It was a frosty start to this morning, with the temperature down to -4 Celsius. Given the weather and my work commitments over the last few weeks this is the first proper visit I’ve made to the allotment, beyond checking that everything is in order. I’d laid down some tarpaulin a few weeks ago when it was so wet in order to keep a patch dry to allow me to start the winter dig. Here’s a video update from this morning.
I also took a few pictures:
I thought it had been a couple of months since I last did an allotment video, I didn’t realise that actually I haven’t recorded one since the middle of July. Anyhow despite that, here’s one from yesterday.
I also ended up taking a longer than expected dogwalk in the rain later in the day, and here are a few photos from that. I have to say I actually enjoy walking in the rain, I find it therapeutic somehow. I seem to notice more of the world around me than I do normally.
We had our first frost last night, the signs that autumn is truly upon us.
The allotment is winding down now. There’s still lots to do in preparation for next year, but in terms of crops most things are coming to the end. I’ve still got beans up, but only to let them dry and go to seed, and there are still courgettes, squashes and pumpkins. I’ve also got my garlic in, this needs several consecutive cold nights to properly set bulbs for next year, so hopefully this should have plenty of time.
I’ve sown some overwintering broad beans. I used to do this each year but stopped a couple of years ago, as I lost them to winters that were either very cold or wet. I’m gambling that we will have a mild, and hopefully relatively dry winter, and I’ll have an early broad bean crop. If they don’t survive I’m not too bothered as they’re in an area where I want some winter cover, so they’ll provide that if nothing else. I’ll sow more in spring regardless.
The allotment shop took delivery of its seed order this week, and so I made sure I was at the front of the queue to stock up. The above is just a sampling of what I’ll be growing next year, I still need to get runner beans and a few other things before spring.
Speaking of pumpkins, I made pumpkin soup last night. It was fantastic, if I do say so myself, and the good news is there was enough for this evening as well. This is what an allotment is all about – fork to fork.
I also had a practice ahead of Halloween.
My allotment subscriptions are due this month, so I went and paid up this morning. Next year will be my seventh growing season.
It’s the only time of the year that I speak to the site manager at any length, normally we speak in passing and normally about our respective plots rather than anything else.
It turns out however that there has been some pilfering of crops, from across the allotment. We’ve had shed break-ins and thefts, but produce has never been the target of thieves before. It seems like it’s been going on some time. I don’t think I’ve had anything taken, or not so that I’ve noticed but it’s a bit of a low stunt to go around stealing what someone has spent time and effort tending to and growing, in most cases for months at a time.
It’s also going to be difficult to catch whoever the person is, unless someone actually catches them in the act. There are rumours that it is a current plot holder, which makes it seem worse; if they’re stealing what they know takes a lot of effort to grow; or, and this seems more likely, a former plot holder who didn’t return their key when they gave up. This latter option seems the most likely to me.
Fingers crossed that over the next few weeks, nothing will go missing. My pumpkins are nearly ready, but not quite, and I’m looking forward to some pumpkin soup.
Fruit and peas were about two weeks earlier this year
http://timehop.com/c/t:355951490923388928:6258632:5719533:02bd5
With some fairly unsettled weather forecast for today, I thought I’d snag a quick video at the allotment. You can find my previous update here.
And about 40 minutes after recording the video above, this happened!
I’d been looking forward to this series starting on BBC2, a show about the challenges of an allotment, growing your own produce and what you can make or do with it. Or at least that was what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what the program was about.
It was more about the competition element of having an allotment. A bit like the annual village horticultural show on steroids. Very little about the effort that it takes to grow vegetables and flowers of the standard required to show, and much more about the uniformity, conformity and competition.
I admit that I’ve never been one for the competition side of the allotment. I deliberately do not take part in the horticultural show on our allotment, partly because I don’t have the time, and partly because the reason for growing, is for eating and producing. Not for getting one up on my allotment neighbours.
Growing stuff can be hard, but size, shape etc. don’t matter so much when your growing it to eat. A crooked carrot can taste just as good as a perfect straight one.
I was following the show via twitter as well, and it seems that opinion is mixed. Some people loved the show, others not so much. I’m afraid I’m in the latter camp. It didn’t do it for me. I think it had lots of potential, but it wasted a whole growing cycle and focused on the competition. I appreciate this is entertainment and shows such as Bake Off etc. are all the rage. Maybe an allotment is not the right medium for reality competition.
Clearly I have too much time on my hands, but here’s a playlist of all my allotment videos that have made it onto YouTube. I’m sure that there are a few more out there that didn’t make it there, as there are a few big gaps in the chronology. If you have nothing better to do for over two and a half hours, feel free to watch!
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Electronic Scrapbook 