Wednesday 24 January 2018

Harvest Monday - rainy days

Well, after a couple of days trying to get photos to upload (even buying another blogging app), we've not managed to work out why it's not working, so here is Monday's blog post, sadly lacking any pics.....
 
It always seems to be rainy on the days I have free so I haven't made it to the allotment much, and I haven't got many photos this week either. I did pop down today briefly to check for wind damage, after the bad weather last Thursday morning (Norwich and Norfolk lost lots of trees, with loads of roads blocked too. We were watching the huge tree in the alley behind our house swaying around at 5.45am - it was a bit worrying but fortunately the tree stayed put, phew). Luckily as I don't have a greenhouse on the allotment, there's not too much that can be damaged, so just a few bits and pieces had blown around. And the shed was still upright so I'll count that all as a win.
 
I harvested some kale, leaves from the random brassica, corn salad, mizuna and rosemary. I wish all my brassicas did as well as the random. It grew from homemade compost I used as a mulch, so the compost must've had some good nutrients etc in it. In fact, that's on my list of jobs to do - weed the rest of the beds and mulch with compost or leaf mould.

We broke into the last of the green butternut squashes. It's much smaller than the two mega squashes that grew but even so, a meals worth used about a quarter of the squash, so we've still more to go. Jan roasted this with some homemade chilli flakes
 
We mixed the roasted squash with onion, carrot, mushrooms (not homegrown), and green beans from the freezer. It was nice! And there was enough to last two days so we had leftovers tonight
 

From storage, I'm also eating up the last of the dessert apples. There's a couple of trays of cookers left as well. And that reminds me, there's a tray of beetroot which needs using up too, the beets are starting to go a bit soft. Apart from that, we've got plenty of fruit and other goodies in the freezer including sweetcorn and courgette.

 

A couple of interesting items arrived in the mail this week - the diary from My Harvest (for recording allotment visits) and the Organic Gardening Catalogue. So hooray I can now sort out my seed order (that's a job for Weds as I'm volunteering at Eves Hill Veg Co tomorrow), and I must fill in the allotment diary with today's visit.

 

And excitingly, the little wren has been flitting around again in the lean-to greenhouse at home, picking off tiny insects from plants. I got a really good view of it yesterday, I was standing right at the window with it just a couple of feet away. It's helping with the aphid problem too, so is welcome any time.

 

That's me for now, thanks for reading. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday kindly hosted this month by Michelle at From Seed to Table.

 

5 comments:

  1. A [lot visit is definitely overdue for us but it has been so wet that the ground is likely to be sodden. We could do to harvest a few things though.



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    1. Hi sue, yeah the soil is very soft with all the rain. Fortunately, having the individual beds with small paths adjacent means no need actually tread on the growing areas.

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  2. It sounds like you are in the depths of winter, so windy and wet. You are making good use of what you have available, either from the plot or from your stores. The squash dish sounds delicious.
    Good luck with your photo upload problem.

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    1. Hi Michelle, it's a funny old winter this year. Not been too cold overall here in Norwich but very windy and rainy, and we didn't get the snow everyone else had either. Hey ho, we're having an occasional sunny day which is always welcome.

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  3. Comment from Joy (which I got as an email, but can't see it on here...odd!)
    joy says.....Photos or not, you still paint a great picture about your produce. I haven't heard of green butternut squash. Are they a particular type?

    Thanks Joy, very kind of you to say so. The green butternuts were not specified as a particular variety on the packet (which I was given as a present), but a friend reckons they're 'nice long', which is a variety she grows.

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