Allotment + Knitting = Knitted Vegetables

I'm keeping myself busy by knitting at the moment. At the moment I'm knitting Easter eggs, however I would like to have a go at knitting some vegetables and flowers. Look what I found while looking for inspiration...

These fantastic knitted/crocheted vegetables were made by Japanese designer Itoamika Jungjung, and are actually made to wear! I can't find out anything else about Jungjung, she/he (I'm guessing she) does have a website but there is only a few logos on it at the moment. Anyway, I think she has done an amazing job. I like the beetroot the best.

Unfortunately my abilities with the needles aren't quite up to this standard. Maybe one day...

Bye Bye Christmas...Hello Spring

By the time twelfth night came I was well and truly sick of Christmas. So, I decided to de-Christmas the house and go and buy some Spring flowers. I got some lovely daffodils and narcissi and put them in my new jug. I know we still have quite some weeks to go until Spring arrives good and proper (71 days in fact), but I am hoping that my wishful thinking will get me through the remaining dark nights.

Get Spring Countdown Widget

In Which the Rhubarb Makes a Somewhat Early Appearance

Look what I discovered peeping through the soil when I visited the allotment yesterday - rhubarb (when I zoomed into this pic I also noticed the presence of a pesky slug in the underside of the unfurling leaf, which has no doubt already my new rhubarb shoots). 

What's more, another plotholder at my site has rhubarb stalks that are already 4-5 inches long. Gosh! Is it just me or is this super-early? I admit that the prospect of making rhubarb crumble, or even better rhubarb vodka, in January is cheering me up a little!

As you can see, otherwise the plot is looking a little miserable and not much is going on, except...

...the garlic is busy growing, and...

...we have plenty of  Cavolo nero and green curly kale to keep us from getting hungry during the 'hungry gap'. I really like kale, plus it is one of the best things you can eat to keeps your eyes healthy. I often add it to soups. There are some interesting kale recipes at the Discover Kale website.

Happy New Allotment Year! Yay!

I haven't posted for ages :( I have unintentionally neglected my blog since the Autumn, why? I got ill in late October, which culminated in the removal of my appendix. This left me unable to do much for quite a while and what with a major backlog of work, the downright nasty weather (my house escaped major flooding by just a few feet - I feel very lucky), and the onset of all things Christmas, the allotment has been left abandoned by me. 

Anyway, my enforced downtime gave me some time to think about what to grow next year. This year the pumpkins were a great success - I grew 8 of them on 2 plants and they all reached a good size. Inspired by Matron at Down on the Allotment I did think about attempting to grow a monster-sized pumpkin, but after a bit of thought decided against it as I've enjoyed eating my way through my little pumpkins. Plus, I don't really fancy attempting to move - or even worse chop up - a huge pumpkin. My youngest son saw a picture of Turk's turban squash in a gardening magazine and couldn't believe that they were real, so I thought I would give them a go. 

On the squash front, I am also going to give spaghetti squash a go, however I am unsure whether or not to try growing butternut squash again as it was a total disaster last season.

So, what else am I going to grow? I couldn't resist the mixed aubergine below as they looked so enticing on the seed packet. I'm not quite sure how I will squeeze them into the greenhouse but I will try!

Other than these seeds, and buying 3 more raspberry plants. I haven't thought much about the coming season. I am just hoping that the weather will be better this year. It was a beautiful sunny day today so hopefully that is a good omen for the rest of the year!

A Blaze of Autumn

Today has been a beautiful Autumn day. As it is also half-term, we decided to go for a long walk. We set off along Conishead beach aiming for the woods at Conishead Priory.

Although a little muddy, the woods were spectacular. Theo, my middle son (trailing behind everyone else in the pic above), loves these woods. He particularly loves coming in Spring and spotting the snowdrops peeping through the frozen ground.

We spotted this huge fungus growing at the bottom of a tree.

I loved the texture of this bark. I am a bit ashamed to say that I don't know what the tree was.

Whenever we walk through the wood Theo and Finn always make a beeline for this old tree trunk.

The wood was adorned with the most colourful carpet of leaves. I couldn't help but think about all the leaf mould I could make!

In which I am awash with pumpkins!

I have been so busy in the last month I have had no time to update my blog. However, I am now (hopefully) back. This is just one of my 8, yes 8, pumpkins. I love growing pumpkins, and I very much missed my pumpkin patch when I didn't grow them last year. I love the way they trail off, rambling across the allotment. I especially  love finding one that has managed to hide itself deep within the foliage on another crop (I found one such pumpkin among the sweetcorn this year).

I usually grow pumpkins to eat, bar one that is sacrificed for Halloween, however after being utterly inspired by the huge pumpkin grown this year by Matron of the lovely blog Down at the Allotment, next year I may set aside one pumpkin plant to see if I can also grow a Cinderella!

So, what am I going to do with my 8 pumpkins? As mentioned above, one is earmarked for Halloween, however I am not entirely sure what I will do with the rest. I made a head start today by chopping one of them up and adding half of it to my Autumn allotment broth, which as its name suggests, is a mixture of all the things I have from the allotment at the moment - pumpkin, carrots, onion, a chili, potato, and kale (green curly, and cavolo nero). I will roast the other half tomorrow to go with the veggie roast dinner I am hoping to make. 

I have found that pumpkin freezes well. In Autumn and Winter I like making root vegetable casseroles (great to make in a slow cooker) and its super easy to get a bag of diced pumpkin out of the freezer and add it to the pot. Of course, there is also pumpkin soup, which I usually make once or twice. I have never had pumpkin pie. I've just never fancied it. Maybe one day I will give it a go! If you have a surplus of pumpkins Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book has a number of recipes to keep you busy.

I do love Autumn. It's about the only time of year that I really appreciate orange. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this beautiful tree in the grounds of my elder boys' school. Maybe the super intense colours this year are due to all the rain we've had!

Back from the Sunny South

I'm back from Kent, and now that the children are back at school (yay!) I might have some time to write something. Even though the nights are getting darker and the mornings are definitely getting chillier, there is still plenty going on at the allotment - runner beans, courgettes, pumpkins, sweet peas, and carrots are still going strong. However, I thought I would post some of my pictures of my in-laws garden. As you can see they are lucky enough to have their own Kent Cob tree, which faithfully produces an abundance of cob nuts (a particularly yummy type of hazelnut) each year. In my local supermarket cob nuts cost about £8 kg. We are lucky to get loads for nothing. The best thing about it is that you don't have to do anything except harvest them!

They also have a damson (Prunus domestica) tree. I'm not at all jealous, honest. I have kept some of the stones and was thinking of attempting to grow one of my own, however I have read that they don't start bearing fruit until they are about 15 years old.

Lastly, they also have an apple tree, although I don' know what variety. I really wish I had a nice big garden to grow trees in. Oh well, maybe one day.