Allotment Update

I feel like I am finally making progress with the allotment. I have either cleared or covered all of the weedy areas and am keeping on top any new weeds with the hoe. It is starting to look tidy, well tidier.

There has been a few failures, I had very patchy germination with my parsnips, there are a few growing but with big gaps in between. I've sewn some radishes in the gaps so as  not to waste space.

The borlotti beans, sweetcorn and butternut squash seem to be doing well.

And all the potatoes are thriving although I live in fear of the dreaded blight.

Most importantly I am able to take home buckets of vegetable for our evening meals.

Busy busy busy

Just thought I would post to say that I'm still here. The race for life went really well, it was a lovely warm day, the atmosphere was fantastic and best of all we raised loads of money for cancer research (thank you to everyone who sponsored me). I have already signed up for next year!

We have  now started to harvest some of our fruit and vegetables, we are harvesting potatoes and spinach from the allotment as well as salad leaves, cucumbers, french beans and loads of strawberries from the garden. On the allotment we have also planted pumpkins, sweetcorn, carrots, parsnips, beetroot and borlotti beans. It still isn't very pretty and there are areas with lots of weeds but I am gradually clearing it, it is very much a work in progress.

At home I've been trying to reorganise the garden with the help of Tom, who is a horticulture student (four months off! it's hard life being at uni isn't it!). I have also had my brother in law (who is a builder) here redoing the bathroom. We had a huge bathroom so we have basically cut it in half to make a smaller bathroom and a new bedroom, which I have claimed as my craft room. As you can imagine this has involved quite alot of work, many cups of tea and eggs on toast for lunch for my brother in law every day (I did try giving him something different but he likes eggs on toast).

With most of the building work finished, I am now decorating and organising the craft room and have plans to try and earn a little money from it, but I will post about that soon.

Race for Life

Just a short post to tell you that I will be taking part in the Race for Life on the 6th of June to raise funds for Cancer Research. I'm not a runner by nature (I'm aiming for a brisk walking pace) but it's a great cause and I would love to raise as much money as possible for them.

If you are able to sponsor me please use the link at the side of the page. Thank you!

Jayne x

Potatoes are in!

John had a week off last week and we spent to get some time at the allotment, these photos were taken mid week. We managed to dig a bed all the way along one side of the plot and planted quite alot of potatoes. We have also put in some onions and have sewn some spinach. It feels great to finally have something in the ground, I am now peering at the ground daily looking for green things sprouting (that aren't weeds).

The previous occupant had put in a couple of raised beds, but had dismantled and taken away. This has left a couple of patches, where she had bought in top soil, which I was able to clear these much more easily than the rest of the plot which is  heavy clay.

Amongst the weeds we discovered this very small rhubarb plant which we have moved to a better spot with a bit of compost and some chicken manure.

I was really excited one day when we arrived to find that a water tap had been installed right opposite our allotment (I know I am very very sad), up to now we have had to walk backward and forwards with our watering can to a tap by the entrance, the plot owner only installed 3 of these tanks on the whole plot so we are very lucky to have one so close. It has a water tank next to the tap which refills automatically after you have filled you watering can from it.

The communal compost bin was also emptied this week so we were able to add a few wheel barrows full to our soil which should help improve it a bit. I've never had to cope with clay soil before the other plot holders tell me that it will bake rock hard during the summer, if anyone out there has any tips on how to improve the soil, without spending a fortune on top soil, I really would appreciate hearing them.

Slow progress on the allotment

We managed to get up to the allotment for the first time today, up until now the weather has prevented us from starting it. It was more weedy tham I remembered there were lots of nettles and dock as well as loads of potatoes that had been left by the previous occupant, most of these were quite mushy.

The soil is clay and is still quite sticky. We only had about an hour but we managed to dig over a bed and removed all of the weeds (and potatoes). It's only a small bed but it's a start. 

We plan on growing the crops that take up alot of space here, such as potatoes and pumpkins as well things like parsnips which are in the ground for a long time. At home we will grow the things that require regular picking like beans, courgettes and salad crops.

Lemon curd

Making the lemon soap gave me a craving for some lemon curd, I'm just weird like that! Luckily I had some lemons in the fridge. It's really easy to make and is delicious.

You need 3 eggs, the juice and rind of 3 lemons, 100g of butter and 225g of caster sugar. 

Melt the butter and sugar together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Then add the lemon rind and juice and the whisked eggs. Heat stirring now and then until it thickens, this takes about 25-30 mins.

Pour into sterilised jars, seal and label. This needs to be kept in the fridge and will last for about 3 months.

Soap

I made soap! I've been reading about it for months and I bought the ingredients before christmas, but it has taken till now to pluck up the courage to try it. The reason for my hestation was all the warnings about the sodium hydroxide, an essential ingredient in making cold pressed soap, this is otherwise know as caustic soda and is used as drain cleaner!

So I collected all my ingredients together, put newspaper on my worktop, put on my apron and gloves, and got on with it. I used coconut oil, olive oil and sunflower oil. The measurements have to be exact so that all the sodium hydroxide is used up in the chemical reaction with the oil that turns it into soap. There are lots of soap calculators on the internet so you can work out a safe recipe.

I measured out my oils and put them in a saucepan to melt together (the coconut oil is solid at room temperature) and I added the sodium hydroxide to the water in a jug (no pictures of this I was too scared of it). This is where you have to be really careful, wear rubber gloves, an apron and safety goggles and open a window, it makes nasty fumes and you don't want breath them in.

The oil and the sodium hydroxide need to be at the same temperature when they are mixed, I heated the oil and then made up the sodium hydroxide solution, this was the wrong way round. When added to water the sodium hydroxide solution heats up, really hot, and it took ages to cool, I had to warm the oil back up as it was too cold.

Next you mix the 2 together and stir. One recipe I read said the whisk for 45min! I used my stick blender, much easier (John came in at this point and took some pictures for me). You have to mix until it reaches 'trace', think thick custard. I couldn't say exctly how long this took maybe 5-10mins (not 45!). Just as it reaches trace I added some essential oil for fragrance. I wanted everyone in the house to use it so I chose lemon, I love lavender but John and Tom wouldn't use that. It looked and smelt like lemon curd.

Next it was poured into a tupperware container lined with baking parchment. It needs to cool slowly so I wrapped it in a towel and left it like that for 24hrs.

The next day I turned it out and cut it into bars, you still need to wear rubber gloves when handling it. It will need to be 'cured' for 6 weeks before it is ready to use. It is very 'rustic' looking, I didn't smooth the top enough when I poured it and I think I need to find a better mould. I cut it into different sized pieces, big ones for the shower and smaller ones for the sinks, I may grate the wobbly edge pieces to use in my laundry detergent.
I'm really pleased, it wasn't really scary at all, you just have to be sensible. I'm planing my next batch already (lavender!) and am reading up on making shampoo bars, which would be great for taking on hoilday, and other homemade toiletries.