Today's Harvest & the FROG!!

Today's visit was mainly to de - erect the Sweet Potato Suite as the wind had blown it over yet again, so with the help of a pair of scissors to cut through all the many, many cable ties that were supposed to be holding it all firmly in place, I got to work, snipping here and snipping away there.  I managed to salvage the green plastic which formed the main body of the polytunnel, but the plastic used for both ends was really flimsy and just got torn to ribbons, so in the recycle bin it went.

I then set about harvesting the sweetcorn - the ones that I grew in a block.  There were only about 4 left so I put the corns to one side and pulled out and composted all 12 stems.

Unfortunately the branch holding the pears on the pear tree (well it wouldn't be an apple tree now would it) had completely broken off under the strain so I picked off all the pears to bring home and hopefully ripen up a little.  I also harvested som salad leaves, a couple of small leeks which looked too good to resisit and my Sweet Pepper from the Greenhouse - all to be used (not the pears) for tonights dinner.  Not too sure what I am going to do with them yet, but I have some Chicken Breasts, so possible bake them with the leeks, some tomatoes & the pepper in the oven, serve with salad and some 1st Early (pentland javelin) potatoes - cheap dinner!!

Now, if you remember, I reported a FROG sighting in my GH not so long ago, see   http://alithefrog.blogspot.com/2010/07/fruits-frogs-flying-ants.html and lucky for me he or indeed she showed up again today!!  I don't know if it is the same one but the markings do look similar.  Lets hope he or she is there to stay a little longer.

More Tomatoes, Chilli's, Hangings & a good tidy up

I had a bit of time on my hands today (Saturday) so I decided that after a few household chores, I would spend some "proper" time at the allotment.  I desperately needed to get rid of the onions that have been drying in the Greenhouse, give the said Greenhouse a jolly good tidy up and re- arrange and stuff like that.

This was my first "sighting" when opening the GH door - and that's just one of them!

Another ripe Fiorentino tomato ready to pick

And this is the result of more pickings from the GH and outside.  Outside, there are so many Roma, Cherry & Fiorentino tomatoes still to ripen - lets hope they do before the blight comes.

These are the "hangings" - I actually had another lot but I gave one away to a fellow allotment holder that didn't have such a successful crop.

 She was very reluctant to take them but I told her of my 5 strings of the over wintering onions currently hanging in my store room at home and I convinced her that she will have some crop more successful than mine so we can swap then!

Now for the big GH tidy up - as you can see the onions are well and truly gone!  I inspected all the tomato plants and if they didn't have anything much left on them I composted them.

 This means that I can now actually walk into my GH with more ease and I have re located the Sweet Peppers in their growbag from the middle of the floor to the very end by the vents as in this picture to the right.

 As you can see, the Sweet Peppers are looking really good.  I have 3 Sweet Pepper plants outside too, but they are not doing so well - alot smaller but they will catch up.












And now for my Chilli Plants - next year I won't be going so mad on the quantity of Chilli Plants I grow - I have far too many for only 2 people to consume.  I might ask the local curry house if they will do me a swap - a dozen chilli's for a chicken madras - it's worth a try!








 This is one of several aubergines thriving in the GH - sorry about the picture - it's sideways and not your vision gone funny!

And last but not least is my favourite Sweet Pepper - my only one that's turning a slight shade of red.

Tomatoes, Onion & a plum thief to report!

Another load of Tomatoes picked - Now having a little soak and wash before being made it a sauce.

Some of the onions drying out in the Greenhouse.....

But I need the space in there to dig up and dry off the Potates (all 7 rows), so I had to make a start on stringing the onions up

So a few nails strategically placed in the shed

and hey presto, I have already managed 3 onion strings!

And yes, over the weekend, some really awful person has decided that it's ok to help themselves to my plums, my lovely plums that were almost ready before the weekend, as I had tried one myself on Thursday.  I decided that a few more days on the tree would help them to ripen that little bit more, and make them taste a little sweeter, but after a weekend away in York and upon my immediate return on Tuesday, they were all gone.

The detective work will have to start!!

August: confessions and harvesting....

My confession is that I do feel guiltly that I haven't updated my Allotment Blog for what seems like ages, but I do have a very very good reason.  You see, me and Hubby have been on the road to "Adoption" since October 2008. We did all the required course and got "Approved" in September 2009.  Since then we have been searching for a little boy to come and share our lives.  I say little - 5 years old plus.  Anyway, it's finally happened and instead of the normal "9months" you would have to prepare if you gave birth naturally or "3months" which is the norm in adoption, we are getting 6 weeks! so now you can understand my slight loss of computer time as we have been busy preparing a room for Junior as he will be here mid Sept!!

Anyway, back to Plot 144:

I couldn't resist this picture - reminded me of someone wearing a little hat!

This was a very juicy "Fiorentino" tomato - Mmmmmm

One of my chilli's is going red!

Another Fiorentino in the greenhouse ready for picking!

The same chilli getting redder!

 Oh look at the sweet peppers - nearly ready and way ahead of the ones outside!

And finally, my water butt needed brightening up so I bought so wheelie bin stickers from the Pound Shop and now its very SPRING like!!

We have been eating lots of produce from the allotment including: Lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot, courgettes, potatoes, cucumbers & khol rhabi!  I have been planning my recipes around my produce rather than the normal way of findig a recipe book and going off to the supermarket for ingredients! Last night I made Potato & courgette gratin which was a massive hit! Mmmmmmm