Homemade Christmas Gift

I decided to give my brother and sister in law some of my preserves as a xmas gift this year (i've put a dvd in the bag too, just incase :)


There is Spiced Crabapple Jelly, Green Tomato Chutney and my version of Branston Pickle, there is also a bottle of Blackberry wine that i've still to bottle (heres hoping fermentation has completely finished or i'll be paying to re-decorate their kitchen)

I really need to treat myself to a decent camera, these phone pics are terrible!

Homemade Butter

Picked up 3 tubs of double cream from the supermarket yesterday, reduced from £2 to 25p each.   

Managed to get 6, good sized, pats of butter and over a pint of buttermilk for my 75p outlay.  Bargain!

 

Storm Damage

Went to the plot today to see what damage the recent storm had caused.  It wasn't too bad at all, a panel off the big greenhouse roof.

The canes holding up the spring cabbage netting were snapped.

And there wasn't a single seed left to save on the coriander, they'll probably be sprouting up in Aberdeen in the spring.

The weirdest thing though was this...

 ...an empty bottle of Buckfast in a plastic bag, which  i'm quite sure the wind didn't blow over the fence ;)

We took a wander around the site and there was quite a bit of damage on other plots so we really were quite lucky.

A bit of history to bring things up to date.

We got the keys to our half plot on 15th Feb 2008 and my heart fell when I saw the state it was in (i've since learned that we were actually quite lucky).

We collected pallets, discarded furniture, old wooden framed windows and other such allotment necessities.

 And then the work began.  First on the agenda was to get the greenhouse built to give us somewhere to shelter and make a cuppa.

It was now March and time to start planting, first to go into the ground was onion sets that I had rooted in pots.

Then the potatoes

It wasn't long until the plot was filled with lots of veggie goodies.

At the end of 2009 we expanded and took on the half plot next door. 

And by spring 2010 we had it cleared

 

There was a half built 'greenhouse' on the new plot which meant we now had two leaky roofs to fix (still not done yet but I have faith that 2012 will be a dry year for us) We will probably take this down at some point and rebuild it slightly better than it is.

So, that's pretty much the story so far. 








 

New blog

Every year I promise myself that I will keep notes and document the goings on at the allotment.  Every year I never get around to it and every year I struggle to remember what I sowed where and when the year before.

So, i'm hoping that blogging is the answer.