Loads at the Allotment

When the Summer sun is shining, there’s nowhere better to be than deep in the UK countryside, and we were lucky to have a fantastic fortnight in Devon. After returning from our holiday we knew we had to get back up to our allotment, to see how the weeds were growing.

We were a tad concerned that no one had been available to water our vegetable plot during all that scorching hot weather. However, on arriving, we found to our delight, a burgeoning crop of Super veg; well we thought it was super (not too bad for our first year) but it wouldn't win any agricultural show prizes.

We rummaged through the undergrowth and found Squashes, Runner beans, Cucumbers, Potatoes, Beetroot, Onions and Courgettes, some of which had turned into massive Marrows. The fruit cage had a few raspberries available and there were masses of blackberries all over the place, not that we had propagated these.

One of the huge marrows was finally transformed by the Head Chef into six jars or scrummy Chilli and Courgette Chutney.

I also used the Raspberries and a couple of stray Blueberries to make another bottle of summer fruit liquor, which will be ready later on. So far I have tried Cherry Brandy, Sloe Gin, Mulberry Gin, Blackberry Vodka and Summer Fruit liquor. I’m not sure which will be my favourite but it should be good fun finding out…

Hazelnuts Ahoy

Green Hazelnuts are beginning to fall now and they are also being snacked upon by the grey squirrels. 

Although I far prefer the nuts when they are ripe and dropping to the ground of their own accord; these signs are always a smart way to detect where the best, biggest brown backed beauties will be falling in a couple of weeks’ time…

Bramble Bushes Bursting with Beautiful Big Blackberries

It’s that time of year again!

Big, fat juicy Blackberries are currently ripening on the commons, parks, hedgerows and gardens all over the place.

Most of the year Brambles are nothing more than a pain in the… Well, it depends on where they have snagged you really.

But come the hot and hazy days of Summer, especially during August the briers suddenly become our nation’s favourite plant.

Conveniently this splendid event occurs during the school holidays and wise families all over the country set out with suitable boxes and bags, often backed up with a picnics and bottles of drink.

They return later, tired and happy, smeared in juice, proudly displaying their battle scars of stinging nettle and thorn assaults.

The rewards are full boxes and bags, now bursting with berries, ready to be eaten, frozen or cooked into some delicious pudding or preserve. The best way to freeze blackberries is to lay them on a baking tray in the freezer, then transfer them into bags once frozen hard. This keeps the individual fruits separate and easy to apportion for future use.

What’s not to like?

Get out there now!

P.S.

It looks as if there might be a bumper crop this year of Hazelnuts and Walnuts some Hazelnuts are already ripe.

Mulberry Murder Mystery

While on holiday in sunny Devon recently, we visited Greenways – Agatha Christie’s House, near Dartmouth. We got a small ferry over the Dart river from Dittisham (another lovely place) and clambered up the hill to the house.



A Jay's Feather and a Mulberry

 I was wandering about the massive garden with the children when we spotted a Mulberry tree. Closer inspection revealed that many of the fruits were ripe, and so, purely in the spirit of the National Trust’s (who  own the house) 50 things to do before you’re Eleven and Three-quarters – we set about picking and eating as many of the sweet juicy fruit as we could lay our fingers on. Later we checked out another big Mulberry tree, in Salcombe too. 

These fruits are easy to find under the leaves of the tree but they can be tricky because a) They do not all ripen at once. b) The ripe ones are likely to drop off as soon as you shake the tree. c) The blood red, honeyed juice gets everywhere can make it look as if you might, just have slaughtered someone with your bare hands! 

The reward, for those who recognise the trees, bother to find the ripe fruit and risk the suspicious stares of passers-by, as they note the incriminating evidence, guiltily smeared across your mouth and fingers; is an incredibly luscious berry, tasting something like a syrupy blackberry/raspberry cross.

When we got home we found another tree in Winchester and I decided to try creating Mulberry liquor. I used gin and my surplus berries but I had to fight the children off, to prevent a Mulberry massacre; they would have scoffed the lot straight away if I had relented. I will report back on this project later but I do already have a very good feeling about it. 

Murder She Wrote!

 There is a Mulberry tree in the Southampton parks too, for those who know where and when to look…

Definately Guilty!



Elderflower Champagne – The Rules

After my initial bacterial disaster, my new batch of Elderflower Champagne is like a force of nature; it is the perfect drink for an English summer heat-wave. Personally, I think that if it opens with a big bang, a lost cork and a 2 metre frothy fountain, leaving only half-a-glass-worth to drink at the bottom of the bottle; then it is probably ready!

I had to unload several bottles into a bucket in the back garden, just to stop them making a dangerous mess. My neighbour Sue helped me with this procedure and both of us got a little bit wet in the process. In fact, I hear that her kitchen got a little bit wetter later on, when she cracked a bottle open at home. Flip top bottles can make easing the pressure easier but the potential for mistakes becomes greater due to their slippery and fiddly nature.

Important rules for Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne.

• The first rule of Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne is that Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne does not exist.
• The second rule of Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne is that we never openly discuss Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne.
• The third rule of Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne… open it outside, unless you want your house decorated with Urbane Forager Explosive Elderflower Champagne.
• Rule 4. Pressure safe bottles!
• Rule 5. Ease the pressure regularly!

We are still getting many a sandwich box full of Hedge End cherries safely delivered home, from work in my bike pannier. I just pop out at lunchtime and pick a fresh load each day and they are avidly consumed by our hungry children. You would think they had been starved by the way they gobble them down.

Blackberries are just about to be ready; my daughter grabbed her first black one yesterday and it looks like they will be more than abundant this year. Plums are slowly ripening on the branches but they seem to have not fared so well, due to the late spring. Hazelnuts are looking bountiful this summer too. I have seen vast amounts weighing the branches down near me; I think they may be early this year too.

Abundance at the Allotment

Our inaugural year as allotment owners is finally bearing fruit (and vegetables) and it is doing so with a great abundance.


The Rustic Fruit Cage, Beans, Sweet Corn, Beetroot and Onions

We have now got bags of early potatoes, and onions. We have gathered small amounts of peas and broad beans too.

Courgettes

The courgettes of various colours and sizes seem to be popping up on a daily basis. The little yellow ones are especially nice sliced (raw) and inserted into sandwiches. The Head Chef likes them lightly salted with Olive Oil but to me that’s too much faffing about.

The Tayberries, Raspberries and Blueberries, all safe in the Rustic Fruit Cage are giving us plenty to nibble on while we slave to weed water and pick everything under the relentless heat-wave.


Tayberries

Rhubarb is growing well, Squashes and Cucumbers are blooming nicely and hopefully, we should get a decent crop of these too.

Nice Weather For Slow Worms

Beetroots are finally flourishing under nets, which seem to have stopped whatever it was that was eating the leaves. The Runner Beans are running up the poles and flowering and the Sweet Corn is looking healthy.

Piles of Potatoes



Cherries in St. Deny’s Save Many Pennies

Tragedy…

My first batch of Elderflower Champagne has gone all gloopy!

I tested a bottle to see how the pressure was building up, it fizzed appropriately, it smelled delicious but it was far too glutinous. A quick search on the web showed that my experience was not unique and various people offered differing advice.

I deferred to my friend Kevin, who is a virologist, he has a very powerful microscope and knows what he is looking for. Kevin said it was a bacterial problem and so I sadly poured all two gallons down the sink (it did clean the stainless steel beautifully), rather than risk testing it for toxins on myself. I have since managed to pick enough to start a third batch using Campden tablets and champagne yeast, as I did on my second batch (which has already popped one cork and tastes delicious).

On a lighter note, my children only have one fruit on their minds recently, Cherries!

I picked a sandwich box full of sweet, dark cherries, in Hedge End, during my lunch hour and had also spotted a large bunch of super-sized beauties in St. Deny’s. I planned to come back with the children and a picking pole, to reach the high fruit and my daughter took no persuading, as we filled a large Tupperware box in about 20 mins.

Yes, they do taste as lovely as they look!