Wednesday 10 October 2012

Strawberries, squashes and a good old cup of Rosy Lee


For the first time in ages today I spent a whole day down the plot, but boy will I be paying for that tomorrow!, as I strike the keyboard, I can already feel my arms and legs stiffening up with the anticipation of tomorrow morning drawing closer, when you get out of bed and think toyourself, “actually I don’t feel too bad” then SMACK it hits you like a hot chilli as you try to stand up to walk to the bathroom!.

Anyway back to the action down the plot, I had help today in the form of my farther, he no longer works due to bad arthritis in his hands he can’t do much heavy work because of them but he can help with all the other jobs plus it’s nice to have someone to talk too whilst working.
Today was clear up day; lots of beads had to have thelast of the crops harvesting and removing and some like the squashes need moving to a dry place to harden up and be cleaned ready to be stored overwinter.
I do love a squash, in particular crown prince, I use tocook with it a lot in many restaurant’s I have worked in it great for stuffing ravioli with or roasting and makes a magnificent soup.
We also worked on the strawberries because they had basically taken over the plot with runners going everywhere I could have made 300 plants today with the amount of runners that had set roots in the freshly laid bark onthe paths this year. I did keep some ready to replace old ones for next year,after a good cull they looked a little “shaken up” but will settle back down in a week or two.

The main topic of conversation today was about Tea, and where the best place to have a cuppa is. I think that having a brew on your allotment is hard to beat, particularly if it starts torain and you take 5 in your shed and stick the kettle on. Sitting in the shed with the rain lashing down, with an old cup that the wife doesn’t like you drinking from at home, so it makes its way to the allotment. There is something quite “British” about it but I love it.  
I also chopped down all the sweetcorn today, this year I grew mini corn and normal sweetcorn, last year I had great success with them both but this year due to the fact I could get to the allotment more than once a week the baby corn all got to big before we couldget to it thus rendering it no good because it becomes very bitter and the core becomes inedible.
We did have some very tasty sweetcorn but we planted more baby corn than normal corn so next year it will just be normal sweetcorn all the way.

 
Enjoy your week folks andthanks for reading.
Don’t forget to check out my Facebook page for more picturesand you can also follow me on twitter@plot58

9 comments:

  1. We usually grow Crown Prince but none germinated.

    I think you have our gas hob but for us our allotment break is coffee (I don't like tea).

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    1. the Gas burner is my dads as my little stove has currenlty run out of gas. :-)

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  2. Great work on your crop of squash. My first lot planted out were decimated by slugs and the second lot took ages to get going and so not long enough to produce good enough fruit. I grew 'Crown Prince' last year and was very successful but didn't this year so must do again.
    I need to get a mini gas hob I tend to just take a flask but brewing your own tea would be much better!

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  3. Great variety of squashes - one of my favourites - love them roasted with some cumin to spice then up a bit.

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    1. I love them with a knob of butter and a sprinkle of nutmeg cant be beaten.

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  4. Your squash have done well. Mine have only just got going, I don't think I'll get any to maturity now.

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    1. the weather was kind to us down here in the south at the back end of august had 2 weeks of sun which helped them i feel.

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  5. Some nice looking Squashes Stacy. Good effort with the "clearing up". I got a full day in today clearing my new plot in between rain and hail showers. Thousands of Dandelions, (and I really mean thousands), to dig out of wet clay, good thing they don't have runners.

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  6. We have a Kelly Kettle. No gas needed and it's about 10 times quicker than gas!

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