4 posts tagged “allotment”
Well, that's 1 year since I took on my allotment and I sent off a cheque for £15 for a further years tenancy of plot number 17. I have been up to the allotment infrequently but today I managed to get up and plant the early potatoes, some new strawberry plants (3 varieties) and I also put in the last of the onion sets. There is still a lot to bee (pun) done.
Excuse the pun, but I am very excited. It shall not be long now until my bees arrive. I'm hoping to get their hive by the end of this month and today my Bee Suit arrived just in time for the end of my course which takes place at the association apiary on the 27th of this month.
Photo?
Ok, then! :)
Stunning 'ey?
Well, well. A week or so back I agreed to help my friend's mum with a protest in the local town and to my surprise I was printed in the local newspaper during the week. I read the article but I never saw myself in the picture until it was pointed out to me by my employer at the local newsagents. The protest was to make a point regards the future of Alcester Hospital and how it should be kept it open for the forseeable future.
So it's the start of the faming year today for me, I have gone all broody and I have been inspired my some recipes, hints and tips in a new magazine. So I expect I will be busy over the coming weeks and months.
Thanks for reading,
Martinal
Bloomin' Heck!
I never knew that quail could cause so much trouble!
My friend Lottie has just started in the quail keeping hobbie, and I made a comment about them which has spread like a rash over the quail keeping world. I stated that they were a mix of Italian and Japanese quail, which is what I and many others call them! However some people have decided that they no longer want to call them 'Italians' but 'Goldens' instead, this is because calling them Italians makes them sound like a seperate species to the Japanese when truthully they are just a colour mutation. However there are a few noticeable differences between them, but I have come in for a rollocking from the quail keeping world.
Here are a few of the comments that I have discovered on various forums:
What a dipstick he is!
Talks out of his (|) if you ask me
Wait till they let me join in, I'll be putting him straight too.pmpl
I went back reading all his quail related posts - hes an ass, does he want to put folk of keeping them???
I'm glad hes still sulking with me
Our DJ knows more about quail rearing/keeping than he does, and he's only 11
I wonder if he was just overcrowding
Poultry are only cannibalistic if there is a dying bird around, they will attack it and eat it, they do the same in the wild to
And then when I replied I got this:
Thats because your a pratt
Such a shame really! How such wiked people could be so aggresive over ones personal opinion, a comment which has been hugely taken out of all context! I had a peek on one forum today and the insults are still flying around!
This has nothing to do with Lottie, her birds look fantastic and I wish her all the best in her venture.
www.kooringa.com Is the place to find out all about them.
Today I went to Acocks Green near to Birmingham to collect 12 new quail for myself. They are 4 weeks old and I got 12 (8 hens and 4 cocks) for £10 a real bargain. They are in temporary accomodation at the moment, but I am hoping to get their new £250 estate this week so I shall post photos as and when they move in. These birds will be new breeding stock and hopefully they will provide an abundance of eggs to sell on for both eating and/or hatching.
On Friday, I managed to get an hour up the allotment and I emptied the compost bin and moved it to it's new location at the top of the allotment.
The plot is in OK condition, but I need to do some weeding, but not as much as I thought. I also bought my First and Second early potatoes, I might put a row in tomorrow. I also have some Garlic, I didn't plant it in November which is reccomended so that the frost can get to it, but I have put in the freezer and then it will go in the fridge, then the freezer for a week or so and that should do it just fine!
I have to clean out all the animals tomorrow, and I can take all the muck up to the allotment and put it on the compost heap.
Let's hope the weather is as good tomorrow as it has been today!
Martin
A month or so ago, I bought one of Omlet's new 'Superglugs' to use in the rablu for them to drink water out of. Problem is, I woke up this morning and they were frozen stiff. The chickens water was solid ice and the quail bottles had frozen aswell!
Can you see the little nipples on the base. The drinker itself is an absolute revalation but the nipples may be a slight problem. Normally with school I don't get to feed the animals until after I get home, I wouldn't want the rabbits to go without water all day. If it stays as cold as it has been today then it looks like they won't be getting any.
Just the one exam today, 2 tomorrow, but thankfully they will both be complete by around noon. After my Technology exam this morning I popped up the allotment and added some oxygenating plants to the pond. I also dug up some more of the earth where the onions will be. I had a bonfire which was quite fun, despite being very smokey, I can still smell the fire on my hands. I burnt some rubbish that I had in my room before it was re-done, it was mainly old school worksheets.
I want to get all the onions in the ground by Saturday and I will hopefully get the last of the Kale seedlings out too and of course I will be wanting to add fish to my pond at some point.
Just a short one today, I need to go and warm up by going to bed. That's if the hedgehogs let me sleep. Why, oh why did I agree to look after some nocturnal animals!!! ;)
Martin
The best time on the allotment is when you actually take something from the ground, take it home and eat/preserve it.
Today I have been up the allotment for 5 hours, and preserving my harvest for another 2.
First of all I set about harvesting the broad beans, however much to my dissapointment, there was barely anything on them, the total weigh-in for the broad beans was 90g (shelled) How rubbish is that. At least I have a clear area now to put some spring cabbage in. In the area next to the broad beans I set about harvesting the Dwarf Beans, there were 3 rows of them in all, and to my absolute amazement, I managed to harvest 6.5kg of beans!!!
I really could not believe it, what was I going to do with 6.5kg of beans?
Well I had a little look and I decided that I was going to freeze them, so I went down the high-street to the 50p shop and bought some freezer bags.
First of all I had to wash the beans, to get all the mud and dirt off them. Secondly I had to blanche them, blance means to cook something at boiling point, and then plunge them into ice cold water to immediately stop the cooking process. So I blanched all the beans, and I set about putting them into freezer bags. I put a portion (for 4 people) in each bag, and I ended up with 18 bags of beans, so that is 18 meals worth of beans, compared to the measley 1 bag from the broad beans!
Here are some photos of the blancheing process.
Simple as that!
Well I think the next thing will thrill you all.
I have just won an unofficial competition "First Pumpkin of the Year Competition"
I've been very puzzled recently, I was wondering why one of my pumpkins was getting ripe so early. Well today, my dad spotted that the pumpkin had actually snapped off it's branch! So here is a picture of the trooper.
Doesn't he look divine, he ways 2kg in all, and will probably form some part of a pumpkin rissoto! :D
Another thing I harvested today was a Turnip. I've left the one below in the ground for ages, thinking that turnips should be as big as football sized swedes, until today I was told it is best to harvest them at cricket ball size! Lol!
This one is definately closer to football size than cricket size.
My onions, have been looking a little sorry for themselves recently, and today I was told to pull them up, as they weren't going to grow any bigger. Most of the leaves were dead, and they didn't look too good at all. So next is a picture of my table.
Some of them are tiny, and I think those will be pickled, some of them are good sizes and should make good cooking onions, I have tasted one of them already and it was delicious!
This next picture is one of my favourite sights on the allotment. These 2 look like siamese twins, but they are 2 different vegetables. The big yellow thing is a giant pumpkin, which is past shop pumpkin size already, the green thing is a round marrow, and that's not too small either.
They looks so snug! :D
The last thing I'd like to say is that it's not just the people who are reaping the benefits of having an allotment.
Martin
