A double dose of Alloment news
A late double blog today – we had some technical issues which have now been resolved.
We’ve happily been treated to some fine weather this past fortnight, moving to the sunny autumnal pastures of the compost bins for our break this week.
The battle with alkanet continues. Distinguishing between the leaves of this and comfrey is sometimes a fine art. Both have rough bladed leaves, but you can detect faint white markings on the former. Getting your eye in is worth it for the making of nitrogen-rich comfrey feed. We picked a crop, now brewing with a tightly fitting lid at the back of the shed.
Another thug we waged war on this fortnight were the slugs! The decimation of our juicy young Pak Choi plants was the final straw. Time to bring in the big guns – the finest Scottish beer (possibly a game of shutting the stable door…) For results, see accompanying photo – but Warning: Not for the fainthearted!
Joining the harvesting party now are apples, potatoes and cauliflowers. We possibly left these one week too long. But we’re a patient bunch, willing to spend time cutting out slug damage, leaving the florets fine for stews, curries and pickles. The Discovery apples have also been affected by something scabby. On closer inspection, our conclusion is that birds have got in under the netting, pecked at the flesh which has then set off further skin damage. Again, some patient cutting around gives sweet flesh, perfect for stewing, chutney-making or enjoying as chunks accompanied by a glass of red and a fine cheese. The red currants and blueberries just keep giving. How long can they last!
We dug six shaws of main crop potatoes (Cara) perhaps a bit disappointing in terms of volume, but beautifully formed. The sweetcorn is bulking up, but we tried one – again a bit disappointing as not ripening well. Perhaps both crops are suffering from a lack of sunshine this year.
Finally, we raised the netting height around the brussel sprouts to palatial levels. But they deserved it as are already looking very promising…
