Tag: sweetcorn

Sweeter Corn TWTW # 141

On By tontowilliamsIn books, Garden / Allotment, Kindle, tech, The Week That Was, tv, work

I’ve been bird sitting this week, or rather popping into one of our neighbours to check on their pet cockatiel, change his water and seed and have a ‘chat’ with him. Our conversations are pretty limited I think, and I’m not sure that he’s actually pleased to see me.

I was asked to take a Covid antibody test as part of the Zoe study this week. This test can tell whether you have actually been exposed to the coronavirus and developed natural antibodies to it, as opposed to ones you may have develop from immunisation. My test came back negative, which to be honest was what I was expecting.

Reading

I finished reading Roald Dahl’s Short Stories Volume 1 about middle way through this week and then picked up Len Deighton’s Mexico Set. I read Berlin Game by the same author earlier this year and was intending to read the trilogy – Game, Set, (London) Match at some point, and now feels like as good a time as any.

Watching

We sat down to watch a couple more Clint Eastwood westerns this week – Joe Kidd and Hang ’em High – again I don’t think I’ve watched either of these from start to finish in a very long time. We enjoyed them and I suspect we’ll end up watching some more.

Work

I have a meeting arranged for next week to discuss the proposal I submitted last week. Hopefully this is to discuss any refinements and give me the go ahead with the work. I doubt that they would have arranged a meeting just to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’. This is a reasonable piece of work in terms of the time and mental challenge that it presents so I’m hopeful that they want to proceed as that also means I get paid obviously.

It’s possible that I’ll also be returning to in-person allotment talks soon too. I’m trying to work out how this will actually happen and what changes there will be in order to be Covid-safe. I’m not sure whether I actually want to be back in a room with a group of people of unknown vaccination / negative test status at the moment given the high levels of the virus in the population. I’m waiting to hear back from the organisers of the first of these talks about their new arrangements, but they seem to think that this is down to the owners of the venue.

Allotment

Photograph shows some sweetcorn cobs on a tea towel

As the photograph evidences I’ve managed to harvest some sweetcorn this year. If you’re a regular reader here you’ll know that in previous years harvesting sweetcorn has always been a race against time with the local badger population or some serious fence construction to stop them getting to the plants. In previous years they have pushed over the plants to get at the ripe cobs, devastating the entire crop. Whilst I don’t begrudge them a feed, given how persecuted they are, I don’t intentionally grow the sweetcorn for them. This year I beat them to it.

I suspect the truth is that the set that was behind the allotment site is actually dormant at the moment and the badgers have moved on elsewhere. There’s no sign more generally that they have been about.

In addition to the sweetcorn, I got a good harvest of French beans, patti-pan squash and autumn raspberries.

It’s the time of year when I am thinking about whether or not I am going to continue with the allotment for another year – fees for the year ahead are due in October. This year has been a hard one, with more failures than successes and contaminated manure has lead to a lot of problems with weeds. I am honestly not sure what I am going to do.

Links

The All-Seeing “i”: Apple Just Declared War on Your Privacy – by Edward Snowden

Amazon’s older Kindles will start to lose their internet access in December (US only)

Well that’s it for this week. Have a good week ahead and take care and stay safe whatever you’re up to.

Update From The Potting Shed

On By tontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient

This is the first update from the potting shed for 2017. My tomatoes are out in their final growing spots, a little earlier than I would have liked, but they were getting leggy and needed to go out, but they are just putting out their first flowering spikes so it’s about the right time from that point of view. Also a quick peek at some of the other seeds that I’ve got germinating.

Ready, Steady, Not Quite Go! & A Rhubarb Recipe

On By tontowilliamsIn Cooking, Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient2 Comments

Water Leak - A Work in Progress
Water Leak – A Work in Progress

Well, it’s been a very busy week, and a little unexpectedly so. It was good to get to the weekend though, and to get down to the allotment. If you read my post about the water problems at the site, I’m pleased to report that they have been resolved it seems. The leak has been fixed, and my prayers for rain have been answered, it even managed to rain on the workman when they were trying to sort the problem out.

We’ve had a week of rain at night, and into the morning and then from about mid-morning onwards it’s been bright and sunny, and that pretty much sums up every day this week, until the weekend arrived at it was sunny from the get go!

Plan B for Water
Plan B for Water

My alternative plan for getting water to the allotment arrived in the post during the week, and although it wasn’t technically needed, I still wanted to try it out this morning. It’s an H2GO bag, [Amazon Link – other suppliers do exist] that sits in a wheelbarrow and holds about 50 litres of water. I was a bit skeptical about whether it would actually work, but it does, and I’m really impressed. You need something large like a big bucket to tip the water into, so that you can then scoop it up into a watering can and 50 litres weighs quite a bit so if you’re a long way from where you want to get the water too, you might want to think about not filling it completely full. If I get a chance I’ll try and do a quick video, so you can see it in action.

Off To The Plot
Off To The Plot

When I went down to the plot this morning it was with the main intention of getting some more plants into the ground. Things have been getting a little tight for space in the potting shed, and it was time for some to move out onto the allotment. I had Cavalo Nero, Sweetcorn and some Cucumbers to go down, and although it’s potentially too early for the latter two I had a cunning plan to protect them from the nighttime temperatures which are still dropping down into the mid single figures.

Cavalo Nero In. Brassica Cage Full!
Cavalo Nero In. Brassica Cage Full!

The Cavalo Nero plants went into the brassica cage alongside the cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli. It’s now as full as it’s going to be this year. There are some more brassicas to go, but there’ll have to go into another part of the plot

Sweetcorn In Their New Home (With Net Curtains!)
Sweetcorn In Their New Home (With Net Curtains!)

The sweetcorn have gone in as well, and I’ve built a little windbreak / cage for them too. This one made from enviromesh and some old net curtains (because I didn’t have a big enough piece of enviromesh). The cucumbers are just alongside, and have a fleece “dome” over the top of them. I hope both of these slightly Heath Robinson constructions will help the plants establish. The forecast for the week ahead looks good, and nighttime temperatures aren’t too low, so they may be okay. I’ll keep an eye on them anyway, because they’ll need watering in.

And finally I had a great crop of rhubarb to harvest. I love rhubarb and there are many things that you can do with it, including jams, wine and other nice things. However I think that you can’t beat some nice stewed rhubarb. Now I know that sounds a bit like school dinners, but take my word for it and give it a try. Here’s how I go about preparing it:

  1. Take your rhubarb stalks and remove the leaves (you can’t eat the leaves, as they’re toxic, so throw them on the compost heap or in the bin). Clean the stalks and chop into pieces about 2.5cm long.
  2. Place these in an oven proof glass dish, add a small amount of water (you don’t want to cover them, so just about halfway to the top of the rhubarb).
  3. Add ground cinnamon and brown sugar to taste (about a level teaspoon of cinnamon and a level tablespoon of brown sugar to six stalks of rhubarb, add more sugar if you have a sweet tooth).
  4. Add a generous handful of sultanas.
  5. 2016-05-14 15.43.58

      The Rhubarb Mix – Ready To Go Into The Oven
  6. Cover & put in the oven at a 140ºC / Gas Mark 3, for about 20 minutes. At this point, remove and stir with a fork to break-up (shred) the rhubarb.
  7. Return to the oven for about another 10 minutes, and then repeat the shredding process until the rhubarb is soft and stringy.
  8. Serve straight from the oven (it will be very hot!) with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or allow to cool and serve. Works great on porridge or muesli for breakfast!

The End Result - Great With Vanilla Ice Cream
The End Result –
Great With Vanilla Ice Cream

 

Raindance?

On By tontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient, Video3 Comments

IMG_20160409_093813068I received an email from the Allotment Site Manager at the end of last week that said owing to a broken pipe the water at the allotments had been turned off, and would stay that way until further notice i.e. until they can locate and fix the leak. Not a major problem for me yet, as I have two large waterbutts which collect water from my shed roof, so I have some water for the time being. However if the weather stays the same for the next couple of weeks that water will be gone. At the moment the seedlings need something nearly every day, and although we’ve had the odd nighttime shower it won’t be enough. I think I have a solution in terms of how I can get water from home to the site if I need to, but I’ll write about that some other time (when I’ve tested it).

It has sent a few others into a flat spin however in terms of getting water to their plots. Very few seem to have their own waterbutts and are reliant on the tap(s) to keep their allotments watered. Most seem to have taken to bringing water to site in camping containers and other portable water systems for now.

IMG_20160509_082414926

In other news the plants that I’ve been bringing along in the potting shed have been doing very well indeed (see above, from left to right; cucumbers, pumpkins, sweetcorn & courgette). I’ve started bringing them out into the back garden during the day now, as the potting shed has been reaching temperatures during the middle of the day of 40°C which is great for getting them going, but not so good if they are to go out onto the allotment soon, so I’ll be hardening them off. They’ll go back into the potting shed overnight.

And Finally: