November digging

What a busy day on the plot.

I went down at half ten, and have just come back absolutely freezing! A good five hours digging and planting.

I've decided to turn the plot into a girly space, and will divide it into 4 individual beds, with room at the end for some fruit canes. So bed one dug over and planted with 3 rows of strong garlic, two rows of red onions and 2 rows of white onions. Produce harvested include leeks, savoy cabbage, red and white cabbage, and some calabrise.

Once the parsnips have had the frost on them and I harvest them, that bed will house cauli, swede, carrots and brussel sprouts. The other two beds will be spuds, and lastly salad veg.
I will plant some fruit canes next weekend, and leave a patch for the pumpkins too.

All manor of spring bulbs will go down too, as a memory border for mum and dad.

Sorted!

Now to go and prepare the veg for tea. Simples!!

Due to a family feud............

Callum has flounced off the allotment!!!

It's ok though, I have a big enough team of willing diggers and helper, I'm sure I'll manage!

Funny though, he did the self same thing last time my sister and I fell out, and still hasn't learnt to listen to both sides of a story before making a decision.

Loser!

Will be planting garlic very soon, and more onions. I'll go to the shop for my onion sets this weekend.

That's all.

Digging

My allotment pal has man-flu!

Off I set on my own to clear and tidy the main plot. I hauled out the last of the carrots so that I didn't have to hoe round them, and then dug over the whole of the spud patch again. Next week will be dedicated to muck spreading in time for the onions, garlic and whatever else we decide to plant. All hands to the shed. 10:00am sharp. Breakfast rolls will be provided. As much tea as you can drink!!

See you there!

Onions

I now have 80 onions residing in my green house to dry out, and then I will string them.
I bought another chilli plant yesterday. Apache F1 (an 8 on the heat score!).
Yummers!

Lemon and Poppy seed cake.

I went out to the garden centre with Lily to get some bits for her, and I ended up buying some seeds for next year, and a few other bits.
We popped into the cafe for a cuppa, and I had a slice of their Lemon and Poppy seed cake, and it was deeelish!

Heres how it's done:

6tbsp poppy seeds
185ml (6fl oz) milk
Juice of ½ lemon
250g (8oz) unsalted butter, softened
250g (8oz) caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 eggs
280g (9oz) plain flour
2tsp baking powder
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
Lemon syrup
1. Soak the poppy seeds in the milk and lemon juice for 1 hour. Heat the oven to 180ºC (gas mark 4) and grease a 25cm (10in) ring mould tin.

2. Beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest in an electric mixer for about 3-4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, alternating with a little flour, until combined. Sift in the remaining flour, the baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda, then fold into the mixture. Gently stir in the milk and poppy seed mixture until smooth and combined.

3. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, or until the cake feels firm to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then gently turn it out onto a large plate. Spoon the hot lemon syrup, and icing, if using, over the top and sides of the cake and leave to cool.

Leon's (not mine) sweet potato falafels

Makes around 18 falafel - enough for four

2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g in total

1½ tsp ground cumin

2 small cloves of garlic, chopped

1½ tsp ground coriander

2 big handfuls of fresh coriander, chopped (about 30g)

Juice of half a lemon

A good handful of soaked currants/sultanas

120g gram flour

A splash of olive oil

A sprinkling of sesame seeds

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender (45 minutes to 1 hour). Turn off oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.

Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and gram flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks. Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of gram flour if necessary (the water content of sweet potatoes varies enormously).

Reheat the oven to 200C/400F. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) or a falafel scoop if you have one, make the mixture into falafelly looking things and put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

I've just got these babies in the oven as I type, and they smell fab!

Banana cake

Just got back from the lotty with more fresh stuff.
Now in cooking mode.

This is my take on banana cake:

4oz butter or margarine
6oz brown sugar
8oz self raising flour
2 eggs
2 large or 3 medium, very ripe bananas
1/2 pack choc chips (I used white)
1tsp cinnamon and same of nutmeg

Heat the oven to gas mark 4; 180C
Grease a 2lb loaf tin.
Mash the bananas nutmeg and cinnamon with a fork.
Cream the butter and sugar together and mix in the eggs
Mix together the two mixtures
Mix in the flour.
Scrape into the loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes then lower the temperature to Gas mark 2; 150C and cook for a further 15-20 minutes.

Yummy!