Officially Good Lifers
Our allotment is booming at the moment! Last Saturday we officially became Good Lifers when we harvested enough food to fill a large trug. We had potatoes, broad beans, onions, strawberries and a big bunch of cornflowers.
On Sunday we had a mega weeding session. It was baking hot and we were both knackered when we went down there so I'm surprised we got so much done. The tall plants in the middle are our runner beans (tbt to a few weeks earlier). We have a real mixture of bean plants. Some we've grown ourselves, some from Grandma and Grandad and a couple of spares from another plot. I think we've got about 16 bean plants in total!
The strawberry patch needs a little more work. The weeds you can see are chickweed, it gets everywhere! Apparently it's edible and makes a good salad.
These are our first homegrown blueberries! Picking them felt like a luxury as they are quite expensive to buy from the supermarket and almost never grown in the UK. We are finding they take a while to ripen fully after turning blue, which is a real test of patience on my part. I always eat one in the name of research when we go to do the watering.
We've also had loads of potatoes. On Sunday we had roast beef with roasted King Edwards from the plot (yummy!). The rest are being stored away until we need more.
The blackcurrant bushes in the communal fruit patch were bursting with fruit on Sunday so we also took home 1.3kg of fruits. My friend Rik recommended I make some blackcurrant jam - if you're reading this, thanks for the recommendation. It's bloody lovely.
This is our garlic harvest! I'm pretty enthusiastic about all things garlic and I've written a separate post about it, which includes photos of our gargantuous elephant garlic bulbs!
Last year I saved lots of cornflower seeds from the front garden. I sowed them at the allotment along with the seeds I was gifted and now look at them all! Every time we walk through the gate we are greeted by a big patch of blue flowers. The other day Scott pointed out that this patch was alive; and when I looked closely I could see what he mean't. The flowers were teeming with hoverflies and bees.
Cornflowers make up the wildlife area which occupies an eighth of our plot. Next year we'll fill the space with more flowers and I'd really like to introduce smaller pockets elsewhere. I take a few cut flowers for the house but always make sure there are enough blooms for the insects. If you want nature to help you, you should give something back in my opinion.
We are both feeling very proud of our little plot this week. Growing, harvesting and cooking something grown from a tiny seed is very rewarding. Barbara and Tom, over and out!
