Nettle soup...

I've often used nettles in cookery - they're so common and nutritious - but I'd never made classic nettle soup until this evening.



My recipe was slightly adapted from the one in Roger Phillips' wonderful book "Wild Food" - and consisted of onion, leek, garlic, potatoes, veg stock, black pepper, and of course nettles. It was cheap, quick, easy, really nice to eat, and I'll certainly make it again!

Allotment update:

Today I planted out all my peas, sowed (more) beetroot, potted up my baby tomatoes and moved my alpine strawberry plant. I've got loads of seeds on the go now including carrots, parsnips, french beans, courgettes, burdock, leeks, sunflowers, nasturtiums...

Currently my onions, garlic, peas and broad beans are all doing well. My plum tree is flowering (yay!), my rosemary seems to have a disease (boo!), there's no sign yet of any potatoes (but that's fine), my rhubarb's just about still alive (it's a long story - some other time!), and a pesky slug has eaten all my salad...


This photo of a tomato seedling was taken a couple of years ago... with a proper camera :)

More babies...

Peas and spinach (pictured) and teeny carrots and beetroot! :)

Babies!

This evening I harvested my first salad leaves of the year - they were just thinnings really but there were plenty of them and they were yummy :)

And I've got baby broad beans in loo rolls - look!

Walnut failure!

Back in October I collected a basketful of walnuts. According to my research, in order to store them I had to remove all the flesh and then dry the nuts in their shells, after which they would keep for many months...

I've just cracked them open (with a hammer - my nutcracker was not powerful enough) and they're all completely dried out inside, with only the teensiest little nuts that wouldn't even feed a mouse :(
Disappointed!

Allotmenteering begins in earnest...

With the milder weather and the lighter mornings/evenings, I've decided it's time to get back to work. I spent the whole weekend* on the plot and got LOTS done!

I harvested my remaining celeriac, most of my jerusalem artichokes and a giant leek. I dug over and weeded a few beds, one of which I planted with garlic (better late than never!). I also extended the fence to stop pesky dogs pooing on my "lawn" (dogs aren't actually allowed on the allotments, but I've had a bit of trouble with them lately). I sowed some broad beans in old loo rolls too...

Most of my plot looks bare, but orderly. Apart from the above I'm currently growing rocket, spinach, oriental salad, onions, shallots, various herbs and various fruit. I'm hoping that this year I might get more than four plums!

There's a bit of wild stuff springing up too - I've gathered a few nettles and noticed some tiny new shoots of ground elder:



The allotments are a lovely place to hang out. This weekend I've enjoyed wildlife-watching - the Red Kites were flying very low, there were some interesting spiders surfing in one of my water butts, and there's a mystery creature (a rat?) living in my compost heap (which is actually quite useful cos he keeps digging out piles of fresh compost for me!).

I can't wait till it gets a bit warmer and I can start the BBQing...


*That may be a slight over-exaggeration!

My first Jerusalem Artichokes : )

Harvested this morning, along with Butternut Squash, Beetroot, Parsnips, Calabrese, and a random cucumber that I'd missed previously!