 Donty Mon Do you like to forget your plot in winter or do you like to prepare for next spring? Here are some jobs that can be done on those cold, crisp mornings in winter. Order and prepare manure You can order manure now or up to the end of February. If you lay some cardboard on the soil first it will rot down with the manure. If you leave the manure on the surface, it will protect the soil below from the harshness of the winter. If you want to spread some around early, decide where your potatoes are going and dig some into that area. The winter frost will break down the soil making it perfect to plant your potatoes in the spring. Stack the rest and cover it for the rest of the winter. The cover will protect the manure and help it break down.  Make sure you don't spread manure where you will plant root vegetables. They won't do well in freshly manured ground. Brassicas also don't do well in freshly manured soil; they need soil with a good coating of lime. You can do this in late winter or the spring.
Make a runner bean trench If you are planning to grow beans, the manure will improve the structure of the soil. Try making a runner bean trench. You can fill it with kitchen scraps, compost, manure and old plants. This will rot down nicely and help to retain moisture for your beans. Overwinter onions, garlic and broad beans Some plot holders don't grow much over the winter, but overwintering veg can make good use of empty space and they will be harvested before you need the ground in spring. You can put the veg in the ground as late as the end of November so now is the time to think about doing it. Harvest your existing veg Kale is usually cut and come again so you can harvest it regularly and it will keep growing. Leeks will sit happily in the ground until you need them. Sprouts usually do well after they have been exposed to frost making them perfect for your Christmas dinner. Otherwise, relax and enjoy a break before the fun starts again next year.
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 Jean Price
Everyone is saying a spiralizer is set to be the new, must-have kitchen gadget. I bought one recently from Lakeland. But what does it do and what vegetables can you spiralize? Most models available work in a similar way. All you do is attach raw fruit or vegetables to the ‘teeth’, then turn the handle to push the vegetable through a choice of blades to create vegetables ribbons, or noodles in a variety of thicknesses. There are a few vegetables that spiralized brilliantly, including root vegetables like carrots and swede but also courgettes, cucumbers, squash or pumpkin, or firm fruits such as apples and pears.'' Courgette All plot holders scratch their heads trying to find new things to do with spare courgettes. Forget spaghetti, this year it’s all about ‘courgetti.’ Use the thin noodle attachment on the spiralizer to create long twirls of pasta-like vegetable noodles. Simply boil the spiralised courgette for 20 seconds, then top with ingredients of your choice (see my new recipe for courgetti with mushrooms). Other fruits and vegetable ideas from BBC Good Food: Carrots Raw carrot ribbons, made with the slicing blade, add texture and crunch to a salad or slaw. Or, you can stir-fry the carrot ribbons for a couple of minutes with garlic and coconut oil for a healthy side dish. Sweet potato Use the thicker noodle blade to create sweet potato curly fries, toss in a little oil and bake until crisp. Apples Coleslaw will never be the same again, add texture with apple noodles; just make sure you toss in lemon juice as soon as the apple noodles come out of the spiralizer to prevent them from browning. To cook or not to cook? Naturally, cooking your courgetti is a much speedier process than boiling bags of weighty pasta: ''Most spiralized vegetables can be eaten raw or cooked. Some vegetables, such as aubergine, can break up when cooked, but most will hold their shape if gently boiled or stir-fried. If you're looking to cut back on carbs, pack in the fruit and veg and maintain a healthy weight this gadget could transform how you cook. The difference between 100g of pasta and 100g of courgette is about 300kcal and the cooking time is considerably less.
Jean Price - Plot 4
It's always great to hear about our members activities outside of the allotment and Anne Earnshaw (plot 16a) and Debbie Bedford (plot 6b) both contacted me this week to tell me about activities that they are involved in. You may be interested to hold the dates: Ann Earnshaw - Sale Arts Trail, Artist Takeover: To those of you who enjoyed the Sale Arts Trail these last 3 years and came to our home, we thought you would like to know what is happening this year. The Arts trail itself is now a bi-annual event and there will be no "trail" this year but there is an exhibition called "Artist Takeover" which will be held at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale on Sunday 11th June from 10:30 - 5pm. I will be selling my cards, mounted images and framed work . This year I have put my images on quality art canvas and glass. They look beautiful . If you can't come on Sunday you can view my work at home, Carnforth Drive Sale call 07891 605 215 I am also at the following venues this year: Alderley Edge Cricket Club Summer Fete with 'Simply Cheshire' Sunday July 2nd 1pm - 5pm Moss Lane Alderley Edge, SK9 7HN Wilmslow Art Trail 13th , 14 th and 15 th October My new website is: www.anneearnshawart.com Debbie Bedford:- National Garden Scheme: I am opening the garden for the N.G.S. On Sun.16th July (praying it will be dry) It will be open from 1-5pm at 34 Stanley Mount, M33 4AF. I should be getting some posters soon so I will put them up on the notice board. This is a late 'pop-up'opening and I need to generate as much publicity as I can, so pass the word around to your friends. All welcome. There will be teas and home-made cakes. Admission is £3 for adults and children go free. (Sorry, no dogs) See more on the National Garden Scheme here: https://www.ngs.org.uk  Paul Price - Plot 4
Do you ever get confused over what to sow where and when? Crop rotation, once you get the hang of it is pretty straightforward. All you need to remember is what veg belongs in what group and then where you grew them last year. Most people do a 3 year rotation with 5 different plant groups. The more ambitious use a 4 year plan, but let's keep this blog to 3 years. The RHS has a good guide and here is a section from it: How to do crop rotation Divide your vegetable garden or allotment into sections of equal size (depending on how much of each crop you want to grow), plus an extra section for perennial crops, such as rhubarb and asparagus. Group your crops as below:
Year one Section one: Potatoes Section two: Legumes, onions and roots Section three: Brassicas Year two Section one: Legumes, onions and roots Section two: Brassicas Section three: Potatoes Year three Section one: Brassicas Section two: Potatoes Section three: Legumes, onions and roots You can read the full article here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=124  Jean Price - Plot 4
Well, it’s getting to the end of January and it is very cold with frosty mornings and hard soil. So, its a good time to be thinking about the condition that our soil is in. The secret of a successful harvest is getting the soil in the best condition you can. One of the best ways of conditioning the soil is introducing organic matter in the form of animal manure, which adds nitrogen, garden compost, which adds slow release nutrients and leaf mould which improves drainage. I know a lot of you have thought about improving your soil already because of the working parties that we have organized this month to help shovel the deliveries of manure that we have had (with more to come). Organic matter will never fail to improve the structure of the soil and help with water drainage. We have a good supply of leaf mould which is free for our society members and I know that many of you compost waste products too. A sprinkling of chicken pellets help to give a big boost to the soil microbes. It smells a bit rich but it’s worth it. It’s easy to enrich your soil; just pile the organic matter on the soil and then fork it in at a depth of about 6 – 12 inches. If you already have plants such as rhubarb or fruit trees etc., just fork the matter around the plants. No need to dig it in. One of the first things you will notice is that your worm population increases. Worms are wonderful things for growers because they naturally aerate the soil. You should see a marked improvement in your harvest. So as soon as the ground thaws and you feel like a dig, make sure you dig in some goodness too!  Jean Price - Plot 4
Did you have problems with your leeks this year? We did, and so did a lot of people that I have spoken to. Quite a few allotment sites in Trafford think that they have been affected by Leek Moth, for the very first time. Leek moth is mainly a problem in southern England but it is spreading north. Here is what the RHS have to say about it: Quick facts Common name Leek moth Plants affected Leek, onion, shallot, garlic Main symptoms White patches on leaves, with young plants rotting and dying. Small caterpillars may be seen in the plant tissues Caused by Caterpillars of a small moth Timing April-October What is leek moth? The adult leek moth is an inconspicuous very small (5-6mm) brown moth. Its larvae (caterpillars) feed on leeks and similar crops. Symptoms Damage from leek moth caterpillars appears as;
Control Non-chemical control The female moths can be prevented from laying eggs by covering susceptible plants with horticultural fleece, or an insect-proof mesh such as Ultra-Fine Enviromesh. Crop rotation should also be practiced to prevent potential build-up of moth populations under the fleece. Look for the white, net-like silk cocoons on the foliage and squash them. Chemical control None of the pesticides currently available to home gardeners for use on leeks and onions will give effective control of leek moth. Biology Leek moth has two generations during the summer with larvae damaging the plants;
When fully fed, the caterpillars are 11 mm long. They come out of the plant and pupate within net-like silk cocoons that are spun on the foliage. Adult moths emerge in autumn and overwinter in sheltered places. There is a much more detailed study here. leek-moth-project-kdunn.pdf  Sheila Taylor - Plot 30a
I really recommend making good use of the leaf mould. Firstly I used barrow loads of it as mulch for the raspberries, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes. I had a load of manure delivered in February and put loads of it where the potatoes were going to be planted. It was only half a load, but as I have half a plot, there’s plenty for next year as well. I hardly ever dig, except when digging things up, so it just went on top of the soil. I just planted the potatoes underneath it. It was pretty fresh, but they didn’t seem to mind! Then more barrow loads of leaf mould went on top of the manure - loads - and all the work was left to the worms. I earth up the potatoes as they grow. Result - absolutely gorgeous soil, and the only digging was harvesting a really good crop of potatoes. Do use this free and useful resource.  Paul Price - Plot 4
In the summer newsletter I told you about growing Salsify, also know as the Oyster Plant, a vegetable that we haven't grown before. Well this week we started to harvest it. It looks pretty strange with small roots growing from the main root, a bit like a hairy parsnip! The roots damage very easily so after a disaster with a fork, I used a spade to carefully lift them out of the ground. The problem is, if you damage them, they quickly lose their moisture and shrivel up. They are a bit of a faff to prepare (so Jean tells me) as they discolour very quickly once pealed so it's good to have a bowl of water with a little lemon juice in to plunge them into. Just quickly peel them with a potato peeler, trim the tops and bottoms and that's it. They will sit happily in the water until you are ready to cook them. The first ones we tried were roasted at 200C (gas 6) for twenty minutes in a little olive oil with a couple of crushed garlic cloves, similar to how you would roast parsnips. They were delicious! Neither of us care for parsnips as we find them too sweet, but we both loved these. Next time I will cook them in a little butter and wine to bring out the oyster taste. We will definitely be growing them again next year.
Paul - Plot 4
Well the weather today is just awful, with 3 more days of rain forecast. So, time to make use of all those surplus cauliflowers and shallots and get pickling! We love Piccalilli in the Price household so when we were in Padstow a couple of years ago we bought some from Rick Stein's shop. It was delicious and so we hunted down his recipe. You can find the recipe here: Paul's Piccalilli What better way to spend a rainy Friday than to make it. We prepared all the ingredients and soaked them in salt water yesterday so we were all ready to cook them and combine them into a vinegar and mustard concoction. The whole house smells of vinegar now but the result is 12 gleaming jars of golden goodness. They will have matured to their best in 2 - 3 months if we can wait that long. Just in time for our Bonfire BBQ. So look out for it and spread it on your barbecued sausages. Enjoy!
Jean - Plot 4 Well, I said I would give you an update to my shallot blog from April when my shallot plants looked like weedy spring onions. I planted them in bunches of 5 or 6, but I think next year I will limit the bunches to 4 as a few of them were crowded out. I am pretty pleased with the harvest though and they should last me right through the winter. A couple of weeks ago we harvested them and left them on the plot on an incline to let the juices flow out so that they would dry ready for storage. Today I brought them home for preparation. First I trimmed the roots and brushed away any dry skin from the bulbs. Then I plaited them ready for hanging. I plait them as you would hair, introducing a new shallot with each crossover. I also do this with my onions. The only thing to do then is to tie them firmly at the top with string ready to hang. I hang one bunch in the kitchen ready to use and the rest in a cool dry place. These will last right into next Spring.
Some people ask why I grow "banana" shallots as opposed to the little round ones. The answer is simple; I am a lazy cook who hates spending hours pealing the fiddly round ones. With the banana varieties pealing is easy. Just take off the top and bottom, make an incision right the way down the length of the shallot and peal back the skin. Shallots pealed in seconds. Happy days!!  |
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