Getting allotment site jobs done

Thrown together Pasta Salad

14 June 2025 (Saturday)

Up pretty early again, and I was soon preparing for the Work Social that we had at our allotment site this morning.

I'm still managing and overseeing and planning much of the site work that goes on that needs to be carried out each year  by our tenants to ensure the whole site remains well maintained. There's four or five plotters who do regular jobs as we go through the year; one prunes all the roses on communal areas, another manages much of the work of the riverbank which goes alongside the River Brent, and he also manages the wildlife area, which is actually a plot that he was allowed to turn into a wildlife area because it wasn't particularly good for growing. Over the years, the amount of wildlife that has benefited from the area is significant.

There are a few other people who have mowing duties, using the communal mower that's kept locked away in our power tool shed. There's also another plotter who brings his own mower to the site as he lives very close, and mows the communal paths. So all in all, there's quite a decent small but committed team of people who manage things across the site on a regular basis.

However, there are other jobs that need to be planned and managed and done. Like today, where a number of sycamore have self-seeded in the hedge line alongside the front fence area, that area needed to be weeded, or at least have all the sycamore saplings pulled out. Also, we had quite a few plants from the Gate Sale which are wild plants, and some Calendula and Hollyhocks which can happily sit in this area.

I had my main list of tasks that needed to be done, and as I mention in A Week at the Plot, after many years of doing this I know the plotters who generally come to a number of Work Socials a year, and the type of work that they like doing. Some like weeding and planting things, some like more manual work, some like just tidying things around, there are a few that like to chat a lot and don't get a huge amount done, though we do call it a Work Social so I guess that's all fine too. 

There was some work to do in the orchard area, the front of which has had a shallow ditch running across it for several years. This year we started in-filling with spare woodchip, and we'll continue to do this until the area is the same level as the orchard. Over time, the woodchip will break down and the grass will grow through it. We also need to cut back in certain areas of the orchard, particularly brambles which could just take over, and we certainly don't want them in this area.

I was down by 9:30, and walked around the site and checked through the jobs on my list. It's fair to say that at first I was a bit anxious as people hadn’t turned up by ten, or even by ten past, though very shortly after who was some clinking at the main gate and people began to arrive, and we had a pretty decent turnout and got all the jobs done on my priority list. I always have a secondary list, and it's fair to say that we got none of these jobs done, but they can wait for another day. We also have some tenants who let me know that they won't be able to be at the Work Social, though are happy to have a job tasked to them which they'll get on with in their own time in the next week or so. All in all, it was another successful Work Social and the last of this tenancy calendar year. 

Our tenancy year runs from October to September, and the next scheduled Work Social is on the morning of our Bonfire Social in November.  There are likely to be a few tasks that need to be done in the meantime, and if any arise I'll call upon a few people to do them or help me do them; these could be like taking down a tree that has become dangerous or is overhanging an area and likely to cause an issue at some point.
​

Front hedgeline weeded and some wildflower plants planted out during the Work Social

The communal shed was given a real good tidy, with all tools being checked for damage

After lunch, I went back to the plot for a few hours; Richard had decided that he was too tired to do Sunday Chat, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

At the plot I did the final segment of A Week at the Plot, and while wandering around I noticed that our Rocquencourt beans, which are a yellow French bean, had germinated. There were no Borlotti showing yet nor any yellow flat french beans, but still I was really pleased to see that the Rocquencourt had, as they are an absolute favourite of ours. Now I just need to hope that not too many slugs decide to munch on them before they get away!

There's quite a few grasses that need to be cut back by the poly tunnel, and this I might do tomorrow, if we get Sunday Chat done earlyish in the morning.  It’ll take a couple of hours, so I think I’ll get that all done, or at least mostly done.

Back at home, I downloaded the content from my phone to our computer to start editing today's segment. I'll finish it off tomorrow 

For supper, I wanted something a little bit lighter, though bizarrely I also fancied pasta again, despite us having had spaghetti over the past couple of days. I decided to make a Pasta Salad.

Pasta Salad

We had some fusilli, which is a pasta that seems to overcook relatively swiftly in our opinion. I decided to use this as the base of our salad because it works quite well in this guise. I cooked it al dente, really keeping an eye to make sure it didn't overcook.  Once cooked, using a slotted strainer I lifted the pasta from the boiling water and put it into a separate bowl. Into the water in which the pasta had cooked I put about 150 grams or frozen peas, and with the heat off just let them cook along for about five minutes.

I ran cold water over the fusilli and then left it in a sieve to really drain as much as possible, for about 10 minutes… the last thing one wants is a lot of water on pasta when you're going to make a pasta salad!

Into another bowl I put about two tablespoons of mayonnaise, a little bit of freshly cracked black pepper, and some Braggs Liquid Aminos and gave this mixture a stir.  Once the pasta had drained well, I added it to the bowl and gave everything a really good stir. I then used the slotted spoon to take the peas out of the water, let them cool a bit and drain, and then added them in too. After I'd given everything a really good stir, I covered the bowl and popped it in the fridge. 

A few hours later, when we were ready for supper, I cut up a large ripe tomato, de-seeded an 8-inch long chunk of cucumber and cut it into quarters and then the quarters into half inch chunks, chopped up half a small red onion relatively fine, and tore up a good 10 or 12 basil leaves from our windowsill plants. I added this all to the bowl as I went, and stirred this all together.  I then decided that I wanted to add some butter beans which I drained from a can, making sure again that as much liquid was drained away as possible.

I'd picked some lettuce at the plot, so I washed and span it and tore it up into two serving bowls, then placed the pasta salad on top, and then topped that off with some wild rocket that I'd also picked at the plot. It was a rather lovely dish, surprisingly light yet surprisingly filling too.

Our evening of TV was a real mix of old hits from Top of the Pops, a few episodes of The Power of Parker, and a few episodes of Ben Elton’s Happy Families which we found on YouTube; it's a really brilliant comedy series that we both loved when it came out sometime in the 80s.

In bed at the usual time, around 10:15, and after a few chapters of Louise Penny's How the Light Gets In it was time for lights out.


Weather:  Morning’s sunny yet still a bit overcast.  Afternoon is blazing sun with a few clouds and feeling hot, though also definitely cooler than yesterday. About 22°.

Breakfast:  Lidl Rye  Toast, Flora ProActiv Buttery, yeast extract and peanut butter
Lunch:   Richard plain omelette, baked beans (tin) and toasted Lidl Rye
Supper:   Pasta Salad (see method above)