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!
My first Kohl Rabi
I like to try new crops each season. I have never grown (or eaten) kohl rabi before. They have turned out really good. Now, just to decide what to make with this beauty!!
Jamming!
The time has come to empty the freezer and use up the rest of last season’s fruit to make jam. I freeze the fruit because I can then make preserves at the quieter times of the year. However, this year the blackcurrant bushes are busting and I still have most of last year’s crops!
In this recipe I will show you how I used the homemade pectin to make jam.
Second Cropping
Second cropping is planting a second harvest in one area within the growing season. It makes the most of your space and extends the season. If done well you can supply fresh veggies for most of the year. In this video we discuss what we are sowing in mid July for planting out when early crops are harvested.
Lavender & Tea Tree Soap/Shampoo
A few years ago I was inspired to start making my own soaps using garden produce after seeing a video by CollieryGarden which seemed to show quite a simple process. I made some calendula soap (which I am still using!). I found it actually works really well as a solid shampoo bar and have been using it for that too! This is a natural soap based recipe that mixes lye (Sodium hydroxide) with fats to cause the soap (saponification) reaction.
Lavender and tea-tree soap setting in mould