Hi Hoe..

H came with me. The visit to the lottie was supposed to be for testing the new Hoe or Swoe as it is rightly named. As you see from the picture it is shaped like a sand iron golf club. It is made from hefty gauge stainless steel and comes with a 25 year guarantee. The shape is supposed to help you work round plants. We will see. I have knack of clipping plants with the blade of the hoe.

I put just the necessary in the back of the car, Swoe, boot and the fork. When I got the lottie I found a ton of horse muck had been dropped on the plot near the muck bin. H and I decided to look about the lottie first. It is a dismal sight. The prolonged wet spell has drowned most things. Then a fortnight of sun which has baked the soil. Even the weeds are struggling but not enough to stop them and something is eating the plants. Despite this the first two sowings of Peas are ready to crop which H set about with a will. I, on the other hand felt it necessary to shift the horse poo. But first I loosened the Onions and bent the necks over to start them drying. Even as I did this thought to myself the dry spell is over. I am not careful I will loose the Onions to rot.

The poo bin was half full already so using the fork I set about the poo pile. The tines are too far apart.for shifting dry horse muck. I eventually found a spade on one of the allotments which was just the job the clear up the poo. When the bin was full I got in and stamped in down a bit more. After three or four poo pressing sessions the tipped poo pile was neatly contained in the poo bin.

I emptied the 40 gallon drum that acts the site's brazier. I used it last so it had a couple of inches of ash from the weeds and wood that I had burned. I tossed some of the ash on the poo pile, some on the compost heap and the remainder in one of the plastic compost bins. Next I set about the dock pile and put the worst offenders in the black compo bin to get it going.

It was getting dark by now. H had a basket full of Petite Poit pods and had tried out the Swoe. The ground was rock hard yet it made a impact. I had a go round the sweet corn. It seems to work but it flexs a bit. It might be just because the ground is like concrete and I am on the other end shoving like something possessed.

I heard myself say to H that I would not do any more weeding until we had some rain to soften the ground. I asked for rain!! I woke up this morning to find that it had been raining during the night and, indeed, was still was raining, if only lightly. Fencing tonight, picking Plums on Wednesday, going to Devon again on Friday. That only leaves Thursday evening for weeding. I can wait.

As soon as we got home I shelled the peas. I got about two pints. H has a recipe for Pea and Mint soup so guess what for tea tomorrow? There are still lots and peas at the lottie so if I can get to them before the beasties there will be plenty for the freezer. I saved the pods and put them in the freezer to make a pea pod Burgundy when I get a minute.

The best laid plans.....

Yesterdays blog shows the great plans I had for last night. I had agreed to meet my buddy at the lottie and then to go onto the Railway Inn for a chat and perchance, a small libation. On my arrival at home from work H prepared a couple of Gin & Tonics. Well that hat was the end of the plans. H and I went and sat on the patio and chatted. Then onto a light tea [dinner to you southerners] by which time the appointment at the Railway was looming.

Once I made it as far as the rendezvous with Steve I was ready for the outing. We had very convivial evening. A major part of the chat was about where we are going to get our hedgerow fruits from this year and what we would do with them. The front runner at the moment is Sloe gin or Sloe vodka. We might do Damson Vodka if we can get enough Damsoms. I have this idea to bottle the Sloe Gin near Christmas for presents. Steve told me where I can get small, fancy shaped bottles. I have to run my daughter to Devon to stay with her cousins this weekend. A four hundred mile round trip. Steve gets to go sea fishing at Aberystwth. He has promised me and few Mackerel went he returns. I look forward to that!

Back from holidays to...........

Blight. Potato blight. The five rows Charlottes were in flower when I left and on my return they were just stalks. I dug them up the very next day. To my surprise the crop was largely unaffected. There was just a beginning of softness in perhaps twenty tubers. The five rows yielded 50lbs and they taste great. The remainder were fine. I washed the spuds before I left the lottie and picked over them again when I got home. I hope this will mean they will store well. The twelve rows of the main crop were starting to show the first chocolate spots indicating blight. I chopped the haulms down to a few inches above the ridges and cleared away the debris. I hope that this we provide me some time by preventing the blight spores getting into the tubers. I am in a spot at the moment as I do not have anything in which to store the main crop. There are likely to be bags and bags of spuds.

During me holidays it was reported to me that there had been a lot of rain. The garlic was in poor condition so I harvested what was was available. The bulbs where small but in good condition. The bulbs have put to dry in the greenhouse. The Onions have a little rust so I am holding off pulling them to see if the warm weather we have been promised helps them. The Chick peas are a complete disaster so they will have to be dug up. The early broad beans are not to bad but need picking and bed clearing. The Saporo broad beans that I put in later have flowered but not set pods which is probably to do with the bees not being able to get about.

The brasicass bed is a mixed lot. The Chard, Broccoli, Swede and some of the cabbages are doing well but the seedlings I put in before my holidays have disappeared and the caulis are rotting. So that is another area that has to be cleaned up.

I seem to growing Carrots for the first time. They need a more weeding which is not so good but it is a result. Sweet corn is doing well but the Gherkins and Pumpkins less so.

I found a small leak on the central heating system at home so I had to spend almost all Saturday repairing it and as it is a little over year since it was installed I flushed the system and treated the system with an inhibitor. In case that was not enough the fruit tree border is three feet high in weeds. It seems I am the only one with a strimmer that is powerful enough to tackle the weeds. So that is what I did last Sunday morning. The strimmer can not cut the grass so I will have to go over it again but with wire attachment. The wire cannot handle the heavy stuff but chops the grass a treat. I though I would do some hoeing as the Pumpkin patch is looking a little tatty. More or less with the first stroke of the hoe the handle snapped. End of hoeing. It is a good excuse to buy a new one. I have never been happy with the old one but I have had it a great many years. I hope to buy a Swoe. It is a hoe that looks like a sand iron golf club. It is supposed to be good for getting up close the plants. It is stainless steel so I imagine it will last a long time.

Just before my holidays I picked up a couple of plastic composters from the council. I have this plan to use them for the long term composting of Docks and other weeds. I have always run a pile of Docks athe end of the plot that does, in time, rot down to a useful compost. It takes a year or more. With the two composters I hope to reduce the time it takes to convert them into something useful and keep the end of the plot tidy as well. The black plastic really gets hot which I hope is going to be the key to speed up the process. I think I might fill them from the Dock pile this evening.

Because I broke the hoe I decided to spend a few minutes to tidy up the end compost bin. The bin has turned into a collecting point for bits wire, part rolls of chicken wire, plastic bags and useful bits of fleece. All those bits that are too big to throw away but might be useful in the future. They might "come in" as H says. I reorganised the bin so as to make room for the composters and re-positioned all the spares to be neat. I even took somethings home for the dust bin men.

As it stands I have done precious little on the plot. I am going the the plot this evening the job list is:
Start composters
Clear away Chick peas
Clear away manky Caulis
Use the new Swoe!

Ready for the holidays?

H and I are off on holiday at the weekend so it has been something of a trial to get the lottie ready to left alone for a fortnight. It is the same each year. Busy at work preparing things to continue whilst I am away and busy at the lottie ensuring that I don't come back to a weedy jungle. The main problem has been the weather. When it was raining steadily you knew where you were. But recently the weather has changed to heavy showers. Unfortunately is seems to shower on me as I get to the lottie.

Last week was relatively dry. Friday night stayed dry as did most of the day. Unfortunately I had to go to see my in-laws in Chapel en le Frith to organise their website and email. They have finally got consent to let their apartment in Croatia. Click here to open their website. That took up most of Saturday althought we were treated to a lovely lunch. I was determined to get to the lotttie on Sunday to do weeding, clear out poorly plants, harvest some veg and plant out the seedlings from the greenhouse. H joined me at the lottie to help. H turned up about 11am having dropped the daughter in town. I put the two seater bench on the community patio and took a few minutes for a brew from the flask H brought with her. She is a gem. We drank tea and looked across the plots for ten minutes then back to work. Whilst weeding on our hands and knees we spotted lots of tiny toads. About the size of your little finger's nail. Brownish red things.

The snake has not been seen for a while. Perhaps he has found another home!

By 1.30pm the plot was looking ship shape and the back of the car was full of potatoes [Ulster Prince], cabbage [Hispi], Calebrase and spring onions [Lisbon]. I took my lottie buddy Steve up on the offer of PYO red currants. They went very well with the Strawberries, Raspberries and Blackcurrants from the fruit bushes at home together with some Greek yogurt and dribble of honey. When we got home we had bacon butties for lunch and then went for a stiff walk as part of our training for the walking holiday.

Over the weekend other items were checked and fettled such as:
The Parma style ham that I am getting ready for Christmas had its second dressing. It is looking good. It is getting darker in colour by degrees and lighter in weight as the moisture is drawn out. The one that is ready and hung up in the shed is slowly disappearing, shaving by shaving. The thinner it is cut the better it seems to be.

The worms in the wormery have settled down at last. They kept try to escape. Have you ever tried rounding up dozens of wiggly worms that are making a bid for freedom in all directions? It ticklish business trying round them up without damaging them and persuade them to remain in their new home. They seem to have come to terms with their new home and look busy. I can not ell how many worms are left but they are supposed to be prolific breeders so I hope to have happy colony before the winter sets in.

The Tomatoes in the greenhouse have really started growing. Some fruits have set on the Shirley's. The Beef tomatoes are in flower. If the plant is anything to go by the fruit will be enormous. The Cucumbers are growing as well. There are flowers as well as leaves but they just don't look really vigorous. I will have to investigate cucumber husbandry over the winter ready for next year. We seem to have cornered the market in massive frogs. The only trouble is they seem to be match by the size of the slugs. I have been tripping over the buggers. The salt and pellet patrol will have to be re-established.

The sparrow have discovered the blackcurrants so we have harvested all the ripe currents and are going to make them into jam or cassis. We won't have time to eat them all before our holidays so I will turn them into something that will keep.

I was at the lottie last night to check on the seedling I put in over the weekend. I had a fright as I walked passed the spuds. A Partridge shot out the rows straight past me. Unfortunately for him he crashed straight into the netting that is supposed to keep them out. At the second time of shooing the bird spotted the open gate and flapped off into the distance just short of a few feathers for his troubles. I have been blaming beetles for the nibbles taken out of the brasiccas leaves but it might have been Partridge all the while.

Dare we speak Summers name?

The rain seems to be easing off. There are still heavy down pours but they are very localised. Any persistent rain is relatively light compared with what we have had this past two or three weeks. The forecast is for the weather to abate by mid July The First early potatoes "Ulster Price" are performing very well. I started harvesting them, two or three plants at a time, about two weeks ago. Day by day the spuds get bigger giving a bigger crop. They are very tasty. I think I will have them again. The second earlies, "Charlotte" are in flower. A very pretty purple with a white centre. I go on holiday on the 14th July and I am undecided weather to harvest the Charlottes before I go or to leave them in until I return. The Ulsters will be gone by the end of next week so I hope to have prepared the soil and sowed some green manure before I go away.

I have had a few Hispi cabbage which are very nice. The spinach has boltted though which is a disappointment. I have more in the green house to out in the next few days. Finally I have carrots! They seems to be doing quite well. So it would seem that all I have to do in future is keep them really, really wet and warm. The second lot of young french bean have taken a beating. They have another week to show signs of recovery or they will be assigned to the compost heap and others planted in their place. The Swede planted in cells started really well and have established themselves outdoors.

We are eating the air dried Ham. I feel like leaving it a little longer as the drier it gets the finer it can be cut and more delicious it is. I have another one started, perhaps a month old and has just had it's second application of cure.

Its raining, its raining

The title is not strictly true. It has been raining and raining. I have been very busy with family commitments over the past few weeks which is just as well considering the weather. My auntie had her 60th birthday, so that was a day out being plied with food and drink. She lives near Ashton-under-Lyme so it was drive to get there and meant that I could not imbibe. My brother flew in from Fuertaventura, where he now lives, for a visit. He and his good lady, Tracy, stayed with us over night before returning to Manchester. Mum and Dad came too. We did go and have a look at the lottie though. Fencing continues on Tuesday nights. A team of us went to fencing competiton near Nottingham last Sunday. I had a series of close fought bouts in the pool rounds which damaged my position for seeding into the direct eliminations. I had a good outing but came mid field whereas Peter came third.

I keep going up to the lottie for an hour. Partly to weed and partly to see what has happened with all the rain we have had. My buddy Steve emailed me to say i had a massive puddle where my Patio [posh name for a bunch as paving stones at the entrance to my plot]. By the time I went to the plot the next evening the waters had subsided. I got the mattock out and hacked out a rough channel away from the plot towards the ditch. The water hosed along the channel. Since then the pond has not reappearred even though it has rained in biblical proportions. I have away dug a ditch round my large beds partly:

1. to give me some where to walk
2. as a boundary
3. to create a raised bed
4. to create a ditch
5. to a create a void that creeping weed roots can not cross or at least slow them down

The down hill sides of these ditches have been constant puddles and when it rain hard they are linear lakes. As I have said before the substrate of the site is clay over laid with imported aluvial soil. Because of the way I make big raised beds the top 4 to 6 inches of soil tends to drain quite well unfortunatley the underlying clay is slow to drain. This is a handy feature in dry weather as the clay holds the moisture for the plant roots. Just now my plants are suffering. Chic peas and Garlic in particular. I think I will have the garlic up this weekend and dry it out to see if a can salvage a crop. All the other plants seem to be making a living although they are covered in soil which has been bounced off the surface of the earth and been disposited on the leaves by the down pours.

Elderflower Heaven

This is the season for the Elder to flower. The Elder grows as a small tree or shrub. H and I have been watching the weather to gauge when we can go to collect Elder flowers. The Elder flowers during June and July depending on local conditions. We make the flowers into a cordial and a Champagne.

Cordial
One needs about thirty, big, full open flower heads per gallon for the cordial. The cordial has a uses 4lb of sugar, three Lemons, squeezed and zested with 80grams of Citric Acid. Bring the water to the boil and dissolve the sugar. Then the other ingredients are added and syrup simmered with until it reduces. Take the pan off the heat and allow the mixture to stand for twelve hour, over night in our case. Filter the contents of the pan through a muslin jelly bag or other such fine filter to remove the flower parts and bugs. The filter should not be too fine as the syrup will be quite thick. Then bottle. It freezes really well. Use the cordial 1:4 with sparkling water or white wine over ice, drop in a sprig of mint for a really refreshing summer drink. You will not have tasted anything so nice.

Champagne
This champagne is not alcoholic but refers to the fizz. Take a gallon of water and bring it to the boil. Take it off the heat and dissolve 1.5kg [3.3lb] of sugar. Zest two lemons and juice. Add the juice and zest to the water. Also add 2 tablespoons of White Wine vinegar. Allow the liquid to cool the blood temp [37 degrees C]. Add six Elderflower heads to the water. The water has to cool so that the natural yeasts are not killed. The yeasts are going to give the fizz. Let the whole thing stand 24 hrs. Strain the infused liquid to get rid of the flower bits and any bugs. Then bottle the liquor. Use bottles that can stand some pressure. Screw cap pop bottles are ideal. Leave the bottles to stand in a cool place for ten days. Check them every day to ensure they do not explode. One needs to let off some pressure so the bottles don't explode but you want some pressure so you get fizz. The Champagne does not keep long but that will be a good excuse to drink it and go and make some more.

The Elderflower is quite delicately scented but is pungent when infused. It is at its best if picked after a few days of dry, sunny weather. One should select the flower heads that are in full bloom and facing the sun. Since one only requires a handful of flower heads there is no point choosing anything but the best flowers, in peak condition. Flowers that not quite open or gone over impart a distinct "cat pee" odour and spoil the flavour of the product. H and I seek out Elders that do not grow near roads or heavy industry. We apply this rule to any hedgerow goodies we pick.

The other thing is that because so few flower heads are needed there are plenty left on the trees to run to berries which can be turned into jam and wine later in the year. Take note that the flowers and berries should not be eaten raw as they have a mild laxative effect.