Paper Shoes

I bought The Paper Shoe book in 1995 and finally got round to making them!

Allotment produce September

Still quite a lot of food coming achocha, beans, courgette, kale still happily growing. Sweet corn only one more left on the allotment. Still enough 'salad' for my wraps.

Marrow wine

Finally the marrow wine decided to ferment now almost two bubbles a second! Courgette and sultana ready to rack, blackberry slowed and newest the rhubarb working well.

End of August

Still picking every other day. Thinned turnip seedlings today. Salad for lunch turnip thinnings, sorrel, mallow, nasturtium leaves, nasturtium and borage flowers.

Evening meal

Courgettes

Courgette harvest before we go away for 4 days. I think I will start to trade courgettes for coffee at work.

Bottom plot

Middle plot

Top plot

Carrot thinning

Not strictly under the owl box but from raised bed in the garden.

First baby

Our very first sweetcorn baby in its (badger and fox proof) playpen.

Cucumbers have enjoyed the rain

Rhubarb wine

Bottled this today ready for Christmas. It's been in the demijohn for almost a year.

Blackberries picked and jam made by 10 o'clock

Great recipe found on Yummly. I used 1 tbs of sugar, will try the addition of ginger too next time.
Blackberry Chia Jam Cherry on my Sundae
Ingredients 227 Grams blackberries 3 Tbs coconut sugar 1/2 lemon 2 Tbs chia seeds Total Time 75 Minutes View Recipe on Yummly
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Grouse anyone?

First harvest

Riverford Organic Deliveries on hold

First real harvest from the allotment. Although some onions and all garlic already home.

Onions

Weeded the onions this weekend. Need to thin out the rows soon.

Peas and beans

Peas and beans ready to go. Seeded at the poles for some as weather has been so good this year.

Raspberries

Have re found the raspberries, both beds need to be started again from scratch with plastic under.

Cucumbers

Space saving frame for cucumbers to grow up and over the hedge.

Garlic Scarpes

You can use them in flower arranging or eat them.

Brussels

After an epic fail last year with winter crops the brussels are in an well protected.

Potatoes

Time to earth up again.

Onions

Doing well if a little weedy

Peas

Potatoes

Cara in the ground now the frost this week has passed.

Four candles

Actually two fork handles. 'They served me well' - The Scarecrow.

Lime and ginger marmalade

On lates next week so large joint cooked, curry made and now making marmalade with half of the limes we were given.  If it works another batch planned although the jar supply is running low :(

Making wine

Making dandelion wine another one that takes a year before you can drink it.

Potting up

Enjoying making pots today and pricking out the tomato seedlings. So good not to feel rushed because there was a mass of planning and paperwork to do.

Pear and cherry blossom

Potato bed

Fantastic weather around 20 C for the last few days. We have a head start this year.

Hedging and onions

An edible hedge to edge the top plot. Three rows of onions.

Red Onion Chutney

The new job might just be the work/life balance I need. Five jars of red onion chutney made yesterday after work from onions given to us. I printed the labels too. I had changed computers since I last made labels, 2013, and needed to install the font.

The Real Seed Catalogue - don't mince their words

Please note: As of January 2017, anyone with a btinternet.com address, many of your emails are at random being thrown away by BT before you get them. 

There's nothing we can do about this. 

It's a huge problem for everyone - BT have bought a new spam filtering system that is rubbish and they don't seem to care. The only option is to switch away from BT.

First Harvest

Rhubarb and sorrel.

A head start this year

A mild end of winter/start of Spring and The Scarecrow has been very busy.

Potatoes are chitting

Potatoes and onions

Cara and Sante ordered ready to chit.  Sturon onion set ordered.

This year the plan is less plants but more care.

Another attempt at work/life balance

As you could probably tell, even reducing my working days to 3 did not give a work/life balance.  The following year I agreed, foolishly, to go up to 4.  Bad idea.  Now with a new career on the horizon and a 37 hour week I might be able to achieve a life.  There may be overtime but at least I can't take my work home with me.