Plugs

Yesterday I received the brassica collection I ordered that was a Special Offer from the Fruit & Vegetable Company in (last months? the month before's?) Kitchen Garden Magazine.

A bit odd receiving plants through the post, but the plugs all look in good condition, and will hopefully stay that way with a bit of TLC until Sunday when I can get on the plot (we're off to watch the Twenty20 Cricket finals at The Oval all day tomorrow, fingers crossed for the weather).

A few days away...

...and look what happens! I couldn't get down to the plot for about 5 days or so last week, and when I did I found the monsters on the right taking over. Five huge courgettes (well, marrows) that I've now got to do something with! I've given a couple away to friends, but I still think that I'll be making a large quantity of curry or something to get through them all!

My pumpkins and butternut squashes are finally producing lots of fruit as well. I haven't been able to count them yet, but there should be enough to keep us in dinners for quite a while in the autumn!

At the weekend we went away for a couple of days camping in the New Forest While we were there we couldn't resist nipping into a local garden centre, and I bought a couple of packets of seeds - a type of spinach I'd not seen before (the name escapes me for a moment, but it's got red leaf stalks) and some Pak Choi, for an autumn/winter crop. This year I'll attempt to keep it flea-beetle free with the liberal use of fleece.

Soup!

Last night I had a go at the Courgette & Roast Garlic soup recipe in this month's Kitchen Garden magazine.

Yum. Very tasty. The roasted garlic gives a nice sweetness (and it's less pungent). Freezable too. One of many courgette recipes I'll need this year if my six plants keep producing at the rate they are at the moment.

Courgette and Slow Roasted Garlic Soup serves 4

5 courgettes, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic in their skin
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I grated it freshly)
1 tblspn olive oil
750ml stock (I used vegetable stock)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Roast garlic in skin with a little oil on a low heat (150C, 300F, gas 2) for 30 minutes.

2. While garlic roasts heat remaining oil in large saucepan, add onion and celery and soften for 2 minutes, then add courgettes and nutmeg and cook, stirring, for a further 5 minutes or so.

3. Remove garlic from oven and peel, add to pan along with stock and simmer for at least 20 minutes, until all ingredients have softened.

4. Blend to semi-smooth consistency (not too much).

5. Season to taste and serve with crusty bread.

NB: if you're not using the oven for something else, garlic can be 'roasted' in 1 tblspn of olive oil in a thick based pan over a low heat

New Blog

I was going to post the latest news about our new deliverable, but then thought "why don't I start a new blog?". So I did.

It's here.

So now you won't have to read about baby stuff unless you want to.

Phew...

Is it hot enough for you?*

I left it until 9pm to get down the plot yesterday, as it was too darned hot before then. Seems that the hour before sundown is the premium time for watering plants, judging by the number of fellow allotmenteers dashing 'twixt pump and plot with watering cans.

I gave those plants that needed it a good soaking. The ground is very dry, but everything's coping at the moment. The courgettes and pumpkins are producing loads of 'babies', so hopefully they'll be pollinated successfully. Still not much in the way of flowers on my butternut squash plants, but lots of foliage. I've pinched out the growing tips (or as many as I can find!) so hopefully they'll stop taking over the end of the plot and start concentrating on the job in hand, i.e. producing fruit for us!

As to last Thursday's awful events in London - I hope that anyone reading this who was affected, either directly or indirectly, recovers soon. I managed to account for all my friends who live or work in London fairly quickly, apart from one lass I know who was actually in the same carriage as the bomb on the train at King's Cross. She survived (a miracle) with relatively minor physical injuries, but Lord alone knows what she's had to deal with mentally. Her blog's been picked up by the BBC, and she's posting there now, and I am sure her musings are doing both her and others a lot of good.

*a traditional British greeting once the temperature creeps above 10ºC, for any non-UK readers!

Pea Moth

I harvested some of my peas yesterday evening. Not a massive crop, as the picture shows, but then I only sowed a few seeds to see how they would grow on my allotment (slowly was the answer). Anne and I sat on our bench and ate a few, and they tasted really sweet. Unfortunately we didn't notice the pea moth larvae until we'd got through about a dozen or so pods. Ewwww.

Apparently the pea moth lays it's eggs in the flower, and they hatch into tiny wee maggotty things inside the pea pods, so you can't see any external damage. Yuk. I kept the peas netted from day one, so the moth must be smaller than the holes in my pea netting. I shall have to use fleece if I dare grow them again next year.

Marrows, anyone?

The weekend's changeable weather meant that we spent Sunday morning 'tidying up' the plot for a BBQ with friends that didn't happen. The plot needed tidying though - the wet weather following recent hot spells has resulted in accelerated growth. This seems to have affected mainly weeds, but I was amazed to see how my courgettes have suddenly expanded - both in foliage and fruit. A few of the fruits had gone from thumb-sized to marrow-sized in only a few days! I shall be keeping a close eye on them from now on and trying to harvest before they get too big. The recent issue of Kitchen Garden magazine has a recipe for courgette and roast garlic soup which I must try, seeing as we have a lot of garlic to get through as well (I tried some of that last week, and it's very potent stuff!).

My pumpkin and butternut squash plants have gone wild as well. The pumpkins are merrily producing flowers and small fruit (some of which will hopefully set) but there's not a single flower on the squash plants. I've got my fingers crossed that they'll begin to flower soon.

Apart from general weeding and strimming of the grassy area, paths and bed edges, I removed the sweet peas as they have long since ceased flowering (and I didn't want them to self-seed everywhere). The clematis that was buried under them can now see the light, and might now improve. I also realised that about 80% of the foliage under my pea netting was weeds, so got in there and pulled them all out - the peas are looking good, and may be harvested later this week.

Anne dug over the old garlic bed and I cleared out some old radishes that had gone to seed, giving some more space for new crops. We have to decide what to plant now. I am considering Swiss Chard (Bright Lights), possibly early turnips and maybe I'll give beetroot a go again (I got almost zero germination from the last lot).