Strange brew

Having spent the summer at various dinners, do's and barbeques - in festivals, fields and parks up and down the country, there's one thing that keeps the world turning - booze. No matter how severe the recession gets, people will always drink. So in lieu of starting my own microbrewery (ideally on small Hebridian island - "Do you want a Canna beer?") I borrowed Phil's demijohn, plucked a kg of gooseberries and blackcurrants, and paid a visit to the wonderful Edina Homebrew shop just off Easter Road, who helped explain the whole really very simple process.

So after two weeks bubbling away in the corner of the kitchen, I've racked (siphoned off the good stuff into a new demijohn, whilst leaving the old sediment) the wine and in another couple of weeks they'll be ready for bottling - then another six months.  A slow way to get six bottles of wine, especially when as my dear wife reminded me they're down the road in the Co-op for £4 a pop, but she's kinda missing the point!


Meanwhile down at the allotment - the onions and shallots were pulled at the start of the month and purple sprouting broccoli and nero kale transplanted in.

Courgettes continue to come at the rate of knots. The broad beans have one last picking in them and winter sowing of cauliflower and winter leaves have been made.


 
Pulled my first kohl rabi, but having had it in a pork stew last night, lets just call it a turnip!!

Next up - the brambles and raspberries!

Catching up

Part and parcel of tending the allotment, is the feeling that you're never quite caught up with nature - there's always something to be done and always something that doesn't get done. This used to cause me bother, however its best to be easy-ozy, that's one of the nice things about it - a place where you go in with one idea of what you're going to do, and then promptly you get stuck into something else - no lists, no boss and no worries... bit like your holidays...

Returned after two weeks camping on the Small Isles, the beautiful islands of Canna, Rum and Muck - all unique and very different from each other- lots of fresh food - from shellfish for Jimi's big birthday bash from Sandy's boat, whopping vegetables from the Greenshed, rabbit pie at the Gille Brighde on Canna, newly dug Craigentinny spuds and even a couple of mighty seafish, wrestled from the sea by Col and myself and cooked on the fire.

Returned on the weekend to a very green patch - everything has spent the last fortnight, both hot and wet, bolting upwards and outwards...



Forked the onion roots out, so that they can dry over the next two weeks
Dug the third row of spuds - the Dunbar Rovers - good sized tubers with lovely firm, buttery flesh
Pink Fir Apple spuds are stretching to almost chest height!
First pickings of broad beans
First pickings of loganberries
First picking of blackcurrants and gooseberries, shielded under netting - think I'm gonna make wine with these
French beans now two inches and reaching for support
Fennel and Kohl Rabi well established and coming on
Lots of courgettes, currently about 2 - 4 inches long...

Even saw a frog for the first time on the plot in over six years!

You reap what you sow

You've seen the order now peruse the plan!

Recently spent a sunday dismantling the fruit cage, and strapping up the loganberries - seems like there's lots more space already!

Looking west to Nagano...

Looking east to Vancouver...

Blue Monday

Blue potatoes straight from the ground? - you'll be telling me the one o'clock gun doesn't shoot a cannonball next!?

So the blight got them in late august but i read that cut the shaws down before the spores can travel down to the tubers, leave for two - three weeks in the ground before lifting them. The slugs might have go them, but surely they had their full munching all my cabbage! Not bad a haul, but relatively small, and not a great yield from each seed potato - six on each roughly. Althugh ths year i used plenty of manure, next year need to feed regularly (with potash?)

• Still a beautiful autumn afternoon, leaving them to dry.
• The raspberries keep coming.
• Final crop of lettuce, by now rather woody and overgrown
• The challenge - Celeriac looking good!

maggie snatcher

Back still knackered so Maggie's moved in on the harvests. All the Arran Pilots are now out, the blackcurrents and redcurrents ready for their first picking, the bulk of the broad beans. Been scoffing broad beans in various guises (with chorizo, broad bean houmous)all weekend !

Stake-out

Nice breezy day - still slightly chiller than it should be and cetainly cooller than in Muck last week, especially at night. Any difference of more than 9 degree and the plants concentrate on surviving rather than growing! Plan was to paint the joint shed but showers could be seen out towards the Forth.

So as Tom and Katie had managed to get knockdown fruit trees for the shared plot, spent the morning staking out. Came across a bucket-load of established horseradish, which we had with beetroot for tea.