought with us. The hearing scientist brought along some apple wine we made last year which was generally considered a rather ribald little number, so much so I have been asked to up the apple wine recipe we used by one particularly keen punter of Norther origin. At this stage I must acknowledge the apple wine recipe's source which comes from the legendary C. J. J. Berry's First Steps in Wine Making (Standard Press -Andover).

So here it goes!

WTA's Apple wine recipe

10 kgs of mixed apples (windfalls)

1.5kgs of Sugar (to the gallon of liquor)

4.5 litres of water

Method: Chop the apples into small pieces an put into a bowl. Add the yeast an waters(water will not cover the apples). Cover with fine netting (to prevent vinegar flies getting in). Leave for a wee k, stirring vigorously several times a day to bring the apples from the bottom to the top. Kep the bowl covered and in a fairly warm place. Then strain the juice from the apple 'pulp'. Press the juice from the apples and add to the rest of the liquor. To every gallon add 3lbs of sugar.. put into a cask or glass fermenting vessel (demijohn) and fit an airlock, racking when it has cleared. TGhe win willb ready for drinking within six months,but improves being kept for a year.

Grow and drink well.

And the winner is...WTA!

2009-09-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

Great excitement last week as WTA picked up three first prizes in three classes and a third at the local village show. The hearing scientist also got in on the act successfully showing some runner beans from the kitchen garden.
This vegetable show virgin got so excited that he ended up actually arriving at the village hall sans produce and cake a day before the event and had to return home and keep his veg as pristine and fresh as possible until the next day. I had to admit I was totally sucked in by the whole event, running around WTA at 7am in the morning looking for the best examples of courgettes, carrots, salsify, broccoli that I could find. Pre-show preparation involved carefully washing and drying my entries, deciding how `i would display them and then of course making my 'Favourite Cake' entry - which took two attempts! The irony of the whole affair wasn't lost on me as I made my show perapratiions while 'listening' on an episode of The Archers on BBC radio 4 in which the characters where doing the same thing? me thinks ' old foggeydom' could be closer that I think!
In the end WTA took out the following categories:

Box of seasonal vegetables - 6 varieties. (Pic above)

Onions (Button's Show Stoppers)

Courgettes (Soliel)

WTA was also might happy to fight off some stiff country baking competition and pick up a third place for it courgette and pecan loaf in the 'favourite cake' class (see previous post to get WTA's the prize-winning recipe)

The hearing scientist's runner beans (White ladies) (pic above) from the kitchen garden impressed the judges and also picked up first prize in their class - something we know Norm the Vet and Captain Ken would have been proud of! Many thanks must go to the hearing scientist for properly making the onions suitable for show by tying raffia around their stalks and then using some dynamic arranging skills to organise the box of veg.

WTA's success even tore Johnny Bridgmeister away from writing now his highly influential Bizarre World of Bridge blog and had him phoning for updates for on how WTA had fared at the hands of the judges. In the end however It was great and a privilege to just be a part of what I reckon is an vital and important part of English country cultural life. The word's of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem 'If' :

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

were also enough to help me take a valuable check on the old ego. In the end it's about getting the hands in the earth and staying grounded! Talking of which, my over wintering onion sets and garlic (purple wight) arrived last week and I've arrived home today to find two small boxes of live 'spring greens' seedlings (Mr Fothergills) I ordered a little while back. Author Jan and Mart the chief of staff are also scheduled for a visit soon so I'm keen to have the 'autumn plot' well and truelly in and starting to grow before their arrival.
Show and grow well!
\

Dinning at St Nigel of Slater's table and "Getting back" to Apple

2009-09-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

It's been mainly weeding and caterpillar control on WTA this week. There's this plenty of produce to be had but it's clear some the massive bounty of seasonal summer crops is starting to slow.

Two apple trees that have somehow found their way over the years into a hedge bordering WTA have produced a small but well formed crop of large cooking apples. The appearance of the apples and the start of the blackberry season prompted me to get stuck in and make a blackberry and apple crumble. Getting the blackberries meant a bit of off-allotment foraging in some nearby farm hedgerows which have bountiful blackberry brambles producing some of the best free soft fruit you'll ever taste. The thing I love about making a crumble the WTA way is that it can be used for a great dessert but also a great breakfast with its rolled oats-based topping!

So here it is...

WTA's Blackberry and Apple Crumble
Approx 1 kg of apples

500-600gm of Blackberries

For the crumble topping

1 cup olive oil

3 cups whole grain rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup of pine nuts or chopped walnuts or almonds

Method:

Peel and core the apples. Cut the apples into 'bite-size pieces and place on a microwave-proof dish. Microwave on high for about 5 minutes until apples soften. Wash blackberries, drain and then mix with apples. Sprinkle lovely mixture with about 3 table spoons of demerara sugar.

To make the crumble topping, combine flower, oats and nuts. Add the olive oil and stir until the mixture begins to form into thick clusters. Spread evenly, on top of apple and blackberry mixture. Bake in an 180C oven for 45 minutes or until topping is lightly brown. Serve hot or allow to cool overnight for a fabulous rustic breakfast.

Digging in the Dirt
Harvesting the last crop of onions for the year has left some space on the upper bed. After digging over the bed I sowed 120 over wintering broad beans (The Sutton) and then sowed another 40 in an adjacent bed which has been left fallow over summer. The Sutton is a shorter variety and supposedly less susceptible to being blown over by winds.

With next year's onion crop in mind , I'm experimenting with growing some of my crop from seed instead of just using sets and have sown about 120 Senshyu Semi-Glob Yellow Onions (Suttons Seeds) in cellular seed trays. The success of the cauliflower crops has also prompted me to sow about 50 'Snowball' cauli's (Suttons Seeds) in individual seed cells. The latest dry spell has left my beans needed some additional watering.

'St Nigel'

Great to see Nigel Slater championing vegetables and sharing more of his great cooking via television this week. Nigel and Jamie Oliver are two of WTA's patron saints of cooking vegetables, and are often called on via their respective publications for advice and prophetic guidance. 'St Nigel's intervention was sort again this week after I picked my first pumpkin - a smallish but beautiful 'Orbit' variety. I didn't want to go down the usual soup or baked pumpkin route so after devling back into some of St Nigel's ancient epistles that are have appeared in the Observer (UK) newspaper's brilliant magazine, I stumbled across one of Britain's national cooking treasure's superb pronouncements:

Chickpeas with Pumpkin, Lemon Grass and Coriander

200g chickpeas ( I used a can)

2 medium sized onions
2 tbsp ground nut oil (I used virgin olive oil)

4 garlic cloves,peled and thinly sliced

a thumb-sized piece of ginger

3 large stalks of lemon grass (I used 3 tbs of lemon grass past from a jar)

2 tsp ground coriander

2tsp ground tumeric

ground seeds of six cardamom pods

2 hot, red chillies

500g peeled and seeded pumpkin

250ml vegetable stocks

400ml coconut milk

1tbsp of yellow mustard seed

a large handful of coriander leaves

Method

Drain the canned chickpeas. Peel and finely chop onions. Pour oil into a deep casserole and add the onions. Cook the onions on a low heat until they are translucent. Meanwhile, peel the garlic and ginger and cut relatively finely and mix. Add three to four tablespoons of grass paste. and then make all three into a rough paste in a food processor. Stir into softened onion and continue to cook. Add ground coriander and turmeric. Peel and lightly crush cardamom seed pods. Add them, together with the fresh chillies, seeded and finely chopped. Keep the heat fairly low and don't let the ingredients brown.

Chop the pumpkin into large mouth-sized chunks. and ad to the pan with the chickpeas and stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and continue to cook at a gentle bubble till the pumpkin is tender. Stop as soon as the flesh can yield to the point of a knife..

Stir in the coconut milk and continue to simmer. Put a little oil in a non-stick pan and ad the yellow mustard seeds.. When they start to pop add them to the pumpkin, together with the coriander leaves. Serve with rice and limes, halved ready to squeeze over at the last Minute. Give thanks to St Nigel and eat!

Well done the Rossdorf crew!

A big congratulations to one of WTA's favourite blogs. the Rossdorf Allotment on their recent show wins. Rossdorf's success has motivated me to enter some of WTA's produce in a nearby village show scheduled for next weekend. The experience of actually putting vege into a show and helping bolster a great rural tradition of exhibiting produce should be a hoot. Entries close this Friday and I plan to enter some onions, courgettes, french and runner beans and possibly some calabrese that's look set to harvest. I'm not sure if WTA's produce will measure up to the exacting standards of the horticultural judges - my beans need a little straightening and I'm not sure if my onions (Bunton show stoppers) have perfectly matching circumferences. Still, the entry form goes in tomorrow and the produce fronts the judges on Saturday morning. Exhibit and grow well!

It's later than I think! Time for old cook books and Thai Cauliflower!

2009-08-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

The English bank holiday weekend is like a gigantic signpost pointing toward autumn for me. It's a great time of the year - as is each of the transitional cusps between seasons. WTA is looking fine, although there are odd gaps of bare earth beginning to show where crops have been harvested and autumn seeds sown. The last of the cauliflowers were picked today and it won't be long before the second broad bean sowing will have had its day, stripped of any remaining pods and pulled out. It's gratifying to grow your own but it comes as a bit of shock when you realise how quickly some things get used and the gaps they leave. It's always later than I think on WTA! Still, WTA's pumpkins are pulsating and continue to grow and set fruit unabated. The rough ball onion seeds planted a few weeks ago are beginning to raise their heads above ground.

Francaise Jo, made a guest appearance on WTA last Saturday morning and helped pick French climbing beans, courgettes, gladioli and gather the last of the potatoes still in the ground. It's always a great to have Jo around and I get feeling allotments and 'growing your own' is beginning to get under her skin.

WTA Cooking...

WTA's Cauliflowers have been a revelation this year I adapted this recipe from one found in an old Ken Hom 1996 book - Ken Hom's Hot Wok - a is gem. The book was brought charity shop about 4 years ago for £3.50 on a whim and has become a bit of a foundation for some of my Thai/Vietnamese cooking. I've tended to 'pimp' and some of Ken's recipes to give them an even bigger South East Asian taste - the recipes themselves area brilliant base for some experimental fusion cooking.

Thai Cauliflower a la Hom
1 medium cauliflower head divided into small florets
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
6 crushed garlic cloves
1or 2 medium red chillies seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon of finely shredded spring onions (or one finely cut small red onion)
1 tablespoon of lemon grass paste
2 tablespoons of finely chopped basil or coriander
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1 teaspoon of palm or caster sugar
1 tablespoon of Thai fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
450ml water
2 teaspoons sesame sesame oil.

Method
Heat up your wok or large frying pan until extremely hot. Gently pour in the vegetable oil. When the oil starts to smoke, toss in the chili, garlic, spring onions and lemon grass paste, moving them quickly around the pan for about 30 seconds. Toss in the cauliflower and stir fry for 1 minute. Add your basil or coriander, soy sauce, sugar turmeric water and fish sauce. Reduce the heat of your cooker, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender. Stir in the sesame oil and sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve immediately.

What's been ordered...

Maybe I'm a sucker for punishment but in a triumph of hope over experience I've decided to sow some garlic on WTA. Autumn orders have been placed, with respective seed and set suppliers and I girding my loins for some planting and sowing over the next few weeks.

Garlic Vallelado (Chase Organics)

Winter Cress (Chase Organics)

White Lisbon winter hardy (Chase organics)

Radar Onion sets (Chase organics)

Early purple wight garlic (Thompson and Morgan)

Whats going in...
Kale seedlings - Calvanero

Winter Broad Beans (the Sutton)

What's gone in...
Onions - white Lisbon.
Carrots

What's my scene?
Browsing through a magazine, which claims to be the "UK's No1 for allotment holders" I came across a column by one Edwin Oxlade, in which Ed bemoans the fact that the "Popular Media" have "lost sight of what kitchen gardeners and prospective kitchen gardeners are really into" and in doing so "have put superficial short-lived appeal before reality". Ed goes onto claim much of the media coverage of growing-your-own is no more than "self indulgent lifestyle froth". I'm no fan of the popular media, but Ed's assertion knows what all kitchen gardeners are "really into" seems rather grandiose. And even if the media's preoccupation about writing on growing your own is self indulgent "lifestyle froth" (another subjective generalisation made by Ed), by my reckoning if it attracts more people to experience or at least try to experience veg gardening then it's fine by me! Short-lived or long-lived the experience of growing-your-own is just that, an experience!

Anyone who spends a month working on allotment/kitchen garden realises it's not always than some halcyon garden of paradise... but isn't that the whole point? Carl Jung in the Transcendent Function said: "Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health". For me the processes involved in having an allotment is more about having my hands in the earth - remaining psychologically grounded. Difficulties in the allotment, as they are in life are numerous, but so are the joys and no one has a mortgage the subjective nature of human experience or how they experience growing-their-own. Grow Well!

Last pickings and vege regenerations

2009-08-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

WTA's first cucumber!

WTA's first cucumber (Marketmore) was picked amid much celebration yesterday. I hate to boast, but it was a taste sensation - crisp, succulent and cool! This gorgeous green gem will be used to make a Japanese-style cucumber salad.

Operation Red Hot Chili pepper continues to go well - The savaged Romenescu look like they might even recover yet, and look to be sprouting again. Caterpillar numbers have dwindled dramatically and now appear to be under control, with little further leaf damage.

This week Autumn's cool fingers felt like they were beginning to edge closer and gently wrap themselves around WTA of a morning. The weekend brought some hot weather that seemed set back the onset of chilly winds and turning leaves - it's strange to think I'll be planting my onion sets for next year's crop in the net few months.

I managed to harvest another lot of broad beans from a late crop of about a dozen plants that are still standing but looking a bit worse for wear due to chocolate spot infection. Foraging bits and pieces left over at the end of the crop can be really rewarding and provide some excellent and unexpected meals.

Part of the tail end of this year's broad beans

Saturday saw the last of the Parmex carrots and some of the first broad bean planting being pulled out and the ground they were in turned. Both have produced excellent crops and will be definite starters next year. The broad beans were a particular revelation, and I plant to try and double the amount of plants I had this year - broad bean bruschetta has me in its grip!

The carrots below were pulled yesterday and needing a quick salad for dinner, I came up with the following 'recipe'...

WTA's Carrot and sesame salad
3-4 large carrots

1.5 tblspns Sesame oil

2 tblspns black sesame seeds

Grate three to four largish carrots into a bowl. Add one and a half tablespoons of sesame oil and mix through the grated carrot. Sprinkle with two table spoons of black sesame seeds. Mix the black sesame seeds into the carrot and sesame seed oil.

Passers-by steam in for WTA's Carrot and sesame salad

Grow well!

Operation Red Hot Chili Pepper: organic pesticide fight back!

2009-08-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

Operation Red Hot Chili Pepper is in full swing on WTA after waves of marauding caterpillars marched into town and began laying brassica crops, including my Romanescu broccoli (see above pic), to waste. These Romanescu were under horticultural fleece but I obviously hadn't sealed the cloche properly allowing some bloody devious cabbage white butterflies a way in. The rest, as the say, 'is history'. Artisan Tracie reckons some organic gardeners often need a 'sacrifice' crop - a crop you let pests eat so they (in theory) eat less of your other crops - so I suppose this is my yearly sacrifice. In the mean time, I wanted to save the rest of my calabrese, sprouting broccoli, sprout and kale crops from devastation so it was time to spray - organic and home made spray of course! I used the following general organic pesticide recipe adopted from an ABC TV, Gardening Australia formulation (see links) to strike back and strike back hard! I love the smell of chili, onion and garlic in the morning! It smells like...victory!

Organic Pesticide Recipe

4 Red hot chillies

2 Cloves of garlic

4 Onions (red or white)

2 tblspns of eco-friendly washing up liquid

Water.

Brewing Up!
Chop up chillies, garlic and onions and place in a medium sized mixing bowl...

Add two tablespoons of an eco/enviro-brand dish washing liquid.

Pour in water so it just covers the contents of the bowl and then stir.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and then set aside for 24 hours.

The following day pour the contents of the bowl through a fine sieve and reserve the liquid.
Discard the onions, chillies and garlic.

Dilute the reserved liquid in 5 litres of water...

Organic, effective... red hot!

I've use an old, clean, hand pump sprayer to deliver the fiery liquid, which I've been doing most mornings and again in the evening. The results have been impressive... the caterpillars definitely don't like it up em! But I've needed to consistently apply the spray to keep on top of newly hatching 'pillars, whose eggs I haven't managed to squash in the mean time...

Without the good old 'Red Hot Chili Pepper' spray I'm fairly sure things like the brassicas pictured above would now be little more than skeletal stalks.

Missing..presumed having a good time

Johnny Bridgemeister's absence has been noted on WTA. He's yet to make one of his several annual pilgrimages to WTA this year to carry out his fierce attack on all manner of weeds and nettles. Perhaps his failure to show can be put down to him starting up his own blog: http://www.bizarrebridgeworld.blogspot.com/ where he and the crowd primordial archetypes he writes and runs with reflect on the more quirky side of the game of bridge. The Bridgmeister's site is already garnering some impressive reviews amongst the on-line bridge world and building a sizeable and dedicated following in the UK and abroad.

DIY queen and vege chef Sandy has also been fairly quiet lately. This vegetarian cordon blue has also been much missed on WTA and needs to get on that two wheeled stallion of hers and get up here quick!

In the meantime...protect your crops and grow well!

WTA's courgette and pecan bread success!

2009-08-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Got an early start this morning determined to fit in cooking some WTA produce into my MA thesis writing schedule. Inspired by fellow bloggers Allotment 2 Kitchen, A girl named Go and Rossdorf allotment , I thought I'd have a crack at making some Courgette and Pecan bread. The idea of using courgettes for making something other than savoury dishes and that could be eaten with cuppa or used as a dessert when still warm (this could be good with ice cream, yoghurt or sour cream) had me baking. The result was delicious!

Courgette and Pecan Bread

3 eggs

2 cups of caster sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla essence

1 cup of olive/canola oil

2 cups of grated courgette

3 cups of plain flour

1/4 of teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 cup of chopped pecan nuts

Method

Butter and flower two loaf tins or deep muffin tins.

Beat eggs until foaming, add sugar, vanilla and oil and beat until thick.

Stir in grated courgette.

Sift all dry ingredients and fold into courgette mixture with chopped pecans.

Pour into prepared tins and bake in a 180C oven for about 1 hour for the loaf tins or 25-30 minutes for deep muffin tins, or until a skewer inserted in the bread comes out clean.

Remove from oven; allow to sit in the tins for about ten minutes and then cool on a cake rack. Slice and butter or eat by itself when warm...

Growing Update...

Beans

The climbing French beans (Cobra) are really hitting their straps. About 2.3kg of their slender green pods have been harvested in the last week or so and eaten raw or blanched and frozen. Having climbing beans on an allotment makes good sense - they are great source of instant, super-healthy 'green snacks' while working away. I often find myself devouring a couple of beans straight off the vines when the hunger pangs hit mid-weeding or digging.

Cucumbers

WTA's cucumbers (Marketmore) are producing some handsome fruit. which should be able to be picked soon. You could have knocked me down with a feather a few years ago if you told me cucumbers could be grown outdoors in the UK - but here they are! Perhaps having some cucumber sandwiches and a glass of Pimms under the walnut tree next week might be a very English way to mark the summer success of WTA this year!

Eat and grow well!

Complete Gestalts and Strange Brews.

2009-08-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Fred the Chemist's gladioli

Veg aren't the only things growing onWTA. Earlier in the year about 2 dozen gladioli bulbs were planted, alongside edible crops, to provide the cottage with cut flowers. This week the gladi's began to bloom and the stems were cut (see pic above). WTA is proud of these beauties as they have a strong link to forebear and Anglo-Aussie - Fred The Chemist - who also grew and loved gladioli. The generational gestalt is complete!

Organic Pest Control

WTA's brassica's are under attack from caterpillars. Little do those caterpillars know WTA has the trump card to end their orgy of WTA eating. The ante dote is brewing away in the kitchen as I write. I've used one of the organic pesticide recipes on Gardening Australia's (The Aussie version of BBC's Garden's World) website and started producing an potent concoction of 4 onions, 2 garlic cloves, 4 chillies and eco-friendly dish washing liquid. The liquid produced from the mix pictured below is being applied tomorrow.

Organic pesticide in the making

This morning was spent lifting the last lot of potatoes, weeding the broccoli bed and physically squashing a variety of ravenous caterpillars swarming over some leaves.
There was also a chance to use some of the organic liquid fertiliser (pictured below) from the worm can on my leeks (another great product of worm can composting).

Worm casting liquid - black gold!

WTA mates... still helping out on the plot 10,000 miles away!

Many thanks to Jeremiah Bullfrog, proofreading savant, for his time earlier this week. The Bullfrog spotted and helped iron-out a variety of errors appearing in previous WTA postings - not bad from a vantage point on the other side of the world in Western Australia...

The Bullfrog: Language errors can run but they can't hide!

Grow well!

A quick Saturday pick.

2009-08-15T02:57:00.000-07:00

Just a short post. Lots going on and lots of produce from WTA right now. I picked this lot this morning. The Adelaide carrots are really sweet, while I'll use the yellow courgette to make an amazing Nigella Lawson recipe I've found and linked for 'Happiness, soup. Grow well!

Let 'em roll!

2009-08-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

Downing a well-earned 'coldie' after a big seed planting and lifting a 5kg+ haul of potatoes this afternoon. I hate to say the 'B' word when mentioning my spuds, but after reading a couple of other blogs , I think some of my potato crops might have blight! As a result I'm getting rid of all affected leaves/stems and in a couple of cases have lifted part of the crops in case I'm too late and left with nothing.

In the mean time, I've 'Kept Calm and Carried On' with the autumn seed planting regime. I've also decided to have a bit of a gamble by sowing some seeds that should have been planted in June and July. These seeds - including parsnips and carrots - are probably going to lose much of their viability by next year if I don't plant them now, so in they go!

The following have been sown:
Parsnip-Hollow Crown (Country Value)
Good quality seeds (I sowed Country Value, Sweet Corn-Incredible -F1 which are doing brilliantly) but I'm throwing these in, in case they become unviable next year.

Baby Chinese Cabbage - WA Wa Sai (Marshalls)

Fresh seeds - that arrived last week and will be planted at the prescribed time. I'm planting these in the hope of getting some great veg for SE Asian-style stir fries.

Carrot Ideal (Dobies of Devon)
Fresh seed to be planted at the prescribed time. I've have already sown three rows of these but still have some left after ordering two packets!

Chinese Broccoli - Kailaan (Marshalls).

I liked the look of these as an easy-grow, 'in between crop' of broccoli. They look suitable for some cool fusion and SE Asian cooking that goes on after getting off WTA

Parsnip Panache F1 Hybrid (Thompson and Morgan)

Great seeds! I've had some outstanding success with these - but like all parsnip seed have a fairly limited viability. I planted some this time last year and managed to lift some lovely parsnips for Christmas dinner. Here's hoping I can manage the same feat this year.

Bunching Onion - Shimonita (Marshalls)
Fresh and planted at the prescribed time. Going by the description these beauties - a sort of cross between a leek and a spring onion;they may be a good seasonal spring onion substitute.

Broccoli-Rudolph (Thompson and Morgan)
Once again, will be a 'triumph of hope over experience' if these grow in the way they were intended but I'd rather have a go than not put them in.

Borecole (Kale) F1 Reflex (Dobies of Devon)
Kale was a winter staple of WTA in the early days and helped keep a variety of people fed with greens in the dark winter of 2007.

Carrot - Resistatfly F1 Hybrid (Thompson and Morgan)
A bit late again I know but I found this packet of seeds from last year, after losing them and would rather give them a go than have them lose their viability and lie useless in my seed box.

Spinach - Toscane F1 Hybrid (Unwins)
Always fantastic for salads and a variety of hot dishes. Spinach is an 'essential' on WTA. It's a first run for this variety so it will be interesting to see the results.

Onion - Toga (Johnsons)
A bit late, I know, but just consider it my way of betting on an Indian summer this year!

Onions - Toughball (Marshalls)
I really liked the look and the name of these onions and they let me continue to indulge in my continued fascination with growing this edible variety of alium.

More WTA weeding is scheduled for today along with some cooking with three more cauliflowers harvested yesterday. Grow well!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon, got no mind to worry...

2009-08-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

A 'Day of Rest' on WTA . A quick inspection of the plot this morning to pick some carrots, check on my previous day's weeding and take the shots on this post was about all that was done.

Took some time off to visit friend of WTA, Johnny Bridgemeister, and Wonder Pam. It was satisfying to be able to take some fresh lifted spuds, carrots and red onions from WTA to these two legendary mates.

A Shout Out to WTA Friends
Some good friends of WTA are a bit poorly right now or struggling with some big work loads. They are being held in mind as I work away on the plot.

Mart The Chief of Staff . Get that dicky chest cleared up Mart - there's some work to do in October buddy!

Dorset Dave...Instrumental in helping clear the leek bed of weeds last year. The second of Dorset Dave's creaking and cracking knees was ditched and replaced by some good old titanium this week. I for one won't miss the 'orrible bone-on-bone grating noises as he bends down to some weeding next time he's on the plot! Hope your back on your feet soon Dave!

Mariner Tim.. The turf excavator and onion planter extraordinaire has been working his bum off on the good Yacht 'Conspicuous Consumption' with some rather difficult clientele...hang in there mate, all this will pass...

The cleared bed above is all that remains of the up turned turf, cow manure and cardboard after planting and lifting good crop of potatoes within the space of a couple of months.

These leeks are looking good but will have to be soiled up to ensure they have good long, white shanks.

The Jerusalem artichokes are going great guns. They've provided an effective windbreak and visual screen to the entrance of the allotment and just keep getting taller and taller.
Grow well!

Summer Saturday Update

2009-08-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

A classic sunny English summer's day at WTA. Leek and onion beds were weeded and 'test plot' potatoes lifted. Reluctantly dragged myself off the plot at 7.30pm this evening but pleased with what had been achieved.

The potatoes had been planted in a non-dig bed of cardboard, up-turned turf and Dairy farmer Tom's cow poo and straw. The cunning plan was to see if the spuds could break up the turf and accelerate the process of creating a new bed in matter of months - and it looks like it has worked! Stay tuned for further updates. Right now however it looks like I've ended up with a big bag of potatoes and a cleared bed! It will be interesting to see if the late potatoes planted under overturned turf last week can do same things.

WTA's pumpkin patch has hit its straps in the last few weeks. It didn't look good for a couple of the seedlings I'd put into a pile of straw, cow poo and soil a few months ago, but rising night time temperatures have kicked in and what seemed like a potential disaster, averted. One of the miriad of bumblebees (above pic) is enjoying the pumpkin flowers - take a look at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website under WTA's 'Hot Topics' listing - and helping produce this beauty below which was discovered this week under the foliage. (A WTA " bee posting" is in the offing.)

More veg postings to come tomorrow... Grow well!

Life, the universe, religious experience, bodily functions and compost heaps!

2009-08-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

"My whole life had been spent
waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence,
the kind of transcendental, magical
experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And
that is what I had with my first compost heap."

Bette Midler

WTA loves its compost, heaps! Both compost bins were constructed pretty soon after taking on the plot almost two years ago and have produced some mighty fine 'black gold' from a combination of veg scraps, lawn clippings, garden waste, cardboard, paper and cow manure thrown on them.

WTA kitchen waste (above) headed for the temple of compost.

Being pro-recycling, WTA's compost bins have been constructed from old wooden pallets for free and 10 wooden stakes - no fuss and effective.

A black plastic composting bin - used to solely compost weeds and nettles - has also joined the crew and has converted kilos of weeds and nettles - I try to keep the two open bins as weed-free as I can.

The Inspiration
'Grand' forebears of WTA, 'Technical Tom' and 'Fred the Chemist' were mad keen composters, both of them having their own techniques and apparatus to produce the 'black gold'. Technical Tom was a fan of the 'Compost Tumbler' - a commercially made drum mounted on a frame (see pic below) on which is could be turned. Fred the chemist favoured the big multi bin approach, constructing four huge adjoining squares made out of old corrugated iron and fence posts.

Whatever the shape or size - commercial or non-commercial - it's important to get a compost heap and find composting style to suit your garden/allotment and the type of materials you are composting.

Accelerators- keeping your heap in hyper drive.
Creating a 'Formula One heap' is a mix of art and science. WTA recommends a few inexpensive components to keep the bacterial engine of the your heap throbbing:

Bone meal/pelletised poutry manure - nitrogenous bacterial stimulant that feeds the microscopic buds doing the hard yards to break down the waste.

Gardener's Lime - great to cool things down and 'sweeten your heap' if things get to acidic in your rotting matter.
A good peace of thick carpet - vital for covering your compost heap warm and keeping bacteria working when the temperature drops.

Human urine! - even the beer or cuppa you have after a hard day's graft on the allotment can be recycled! Ensure no one is in vicinity (We don't want Allotment holders getting done for indecent exposure!) and have a good old wee (probably easier for blokes) on your heap.

Worm bins/cans
Wormeries are also an incredibly dynamic way of composting and also producing your own super quality . Wta has a an "off site" worm bin which to produce . One worm bin is far too small to handle the amount and variety of matter composted by the bins on WTA but I was lucky enough to pick a worm can similar to the one picture below on sale at a local supermarket chain. I use this little beauty to breakdown large quantities of paper waste (think of it as an enviro- shredder!) and a source of liquid fertiliser- an odourless, nutrient-rich liquid by-product, superb for fertilisng your crops.

Top Shelf composting material (But proceed with caution!)

Some of WTA's Jersey Girls - compost makers extraordinaire

WTA's custodiancan often be see roaming around the adjacent fields awith wheel barrow and shovel, followed closely by a small herd of inquisitive Jersey Cows, in search of quality cow pats. The occasional barrow load of cowpats on the compost heap does a world of wonders
for the end product. But be wary! You've got to know your shit! Problems with herbicide in some animal manure used on allotments was well publicised last year. Ask the owners of the land, on which the animals you get you poo from graze, what sort of pesticides and herbicides are used on the pasture. When in doubt leave it out! If you're new to the allotment game or missed the whole herbicide and animalmanure debarcle take a look at the relevant links and No. 10 petition listed under 'Hot Topics' on this site.

Get composting and grow really well!

The Green Revolution continues!

2009-08-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hey farmer, farmer
put away your DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
(Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell)

A good week all up on WTA. The rain has been brilliant -no problems about finding water for the veg and it's free! The Met (British weather bureau) back-tracked on their previous forecast that we were destined for a 'BBQ summer' this week and have now said the 'Green and Pleasant Land' can expect quite a lot of the wet stuff into August - them's the breaks! It's throwing it down as I write this post.

Earlier in the week I decided to show a bit of The Anglo-Aussie spirit and head out on WTA despite the showers. It's relatively cathartic working away in the rain and I managed to get my 'late' seed potatoes planted and cut the last remaining bit of turf out of the the lower bed.

The last of Mariner Tim's onions were finally picked yesterday. Even after using quite a lot straight out of the ground, I still have four boxes of 'whites' and 'reds' left drying out in the garage due to the wet conditions. Mariner Tim dug the plot these onions were planted in and then helped me plant the sets last year. The results of his handy work are impressive...

After bit of weeding , digging and blood and bone fertiliser, the old onion bed was ready to take some Trafalgar Brussel Sprout and Dwarf kale seedlings I've been meaning to plant for ages (The rain has also been fab for watering things in!).

The cauliflowers (igloo and all-year-round) are now being harvested and used in dishes from Cauliflower Balti to soups. I've literally just made a 'cauliflower and cashew' nut soup gleaned from a Women's Institute soup recipe book I picked up cheap a couple of months ago it's a winner! Cauli's are a great veg to grow if you got a reasonable amount of space. They not only taste incredible when cooked well or eaten raw but are look spectacular looking vegetable when in their prime. This week WTA ordered some Mayflower (F1) cauliflower from Marshalls for Autumn planting. I've also got some 'Ideal' carrot and Borecole (Curly Kale, F1 reflex) seeds from Dobies that will hit the soil in the next few days.

Organic v. Non organic debate

The news that organic fruit and veg had the same nutrient levels as non organic veg hit the headlines this week if you hadn't noticed. The reporting of the issue seemed to miss the point why a lot of people grow and eat organic produce: that being many want to know what or, in the case of organic veg, what hasn't been used on food that we eat.
I've started a new "Hot topics" links section on the blog if you feel inclined to look at some of the issues that affect allotment owners and 'grow your own enthusiasts' in general. I've put a link to the latest BBC report on the organic v non organic nutrient level research presented this week.
No commercial pesticides are used on WTA - a decision I feel is a wise one when I see a plethora of bumble bees, native bees and a variety of bird life including Mistle Thrushes, Blackbirds, Wrens and Robins in and around the plants and hedges.

'Natural' Options for Pest and Problems

If and when there comes a time when WTA needs a bit of assisted pest control, I'm heading for the 'natural' options. The people at 'Gardening Australia' - the Aussie version of the BBC's Gardener's World have put a a brilliant 'fact sheet' on their website on making your own pesticides and herbicides from a combination of things including garlic, chillies, bi-carbonate of soda, vinegar, molasses and eco-friendly washing up detergents. I've created a link to the site under 'Pests and Solutions'
In the mean time these pesticide/chemical free broad bean beauties below are destined for the table tonight...Grow and eat well!

Monsters lurking on WTA!

2009-07-23T23:33:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I know! I shouldn't have let these courgettes get so big, but hey, it happened...and these two monsters are being converted into four different varieties of courgette soup (see recipes I'm using in my links) as I write. Perhaps I should rename this bed the "Sigmund Freud Organic Bed" in honour of the incredibly phallic fruits that are abounding there! One of the 'mammoth courgettes picture has already made 5.5 litres of soup alone. In the past few days I felt like oneof the characters of the classic film 'Jaws' as I set out for WTA. I've known that lurking somewhere in that non dig bed is the mother of all over-sized courgettes that needs to be hunted down, harvested and then turned into some edible form!

The amount Courgette recipes on the net is astounding and exciting. Being a bit of a fan of Jamie Oliver I delved into his "Happy days" cook book and used his courgette salad recipe (See recipe links). The recipe is a corker and a great example of how British cooking has and is still being revolutionised by some creative thinking. My main challenge right now is to find and make a large variety of genuinely superlative courgette soup recipes...

Here's some courgette soup I made earlier!

The finished product...
with still more to make!

Faced with a further courgette surge The Hearing Scientist cleverly suggested we try char- grilling some of the smaller fruits emerging on the plants . A foray out onto WTA yesterday evening pr produced a a further three or four more kilos of courgettes. We then fired up the gas BBB in the back yard and formed a cutting and char-grill production line with the following results...

These Mediterranean -style delicacies are being frozen this morning and will be pulled out and eaten as and when needed in the autumn and winter.

Part of the onion crop (whites) Mariner Tim helped plant late last year were harvested this morning - a process that fed my increasing fascination with the onion as a plant and a desire to grow even more (I've already ordered some sets from Dobies and plan to grow more from seed rather than set in the coming year). Onions are a big part of my cooking and it's been brilliant to simply cross the road, dig some from the dark soil, take them back to the house and use them straight away. Mariner Tim is mucking about on boats with the glitterati somewhere off the coast of Monaco, but he might get to enjoy the fruits of his labours when he returns and the onions store well.

The 'Late' seed potatoes arrived this week so it won't belong before I have the little beauties in the ground in the next few days. A quick dig of some main crop spuds that are dying off was like uncovering a treasure trove of large, uncut white diamonds from the soil, cow manure and straw covering them.

Things are growing at a rate of knots with the warm weather we've been having and you can see from the pic below there's no shortage of great, fresh produce coming on. I'm just off to see what else is lurking out there...Grow well!

Parmex carrots and broad bean bruchetta

2009-07-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

No, they're not radishes or golf balls with green stalks,! They're the Parmex carrots and courgettes now in season and being picked nearly every day of WTA...

The size and shape of Parmex carrots makes them extremely versatile. for cooking on the BBQ, being put raw in salads or being steamed. Planting two, four metre rows of 'parmex' seemed pretty ambitious but I'm really glad I gave them the space I did considering the taste how many that already eaten as part of lunches and dinners.

This year I've stuck with Thompson and Morgan seeds to grow my courgettes (Soliel & Defender) and it's turning out to be another amazing year for these under-rated vegetables.
Take a look at the new WTA 'good recipes' links section to see what's happening with some of the produced including courgettes being picked right now. Fresh courgettes have a real buttery taste to them. and like so many vege benefit from being cooked ASAP after being harvested.

WTA's BBQ Courgette recipe.
1. Heat BBQ grill for 15 minutes.
2. While the BBQ grill is warming pick your courgettes.
3. Cut the Courgette lengths ways into relatively thin strips (about 1cm max).
4. Place courgettes on the BBQ grill.
5. Cook for approximately 10 minutes until char grilled but not limp!

6.Serve and eat (drizzle with virgin olive oil or balsamic vinegar if desired)

Nige the psych swung through WTA this weekend. Nige is a "foodie" so it was great to be able to o offer him all that is coning off the plot right now. Last night I went out picked some broad beans (Long Pods) and then made a broad bean bruchetta (see WTA recipe links). The result was stunning if I do say myself! Like courgettes, broad beans are underrated or even hated by many! This is probably because people are used to eating them after the beans have been cooked within an inch of their lives and have a deathly grey appearance about them. Luckily there seems to have been an groundswell amongst chefs to end persecution of this delicious legume with the publication of numerous tremendous recipes for these beans. Going by the prices some supermarkets are charging for broad beans this year, there are plenty of financial benefits to raising these easy-to grow vege.Grow well...

WTA...here comes the weekend!

2009-07-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post a couple of pics taken a few weeks ago
on WTA. Some heavy rain this week has come as welcome
relief to the soil which dried out quickly during the hot spell.
Plans and jobs for the weekend include:

Planting out the last brassica seedlings (caulis and sprouts) I have.
Sowing autumn carrots.
Transplanting reamaining celeraic and sweet corn seedlings
A "cheeky sowing"of some more parsnips seeds.
Sowing some fennel seeds.
Transplanting a mass of golden beetroot seedlings left over from last week.
Transplanting 24 dwarf kale seedlings (I there's space!!).

The pics above are of some 'late' pumpkins I grew from seed being planted in a newly established bed. A large piece of carpet dumped in a nearby field by fly tippers last year was initially used to cover the new pumkin bed to kill off grass and weeds and clear the area. Ultimately a good result from a criminal act!

Leeks (grown from 'Wilkos' seed), climbing French beans (Cobra)
and some potatoes (White Wonder I think!) planted from 'left over' sprouting spuds a neighbour gave me in a bag and planted with the help of Johnny Bridgemiester in October last year! Grow well...

Onions and spuds foraged on WTA

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

Heatwave sparks growth spurt!

2009-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

A "Heatwave" in this part of the world have made for perfect growing conditions on WTA in the past few weeks. The heat has jolted the cucumbers (Marketmore)and pumpkins (Crown prince) into life, while the onions and cauliflowers have been reveling in the warm soil and air. The first carrots (Parmex) have been pulled and swiftly eaten with some fresh rocket and spinach.

WTA lost another 8 square meters of turf on the weekend . The newly available bed was quickly filled with golden beetroot seedling and a dozen climbing French beans. It's a relief to see less and less lawn to mow and more and more vege in its place!

I've chosen "White lady" Runner beans (Marshall's seeds) to plant in the far bed where grown celeriac and Romenescu broccoli have been grown for the last few years. WTA has never had any runner beans on it in my time and I'm hoping that they will help fix some more nitrogen in the bed. The runner been poles went up and the runner bean seedlings went in Sunday.

The arrival of the first Autumn seed catalogues through the letter box this week was a stark reminder that in the allotment game you've always got to be thinking 5 to 6 months ahead. Marshalls Seeds autumn catalogue has some interesting stuff and the folks from Dobies have also sent a neat "autumn" catalogue. Watch out for for a seasonal "catalogue review/ roundup on this blog in the next few months.

I've gone with JBA Seed Potato Merchants for my "Christmas" seed potatoes this year.
A 2.5kg pack of Ulster Classic seeds set me back £7.95 while a 2.5kg pack of King Edwards set me back another £7.95. The plan is to plant out the seed potatoes in overturned sods of turf from the newly dug bed and let them do the work in breaking down and cleaning up the soil. Some disappointing first and second early harvests have still got me guessing as to what went wrong but also hoping that my later potato crops will have some hefty returns - especially come December.

Going on advice seen on BBC Gardeners' World from Alys Fowler, my courgettes were planted between sweet corn (Incredible F1). Both crops are looking first rate and the planting scheme looks brilliant as well as being a fine use of plot space. The first courgettes have a superb buttery taste that just doesn't seem to be the mass produced shop brought varieties. Tossed on a barbecue grill with onions or done in the form off a Mediterranean salad a la Jamie Oliver, fresh allotment courgettes are a summer delight.
Grow well...

Let the harvest commence!

2009-06-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Now swarthy Summer, by rude health embrowned,

Precedence takes of rosy fingered Spring;
And laughing Joy, with wild flowers prank'd, and

A wild and giddy thing,
And Health robust, from every care unbound,

Come on the zephyr's wing,
And cheer the toiling clown...

John Clare (1835), The Rural Muse

A strong lemon-coloured sunlight is streaming across WTA as the day draws to a close here. WTA has had plenty of attention this weekend. Saturday morning was spent mowing the grass and today has been a combination of weeding and planting out calabrese (Belstar), Purple Sprouting Broccoli (Red Arrow?), Brussel Sprout (Eliclipse) and Leek seedlings (Autumn giant). There just about no better place be when the weather is like it is today in Old Blighty. Saturday and Sunday have been incredibly warm, providing ideal growing conditions.

The Hearing Scientist has been today's guest gardener on WTA and has starred by planting out about 100 leeks seedlings I grew from seed earlier in the year. The Hearing Scientist runs an amazing English country garden, soft fruit orchard and quality country wine making operation, so taking time off to help on WTA goes well above and beyond the call of duty. Leek planting however is big stuff around these parts however. The Welsh icon is a favourite around here. Leeks are superior eating straight out of the ground and need little real preparation when it comes to cooking. Throw them in a pan with some virgin olive oil, saute and then add some lemon juice and you have some fine country eating! They're also a good onion substitute when onion stocks have dwindled toward the end of the winter. While the Hearing scientist dibbled away, and and mass planted leeks, I was able to get on and weed a section of bed I had placed under netting a few months ago to protect some Autumn Raspberry canes cuttings I planted straight into the ground late last year. I thought I chance my arm at starting my own soft fruit bed on the cheap and it looks like I could have some 'starters' with about four of the nine canes I put in starting to sprout.

WTA is already producing food. I harvested my first early potatoes (Swift) last week and got enough for about three meals. The harvest was a little disappointing but a couple of the local farmers who grow spuds for a living reckon 'first earlies' are never really up to much as far a big yields. Still, what I did get was great eating. What did didn't get in yields from Swift 'first earlies' was made up by harvesting first early spuds from some stray plant springing up from tubers I had missed in last year's harvest. During my weeding I came across a number of "stray" Winston 'first earlies' and ended up with with about 1 kilo of spuds technically planted over a year ago! Talk about taking foraging to a new level!

WTA, like all horticulture adventures, is a work in progress. Right now the 'work' is removing turf and turning more of the plot over to the ongoing production of organic veg. The less grass, the less mowing I have to do and the less energy (mine and fossil fuel!) expended. There is also the matter of a few hundred seedlings - Kale, Runner beans, Romenscu, Golden Beetroot, and more cauliflowers! I sowed a few months ago that are now begging to be out!

In the meantime, I'm partaking in the "grow your own" revolution - enjoying a glass of home-made elderflower wine, and eating some of The hearing scientists' English, home-grown strawberries...Grow well!

Sex, life, death and everything in between...

2009-05-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Once again the parallel process of gardening, plants and our lives came clearly into focus on WTA this week...there were celebrations of births and lives and the sadness of a death.

At one end of the week we had a wonderful birthday and celebration of 70 years of life and at the other a death...hardly premature after 98 years.... but with as with all humans still loaded with mixed emotions and a sense of loss a various levels. We like our plants, are planted, germinate, grow, go to seed and eventually, in turn, return to the soil.

Carl Gustav Jung in his masterly Memories Dreams and Reflections doesn't pull any punches when he describes death as a "fearful piece of brutality". The Swiss Analytical Psychologist reckons in dying : " a human being is torn away from us, and what remains is the icy stillness of death". But the psychoanalytic mystic is also quick to point out there is another side to death which can also appear to be a joyful event. Jung says, "In the light of eternity it (death) is a wedding, a mysterium coniunctionis. The soul, as it were, attains its missing half it achieves wholeness."

Maybe that's why with the premature death or end a crop, even a after a after a long fruitful life on allotment, there's a bit of sadness for growers, because deep down, we see played out in the soil, a reflection of our own lives and the lives of those around us. And maybe that's why we love growing things year after year because the whole life and death cycle played out in the dirt brings to us a wholeness. It's no wonder working the soil keeps us grounded!

On WTA I commemorate mates, family of choice and family of origin whose souls have "attained their missing half" and found their "wholeness" in the crops I plant. Each year grow Norm 'The Vet' and Captain Ken's runner beans, Fred the Chemist's gladioli Shane the cattleman's spuds and 'Technical' Tom's parsnips. Next week "Bobbie's Leeks" will be planted out. As Jung might have said, my veg provide a myth through which I understand death....it works for me.

I'm glad to report Johnny Bridgemiester is still in the land of the living after returning from holiday. He swung by this morning to cast his weed hating eye over WTA and have a yarn. Some tough, hand to hand combat with some weeds and grass in Sheffield yesterday had left him nicely tanned but unfortunately too battle fatigued for action on WTA. I was able to show him a fabulous row of potatoes we planted in September last year with hopes for a fabulous Christmas crop! I'd given up hope of seeing anything and had written the off as 'lost' until I saw them poke their leaves through the soil last week. We all love a resurrection story....Grow Well.

A 'forebear' of WTA celebrates his 70th!

2009-05-21T13:44:00.001-07:00

5.55pm. Rain has 'stopped play' on Walnut Tree Allotment. Still, it's a good time to come in and salute 'Mart-The chief of Staff's' 70th Bithday today! WTA can trace it's origins and my love of garden directly to The Chief of staff who had some of his own brilliant veges patches in his time if far flung places in Western Australia including, Forrest River Mission, Mogumber, Meekatthara, Wubin, and Perth (Wembley Downs). Mart has taught me a thing or two in my time about growing vege and I'd have to say is directly responsible for fostering my love of the soil. The Great news is that Mart will be making a special guest star appearance on WTA later in the year- something I can't wait for. Have a great day and GO WELL Mart. WTA salutes you and sends all it's love.

I've had "guest star " on the allotment this weekend - Aussie mate, Jeremiah Bullfrog who has been busy tending his own plot in Rickmansworth, Herts and charming various stall holders at the Chelsea flower show this week. The Bullfrog is a proof reader extraordinaire - some would even say a proof reading savant. His agricultural science connections make also make him somewhat of a font of knowledge when it comes to growing one's own.

Bullfrog's love of the language extends to even proof reading commercial packaging including the planting directions on an Unwin's packet second early 'Smile' potatoes I had lying around the kitchen (as is his want). The Bullfrog's jaundiced eye managed to pick up a few anomalies in Unwin's use of the language and was left a little confused over the difference between chitting and sprouting.

On leaving today Jeremiah Bullfrog presented the Hearing scientist and me with a fabulous copy of The quintessential garden, or, Pondering the giant spinach by Jocelyn Wild a superb and humorous look at some of the more eccentric sides of English gardening. A speedy return to the hedgerows of WTA, Bullfrog. You will be missed!

As of this afternoon my first lot of Sweetcorn (Incredible F1) seedlings have gone 'non dig bed alongside courgettes . The six brussel sprouts seedling (Eclipse F1) nurtured with great care over the last few months and now nicely adavanced have also been placed in WTA soil.

This year outdoor cucumbers (Marketmore) are having there first run on the allotment. The first six healthy plants grown from seed are now in and hopefully settling in with the added rain. I never thought growing cucumbers outside in the UK was a realistic option, and maybe it isn' t this far North

A now for some 'worrying' news.... The five butternut pumpkins/squash I planted out a few few weeks ago look like they are struggling and may not make it. Right now I can only think that the compost/cow manure hey were planted in was not rotted down well and enough and subsequently too rich. The good news I kept a few in reserve and will locate them on a part of WTA should the unspeakable happens and I loose everything. Keep a few reserves on the cold frame 'bench' has been part of the plan this year and hopefully pays off. The 'reserve stock' make good pressies if they are not needed or good replacements for mates elsewhere whose plants may have hit hard times and not made it..

The rest of the week beckons and with another four days off its time to hit the weeds in the top bed. Grow Well...

Good fruit trees make great allotment neighbours!

2009-05-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

Not much action of WTA today. The rain has been intermittently heavy. This morning there was a chance to set up a few metal arches which, with netting, will protect calabrese seedlings ready for planting out. The courgette seedlings planted yesterday seem to be settling in well and the first planting parsnips are looking fabulous thanks to the protective fleece put over them earlier in the year. The weeds are beginning to look a little ominous right now but a few hours work next week and the return of Johnny Bridgemeister to these shores next week will soon have the problem solved...for a while.

WTA is incredibly fortunate to have some gorgeous apple trees that overhang its boarders. The generous owner of these trees lets me pick virtually as much fruit as I want in the season in exchange for being able to pick some vege when she needs it - a 'win-win' agreement for both of us. Evidently thousands of tons of fruit produced on back yard trees is wasted/left to rot each year in the UK - an anomaly needing to be addressed or in fact capitalised on by those looking for inexpensive and extremely healthy food.

You may have noticed that I have added Old Sleningford Farm to my link list. The website and the farm itself are definitely worth a visit. The folks at Old Sleningford are inspirational in what they have done and what they do in terms of educating others about horticulture and being at the cutting edge .

The Hearing scientist and I found this place thanks to Mariner Tim after we were looking for cider making course to go on last September. We ended up making a trip up to the farm, in picturesque Yorkshire and arrived to find one of the most arguably innovative community projects in Britain...watch out for further posts on WTA wine and cider making. Have a great week and keep growing!

'Growing your own' isn't always easy...there will be losses!

2009-05-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

More wonderful rain today. In between showers I managed to get out and plant out some cauliflower seedlings that seem to have been on the go for months and months. At that time, I planted two varieties - All Year Round and Snowball. In my haste I forgot to label them so there the patch is going to be a bit of mix match.The first lot I planted were an unqualified disaster with only 2/3 survivors out of about 20 I planted. Perhaps it was too cold for them at the time or some allotment rodent predators attacked them. Allotment gardening isn't always easy....there will be losses - in that regard allotments are a significant metaphor for life itself....

The potatoes (first and second earlies) are looking good and were earthed up today after I planted out a dozen courgettes (Defender F1 and Soleil ) into a non dig-bed I created last year. The courgettes produced on WTA last year were incredible and became a staple part of the diet for a few months. Courgette grilled on a barbecue are unbeatable as part of summer dinner or lunch.

The hearing scientist has been barred from any gardening activity for the next few weeks after a minor operation to remove a mole from her leg on Thursday. A "Catastrophe" she says . Still, never one to let anything stop her, she has begun bottling the seriously good home made wine which has finished fermenting. Earlier the HS found a picture of some veg I produced on the allotment last year and we picked for the family Christmas dinner 2008. I'm determined to have a vege self sufficient yule this year.

Elementary penguin singing hari krishna...

2009-05-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Sitting in an
English garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan
From standing in the English rain.

( I am the Walrus. Lennon and McCartney)

Rain plays a central part in the Psyche of the average Englishwomen and man. The mythical status of precipitation looms large in gardening, popular cultural, anyconversation you have in a pub and of ourse allotment holders! Ilove it! And this week we've had plenty of it! My brocolli (Belstar F1), cauliflower (all year round) and leek (real) seedlings have been lapping the moisture up. Thank the heavens for one of the greatest and increasingly scarce resources on the earth - water!

Mariner Tim aka Sailor Tim was been enquiring about his 'memorial onion bed' yesterday via email from some super yacht, on which he works, off the coast of St Tropez. I was pleased to report the onion sets he and I had planted last year are developing wonderfully and benefiting from the rain (one must get weather into any conversation one has).

Saturday lookslike being a washout here ( a good timeto rest the 'idiot stick injury') .As ever there are plenty of things to do on the WTA - espcially weeding and earthing up potatoes...the plants are quickening!

'Idiot Stick' Injuries

2009-05-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

My blistered thumbs are still smarting. This morning, my fellow horticulturalist, 'the hearing scientist' was adamant my gardening stigmata should be covered by plasters to prevent further infection. On Monday, a bloke I know saw my allotment wounds an immediately recognised the said blisters as "idiot stick" injuries - the blisters you get from doing good, old fashioned manual work with metal tools attached to wooden pole. It felt really silly when after explaining how I got my blisters, to one of my students, he looked up at me and asked 'Why didn't you wear gloves?' They really are 'Idiot stick' blisters!

Top mate, all-round top fella and an official 'Friend of Walnut Tree Allotment', Johhny Bridgemeister is sunning himself and drinking brandy on an island somewhere, unavailable to help out on WTA right now. Johnny has a pathological hatred of nettles, especially those popping up in allotment beds. Give him a sharp metal impliment, and this polymath will lay waste, with seething vitriol, to all manner of weeds, and nettles. Having 'gardening mates' like Johnny is pure gold. I just hope the big man is getting his strength up for when he returns - he may be needed on a bed weeding misssion!

My butternut pumpkins planted in one of the 'test' non dig beds are looking strong. I'm a big fan seaweed solution when it comes to watering in seedlings. The 'black stuff' is popular with Aussie gardeners who buy it in 1 Litre containers (the biggest commerically avaliable containers I've seen here are about 200ml). Watering with seaweed solution seems to dramatically reduce seedling transplant shock the liquid is also superb stuff for reviving plants that have been stresssed for some reason or other.

Walnut tree allotment awakens

2009-05-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

Mid-March and Walnut Tree Allotment has well and truly sprung back into life. My hands carry the blisters of four hours of "strimming" using an industrial strength strimmer with blade to cut back grass, nettles and cow parsley which had grown ominously tall since the official end of winter.

Carrots (Parmex and Flystat) sowed several weeks ago (I can't remember the exact date) have germinated and are now beginning to bush out. The Salsify seeds have also germinated but don't have the spectacular bushy appearance of their neighbours.

I'm still breathing a sigh of relief after finally planting the last of my seed potatoes - some three and a half dozen in all (Swift, Smile, Sante, Maris Piper and Desiree). The window sills in the spare bedroom where overflowing with chitting potatoes before Easter and I was beginning to be overwhelmed by the prospect of having to get them all in the ground. With a bit of grunt work however, the blighters were buried and I look set to have enough spuds to feed the entire village (and a few others down the road) later in the year! The Jerusalem Artichokes planted in the depths of winter are beginning to sprout through the ground and past a thick mulch of straw and cower manure placed on them a month or so ago.

The Onion patch (my onion sets planted last September/October with the help of 'Sailor Tim') is looking fabulous after a thorough weeding. Finally, the first of my pumpkin seedlings (Crown Prince) are now also nestling in the ground surrounded by the thick straw of my new "non-dig" bed...talking of which it's time for, after a couple of hectic days chasing the self sufficiency dream.