The wind down for winter has begun on the allotment

A glorious, golden day last Thursday (6th)– mild without a breath of wind.

This is the season for repairing, storing and tucking the allotment up for bed, though there’s still some harvesting to be done too.  Old wooden bed surrounds were replaced with new timber.

The stored apples and potatoes were checked. Strawberry runners were cut, some potted up for new stock. We continued perennial weeding along the windbreak and in the rhubarb bed, removing Alkanet but re-homing comfrey plants to their dedicated bed beside shed 2. The dwarf Jerusalem artichokes were harvested, exposing a pile of dark red tubers, some destined for Bridgend Community Café, along with a bundle of brassicas – Cottagers Kale and purple sprouting broccoli. Artichoke stalks and leaves were “chopped and dropped” underneath plants in the Polyculture bed, to act as a warm blanket over Winter months. Planting in this bed is designed to give successive crops, and today we picked some of the Mashua’s delicate flowers and leaves. This plant is a relative of the nasturtium family, with all parts of the plant edible. It’s a pretty plant to grow, producing small, orange flowers and scalloped-edged leaves, both very recognisable as a nasturtium family member. Taste however, is quite different. The leaves have a crisp apple flavour whilst the flowers a sweet, almond taste – both interesting additions to Autumnal salads. The Yakon (a South American perennial tuber) is budding, and if conditions stay mild, may produce sunshine yellow blooms.

This year, everyone’s favourite potato – pink fir apple – was hard to find as seed stock. We’d not managed to source any but miraculously dug up “a volunteer” from the previous year’s crop. Whilst it’s always recommended to sow from seed potatoes, beggars can’t be choosers and we chitted and planted it with much ceremony. Today it was harvested. Six precious tubers emerged, to be re-invested into the soil next year.

We’re still harvesting spinach and chard, and we all went home with a lovely fat leek!

Jobs for next week: continue the wind-down to Winter – repairing, checking stored produce, weeding and harvesting late crops