belated allotment

After checking back over last years posts I have come to the opinion that my allotment is running about one month late!
I have peas

 several old fashioned tall varieties like telephone pea & champion of england

I have a couple of rows each of garlic and shallots

 The lettuce is starting to show

 as is the chicory

but the peppers are only surviving...

however the blueberries are in full flower!

all in all we are running late,
I hope this welcome sunshine will help all the veggies catch up,
I think I am going to have to re sow the beans....
but we have had worse as well as better years than this
so
I keep digging
I keep planting
&
I keep dreaming about the harvest and all those wonderful recipes I have that I want to try with the home grown veg!

gardeners need to be optimists

and stubborn!

sourdough pancakes

This post goes out with a big  thank you to fellow blogger Tanya at * lovely Greens*
whilst reading her blog last night I came across this lovely recipe for sour dough pancakes, HERE
now these are something I have never tried before and although my pictures have again let me down,
if you take a peek at her pictures you can get a better idea at what I am raving about!
Friday is always sourdough day for me so I just had to try a batch this morning as the sour dough mother was out of the fridge.
I made them with frozen cherries
and served with runny honey and a knob of butter
and they all vanished
[ and those that ate them with me say they don't like american style pancakes!!]

greek cheese pie

Spanakopita or greek cheese pie has been a favourite for ages,
it is a great use for spinach and chard which I seem to have a lot of at present!
It is also a bit of a cheat recipe as it uses shop bought filo pastry, but it does taste good and is also perfect picnic or pack lunch food.

The filling is:
2 onions thinly sliced
about 250g or 8oz mushrooms sliced [less if you have less]
three big handfulls of freshly picked spinach or chard well washed and chopped
1 small block feta - diced
125g or 4oz whatever hard cheese you have in the fridge, grated [a strong cheddar is good but any cheese will do.]
Vegetable oil, i use olive
black pepper and seasonings

In a large pan in a little oil gently cook the onions till soft, add the mushrooms and cook until they have absorbed and then released the oil and their juice, stir in the spinach/chard until wilted then add the diced feta. Stir well and when everything seems done stir in the grated cheese and add black pepper and season to taste.
Turn off the heat.
Unwrap you filo pastry
Now
at this point you can make a big pie
or smaller rolls or bundles with the filo and the filling,
my favourite is triangles - small or large dependent on the size of the filo sheets!

bake for about 15 minutes in a hot oven until pastry is golden and crisp
and enjoy hot from the oven or warm or cold the next day, they also freeze well!
[by the way sorry for the blurry picture - had to be quick before they all got eaten.... quantities above made about 15]

Hestercombe

As I am on annual leave this week we went on a day trip to the beautiful Hestercombe gardens.
A beautifully restored garden, both formal and woodland with follies, today the sun shone and the bluebells glowed,
here is a little pictoral tour

all in all a good walk in the sunshine,
and spanakopita [or a version opf greek cheese pie] made later for tea, so a very productive day
and I am very glad to see so much sunshine!
[especially as yesterday I planted out all my precious squash seedlings to the allotment]

Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day !

After our little mini heat wave here in Somerset
we have now a return to April showers [yes i am aware it's May!]
and today a really blustery day, so much so that after work I pottered off down the allotment and tied down my greenhouse size poly tunnel.....
last year in May while I was away on holiday it blew away off over the neighbouring fields and was very hard to retrieve,
so i am taking no chances this year,
however my little cucumber plants are looking a little worse for wear so me thinks I will plant a few more cucumber seeds this weekend...
ho hum
but anyway at present all is secure... and I think I will have a little honey on my toast for tea....

May Day.....

May Day, Beltane,
and a beautiful day dawned and it was off to the Chalice Well for one of the local community celebrations....

the Well was dressed with flowers, there was a Fire

 and a May Pole

and later
a quiet walk in the beautiful woods

Beltane

May Day

Beautiful

Wild Garlic time

Well today I made Wild Garlic and Feta tarts for tea
this is an annual, seasonal, event now and I just managed to take one picture before it all got eaten.
This is good warm from the oven,
and Chris thinks it is even better cold the next day!

the recipe can be found at the excellent Allotment 2 kitchen blog  HERE