Chilli & Garlic Jam
Yesterday I recieved a lovely email from a fellow plotholder who had been sampling one of my preserves.
Obviously I replied with the recipe, but after posting on our Facebook group I had further requests to share the details.
A Cauliflower shortage? Cauliflower ‘steaks’ for dinner it is!
According to the BBC, Britain is experiencing a shortage of cauliflower due to extreme weather. “Heavy rainfall in June destroyed crops in Lincolnshire, and alternative European supplies wilted in July’s heatwave”
I have to say my cauliflowers have been very slow this year. The plants themselves looked well, but not much was happening in the development of the curds themselves. Then this weekend this beauty appeared (no, I mean the cauliflower…)
For dinner we cooked up a roasted cauliflower ‘steak’ with courgette, tomato & garlic cous cous and our fiery hot sauce as a dressing and roasted cashew nuts.a perfect specimen Potato croquettes
Mash potatoes often don’t freeze too well, but these simple croquettes will! Mash potato (allotment grown of course), butter, bit of cheese then shaped, rolled in breadcrumbs and baked. Batch make and cook from frozen!
Garlic storage
This year we had a great crop of garlic. Here I demonstrate how I have prepared my garlic for storage, using tights! Yes, ladies hosiery! Breathable to ensure the crop doesn’t rot, cheap and recycle those tights that have ladders in! Win win!
How to store garlic in tights! An allotment Open Day and Show
At our allotment there is an annual Family Open Day and Show. The event helps fundraise towards the running of the ground, supports local charities with food donations and gives all members of the allotment community the chance to showcase their hobby and beautiful plots
Have a look at this video about the event!Chilli Cheese Balls
We are not self-sufficient, but we do pretty well! One of the key ways to make your harvests last is to make items you can store that you can call on in the winter months. When we first started growing, I found myself freezing bags and bags of veg and then still having alot of this left in the spring. Obviously I do freeze and can veg – being able to pull out some carrots and beans to steam in January is super, but having food stuffs you can pop into the oven from frozen means quick suppers, snacks and even food for parties! Chilli cheese balls are my most favourite party food: easy to make, taste great cold or hot and uses up all the odds and ends of bread too!
Hot Sauce
Chillies are coming on well in the greenhouse, but I still had a good amount of last year’s crop in the freezer. I decided to try and use these up and made a ‘hot sauce’.
1lb of chillies! 
A few bottles of nuclear sauce!
Hungry gap
Yesterday I planted Autumn and Spring Brassicas plants that I bought from Cornish Cabbage Plants . The quality of the plants were superb! I have some more brassicas that are nearly ready to go out from my second cropping sowing attempts. Feeling positive that this year I will keep my crops coming throughout the winter and spring!
An August weekend on the allotment
From August onwards it can be very busy both on the plot and in the kitchen as the efforts move towards cropping and storing our harvests. However, we are still thinking about second cropping and we have planted out a few of the later crops we sowed a couple of weeks ago in the greenhouse. We found the very first signs of blight on our spuds – see what we did to save the crop and keep prepare the potatoes for storage. We also harvested our onions, enjoyed the wildlife and made a few preserves – we are always busy at Don’t Crop Me Now!
Time for a bit of creativity
Tonight I made this slate sign for the plot. Keep an eye out – it might feature in our upcoming videos!
