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Up early, work work at my desk then editing A Week at the Plot at the other desk.
We have a work social tomorrow morning at the site, so I popped to Lidl to get oat milk, biscuits and apple pies. Back home, and a chat with Vanessa as the staff member rota’d for today is ill, and Vanessa cannot be there between 10.30am and 1pm so we are going to have to shut, so social re “Unforeseen circumstances’ and also a poster to put on the closed shop door. There's someone picking up a whole Spanakopita too, a Greek Spinach & Feta Pie, so that needed to be rearranged too. Richard decided to make lunch - AND do a video of ot. A One Pot Pasta which was rather delicious, though it was also rather a HUGE portion!! I could have done with half as much for lunch, though of course ate it all... waste not, want not... or should that be waist not... Of course, we had it with grated cheese. We usually have grated cheddar, parmesan is a rarity in our house, just because it is. He will definityly do this again, maybe adding some more peppers, and swapping ingredients around... I think beans would also work, from a tin. The rest of the day was the usual; plot, supper, feeding and injecting neighbour's cat, As Time Goes By, and then some Top of the Pops, an episode from March 1985, and then an excellent episode of Have I Got News For You… David Tennant and Miles Jupp… brilliant humour. Weather: Sunny and breezy again. About 17°, and slightly warmer overnight, 8°. Breakfast: Bran Flakes, yogurt and banana Lunch: Richard’s One Pot Pasta Supper: Microwave Mixed Veg Omelet, lettuce, cucumber, radish and leftover Lemon Potatoes and a bit of mayo
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 27 April 2025 (Sunday)
A cup of tea and to my desk - early… I needed to edit in the segments of A Week at the Plot I recorded yesterday. As the week always seems to fly by, when editing often I find myself saying “Did I only do that this week?”. And on editing, as we’re occasionally asked… We use Premiere Pro for editing our footage into finished videos to upload, whether to socials or YouTube; it comes as a package with a few other useful apps. It does cost money each month, though we’re both used to it from years of editing and also from our jobs; my case current, Richard’s case prior. Over the years we’ve tried other software, though always seem to stick with Premiere Pro… maybe that’s why it’s premiere! After editing, and a breakfast of toast, ProActiv spread and yeast extract, it read a chapter of my book and then went off to the plot - after several hours there of chatting, working, tidying, lending, gifting and receiving, it was time for home and lunch. Earlier in the week Vanessa had given me a SØDT seeded loaf that hadn’t sold at the weekend; usually if one does not sell it goes in the freezer though this one didn’t, and I was pleased to have it! As soon as I was home on Wednesday I put it in our freezer, taking it out last night to have today… toast for breakfast and something on toast for lunch, which Richard ended up doing, so it was cheese. Yum!! We also had a small bowl of Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup, which is our Instant Pot Carrot & Lentil Soup recipe with some mild Madras curry powder and a frozen block of ginger added alongside the bouillon - delish! Back to the plot after lunch for an hour, whilst Richard took a nap… and then home to read a few more chapters of my book before making supper, some screen time and then bed. But… Just as I was getting to the main gate and about to leave the allotment a fellow plotter came in and we got chatting, as one does. He mentioned he had some asparagus to pick for his supper… and then I remembered there’s one magnificent stalk to take home and split between us. Just one, though at a good, firm twelve inches it wouldn’t quite be a mouthful, though undoubtedly still a joy! I’d already had one a few weeks ago, though I ate it myself at the plot - it had been slightly nibbled by a slug, or a snail, so I was sure Richard wouldn’t want a bite! Anyways… back home, supper to make, and a few more chapters to read… though I left the last couple for bed. I really savoured those last two chapters of The Beautiful Mystery, and happy with the ending whilst looking forward to the next in the series, it was soon time for lights out and sleep! Weather: Sunny from the off. Hitting around 18° mid afternoon. Overnight we’re still dropping to around 7° though. Breakfast: SØDT seeded loaf, Flora ProActiv and yeast extract Lunch: Cheese on SØDT seeded loaf, and a small bowl of Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup Supper: Spinach Microwave Omelette, Homemade Potato Salad, lettuce, lightly vinegared beetroot, cucumber and a few bits of allotment grown asparagus  26 April 2025 (Saturday)
We were both up early; me at my desk very early to edit together yesterday's A Week at the Plot footage and upload to Planet Vegetaria. Sunday Chat filming day, and whilst Richard started editing it together I made lunch of homemade hummus - a staple in our house which freezes REALLY well! I’ve popped my recipe below. It’s also so easy, and you can use your own cooked chickpeas instead of a tin, just ensure if they’ve been frozen they are well defrosted. After lunch, I was at the plot doing the usual watering, checking on germination, tidying and weeding… at the end of my work there, sitting on my wooden chair outside the shed and mulling wending my way home, I checked the time on my phone… 5:03pm. My eye wandered to my left, spying the overgrown flower border bed… Into the shed I went, and grabbing my kneeler, putting my gloves back on, and laying my hands on a big 30l tub, I got to work. Half an hour later the bed looked very much better - at least I can now see the plants for the weeds! LOTS of weeds still to pull, and especially sturdy roots of tufted grasses and that pernicious Cinquefoil, though I can take my time doing some each week. It will never be perfect, though in reality very, very few things ever are! Whilst cooking supper I read another chapter or two of The Beautiful Mystery. I’m now at that stage where I’m keen to finish it, though don’t want to as I’ve enjoyed reading it so much - a bit like when you meet a friend irregularly and after hours of chat you know you need to leave and make your way home, though at the same time you want to stay and chat for just that little bit longer. If youi don't know the Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, I highly recommend them! Supper was followed by some TV, and we stayed up late, both fully engaged watching a fab series called 40 Hidden Music Treasures at the BBC… we watched volume two and there's volume three too, so two others to watch! Happy Days!! My Hummus Recipe I drained two cans of chickpeas very well, and added them to our food processor (keep a few tablespoons of the liquid - aquafaba - for if you want to use any later) and four cloves of garlic, roughly chopped. I actually used a block of garlic from the freezer - I heated it through in the microwave to bring it to a steam, just because I don’t like eating vegetables from the freezer without cooking them. In next, one tablespoon of Marigold bouillon powder (use a teaspoon of salt if you prefer) and five tablespoons of lemon juice (love fresh lemons, though I always have a large bottle of bought lemon juice in the fridge, which I use for this). If you like your hummus less lemony use only four, and if you like it extra lemony use six! Blitz this all up in the processor, or mash with a fork if you are doing by hand - doing this by hand you can keep this as chunky as you wish, or not, though it will never be smooth like you get in the shops. I’ve not used a stick blender for this, though I would be interested to know how it works so please let me know, or I’ll give it a go myself at some point. The fridge always has a large tub of tahini, which is sesame paste, and four generous tablespoons goes in, and I blitz again (or carry on mixing and mashing if doing by hand). Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl to ensure all is incorporated, and blitz till smooth, or until you have the texture you wish. If you like your hummus thinner, add some more lemon juice or a tablespoon or two of the drained aquafaba from the can. I portion this up into plastic Tupperware or similar and freeze; I do 150g servings for two. It will keep in the fridge happily for several days, and in the freezer for several months. In the summer if I take out a tub at breakfast it's defrosted by lunch, and I give it a good stir. In the winter it might need a quick wizz on Defrost in a microwave, or bring it out the day before and pop in the fridge to fully defrost. I don't have a photo - though when I find one or make the next batch I will add! Weather: Overcast start to the day, and remained so much of the day with the afternoon being bright and much warmer. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt and sultanas Lunch: Homemade Hummus, Pitta, carrot batons, cucumber slices and a little leftover coleslaw Supper: Lidl Vegan Cumberland Sausage, roasted carrot, parsnips, onion and potato wedges with an instant onion gravy  24 April 2025 (Thursday)
Again, up early, and downstairs to make a pot of tea. There was already one cup in the teapot, so I heated that up first and had that as my morning treat. Then up to my desk, typing up the notes that I’d made yesterday with Vanessa about potential shows that could come to the Great Green Barn. With some bread remaining over from a loaf I bought at Lidl on Tuesday, Richard did toast for breakfast which was a real treat. I must say, toast has got to be one of my favourite ever foods. I tend to prefer something savoury on toast, though the occasional bit of jam is always welcome. The morning was full of work work, and the afternoon saw me getting down to the allotment just to potter, water and water inside the poly and greenhouse - there was certainly no reason to water outside, and in fact I had to empty some of the gravel trays without holes in as so much water had accumulated. The rain that we had yesterday and overnight on Tuesday will certainly have washed in the nematodes that I put down on Monday, which I go through in next week's upload of A Week at the Plot, which of course covers the work I do this week at the plot. I often wonder whether A Week at the Plot should change, but you know what, it suits me so we'll just go with it as it is at the moment. And as I type this I realised that I’m now into my fifth year of A Week at the Plot. Quite extraordinary! I carried on some work at the front of the plot, on the new bed by the rose that will be a squash bed… digging up a single plant of Cinque Foil bigger than my trowel that had a huge root that had literally grown through a stone! Talk about pernicious!!! For supper I decided to have some Fry’s Vegan Hotdogs which were in the freezer, as you buy them as a frozen item and cook from frozen… nice texture, though I think I prefer Ye Olde Oak veggie ones… I just wish I could find proper hotdog rolls rather than the brioche ones that I find rather dull… We watched the original black and white film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers… watching again it is quite an allegory for our times! Weather: much brighter than yesterday, and quite a bit warmer though still with that chilly bite in the air, particularly in the house. It's bright and sunny in the afternoon, though a little breezy. Breakfast: Toast with Pro-active spread and yeast extract Lunch: Softened red lentils with a tin of Carrot & Coriander Soup, and a few ends of bread and a pitta Supper: Fry’s Veggie Hotdogs (cooked from frozen), rolls and homemade coleslaw  20 April 2025 (Easter Sunday) Up first again… it’s funny that we each go through periods of being up first, and each period can last a few days or even longer, then for no reason it switches round. After breakfast, I was down to the plot to potter and tidy, doing this, that and the other. One job I did get done was sorting out the bench by the potatoes in the raised bed, on the poly side of the plot. It’s needed sorting for ages, and weeding underneath, and now that job is fully done… Yay!! In truth, I’d been putting it off, though like many things that we put off it turned out to be a relatively easy and enjoyable job… a ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ type of job! There were a few chats with fellow plotters, as there so often is, though clearly we were all like minded and wanted to get on with stuff as the chats, though welcome, also didn't last too long! Yay again!! By the time I got back home, tossing a few broken pots into the recycling bin before putting my key in the front door, I realised I felt a tad hungry. I’d taken out some Cauldron marinated tofu from the freezer this morning, with no real thought of what I’d use it for… and on a whim as I came through the door decided I’d do some quick fajitas. I popped some oil in a frying pan and gently fried the marinated tofu pieces with a little olive oil and a small amount of homemade fajita mix. Whilst these were cooking, I washed and span dry some lettuce, took out leftover coleslaw and a tub of yogurt from the fridge, sliced some cheddar thinly, and microwaved four wraps - as I say each time, I do this just so that they're a bit more pliable. On each wrap I spread across the middle a tablespoon of yogurt, then placed on some lettuce, a little cheddar, the coleslaw, then spooned on top some hot fajita spiced marinated tofu, rolling and wrapping the wraps tightly so that nothing dropped out. I always leave one end open for easier eating… an one-open-end wrap rather than a burrito! Richard had Hart to Hart ready to go on our TV, with an episode called ‘Harts and Hounds’… we watched and we ate, and the quick fajitas went down a treat, with Richard saying “I needed that” after he’d eaten them. After lunch Richard watched Vivi’s latest upload, the one where she's unpacked most of her boxes following her move, and I listened in whilst typing up my blog. We’ll be sorting some time soon to go down and see Vivi and her new pad, or her Cottage by the Sea as it now is. For our meal I wanted to adapt an old Puglia recipe for one pot pasta, and Richard suggested I do as he did and record it as a throw together… well, it didn’t happen as I got in such a state with camera angles, our little tripod falling over, not finding a setting on my phone that Richard suggested I use… so I just got on and made it - much less stressful that way. Maybe the camera will come out next time!
Puglia Inspired One Pot Spaghetti
There are many one pot pasta recipes doing the rounds, many a copy of the Martha Stewart one from ten years ago, which itself was inspired by a dish from Puglia. I’ve been inspired to experiment with a winter Puglia recipe that uses bottled tomatoes and tomato puree, and I’ve swapped out the bottled tomatoes for a tin. Ingredients 2 tbsp Olive oil 1 Large onion, Sliced 4 Cloves Garlic, chopped 2 tbsp Tomato puree 400g Tinned tomatoes 1 tsp Mediterranean Herbs 2 tsp Marigold bouillon powder, or stock cube 850ml Water 300 g Spaghetti 75g Cream Cheese (optional) Salt & Freshly ground black pepper Method Grab a large saute pan that’s big enough to fit the spaghetti laid flat on the bottom, and preferably at least four inches deep as this can splosh! If you’ve put the spaghetti into the pan, take it out as it doesn’t go in yet! Heat the olive oil in the pan and add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon or spatula. Add the tomato puree and cook through for two minutes, stirring regularly. Now add the tinned tomatoes and herbs - I used a serrated knife in the can to chop them up a bit, though you can break them up in the pan with your spoon, or use tinned chopped tomatoes. Now sprinkle in the bouillon powder (or crumble in the stock cube). If you have your own vegetable stock do use it instead of the water and bouillon/stock cube, and add salt to taste (to compensate for the salt that would be in the bouillon/stock cube). Stir all together, and then add the spaghetti gently into the pan and bring it all to a gentle simmer. Using your spoon, nudge the spaghetti to ensure it does not clump. After a minute or two it will start softening and from this point regularly nudge and stir the spaghetti around the pan. As the spaghetti cooks it gets easier to move it around, though do be careful as it can splosh! After six minutes the spaghetti should be cooked al dente - take a strand out with a fork and check it for bite. If it needs a little further cooking, do so though keep an eye on it. If using the cream cheese, just before serving stir this through off the heat. Make sure you have warm serving plates (4 if with a side salad, two if you’re hungry!), portion out and top with a twist of black pepper. If you wish and you’ve not used the cream cheese add a grating of parmesan cheese or other hard cheese. When I made this tonight I used three tablespoons of tomato puree, though I found that too much so cut it back to two. I also used cream cheese though I’ll do it again without, as I do like a sprinkling of cheese on top. If you wanted to add a chopped carrot and a couple of diced celery stalks when you add your onions that would work I’m sure, and I think I will have a go doing this next time, and another time with mushrooms too. Just a note - when you cook pasta in water, drain and add a sauce you are removing a good bit of starch from the final dish, which does not happen with this type of one pot pasta dish. Weather: Bright start, though late morning it became overcast and felt much cooler for the rest of the day. Breakfast: Lidl Rye Bread as toast, Flora Pro-Activ Buttery spread, yeast extract and peanut butter Lunch: Quorn marinated tofu with homemade fajita mix, wraps, yogurt, lettuce, very thinly sliced cheese, and coleslaw Supper: One Pot Tomato Pasta (inspired by an old recipe from Puglia) 12 April 2025 (Saturday)
I was up before Richard, though he shortly followed so no cuppa in bed for Richard, though he no longer likes a cuppa in bed as his mind starts wandering, often to places he’d rather it didn’t. Of course, Saturday’s Sunday Chat recording day, and after a crumpet breakfast and some work work at my desk, and Richard having uploaded a load of photos to our new Ko-fi Shop, we recorded… just past midday, so effectively the afternoon rather than the morning. At the plot in the afternoon for the final segment of A Week at the Plot, and then Linda McCartney burgers for supper… and an episode of Bosch Legacy (Prime)… and answering comments on Thursday's blog. Recipe: Chickpea & Celery Mayonnaise (Sandwich Filling) This is often called Chickpea Tuna Mayonnaise for some reason, and I see no sense in that other than enticing people to eat less fish, which I guess is a good thing. We don’t eat fish nowadays, other than a portion of fish and chips at the seaside. We are slowly moving our way vegan, though whether we ever give up on cheese is something only time will tell. This is a great filling for sandwiches, popped on buttered toast, in a toasted sandwich and as here, in wraps. It would also be good as the main element of a light supper, simply placed on a plate with lots of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, radish etc. Really well drain a 425g can of chickpeas, and set aside to continue draining. Finely chop half a red onion and two or three sticks of celery and add to a bowl. Add a rounded teaspoon of miso paste (or half a teaspoon of bouillon powder), a teaspoon of Dijon mustard (I think a mild mustard is best), pop on top the well drained chickpeas, and mash all with a fork - leave some chickpeas whole for texture if you wish. After the mashing mix all the four ingredients well together, then add in the celery and stir. Add a level tablespoon of yeast flakes, a teaspoon of cider vinegar, and mix both in. Now add two gently rounded tablespoons of mayonnaise (use vegan if you wish) and mix all thoroughly. I then set this aside in the fridge for a few hours though it can be used straight away. I sliced half a red pepper into thin lengthwise slices, and set aside. I heated four Lidl wraps (the brown ones, Half and Half I think they’re called by the big brand names) for 30 seconds in a microwave to soften, though if you don’t have a microwave don’t worry about this step - it just makes the wraps a little more flexible and therefore easier to handle. I then put a quarter of the mix onto half of the wrap (looking down on it, the bottom half), though leaving the right hand 2 inches clear of any mixture. Then I laid a quarter of the sliced red pepper over the top of the mixture, and folding in the right hand edge I rolled from the side of the wrap closest to me upwards, gently but firmly. Grab another wrap and do the same process until all four wraps, the mixture and the red peppers are used up. Delicious! You can vary the ingredients here, though I would always use the chickpeas, red onion, celery (unless you’re allergic) and mayonnaise as the base. Spice up with some curry powder or paste if you wish, or add grated carrot rather than the celery. Weather: Sunny start, though definitely cooler than yesterday by a few degrees. Mid-afternoon the sky became overcast and it got rather hazy. Breakfast: Crumpets, Flora Pro-activ Butter Spread & Yeast extract Lunch: Wraps with Chickpea & Celery Mayonnaise with sliced red pepper Supper: Linda McCartney Mozzarella Burgers, buns and homemade white cabbage coleslaw  9 April 2025 (Wednesday)
I was awake and up early, just before 6am. No reason, other than I was. A friend wanted to go to Lidl and do a bigger shop than usual, so I said I’d happily carry things back for her. She’d suggested we go in the car, though with me having gone to do a big shop yesterday (earning £5 off next week when I spent £30 in one shop this week!) I needed very little… so we walked; me with all my bags so I could carry items back for her. There was quite a chill in the air, which neither of us had expected, though by the time we were walking back from the shop the air had warmed as the sun was doing its job. With her ‘big shop’ she got her £5 off bonus for her shop next week too. In this day and age of ever increasing prices, it makes sense to bulk buy things that you will use if you have a) the storage space, b) the cash to bulk buy, and c) things that you want that will store well and not go off! With so much going on, I hadn’t done a FES/GGB Newsletter for some weeks, so cracked on with this first thing. Despite often using the last version as a template, it can take time.. writing, rewriting, checking dates, checking links, re-checking it all, printing it out to read slowly away from my desk to ensure it reads and is all spelt correctly, back to my desk to make any changes, writing the Subject line, setting the time to send… it was all done and dusted within four hours, though that’s quite a chunk of time in my book. I’m using Mailchimp, and for the first time using their suggestion of what time to send the email… I think 2pm or around 4pm is a good time, though the platform’s suggesting 8pm… we’ll see. I had another call with Vanessa, talking about lots of things though particularly the Greek event… an assistant of hers is in on Friday so those questions will be finalised and sent off then, and there are further costs to get too. I was at the plot at about 4.20pm, sowing the tomato seeds I didn’t sow yesterday. I’ve used two half trays and my markers to split the trays into sections; one has three, with Mountain Magic, Black Krim and Rose de Berne, the second has Amish Paste and an Isle of Wight Yellow - it’s called this as the seeds were saved from a yellow tomato in a box we received as a gift from a subscriber, grown by growers for Isle of Wight Tomatoes, hence… The current warmth and being in the greenhouse meant that all the seeds sown yesterday needed a good water, and quite a few of the plants outside too, whether in pots or newly planted out. I have done the switchover of swapping gravel trays with holes for gravel trays without holes - in the summer it’s best to conserve moisture and water, so gravel trays are best - I think it’s the first year I’ve not shown this on camera, though will mention it in a segment this week. I harvested some lettuce, noticing that woodlice seem to particularly like the endive style; they don’t seem to be doing any damage, though they were in numbers when I was harvesting the leaves. And on harvesting from the curly endive, I must remember to hold the base as it’s not an easy picker in terms of taking off individual leaves. Weather: A bit hazy, though warm in the sunshine. It’s going to be cool overnight again… Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, banana, sultanas Lunch: Leftover Vegan Shepherd's Pie and tinned Baked Beans Supper: Lidl Caramelised Red Onion Tart, lettuce, cucumber, radish and cherry tomato  The usual Saturday… up early though no alarm set, breakfast and then making the list for Sunday Chat! Filming takes place in the morning, then I get lunch ready and do a few things around the kitchen, including making an Instant Pot Bolognese as we have Sophie of Sophie Stock Art staying overnight, so this will make a tasty and quick supper for later.
After lunch I do a post for the 6th birthday of For Earth's Sake, then get to the plot and plough on (almost literally!) with the front area I uncovered on Wednesday; lots of bindweed, grasses and Cinque Foil, three whole 30 litre planters full in fact. It’s really taken me far, far too long to get on with this area, though the job is being done now… coulda, woulda, shoulda get no one anywhere! Obviously, I go through what I did in this week’s upload of A Week at the Plot, though you’ll have to wait for the Sunday segment to see what I did, though the above photo shows the work that’s been done, even if in a little bit of shade!. When I got home having spent longer at the allotment than anticipated, Sophie’d arrived, and it was lovely to see her and give her a hug, albeit I didn’t squeeze her as I had dirty allotment hands still. After a thorough hand wash, I popped on the pasta, heated up the sauce in the microwave, grated some Cheddar, and we had supper on our laps in the front room chatting away, as we continued to do all evening. Off to bed around 10.30, and a few chapters of The Woman who Walked into the Sea. Weather: Warm and sunny, much of the day. Cooler again overnight. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, banana Lunch: Last night’s leftover pasta bake added to a tin of Minestrone soup, pitta, thin slices of cheese and some leftover coleslaw Supper: Instant Pot Bolognese with wholewheat spaghetti and grated cheese  9 March 2025 (Sunday)
Gosh, what a busy day! I was at the plot early, filming a final segment of A Week at the Plot and on arriving, our old plot neighbour who left with her partner last year to live in Belgium was in the paddock area giving guidance to a friend. Huge hugs ensued, and much catching up. It was such a delight and really cheered me up, even though I didn’t know I needed cheering up. I was just about to get down to work when a fellow one-over plot neighbour said hello… and much chat ensued, catching each other up as we’ve not seen each other for a LONG chat for a while - she had an accident on her bike just before Christmas and is only now mended enough to get back to her plot. Sensibly, she’s giving herself a short allocation of time and building up from there - yesterday it was 45 minutes only, though it was lovely to see her pottering about sensibly doing portions of jobs that need doing… Then another plotter wanted to speak about something - asking a question which I won’t go into here as it is about another fellow plotter… small communities and all that. An allotment community really is just a microcosm of that outside of the site’s boundaries! And at the end of this, another plotter who herself had another accident before Christmas came down the path to her plot, still walking carefully and slowly with two crutches, and we caught up - and for some reason the conversation got onto gastroscopies and endoscopies, both end… and we laughed so much it hurt… How did we even get on to that subject!!! Anyway, the plot had its first strim of this calendar year, and given impetus by this I decided not to sow seeds but rather just get on with tidying of things, and pots, and paths, and places. As allotmenteers we always leave things at the end of a trip as we’re tired and just don’t have the energy, and often instead of sorting at the start of the next visit things just get left. Well, some things had got left far, far too long so I got on and sorted them, and the plot is now looking MUCH clearer! Happy Days indeed!!! Weather: Another very sunny, warm day - and making the most of it as coller, cloudier weather is on the way! Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, sultanas and sliced banana Lunch: Homemade Minestrone Soup, Cottage Cheese, Yeast Extract, sliced Cucumber and Crackers Supper: Carrot & Butter Bean Goulash with wholemeal couscous, a la Richard  7 March 2025 (Friday) Woke up remembering that I was going to be helping prune the cider orchard at the allotment site today... my heart sank, a little. I'm going to be doing it with the guy who makes the cider from the apples of our trees, and hoping that a couple of others will turn up as well. It wasn't that I didn't want to do it, it was just that I didn't really feel like doing it today, but it was in the diary, so… Doing a bit of work at my desk early on, I got a call from The Compost Centre (such nice guys!!!) to say that the bags of compost that I’d ordered about six weeks ago we're going to be delivered today…and then I remembered there's also a skip being delivered today at the allotment, which will be available for plotters to fill up over the weekend. At this point everything was feeling a little bit overwhelming. After breakfast, I got down to the allotment site and the skip had already been delivered. Yay!! I wasn't actually the one ordering the skip this time, so none of that organisation nor anxiety of if it would, when it would, would the driver be decent or frosty, fell to me. It's funny, maybe 10 years ago I wouldn't have had anxiety around things like I do now. I remember when my parents were in their 60s and they would get anxious about this or that, I’d say to them “Oh, don't worry about that. It's not a problem” or “Oh, I don't know why you're concerned about that”. And now, three decades on, I find I'm treading regularly in those anxiety footsteps of my parents, and have been for many years now. I'm not sure whether it's just the world moving too fast, or insecurity about doing things at my age that a decade ago I’d just have been a snip. But I appreciate my parents more and more as I get older… not in fits and jumps, but in a slow and happily progressive understanding of the life and knowledge they passed on through their words and actions; this understanding is rather comforting, as with ice cream slowly melting over hot apple pie. Anyway… After a little bit of weeding on the plot, a shout from a fellow plotter “Your man’s here!” and off to the gate I went… my fellow pruner had arrived and it was time to get to the site’s orchard. The trees haven’t been managed for a very long time. Four of them are of a variety that is particularly vigorous, and they’ve grown both too tall and too broad in the canopy. The area of the orchard is only three plots and has about 15 trees, so they’re packed a tad closer than is desired. I’m told the original idea was that they’d be kept pretty tight, with short productive branches and not allowed to grow beyond two meters in height. The guy who had these plots, and planted this orchard of apple trees almost two decades ago, himself succumbed to the decades. As he got older he was simply unable to manage the trees in the way they needed, both his mobility and health got in the way. The trees, largely unchecked, grew… and spread… and grew. Unless you're a tree, getting older isn’t much fun… maybe for some it is, though for most so many challenges arise that our younger selves would just shrug off, or put on our big boy pants and get on with. Anyway… These trees were pruned a little a few years ago, though they needed a concerted effort; we really needed to get into the trees and cut them back. Fortunately, this is what my fellow pruner and myself did, and the orchard looks significantly thinner now than it did when we began. Stupidly, as often happens with me, I didn't take any before shots so I’ve only the after shots. What’s clear from the arisings i.e the prunings of the trees, is that quite a lot has come off. We even took three or four large crowding limbs down, each about 15 foot long.  There were two main jobs planned: opening up the crown of the trees which had become relatively crowded out with growth, and cutting back the canopy of the most rigorous of the trees by about a third as they were encroaching into their neighbouring trees - canopy shyness was not a thing here!
I think we did a really good job, starting at 10.30am and then finishing around 1.15pm. In the end it was just myself and the cider man who were available to do it, though we cracked on and did the job, and did it well. Of course, there was a lot of arisings in a pile that will need to be processed at our next work social. Now, when I say processed, I mean the smaller branches of these prunings will be cut off and laid into a dead hedge, though the dead hedge may actually need to be another one that we create, just around the corner from the current one in the orchard as it’s pretty full already. Getting back home at around 1.30pm, I was pretty hungry. I’d taken a flask and a biscuit with me but just hadn't had time to have a break. So when I came in the door and Richard told me to wash my hands because he had a burger for me to try it was a big “Oh, yes please!” He's been really keen to create a burger from soya mince for some time, and the trial that he gave me was rather tasty, with a lovely crisp outside and soft inside. He wants it to be firmer inside than it was, so I can see more trials to come, which will be delicious! I went back to the allotment in the afternoon for an hour or so to just carry on with weeding, and then it was time for Richard’s Live at 6pm, before we had a swift broad bean and pesto pasta supper and sat down to some telly. Weather: Sunny much of the day, and warm - around 15°. Slightly cloudy from late afternoon. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, sultanas and sliced banana Lunch: Richard's trial soya burger, pitta, grated carrot and fried smoked tofu Supper: Frozen broad beans, some water, a chunk of garlic, and a tablespoon of miso slowly stewed and a half jar of Lidl pesto added at the end. Had with wholewheat spaghetti and grated cheddar. |
Paul SavidentFollowing on from A Guernsey Gardener in London, I've decided to try and write a regular blog, and we'll see how it AND 2025 go! Archives
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