Allotment Diary (January week 1) @AllotmentDiary

What We’ve harvested and eaten

We harvested a ‘grand’ total of £52 worth of veg this week, excluding anything from the store.  We had 19 meals with ingredients from the allotment.

2019-01-05 11.57.19

 

It’s been a good harvest week, the plots have recovered from being picked hard for the big Christmas harvest and it’s mild so most things are growing well.

We picked carrots, chard, true spinach, leeks, radicchio, broccoli, sprouts and sprout tops, brocollini, lots of types of kale, kalettes and kalette tops, new potatoes, red and golden beets, spring onions, celery, tomatoes, red-veined sorrel, rocket, lots of bean tops and loads of lettuce. We also raided the store for: potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic and crown prince squash

Videos published

As there’s not much to do on the allotment this week I’ve taken the opportunity to film a few extra videos, especially ones that viewers have requested.  I’ve also started the monthly what I’m sowing and growing series.

First up was a tour of the plot and an update on the over-wintered brassica’s which are growing on a bit faster than I’d like so they needed to be potted up.

Next was a bit of fun, harvesting tomatoes in January!

Then a quick look at some of the harvests from the year, as well as lessons learned

Finally (it’s been a busy week) a video on What I’m sowing and growing in January

What I’ve sowed

I’ve sown three trays of radish, which will all germinate on a cool window sill and then go to the allotment. I’ve sown four different varieties (Ilka, French Breakfast, Sparkles and Cherry Belle). I’ve had good experiences with growing radish in modules and in January.  The different varieties mature at different times and they hold well at this time of year.  This batch will last about a month and then I will start sowing a tray a week in Feburay.

I’ve also sown two big containers full of carrots (Sprint) these will germinate under the desk in the conservatory and then go straight to the polytunnel to grow on.

I also started to chit my first batch of potatoes (Charlotte) grown last year on Jennie’s plot.

What I’ve planted

I’ve planted a tray of spinach (Amazon and Red Kitten) in the hoop tunnel that previously had the radicchio in it.  That means I now have all of my early spring spinach in the ground.

I’ve also started planting cauliflowower (snowball), calabrese (Marathon), Broccolini and cabbage (Durham Early) into the main polytunnel beds, interplanted with lettuces.  By the time they compete I won’t need the lettuces anymore as the cold-frame crops will have taken over.  I’ve also planted some cauliflowers in one of the cold-frames.

First harvests of the year

None

Last harvests of the year

We picked the last of the tomatoes, calabrese, black carrots and the radicchio

What’s left in store

  1. Potatoes – 2 medium sized bags
  2. Carrots – 4 big boxes
  3. Onions – 2 large boxes
  4. Shallots – 1 large box
  5. Squash – 2 Crown Prince
  6. Beets – 4 big boxes

What have we processed for preserving

  1. Onions cut up and frozen
  2. Squash, cooked and frozen

Highlights

The salads mixes are great, especially the spring onions and those last few tomatoes!

Problems

We checked the store this week and we had three bad potatoes, nothing else was wasted, and a few onions with a mildew on some of the outer leaves, which we removed.

A few of the lettuces had downy mildew on the leaves and we losts a few plants to rotten stems.

Steve Richards

I'm retired from work as a business and IT strategist. now I'm travelling, hiking, cycling, swimming, reading, gardening, learning, writing this blog and generally enjoying good times with friends and family

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