The sloe way to go.....

When you have an allotment you very quickly learn that you need to find ways of preserving your harvests. It is very much a case of feast or famine at times; not famine in the case of not having anything to eat from your plot. This doesn't happen too often apart from maybe when you reach the hunger gap in the spring; that time when your over-wintered crops have run out and the spring sowings aren't quite ready yet. But rather more a case of feast or glut I guess! Try as hard as you might, sometimes you can just get overwhelmed with the harvest of whichever veg is in season, whether it's the dreaded courgette glut or runner beans or what have you.

So preserving is an allotmenteer's best friend.

But we can't grow everything we want on our plots and for that we can raid nature's larder, for come September the hedgerows are teeming with berries and the like.

And so it was yesterday, my friend Judi and I headed off to a secret location to harvest fruit from the hedgerow; namely some sloes.

    

Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn which is one of the earliest shrubs to flower in spring. Masses of white blossom line the hedges and roadways. Looking back I remember the blossom being plentiful this spring so we were hopeful of there being loads of berries.

We weren't disappointed.

The berries have this purple/blue blush on them and darken to a deep purple/black. Ideally it is best to wait until the first frost of the year before harvesting the berries but with our winters getting milder, the first frost can be quite some way off yet in the autumn.

I restricted myself to half  a trug-full. Being a pro at sloe-picking, Judi had a bucket and picked 4kg!

Our next stop is the nearest Asda to buy some Gordon's Gin. They currently have the best price on 1lt bottles.

Sloe gin here we come!

Progess at last!

We really seem to have managed to make good progress with the digging over the last month. The perennial bed is dug, although weeds, particularly couch grass, pops up again just as quickly. It seems to be called twitch grass by other plot holders. It can be a bit disheartening to go over to the allotment and find a lot of it looking green again and not in a good way

I finished digging Bed 4 yesterday. This will hold legumes next year and onions. I bought some onion sets from the shed shop last Sunday. Two varieties: Shakespeare and Troy. All these little beauties for the princely sum of £1!

 

We actually have too many Shakespeare so we're going to swap some with a friend.

As soon as the micro mesh tunnels arrive we'll get these planted. They'll need protecting from the pigeons.

 

So I've started digging Bed 3 which technically is the last bed we need to dig over. Its also the worst. However Bed 2 which we planted some things in is looking a bit weedy again but hopefully it won't take as long to go over it a second time.

 

The parsnips that were already growing in the potato bed (Bed 1) have continued to grow. Some did die back but a few have green leaves still. We pulled one up the other week to see what it looked like and hey presto! We had a parsnip!

 

The runner beans are still going but slowing down. I did have to freeze some the other day though as there were too many for me in one day.

 

We pulled a couple of carrots the other evening and although small, it was reassuring to see they were nice and straight!

 

 

TK complained yesterday that I am making to many homemade things which is bizarre as he likes to help making them! This year we have made strawberry jam and raspberry jam. I used the raspberry jam to make this Gainsborough tart which is something my nana used to make. It has a coconut top

 

 

And yesterday I made millionaires shortbread

 

 

Yum!