A sting in the tail?

We had a one or two bright sunny days last week. The photo below could almost fool you into believing it was summer.

Appearances are, however, deceptive as bright cloudless skies coupled with a complete lack of wind have a sting in the tail. They are followed by very cold nights and we were hit by night time frosts.

No more dahlias to cut as the plants have blackened.

On the other hand, the frost should have changed some of the starch to sugars and improved the flavour of our parsnips. We will now be able to discover whether we have any decent roots.

Despite the wintry weather, some plants are optimistically preparing for the next growing season.

The bright days are being offset by days of murk and drizzle and so we haven't been encouraged to do any work on the allotment or in the garden. We made a harvesting visit to the plot but otherwise have stayed away.

23 November - Chrysanthemums, Autumn Giant cauliflower, Flakee carrots, Sabrosa savoy cabbage and mixed leeks.

We cut the last of our four Autumn Giant cauliflowers. This time we enjoyed it 'neat' as an accompaniment to some tuna fishcakes which were made with some of our potato, onion and parsley. I forgot to take a photo.

Some of the leeks went into a chicken and leek crumble pie which was accompanied by sauteed potatoes and some of the savoy cabbage.

I made a vegetable stir fry based on this recipe.

My version used our carrots, peas, sweetcorn and French beans from the freezer and some baby spinach. Instead of serving with rice I served on a bed of egg noodles.

Although we didn't spend time outdoors gardening, we did spend some time outdoors enjoying the periods of bright weather. One afternoon was again spent at Nostell Priory.

This time there were no bright autumn colours reflected in the lake.

Most of the trees had shed their leaves

As usual Ruby enjoyed sniffing everything and ended up with a very soggy chin.

Just in case you are wondering none of the photos in the car were taken whilst we were traveling.

Next week sees England come out of the general lockdown but our area will be then placed in tier three restrictions so to be honest this will mean that we are still in lockdown mode. 

We decided to do a bit of decorating but being in the throes of a pandemic means that things are not as straightforward as normal. 

Fortunately we had the paint that we needed but, as we are still very wary of going into any shops, we have had to order some wallpaper online. This means that there will be about a fortnight's wait until the paper is delivered and I can find out whether I actually like the design that I have chosen. The room we are decorating is a small upstairs room that has generally been used to store things that we have not got around to throwing away. This has posed another problem as there is restricted access to, what is now euphemistically called, the recycling centre - previously known as the tip. This means that we can't get rid of the aforementioned rubbish. Then we need a carpet which I don't fancy ordering online as you need to feel the quality don't you? Isn't life full of frustration at the moment? Although we are lucky that all we are experiencing is some inconvenience whilst many are losing their livelihoods or worse.

As always stay safe and well

As usual, I'm linking to Harvest Monday on Dave's blog

Our Happy Acres,

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

An allotment free week

I haven't really much to report this week. We haven't been out and about nor have we been to the allotment. Although we generally do a little work when we visit the plot, the main trigger for heading there, at this time of year, is the need to replenish our vegetable stocks. Last week we had already brought home everything we needed or used vegetables in our winter stores.

Although, last week, we had some sunny spells, we also had drizzly rain and wind. It was also quite cold so all in all, other than local walks with Ruby, we haven't been encouraged to be out for extended periods. Even when the weather is dry, after all the rain, everywhere in the garden and on the allotment is wet and soggy. There's no immediate rush to get things done, so we have contented ourselves with staying at home and doing indoor things. Martyn's learning to drive a train. Fortunately, for all concerned, it's not a real one as he has crashed a couple of times. It's a computer simulation but very realistic.

We've also been busy working on a website that we manage for someone we know who has a small travel services business. His main income is generated by airport transfers so he is one of the people hit hard by Corvid restrictions.

I managed to get my photography fix by mooching around the garden searching for possible subjects.

Some things were tenaciously hanging on whilst others were impatiently preparing for next year. No doubt hoping like us for a better year to come.

Amongst other things I've been trawling the internet for more recipe ideas. I gather together recipes that I like the sound of into an electronic database.

Just over three years ago we stopped eating red meat and any processed foods so many of the recipes are based around vegetables and poultry. We eat fish too but tend to keep fish dishes plainer.

Each week I make at least one large bowl of coleslaw which makes good use of all our fresh cabbages.

More cabbage was used a chicken stir fry with pineapple and cabbage.

I used some of our leeks, potato, carrot and frozen green beans in a vegetable gratin.

I can't track down the recipe that this was based on but, basically, you can use a mix of any vegetables you fancy. The vegetables are cooked and added to a cheesy sauce. The mixture is then topped with a mix of breadcrumbs and some grated cheese, then baked in the oven. To our homegrown vegetables I added some chestnut mushrooms and courgette and I used Gruyere cheese.

Finally some potato, onion and carrot went into a green Thai curry with vegetables based on this recipe. I used vegetable stock instead of a tin of broth. I also bought the green Thai paste and sprinkled the curry with sweet red pepper rather than chilli pepper

There’s no harvest pictures this week so I thought I'd include some photos of Ruby instead.

Two of Ruby's favourite things are having her tummy rubbed ...

... and playing with her squeaky ball.

Finally, I hope everyone is still keeping safe and well. At least last week brought some hopeful news as various Covid vaccines seem to be showing real promise.

I don't qualify for inclusion on Dave's blog for his harvest Monday theme, this week as we didn't do any harvesting but I'll still be popping over to see what other people have managed to gather in.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Ground level

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett