Organic Allotment

Ups And Downs

It's getting to that time of year when it's all busy, busy, busy tidying up the plot in anticipation of the onset of winter. It may be a time that marks the end of one growing year but for me that isn't a bad thing because it also marks the beginning of another new one with seeds to be chosen, garlic to be planted and plans to be drawn up of what will be going where in the new year. This means that it is also a good time to have a think back and consider what has done well and what has been a disaster in the season that is drawing to a close. So, here it is for me...

Success Stories

Florence Fennel - the best year ever for this. Plenty of big, fat tasty bulbs and still going strong so we've got much more crunchy aniseed fun to come!

Swede - okay, so these aren't so exciting but I really love them and it's the first time I've ever grown them so I'm pretty proud of the results.

Pumpkins and Squash - a slow start with these but they're finally doing excellently, with just enough time left for them to ripen before it gets too cold.

Sunflowers - not a veg I know but I grow loads of cut flowers and these have been amazing this year. We've had big bunches of friendly, sunny blooms in the house pretty much constantly since mid-summer.

Big Fat Failures

Celery - it all started so well.. Then the weather got cold at the beginning of summer and the plants fell into a state of suspended animation that they have never recovered from.

Sweetcorn - the squirrels got to them before I did.

Tomatoes - ruined by blight again... Not sure what the answer to this is. It may mark the final year of tomatoes at the allotment though. I think we'll have a better chance of success in the garden so that's the plan for next year. I've got everything crossed that this will work...

Squrriel Rampage

Fresh sweetcorn is pretty much my favourite crop off the allotment. I love getting a pot of water boiling on my little gas stove in the shed to drop the cobs into the minute that they've been picked. This year they were a bit slow to get started because the weather has been so unpredictable but finally, over the last couple of weeks, they've put on enough growth to make my mouth water at the thought of eating them. Then it all went wrong...

This is what a corn cob looks like after a squirrel has eaten it. The annoying thing about squirrels is that they don't just take one cob - they eat them all. Every single last one. Very, very annoying! It's going to be a long cold winter ahead planning how to protect my precious corn next year. Any suggestions how to keep the squirrels at bay?

At Least Something is Hot Around Here!

All things considered the weather has been pretty useless here this summer. It's gone from one extreme to the other with fantastic weather swiftly followed by howling winds and torrential rain. It's been impossible to decide what to wear at the plot and the unpredictability has almost entirely put paid to the long summer nights on the allotment that I love so much. It has also meant that lots of things that we have tried to grow have been really hit and miss in terms of yield. For example, our French beans did nothing at the cold beginning of the season but then romped on in the warm wet days, our tomatoes got blight in the wash out and our squash came on depressingly late in the season because it wasn't warm enough.

Despite all this, one thing that has done extraordinarily well is the chili peppers in the greenhouse. We've lost a couple to mice with very well developed palates who have climbed up and taken chunks out of the fruit but, apart from that mishap, they've been a real success. In fact, they've done so well that we're now having to choose how to preserve them because we've got so many and want to make the best of the harvest over the winter. The plan is to dry as many as we can to use in cooking later in the year and also to make chili oil for cooking. I love chilies so this glut of fruit is almost enough to console me for the other disasters that we've had this year!

Pesto Time

Pesto is a perfect summer recipe. It uses up the piles of basil that you will be trying to get through by this time in the season, and is the perfect light and zingy meal for a warm, sunny afternoon. There is also something positively therapeutic about the satisfyingly simple process of making it that is a lovely way to wind down to the relaxed mood that should be a guaranteed feature of every August afternoon.

I use the recipe that Matthew Fort swears by and that was published in The Guardian a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I can't seem to track this down online so instead I've had to link to another by Antonio Carluccio that is pretty much the shame and that I'm sure will taste just as good. And for those of you who've never made your own pesto before? I implore you to have a go because it is so easy and because it tastes so much better than any you will ever buy in a jar, and I can also assure you that it is one recipe that is just as much fun to make as it is to eat.

Odd One Out

Here's a little question for you... Which of the vegetables in this picture is an intruder? Three of them turned out just as expected but the fourth. Well that's a total mystery...

The brilliantly vivid beans are Purple Queen which are tasty, a heavy cropper and un-fussy french bean which I've had great success with over the last couple of years. Normally two batches of plants with a month in between will see you right through to the first frost if you are diligent with your picking.

The pink spuds are Desiree. We've never had great success with potatoes round these parts as we seem unable to avoid blight but when we do manage to  grow even a few it's worth it because they taste so delicious.

The yellow carrots are Yellowstone and are the second successful batch of carrots from our greenhouse growing regime which has proved to be an excellent way of avoiding root fly - another pest which is unfortunately endemic at our allotments.

And the bright orange cucumber? Your guess is as good as mine. It's supposed to be a delicate Parisian Pickler but a couple of days away from the plot and this is what I found when I got back. Has anyone got any suggestions what might have caused a cucumber to go such a shocking shade of orange?

Pass It On

 After a slow start, the summer harvest is really in full flow now with a fantastic selection of fruit and veg to choose from every time we go down to the plot. It's that time of year when the tomatoes are just starting to come into their own and the courgettes are really starting to run out of control. It's great to have enough extra to give to friends and family but each time I give something away I'm reminded of a phrase that I heard last year on the radio: "aggressive generosity". The idea that sometimes us allotment gardeners and vegetable growers have so much of a certain crop that we want to give away that we can be rather over enthusiastic as we try to hand it on to other people. You must have had the experience when work colleagues' faces dropped as you bring in the fifth bag of runner beans in a week to share with them?

"Are beans the only thing you grow?" is usually the response that this generates in my office. Of course, people are more than happy to take fresh, organic veg off my hands but there are only so many configurations of the bean that  sane person can dream up in any given five day period.

On my plot the killer crops are the aforementioned courgettes and runner beans which we always end up with a glut of. Then there are other crops like fennel, sweetcorn or broad beans that you'd have to fight me for. So, spill the beans... What are the crops that you grow that force you to resort to aggressive generosity?

Something a Little Bit Different

If you take a look through some of the older posts on this blog you may get the idea that I really like having a go at growing unusual varieties of veg on the allotment. This astute detective work on your part would be totally spot on. Yellow beans, purple tomatoes...if you can't buy it in the shops and it looks a little out of the ordinary the chances are that I'd probably be game to have a try at growing it. The turnip in this picture is a case in point. It's called a Limousin Giant and I got the seeds from Real Seeds. If you have never bought seeds from them before I can only repeat what I've written on here in the past - they're excellent seed sellers and I can't recommend them highly enough.

Limousin Giants can grow up to 10 inches, though it's better to pick them smaller when they're still tender. This one was the first ready for picking and was the most delicious turnip I've ever eaten! Great cooked but so soft and sweet it could easily have been eaten raw.

So, spill the beans... What's the most unusual crop you're growing this year?

Garlic Harvest

Our garlic has all been picked at the allotment this week. It may be slightly early by a week or two but the leaves were starting to go yellow which is usually the first hint that they're ready to be picked. Also, some bulbs were showing signs of the dreaded white rot so I wanted to get them out of the ground as soon as possible. If any of your healthy garlic or onions suddenly keel over the chances are this is what the problem is. The other tell tale signs are stunted growth and a nasty, white, fluffy mould on the bulb and roots when you pick them.

One of the main problems with white rot is that it may be present in the bulbs that aren't exhibiting any symptoms. This will cause them to rot in storage which is a real pest in a plant that we mainly grow to store over the winter months. Another thing that makes it tricky to deal with is that once it's in the soil it's virtually impossible to get rid of. The best estimates I've seen in books is not to plant alliums for seven years. The worst estimate? 20 years! This kind of soil infestation can be a real problem when veg is grown year after year, like on allotments. Especially when people don't rotate their crops!

I only have a 4 year rotation on my allotment which does stop it becoming totally rampant but I don't have enough space, or the impetus, to stop growing in the infected areas - I love fresh garlic! So I take the risk every year and this time the weather has been on my side and it hasn't affected the crop too badly.

Who needs a freezer?

We don't have a freezer at home for lots of eccentric reasons but who needs one with the weather we've been having? Finally we've had some real hard frosts at the plot over the last few mornings which has been just what the soil was waiting for! However, this kind of frost isn't without its drawbacks... I went up to the plot on Sunday morning to pick some goodies to take to my boyfriend's parents but everything was frozen hard with it impossible to dig a leek or cut a cabbage.

This is how the purple sprouting broccoli looked and, if I say so myself, I think Birdseye would be jealous of frozen veg of this calibre. However, you may notice from the picture that the pigeons have been the ones having most enjoyment from the broccoli this year, pecking all the goodness out of it at any opportunity, which is a real pain. The plants this year were the biggest and strongest we've had, and the pigeons have taken a real fancy to them which has never been a problem before. I can assure you that next year they'll be netted like all the rest of our brassicas. I don't mind sharing anything with local wildlife and normally argue that there's enough to go round everyone but this time I have to be tough because we haven't had a look in and psb is one of my favourites off the allotment. Any other suggestions for pigeon diversion?

The Last Fennel

The first year on the plot I tried to grow fennel without any success - it was too hot... then not hot enough...then too dry...then too wet...the days were too long...the days were too short...Basically fennel's as fussy as anything and every single one I planted bolted - incidentally they do look really nice when they bolt and flower but that doesn't exactly win any points in the kitchen department. This year I started the seeds off in pots in late spring in the greenhouse and didn't plant them outside until after the longest day as they are very sensitive to the shortening days and will bolt if they are planted out too early. The weather was on my side with regard to watering and, if anything, they were too wet. I think the only problem was that the soil wasn't quite rich enough so the bulbs didn't end up as big as I'd have liked - the cool weather won't have done any favours in this respect either. Despite all these hurdles I did end up which I nice haul of fennel, the last of which I picked this week- small but perfectly formed and they taste fantastic.

Also in the picture is the last of the chicory which has been another success story this year and grown really well. It's an acquired taste because the leaves are very bitter but added to other lettuce in a salad it gives a real kick.