Good news and good food

Received word from the RBGE that I’ve passed the Certificate of Practical Horticulture with merit. Not only that, but because that was the first year the course was run and there were some teething problems with the course handbook etc., all the students have been offered a free place on a one-day course next year.

The course was enjoyable, the assessment day was fun and I’ve got something to show from it. However I won’t be able to make the award ceremony since I’m at Typography: thinking with type on that day.

This evening I headed to the allotment via Waitrose. I wanted to make Summer Pudding, so wanted to get some cream. The thought of the ride from Shandon to Morningside, through Craiglockhart Woods and to the allotment was also enticing. At the plot I picked redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants and then headed home, getting there just before the rain came on.

Summer Pudding adapted from Nigel Slater’s Appetite

Put the fruits in a pan with enough water to cover them, then boil for a couple of minutes. This will burst the skin and release the juice. Into a suitable receptacle (I used a glass tumbler), layer sliced white bread and the fruit mixture, keeping the bread very moist. Then pop it in the fridge for an hour, turn out and serve with goat cream.

tasty Summer Pudding with cream

In other news: I’ve signed up for the four week long beginners course in Italian at IALS starting at the end of this month.

Homegrown feast does not raise GDP

Felt contented last night. Went down the allotment straight after work and picked onions, broad beans and blackcurrants to bring home, and ate the first couple of raspberries (just to test!) and some alpine strawberries. Nearly a cornucopia…

Evening meal included onion tart. I’m not sure that Nigel Slater’s recipe even needs cheese when the onions are fresh and one uses the amount of butter he recommends.

The side dish: take young broad beans, podded but left in their inner skins, and blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Put olive oil and a little chopped garlic in a bowl and throw in the drained beans. Grind black pepper on top and serve.

Plus carrot and tomato from the ECO box and green salad and the hardest avocado I’ve had ever tried to eat from ASDA.

I’d rather eat more self-grown food. I’m still learning about vegetable growing, but mostly it’s taking the time to grow and cook them that stops me. In a misguided attempt to help my employer, I’ve agreed to work an extra day per week. I get paid more, but I’m spending more: on childcare; on disposable nappies, because I don’t have the energy to wash and do real ones; on food, because I’m not preparing my lunch on the days I do work. It’s good for GDP but not good for me and my family.

Notes on blackcurrants and juicers

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/plants/blackcurrants/375217/

Everything you want to know about powered juicers, from Ethical Juicers. and their recommendation is to use a low-speed gear juicer, or a go-juice manual juicer. OTOH why juice? You’ll lose fibre and you’ll have to clean the mechanism. Perhaps I should use a sieve and a spoon on the odd occasion that I need juice!

juicing versus blending … fruit has soft cell walls, vegetables have harder walls. Some soft fruit like bananas should be blended.

High hopes for my blackcurrants

Lovely day down the allotment. Sunny and dry, and the first day this year ith birdsong. Pulled down the second old, old compost bin. Weeded under the blackcurrants, pulling up grass and moss and getting the ivy off the stools. Then put down approx. 1/2 of the manure around them as mulch.

Once you’ve got your eye in pruning blackcurrants, it’s not too difficult to see which branches to prune: first take off the diseased and broken ones; then cut back those which stop you getting into the bush. Most of the branches grow in the expected way — generally upwards — but a few of them go off at crazy angles: these are the ones to take off.

The way blackcurrants grow is so interesting. Branches that touch the ground, root, and then a new bush grows. I think there were only two bushes put in originally, but there’s about 7 distinct stools now I’ve cut back a few of these self-layers. It’s not as scary as cutting the umbilical cord that seperated my daughter from her mum, although I’m glad I’ve been studying the RBGE practical certificate in horticulture to know what’s happening. And I can recommend the Panton Street community midwives, too

The plot looks much better today than the first time I saw it, one year ago

manure and rent

Monday … took possession of 10 bags of manure from Gorgie City Farm. Lovely rotted-down stuff and plenty of worms in there. It’s enough to fill my empty compost bin and should go across a few of the beds.

I had wanted to spread it on Tuesday, but the weather was crap: heavy rain and wind. It’s probably worse today. I need to dig it in pretty soon and get on with other stuff.

And last night I got home to find an invoice for the year’s rent of the plot. Very happy to see this after all the hassles last year. This year, I promise to spend more time down the plot … no, really!

Costs:
Manure: £30. 10 bags at £3/bag (min order for delivery; £2/bag if self-collected)
Rent for the plot: £48/year

Next up:

• break down very old compost bins
• prune off any broken and diseased bits off the blackcurrants
• weed under and around blackcurrants
• put manure under the blackcurrants

• weed around rhubarb
• add manure to the rhubarb

• decide which beds are going to have which plants in, and manure where neccesary.

Blackcurrants self-layering

A quick trip to the plot on Sunday rekindled my interest in the allotment.

All the leaves have fallen from the blackcurrants and I’m starting to tidy them up, and it’s so good to see! Because the plot’s been short on TLC in the last couple of years, the bushes have grown all over the place and some of the branches have rested on the ground and done their own layering. It’s amazing to see all the little roots growing out of the side of the branch, and now I have my eye in I notice all the adventitious buds on the branches. There’s so much potential for new growth, it’s fantastic…

With the leaves gone, it’s also much clearer where the new growth is.

Two cold frames have gone in the ground and I should be able to propagate 9 blackcurrant bushes next weekend.

There’s lots of ivy and creeping buttercup to root out from under the current currants %^|

Blackcurrants/slow gardening

Blackcurrants are going well: 5 pounds and counting, and I was talking with a neighbour today who reckoned that the 3 bushes could provide 40 lbs if managed well. I’ve left it too late this year and there’s a lot of currants that have fallen on the ground, so here’s to next year.

Still been able to eat blackcurrants fresh in fruit salad and with ice cream. Made a great cordial, some compote and I’ve frozen some currants whole.

Everything you want to know about powered juicers, from Ethical Juicers. and their recommendation is to use a low-speed gear juicer, or a go-juice manual juicer.

Have been removing some of the planks and other furniture bit at a time. Lifted one reclaimed uPVC window frame and stacked it by the entrance, and a couple of minutes later a frog popped out of the void at one end. Another one popped out when I examined the piece. I’m pleased I hadn’t immediately thrown the frames in the big wheelie bin, and I guess this is the same throughout the whole garden. Those frogs were happily hidden in the frame and now they’ll move back up the plot. Next time I clear a metre of allotment, they’ll head a little further back. Now if I had just strimmed the whole lot…

Feeding guests from the allotment

Sat 14: a couple of hours, weeding and picking fruit. Inordinately happy to be picking fruit form the plot, although I’m learning how to do things for next year. Fed houseguests this weekend with a Scottish dessert consisting of raspberries and blackcurrants from the allotment, strawberries from Fife and ice cream from Orkney.

Tried to get rid of some slugs that were hanging round the courgettes. Still a bit squeamish about killing them, although I have a new-found respect as they’re tough to drown, with one particularly big one which kept climbing out of the plastic water container. I eventually chucked them in the river.

And there’s one French bean which is holding out. A small tendril is curling up the bamboo, so there may be a few beans this year.

Leafmould in the rain

It’s so wet … Was ordered down to the allotment on Sunday, but spent most of the time (1.5 hours) sheltering from the rain. A neighbour called me over for a cup of tea, which was very welcome, and I got to spend 15 minutes in her luxurious shed. It’s got a wee propane stove and a radio in it, carpet on the floor and the roof doesn’t leak.

Went to the communal leafmould bins. Saughton Mains allotment site has three big bunkers made from breeze blocks, perhaps 10m by 10m each, where the Allotments Officer arranges for council workers to drop plant remains. All the leaves from West Edinburgh parks are dumped here and turn into lovely leafmould. Now, not all of this is used so it collects at the back of the bunkers and various plants start to colonise it. And yesterday I noticed piles of grass cuttings in two of the bunkers and woodchippings in the third.

After all the rain, the leafmould and grass clippings have developed stagnant pools and the organic matter squelches ominously underfoot; it’s difficult to keep one’s feet. And since the leaves are collected from public parks, there’s all sorts of detritus: branches of various sizes, crisp wrappers and plastic drinks bottles, and even a discarded shoe. Reminds me of the trash compactor in Star Wars …

Monday: got another barrowful of leafmould. Three of them fills the area between the fence and rhubarb, so now I’ve got a 10′ x 3′ bed that I can plant next year. It’s very shaded (although I could change the fence form old pallets and boards to something that would let more light in, but that won’t change the fortifications net door). I could either put in something productive or use it as a living screen and tear down the crappy pallet fence.
Didn’t spend more than half an hour at the allotment as the rain was too bad.

Courgette flowers just starting to unfurl; blackcurrants still bitter

Mostly weeding and mulching

Been to the allotment twice today. Got there at noon and has a mooch around, planted a second row of spinach, attended to the French beans, and got a barrowful of leafmould, but it was too hot and I had forgotten to bring any water. So at 1pm I headed home, had some lunch and headed out to Redhall walled garden, met A+J at the Water of Leith visitor centre and then pottered around the allotment again, mainly to plant a tiny lavender that I bought from Redhall.