A (profitable?) New Hobby

Most of the gear for candle making obtained from a charity shop for a tenner!

Laverbread!

I recieved a tin of laverbread amongst other items from some friends in Wales, So I made laverbread cakes and had it with bacon and a few trimmings! The egg is from a free roaming duck, also from the same source!

Yule log!

Most of the greenery is from the allotment, but the fir cones cst me a quid!!!

Road kill!

The phone call said, "Do you want a pheasant?"
The car in front knocked it down, so all legal!
I always manage to skin rather than pluck a pheasant, but it's oven ready now, with a few brocken ribs!
Just found blackberries in the freezer and juniper berries in the spice drawer, so a nice sauce is in order!

First snow of Winter!

Nearly too cold to be a scarecrow!

New waistcoat for Jules!

Well it was his birthday on November the fifth, so I had trip to Lincoln the other day and took in the chrity shops. £1.50!!!

Wellie box!

A long time in the making, but reclaimed/recycled bits and pieces weren't forthcoming!

Pickled!

My plot nieghbour, Fred the train (a real steam engine driver), is clearing one of his two plots to down size a bit. He let me help myself to his beetroot, so it was pickle time again!
With enough chilli flavoured white wine vinegar left over for a jar of nice onions!

Julian's Birthday!

One, (35 on facebook) enjoying a nice pressy!ssy!

Right in it!

A farm trailor full of well rotted manure arrived this morning on the plot, so its get my share time! Its shared between three of us.
It'll make things grow!

Almost Fallow!

Veg is a bit thin on the ground now! Jules and Cu just have to keep the pigeons off the greens!

Almost finished!

An extra layer of polythene on the outside and a lot of battening needed, but nearly there!

Doors!

A bit closer to having doors on the polytunnel!
Painting, glazing and fitting left now!

Jack O Lantern!

Today I have made and eaten pumpkin loaf cake, yum, yum!
Tomorrow I'm having pumpkin. sausage and pepperoni casserole!!!

Frugal heater!

Plant pots and a goodie tin! Plus a candle and a little sand makes a suprisingly efficient polytunnel heater.
I may even get my seedlings off a bit earlier next season!

A mixed bunch!

That's the last of the parsnips, and very tasty they are too!
They're all shapes and sizes, but roasted round a chicken tomorrow, yum yum!

Fat cat!

This is Dennis the plot cat; one of them anyway, the other is almost wild but kills more rats!
This lazy lump knows half a dozen people who will feed him!

Tunnel door!

A bit closer to having a double door on the polytunnel! I need some timber to make the doors from now.

Sunny September!

Four hanging baskets on my beefed up bean frame, now containing my captured strawberry runners. Planted this month, spring greens that look like they'll be ready for Yule tide, and over winter garlic growing furiously!

Might have been 'you know who'?

Circling and hovering aroud the plots today, Prince William? Well it was a yellow one.

To the dump!

All my tomato plants infected with blight bagged up and ready for the dump!
Oh well, there's always next year!

New furniture!

Poly tunnel now cleaned out, a bit of blight included, and all the reclaimed timber gro-bag benches and staging installed.

A bit of preserving!

Green tomato and bramley apple chutney with a touch of chili!
The damsons await a bottle of Lidl's best gin!

A tomato with a sting?

Not such a gardener's delight!

Need a pulper!

It won't press chunks of apple, should have known better than to try!

Spaghetti marrow!

I'm going to atempt to cook it tomorrow!

Obscene carrots!

A mixed haul to take home for dinner; including some rather rudely shaped carrots1

Plot to pickle!

A nice little jar of pickled beetroot! Pulled from the ground this morning and treated to wine vinegar, sugar and just a touch of chili!

Bee friendly corner!

Strawberry runners!

Over an inch of rain today, but between showers I managed to peg a few strawberry runners into pots!
All in preparation for next season's strawberry basket project!

Dandelion wine!

Bottled some of my home made dandelion wine a couple of days ago and took it to the plots for a tasting!
The dandelions were picked from plots who never use weedkiller. It tastes quite good and will no doubt improve with keeping a few months!

Another small harvest!

Tomatoes for the passata machine and runner beans for the freezer! And spuds for good measure!

Cider press!

Its almost complete, George the retired joiner has done the woodwork and I'll be doing the hygenic bits! We've sussed out good apple supplies as well!

Harvest time!

A few bits and peices for me and my neighbour!

My first Melon!

At last it's grown from goosegog size to almost five inch diameter in a week!
I'm afraid I haven't taken enough care of the plants, I let them get a bit wild when they should have been pruned and the side shoots taken off!
It now has a support net so's it doesn't get its feet dirty!

A roast tomorrow!

Harvest time! More than enough to go around a roast chicken. Plus one or two of my onions!

And for afters!

Looking to next season!

Three gro-bag benches and a bit more staging for next season; all made from reclaimed wood!
Ready to go in the polytunnel.

Passata machine!

Now I'm ready for all my tomatoes to turn red!
My own supply of passata.

Plot blooms!

One of my sunflowers, facing away from the sun! Astors making a nice show!

The marigold barrier between strawberries and brassicas!

The slightly toxic insect repellant, tansy!

Working party!

A sunday morning work party organised to dig trenches to distribute our water supply on the plots.
Sausage or burger inna bun was available along with tea and coffee!