Early February on the Allotment - the start of spring

Early February on the Allotment

The weather is just stunning today. Bright sunshine, a scattering of little white clouds around the edges, a gentle breeze and so mild! You could almost kid yourself it’s springtime. n Ireland, the Feast of St Brigid – 1^st February, is traditionally the first day of spring and, just occasionally, it lives up to it.

As I walked to my plot this morning the little signs of spring were apparent all around. New leaves appearing on shrubs in gardens. Even my fig tree, in a large pot, at my front door, is showing signs of new growth. A large camellia is already showing colour in the new buds – not on my bush, I have to add, mine is always late. Bulbs are well up and some, like snowdrops and muscari or grape hyacinths are already coming into flower.

As always, the birds are desperately looking for food and are already mating up and shouting about their territories.

Well, I’ve had to take a couple of hours… or so… off writing, to watch the start of the Six Nations Rugby and … what a start, magic! And what a hero is Brian O’Driscoll and what a pity he is coming to the final years of his international playing. I’m more than happy about the result, especially as I didn’t want Wales to be trashed. I want them to win every other game. It is a pity that Scotland performed so poorly in the Calcutta cup. I can’t think of a reason why they consistently to fail to win  - coaches, players, motivation[nah!] but, perhaps they will make more progress in the upcoming matches. The next matches this weekend – France V Italy. I do hope Italy steps up. I would really like to see 6 teams which are equal and equal to beating the southern hemisphere teams in years to come. Good luck to all teams in the Six Nations but, especially to Ireland.

It has been too wet to do much outside on my plot. I’ve sorted a couple of brassica cages but, I only have a few Brussels sprouts stalks left and they are looking a bit ragged after the winter. My fruit cage has been seriously dented by the weight of the snow on the top of the cage. I think I will have to replace a few of the posts for it. This cage has mostly gooseberries, my main redcurrant bush [and it grows to over 6 feet- I’ve no idea what variety it is as I inherited it but, it is amazing] and a couple of high yielding blackcurrants. The birds seem to enjoy mostly the redcurrants and gooseberries. So far I don’t know about white-currants. I have never grown them before and only planted a couple of bushes last season. I will net them anyway – perhaps the birds won’t recognise them! While the birds do take a few blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries, I have not found them such a problem that I feel I should net these crops.

Of course, the ground is unbelievably wet and mucky. Impossible to even think of trying to work it. Today, my focus was on my poly-tunnel. I noticed a couple of damage spots to the polythene. On first looking, I thought this had been carelessness on my part when strimming around the edges outside. However, on closer inspection, I could clearly see the claw marks of an animal trying to get inside. The marks were wide enough to be fox damage but not sharp enough to be an invasion by a cat. What could they have been after? The resultant openings were not wide enough to permit a fox or a cat? I hope I will be able to get the coming season from my polythene cover for my tunnel, if I’m lucky with the weather and the unexpected damage, I might just get another year from it but, already I see the polythene splitting along its original fold lines.  It is a serious expenditure and I feel I must make the present polythene last as long as possible. This will be my fourth year from the present cover.

I haven’t set up my propagator yet but, today I sowed seeds in my poly-tunnel - broad beans, beetroot, winter lettuce – vaila,  leeks and sweetpeas. All in pots so that I can transplant when ready.

Beetroots, Beans and Courgettes

Well, I had been hoping for a title of 3 x C’s [ courgettes, cucumbers and cauliflowers] but, although my cucumbers have exceeded my expectations – so, more in my next blog – this blog is about those late summer and into autumn crops.

Beetroots, this year, have been brilliant. I sowed the seed in small pots in my poly-tunnel then transplanted out in late April – no thinning necessary and I have had a great crop of medium to large roots. It has to be said that the roots systems of these plants has been shallow – perhaps this system of planting and growing would not have been so successful in a dryer year. But, do I need long roots which could break in harvesting and allow the roots to ‘bleed’ during cooking? More experiments next year.

Now what do I do with all of these vegetables? For me, I have always steamed or boiled them, then pickled – of course, as a vegetable, they should not be ignored though the cooking time somewhat puts me off -2 - 3 hours boiling or steaming or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.

Of course there are other ways of cooking beetroot. One of the wonderful aspects of having children who are also interested in food - growing and cooking is that they now give me recipes, ideas and methods of cooking vegetables I would never have dreamed of. My younger daughter tells me that she roasts her beetroot before using in dishes like soup or casseroles – she thinks it develops the flavour better than just steaming or boiling. She allows 2 – 3 hours in a low oven depending on the size of the roots. Of course, you could make more of this process and wash, trim, peel and cut the roots into wedges. Add similar sized carrots, garlic and potatoes to a medium roasting tin. Sprinkle generously with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, rosemary, salt and pepper and roast in a medium oven for 50 to 60 mins – brilliant!

Well beans! What can I say this year? Although my broad beans, both autumn and spring sown were good – not brilliant but acceptable. I’ve had several goes at trying to establish the different types I’ve been used to growing successfully. At last, my runner beans [Moonlight from Dobies – chitted in late April] have started to produce harvestable bean pods. This was not the fault of the beans though might have been my fault as I chatted them and was unable to plant out due to the very dry conditions – the ground was like rock. I guess I could have potted them on but, had too many other plants to deal with- they were not my priority in my limited space. Some of my allotment neighbours have been harvesting runner beans for a couple of weeks now.

My Purple Teepee French beans, normally so very productive, have been slow, but then again, they have been eaten off by both slugs and pigeons and only a second sowing in pots in my polytunnel, then planted out under netting has eventually started to provide me with a crop.

I don’t think we should measure the potential for this vegetable on this season’s results. This is an unusual year. As one of my neighbours said – a gardener in his eighties who has seen many years, both good and bad - these are the kind of conditions which we must accept. I have never seen a year like this before.

Courgettes – well! it has taken me several goes this year to establish three productive courgette plants. Many of my seeds failed to germinate. Some of those failed to grow on successfully and, of those which ‘stayed the course’, I now have three plants producing more fruits than I can cope with. My plants are Orelia F1 from Dobies. As I have said in a previous blog, I am not a big fan of the Zucchini type of courgette. I find them wet and tasteless. However, these wonderful plants, my Orelia, are slower growing and produce beautiful, golden, dry courgettes which don’t gallop towards huge tasteless and wet marrows overnight. The Orelia can be used in so many dishes – add as a vegetable to curries; as an onion and courgette quiche [try with a blue cheese topping – my favourite is with Blue Stilton]; use with chicken in a cheesy sauce with pasta – add lots of garlic, lemon thyme and marjoram. I love envelopes of sliced vegetables, especially courgettes or squashes, with chicken breast or thigh joints – add a little fruit if you have it – a sliced apple or peach though do experiment with more exotic fruits. Allow a generous seasoning and wrap up in tin foil or greaseproof paper –then bake for 1 hour in a medium oven.

But do try this recipe – my elder daughter thinks this is so tasty:

Aine’s Courgette and Potato Pie

Ingredients:
500-750g courgettes – green or gold
4 large potatoes
1  onion, sliced or diced

2 eggs
250g grated cheddar cheese – or similar cheese which will melt during cooking
1 Tblsp olive oil
a sprig of  lemon thyme

1 portion of puff, flaky or rough puff pastry [use frozen or make your own]
seasoning to taste

Method

·         Grate the courgettes (no need to peel) and then pat dry to remove excess water, especially if you are using green courgettes.

·         Peal and then grate the potatoes. Combine the courgettes, potatoes, onions, herbs, eggs, cheese with some salt and pepper in a large bowl and ensure thoroughly mixed.

• Again drain off any excess water – allow a little water for the potatoes to cook.
• Grease a pie dish and place the mixture in the dish.
• Roll out the pastry and place over the top, trim off any excess.
• Bake for 50mins-1hour in  a moderately hot oven until the pastry is golden.
• Serve.  Great with a crisp salad with a sharp lemony dressing.

May Day Magic

First of May – Late Spring and the main planting Month

Well, they do say you should be careful what you wish for – you might get it! And, we were wishing very hard for some rain. It has now officially been confirmed that April 2012 was the wettest April since records began, well over 100 years. For many people around the country this is a tragedy, with lost livestock, destroyed homes and property and even one man drowned in the floods.

For growers, all is definitely not lost. The ground is becoming quite wet now but not yet, damagingly so. For quite some time, the rain just ran off the drought hardened earth but, it has now penetrated quite well, although yesterday, when I dug a couple of shallow ridges to plant my too well sprouted beans – Purple Teepee [dwarf purple skinned French beans] and Yinyang or Orca beans [dwarf growing variety good for drying for winter] – the ground was still not too wet. My real fear is that it is a bit too cold though, not as cold as it was last Saturday when we had our Spring Fair. Still, these beans will just have to grow or not, as they will. There were too many of them for me to pot up in my polytunnnel and I have several other varieties still waiting to be planted out.

This year I have sown beetroot [Boltardy] in pots in my polytunnel. I’m not really sure why, as I’ve never had any problems with their germination when sown straight into the ground, although it does mean I now don’t have to thin the rows. That said, each beetroot seed actually has 2 or 3 seeds in it so the young plants still have to be separated for growing on. Either way, there is a little work involved. I’m just trying this method as an experiment. It certainly saves on seed. From half a packet I have now planted out three by five metre rows where before, I would have used two packets of seed for this area. In spite of the cold weather, they seem to have settled in quite well.

It did stop raining for a few hours yesterday so, I was able to go to my plot to feed the birds and water my tunnel – odd to be carrying water in weather like this but, of course, it doesn’t rain indoors!

I lifted my first early potatoes yesterday – Vales Emerald, from my polytunnel. In my last Blog I was complaining about red ants having destroyed several of my potato plants. I have now lost a few more and on digging around their roots I have discovered another red ant nest. I’m afraid I also had to dig it out and spray again with Py. It has been quite disappointing for my crops and has somewhat reduced my sympathy for that particular branch of wildlife.

However, the potatoes I did lift were delicious and it has cleared an area in my tunnel to start planting out tomato and chillis which are now becoming slightly pot-bound.

As I am writing I hear the forecast is promising dry weather for tomorrow so, hopefully, I will be able to spend a few hours on my plot clearing an area for climbing beans, setting up the canes and, with luck, planting some out. If I can break the ground down enough I might even consider sowing some carrot and spring onions.

Fruit bushes and canes look fresh and healthy and are satisfyingly covered in blossom. I still haven’t used all the gooseberries I froze last summer. I might use them to make a batch of gooseberry and mint jelly – the mint is particularly lush just now – and this jelly is perfect with any roast meats but especially with lamb.

Gooseberry and Mint Jelly

Gooseberries make a satisfyingly sharp jelly especially if used while slightly unripe

900 gms / 2lbs gooseberries 

600ml/1 pint water

Sugar ( see method) 

Large bunch of mint

½ litre [1 pint] washed, dried  and finely chopped mint leaves    

Method

1. Wash the gooseberries and remove leaves or pieces of twig  - it isn’t necessary to top and tail them.

2. Put in a pan with the water and the large bunch of mint (use a large pan, like a preserving pan if you have).

3. Bring to the boil then simmer gently until the fruit is soft, approx 10 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to crush the fruit occasionally as it cooks, a little more water may be added if necessary.

4. Strain the fruit through a jelly bag or muslin bag – leave overnight. Do not squeeze the bag or the jelly will be cloudy.

5. Measure the juice and add 450g/1 lb sugar to each 600ml/1 pint juice

6. Put the juice into a clean large saucepan or preserving pan, add the sugar and heat gently, stirring to ensure all the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a rolling boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

7. Skim and put into pots. Allow it to cool slightly, then add the chopped mint and stir a little to encourage the mint to mix evenly through the jelly. [If you add the mint immediately it will stay on the surface of the jelly]. 

8. Cover and seal.