P - P - parky

This weekend was the working party that was arranged at the AGM. The posts where in. Steve got some of the rabbit netting and all of the wire. Stuart donated wire ties, 3000 in fact. Pete, Maria and Judith joined Steve and myself in the fog at the plot. There was two legs of fencing to do. We had to dig out 45 metres of trench on the first leg, only 6inches wide and a couple of inches deep. We got on the with the job even though it was only 2 degrees. It only took 40 minutes to finish the trench. Steve and Pete wrestled the strand wire off the roll and offered it up to the posts. I stapled the wire to the posts. When the wire was strung and tensioned I crimped the wire to the posts. Next off the Rabbit netting. Steve rolled it out. Maria, Pete and Judith wrestled the netting into place and tagged the netting the top wire with the wire ties. I stapled on the netting at the posts. We managed to get the netting pretty straight and taut between us. Steve, Pete and I set off stringing the wire and hanging the netting along the second leg whist the nimbled fingered ladies tagged the netting to the wires at foot intervals and trimming off the excess length of tie.

The ground was less regular on leg two and the sun was heading for the horizon. We strung the wire and rolled out the netting. There was insufficient to finish the leg. I had to go the shop for another roll of netting and more staples. We rolled out the netting and tagged it to the top wire. It was clear that there would be insufficient time to complete the fixing of the netting so we left the netting hanging of the top wire. Maria was very quiet. I walked round to see what she was up too. She had completed all the ties and had started back filling the trench. By the time it was too dark to work we had completed leg one and strung all the strand wire, including the two free wires above the netting along both leg one and two and hung the netting on leg two. A lot of work done in four hours.

I went back back on Sunday morning to finished off leg two by excavating a trench, burying the foot of the netting, back filling the trench and pinning the wire to the posts. Someone else can do the tie wiring.

H and I went to the plot late on Sunday afternoon to see what had been keeping me away from the house and to see the works Thones had done on the old coal depot next to the allotment. We had a good walk round. The fencing look good even though it is a bit wonky here and there. The old coal site is getting the end stage. The pond, paths and landscaping is finished at the top end of the site. It looks great.

Despite the cold I manged to get through three changes of clothes because they were soaked through with sweat......nice!

Ticking along

The clocks have gone back and it gets dark at 4 o'clock. Last week it had been raining on and off all week which left the ground sloppy mud. Steve and DaveP and I had decided that we had to put up the Rabbit fencing round the new allotment area. before we can move on. We did not have the wire but we did have the posts. Dave P and Steve got the posts ready. We took it in turns to whack the posts in with the rammer, 24 in total. The weather stayed dry but the clay "soil" made it hard to get the posts in and slippy under foot but we managed. Dave P lost most of the skin of his hands. I lent him my gloves which helped him through to the end.

The contractors had dug a trench a weeks ago for the transplanted trees which are to form part of the boundary. We found the trees but the trench was two foot deep in water. We dropped the trees is and whilst Dave P and Steve back filled the trench I cut a gutter to let the water drain out. Half and hour we had the trees in and water out.

It was the Society's AGM on Friday just gone. There was a lot of work to do to get everything ready for the meeting. The meeting was along one this time, more than two hours, but that is a measure of the developments of the Society. I was going to do a bit today but it was very wintery, a light dusting of snow over night, and cold showers all day. In the end I did the AGM minutes instead and ordered my seeds for next year. So that is another years over Society-wise. Roll on Christmas!

Apples, apples everywhere

This weekend has been Apples pressing weekend. Steve got the press on Friday evening and dropped it off at my house together with the hand cranked apple pulper. We arranged to meet Saturday, early afternoon. On Saturday morning I got everything ready. I arranged the work area. The shed is at one end of the production line. See the picture below. It gives the reason I did not want to move the apples. The shed was full of them.

Just outside the shed door to I set the table up to rough chop the apples; at the end of the table a dustbin with the apple pulper perched on the top, then the apples press itself secured to the work bench, in front of the press a series of empty fermenting bins to catch the juice. Everyone I talked to said the weather was going to wet so I set up the two garden umbrellas, one over the table and the other over the press. I got everything washed down and sterilised and sat back to wait for Steve.



I just had time to finish my brew when Steve turned up. Steve had a few Apples in his car [see the adjacent picture] Between us we reckoned we about a tonne. This year we had more cookers than dessert Apples so we hope for a more interesting brew.

Steve took up station at the press and I the chopping/pulping table. Off we went, the apple pile did not seem to go down very quickly but we got into a rhythm. Same trouble as last year though. With just one press we could not leave the pressing squeezing the apples until we had all the juice. As it was we ending up with 14 gallons a piece. So no shortage of apple juice.

H made Pumpkin soup for a late lunch. We went back to pulping and pressing. At 4pm the lights went on. yet more pressing. At 7.30pm we stopped for dinner [Lemon chicken and roast veg] then continued until 10pm. However the job was not complete. Just before dinner I took the bags pressed and spent pulp to the lottie:
A. To free up the bags and buckets for the next session
B. The top up the compost bins. It makes a great activator.

We had sunshine, light showers, heavy showers and wind building up to a gale all evening. We had emptied the shed of all the my apples and refilled it with Steve's contribution. We even got through a few trays of Apples before we called a halt. We arranged to meet the next day and finish off the remaining nine trays and so it was. Steve came about 10am and we were finished and cleaned up by 1pm.

All we have to decide now is what we are going to do with our juice.

Not About Heros

The weather was against me on Sunday last, although I got some small jobs sorted and did a bit on the bike [check the BM blog for details] and I had commitments on Saturday so no allotmenting was done that day either. I did have an interesting outing on Friday evening with H. We and our friends went to the Sir John Moore Foundation at Appleby Magna to see a touring production "Not about heroes". It was a play about first world war poet Wilfred Owen and his time in an Edinburgh hospital for the shell shocked. There he met his hero, Siegfried Sassoon, who was there for his "nerves". In fact he was in hospital more for views on the war. H was seriously moved by the performance. Me much less so. I did not understand where the narrative stopped and the poems started or visa versa. I got a book of Wilf's poems and then it began to make sense. I read them few times over and only now am I beginning to understand their meaning. It was poignant to know that he was killed in the last weeks of the war, his parents receiving the telegram on Armistice Day, his poems where published by his friends after his death. It has added weight at this time of year.

I am wrote this installment of the blog on Tuesday evening from my apartment in Canary Wharf. I was down there to a meeting and another all day session the next day. So it was with great pleasure I got an email from The Chairman of the lottie to say our friendly contractors, Thornes, had completed preparing the allotment extension. Now I can not wait to get back to survey the scene. Steve say the area looks enormous. It looks like me might have stirred up the Rabbit population too. Now we only have to sort out fencing, paths, car parks and water...oh and the small matter of several hundred tonnes of top soil.

It is the Society's AGM in a few weeks so preparations are underway for this annual event. There might not be any allotmenting next week either. It is Apple pressing weekend. Despite not trying very hard we have somewhere close a a tonne of apples in the shed to press. I popped out for an hour on Sunday to have a look at Donisthorpe Orchard. I though I might pick up a few last windfall Apples. Steve had the same idea. We got some very nice apples and lots of them. The nicest are a Russett type but I have no idea what variety. Imagine the size of a potato sack and multiply by four and gives you an idea of how many apples I picked. It was nice to be outside given the week I had had and what was before me for this week.

Winter has broken out

The clock went back at the weekend. Suddenly the weather has turned cold. Cloudless skys gives a hard frost and we had the first proper crispy frost overnight on the Tuesday 28th. Some people locally had snow. We just had a bit of sleet. It be interesting to see what state the soil is in at the weekend.

Over exercised

I have been on holiday this past week. I got about a bit, visiting suppliers that I would not normally get a chance to visit. It was nice to get about the countryside without being under pressure to be somewhere. I managed spend some time at the lottie. I dug lot of bed 2 but managed to strain the muscles of my lower back. Bit of a bugger really. The back is feeling much better by today so much so that I did the poo trailer run as normal.

I haver tidied up the green house and potted up some Buddliea that had self set in the front garden. I shall leave the back garden until after Christmas when the plants are truly dormant and then give everything a pruning. I dug out the dead annuals from the front garden and with H direction planted a load of bulbs, of different sorts, for the spring.

H and I have been busy making Chutney's of one sort or another. There has been a lot of pie making as well. We were given a very large number of Bramley apples. It seems a bit short sighted just to crush them all for juice. I have yet to make some Mint jelly. Surprising as it may seem but you need apples for that too.

Biting Wind

The last few weeks were a over shadowed by having to give notice to one of the Society members. It has been on the cards for ages but it is never a nice things to do but now it is done things can move on. The year has turned in the past week. Most of the trees are dressed for Autumn and the wind has an edge to it.

I went the lottie as usual on Saturday and manged to harvest various crops; another Red Cabbage for pickling, some Hispi, some Leeks which although quite small are very tasty and some very odd looking carrots. H came with me just to get out of the house. H tweaked her back a few weeks ago and means she has had a hard time sleeping and that of course affects everything else. She is feeling better by the day so healing is taking place. Under H's direction I bagged what was required. I dug up the remaining early spring sown Carrots, but they were a disaster. They had all split and peeled open. That is because they were not kept watered. However the ones planted late summer are smashing. I planted a globe shape variety. They are sweet and about the size of a gobstopper. They went in whole in to Sunday's stew. I dug up a few of the late crop just to see how they were doing. Very well is the answer. They still have to bulk up but they are nice and straight and without Carrot fly damage. Whatever the herb was a planted with the carrot has deterred the carrot fly. I am trying to remember, I think it was Coriander. I did not like the smell of it and neither did the dreaded carrot fly. So there is a lesson from 2008.

The Pumpkins are ready. I tried to move the vine to tidy it up but it just came off the fruit, ergo it is ready. We have plenty of Pumpkin. Nine in fact. All about a foot across and 5 to 6 pounds in weight. Since the clean up last week the Grape vines are very prominent. I had a good look at them. I still have to work out how to train them.

I went round to my friend Gloria and picked a load of her Apples. They are a bit beat up but should do for crushing. The shed is stuffed with trays and sacks of Apples. There is a fruity, fermenting small about the place. There is still the Salsify to harvest and eat. It is also called Oyster plant because of it taste. I think I will have to have an experiment before it goes on the table before the ladies of the house. I have not been brave enough to dig up one of the Japanese Burdock. I have found recipes for it on the t'interweb. I figure it will over winter until I have time to mess about.

I have this week off, if the weather allows, there will be digging at the allotment.