From Fork to Plate in 4 Hours

We had a fabulous day yesterday.  G and I went to the allotment and our daughter and the two grandchildren joined us.  I wanted to dig up a whole row of potatoes so that I could more easily reach the back of the row of  runner beans. Our grandson K had his 14th birthday last Thursday and is much stronger than me (which isn't difficult!) So he willingly got stuck in digging them up with a fork, whilst his sister G bagged them up and collected the leaves for the compost.  He didn't spear a single one, unlike me, I usually spoil at least 2 or3.  G once managed to spear 3 beauties on the fork in one go so he's been banned from digging them up ever since!  This meant that I could harvest the runner beans at the back before they went over. We pulled up the pea plants, removing any edible bits before putting them on the compost too.

The giant onions are growing so big that one or two are actually touching which isn't what we want so I harvested 3 to make space.  Onions can be eaten at any point in their growth so I kept one and gave our daughter the other two.  This is the smallest of the three...

We spotted a tiny visitor in amongst the leeks and onions.  There are plenty of slugs and snails for him to get through......

Our lovely allotment neighbour gave us 4 beetroot to try.  As soon as I got home I boiled and skinned my 2.  They were delicious and have been added to salads and a sandwich......

 I took hot and cold drinks for us, as well as soap and water for hand washing, so we paused for lunch and bought chip shop chips to share 😜 followed by freshly picked raspberries . It was the most exciting day out that I've had for months!

DD took home some carrots, runner beans, peas and potatoes as well as a couple of corn cobs.  She cooked them, ate a plateful of veg with gravy and kept a corn cob back for later after taking her son to football training.  When she got home her hubby had eaten it (even though he swears he 'doesn't like' corn  🙄) so she never got to try it.  It was deliciously sweet and tender served with a small knob of butter.....

I'll pick some more for her next time we go. She did take home 3 carrier bags full of potatoes which she will share with her Sister-in-Law and her neighbours.

Food Shortages:

Sainsburys has just delivered the food shopping and each week lately there are out of stock items and substitutions; 4 out of stock and 4 subs this week alone.  It means we are 3 meals short on the food planner for the next 7 days.  On the rare occasions I nip into Morrisons for a forgotten item I notice empty shelves everywhere. I do commend the supermarkets for pulling out all the stops to keep the deliveries flowing.  It must be tough at the moment.

How are food supplies where you are?

I'm especially grateful for the veg at the allotment.  

Coming soon:

Leeks

Calabrese

Parsnips

Sprouts

Blackberries

Bramley apples

Russet? dessert apples

Still harvesting:

Potatoes

Runner beans

French beans

Carrots

Onions

Luckily, there was a small piece of steak in the shopping so G can have that tonight with roast potatoes, roast parsnip, carrots, and runner beans.  I think I'll just have a big plate of veg like DD did but with home grown mint sauce 😀

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

'Free' Food

 

I roasted the cherry tomatoes as suggested and, after removing the skins, froze them to use later on pasta or pizza.  The Tumbling Tom plants have now been emptied out of the hanging basket and put on the compost heap at the allotment.   Nothing has been wasted. 

From the allotment we have been eating:

Potatoes (we still have enough to feed the whole village!)

French beans

Runner beans

Spring onions

Radishes

Unfortunately,  the last 3 cabbages bolted in the heat so were chopped up and added to the compost.

The Mammoth onions are becoming enormous. The one in the photo is one of the smaller ones! G seems to have a 'thing' about gi-normous onions ever since he won first prize at the village show 🙄 One single onion lasts us about a week and we have a whole raised bed full .  Heaven knows what we will do with them all 🤔

We have 9 healthy looking sweetcorn plants but I have no idea when the corn will be ready to pick.  Any suggestions from Gardeners out there will be very welcome.....

I intended to go to the allotment this morning to pick runner beans for my best friend but it's now raining heavily so I might have to bide my time and go this afternoon instead. At least I won't have to go and water the plants.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

Completely Confused....

Yesterday I decided that my blog needed refreshing with cool colours and a new profile.  Not So Simple!

I'm hopeless with technology and don't find using Blogger easy at all, so if I shocked you at some point with a massive photo of me I sincerely apologise.  No one should have that inflicted on them without warning!  I will carry on experimenting so now you have been warned 👀😅......

Nothing else to report except...STILL no rain for us here, although it's decidedly cooler which is much more conducive to a good night's sleep.

How is the weather where you are?

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

Tumbling Toms and An Update

 This morning is promising to turn into another hot and beautiful day for sunlovers with 31 degrees forecast.  It will be a bit too hot for me so I'll be either sitting in the shade or inside the house with the fan on!

The update is about our potential move.  We sold our house within a week to first time buyers and have found a bungalow we like in a lovely quiet setting with no upward chain. Simple ....or so we thought 🤔 6 weeks later our buyers are struggling to get their mortgage sorted and we are in danger of losing the bungalow. I'm wondering whether to put ours back on the market quickly. What do you think?

Our Tumbling Tom tomatoes look lovely....

But they are dry and tasteless, despite regular watering and feeding....

Any suggestions what I can do with them? Is it worth roasting  them do you think? There are loads more on the plants and I'm loathe to waste them.  Suggestions welcome please!

On the allotment we have been harvesting:

Potatoes (Colleen)

Broad beans (horrible blackfly but tasty beans)

Peas

Runner beans (our first 6 beans 😋)

Cabbage

Radishes

Spring onions

Lettuce

And we swapped potatoes for some delicious raspberries with our allotment neighbour, who is a lovely chap.

Its going to be hard work watering in this hot weather but we love sharing our produce with our daughter, my brother and several lovely neighbours who we are seeing a little more of with the imminent easing of restrictions.  From tomorrow masks and social distancing will not be required but we will not be ditching ours anytime soon.  Will you?

We've both done our lateral flow tests this morning (negative) and our daughter and the family are doing theirs too so we are going over there this afternoon for a barbie 😀 

Enjoy your day wherever in the world you happen to be. Stay well x

Pulling Up My Big Girl Knickers

 Thank you to everyone for your lovely supportive comments on my last post. I have now deleted it because I don't want it to be part of my diary. I want to be hopeful not hopeless 👍

Poor G's health has taken a downward spiral over the last 18 months and he is finding that stairs are not the ideal thing to cope with so we are, hopefully, moving to a bungalow. As I have a lot to sort out (yes, me... G leaves all paperwork and phone calls to me 😳) I will be taking a blogging break. I'll still be lurking, reading other blogs and commenting though.

Until then, take care and stay safe wherever in the world you happen to be x

A Touch of Magic!

I can't remember who pointed me in the right direction ( I have tried to back track to find out, to no avail) but I downloaded the Too Good to Go app and this morning found a Magic Bag on offer at the Spar supermarket not too far away.  I am excited!  There is supposed to be a bag containing £10 worth of food for the princely sum of £3.09 which I can collect after 7pm tonight.  I wonder what it will contain?  There could be fruit, veg, meat, fish etc but it's a lucky dip.  All will be past the sell by/use by date so I'll let you know in a post tomorrow what I get.  Meanwhile a big 'thank you' to whoever shared the information in the first place.

Watch this space!

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

EDIT: I have just found the information on Marlene's blog PoppyPatchwork.  Thank you Marlene.

SECOND EDIT: I had only just come off the computer when I received a text to say that my order has been cancelled because the supermarket doesn't have enough surplus food to fulfill the order. My payment via PayPal has been refunded but I am gutted......

I think I'll just shut up shall I..... 🤐

Home Grown Produce

What an awful week its been weather wise; too much rain and not enough sun with low overnight temperatures thrown in.   A few weeks ago the apple trees were covered in lush blossom like this...

The blossom has all disappeared, hastened by the wind and rain, but I can see that apples have set so I'm still hoping for a decent crop of fruit.

We still have plenty of rhubarb and are eating crumbles and stewed fruit on a regular basis.....

Yesterday I popped to the allotment between showers to thin the lettuces out.  The tiny ones weeded out were shared with my brother and mine were eaten for lunch.  They were crisp, uber fresh and utterly delicious 😋 

As I'm on a mission to save a little money out of the food budget, I wasn't best pleased to come downstairs  this morning after G had gone to work to find this....🤨

 

Why on earth make a mug of tea with milk and sugar if you don't actually drink it?  I would have drunk it myself had it not been lukewarm.  Good grief....

Anyway that's all for now. Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x