Posted by Craig | Posted in allotment | Posted on 15-08-2010
Tags: allotment, chickens, chilli, chillies, digging, greenhouse, polytunnel, potatoes, spuds, sweetcorn, turnips
Time for a little bit of a catch up I think, since I have been a bit stingy with blog updates recently!
I was a little worried about Gladys, one of our ex-battery chickens for a while, as she seemed to be very much out of sorts, and would not stand up for more than a few seconds at a time. We had to lift her in and out of the nest box and place her near the food, and we were dreading the day when she stopped eating.
Then one day we went down to open them up, and after the other three had come down the ramp at Mach 3 to head towards the food, Gladys then announced herself in a flurry of squawks and feathers as if to announce “I’m back!”
She’s now barging the other three out of the way at the feed, and instead of being very scrawny, is growing all of her feathers, and giving the others a run for their money!
All of the chillies are benefiting from having more room in my new polytunnel and have put on a massive growth spurt and are producing bucketloads of chilies. It’s good that I discovered the trick of how to freeze them last year, as I’m going to need to do the same this year.
All of the spuds have been lifted, so we have enough to feed an army. We want to have fresh spuds for Christmas Day, so we are going to plant some more in a patch of our allotment that could do with some help in being cleared, and the soil being broken up.
The sweetcorn is also teasing me as it looks like it is ready, but everytime I pull back its covering to have a peek, it is not quite there, so I have to wait another day at least before I can fire up the BBQ.
I’ve also harvested four bags full of purple top turnips which will come in useful in stews in the Autumn and Winter. Planted up some more as well, as I love them!
We’re also having the usual game of hide and seek with the courgettes, but still miss the odd one which then turns into a marrow in the blink of an eye. However searching for those means we can spot all of the pumpkins that have kicked into life that will be used in due course to make pumpkin and chorizo soup. spiced pumpkin risotto …..
Achiltibuie Garden – Hydroponic Growing Kits
Dartmoor Chilli Farm
Greenhouse Sensation
All looks fab Craig and so glad that Gladys is back to her old self…good news indeed. Can you let me into the secret of freezing chillies, as we have quite a lot of our own ‘home grown’ from seed and I bought 4 chilli plants from West Dean that are producing quite abundantly too.
Hope all is well with you.
Kaz x
Hi Kaz,
Easiest way to freeze surplus chillies is by spreading them out individually on baking trays and putting them in the freezer. When they are frozen, you just bag them up, and pop them in the freezer, and they don’t stick together or turn into mush.
When you need one, all you do is take it out of the freezer bag, run it under the hot tap to defrost it, and then use it as normal.
All looking good Craig, wish my sweetcorn looked like that – sadly I only have the two half decent ones. Never have a great success.
Glad all well.
J