What is wrong with these people?

I am incensed at a recent incident on our allotment site!
Between the hours of 11pm and 5am someone came onto the site and wreaked destruction just for the supposed fun of it.

Twenty plots in total were affected. For our part, they broke open our shed door and our next door neighbour's shed door was pulled clean off! Other neighbours had potatoes and carrots pulled up and cucumbers picked; particularly gut wrenching because of the hard work they put in.
Even more difficult to accept is the damage done to one or two people's chicken runs. Someone had their chickens let out.

Nothing was stolen...it was wanton destruction. Grrh!

The bigger the summer vacation, the harder the fall...

1st July 2013

That's right, summer is upon us and there's no room for slacking.

I have begun to harvest an abundance of delicious, juicy strawberries, the chard is also coming into fruition and I foresee many salads in the weeks to come as the heads are all firming up on the lettuce.

I am loving (as are the bees) the quantity of flowers on the herbs; the Salvia (sage) is looking awesome!

The beans are growing well, but  they are taking a bit of a battering from the wind. This is a very windy site.

One of my favourite vegetables is beetroot. I love it grated raw on salads, roasted, and pickled. Last year, I made some beetroot and orange preserve which was delicious. I have two rows nearly ready - another couple of weeks to maturity - and there are some seedlings just emerging next to them. 

6th July 2013

Well it's salads all round. I harvested two more beauties yesterday for tea. There'll be plenty for a few days. I am also mixing up things with a little added chard leaves. I also managed to harvest a small beetroot, about 5-6 cm in diameter, which was lovely and sweet and we have a batch of spring onion 'Purplette' which I have been growing in the hope of pickling a few but at the moment, they're proving too delicious to leave.

What is horrifying is the amount of waste there must be from the supermarket ones because there's barely anything left once they're packaged:

...not to mention added unnecessary packaging.

The weather is quite warm at the moment so lots of watering needs to done and I am looking forward to the first courgette which is just coming up to size and will be ready in a day or two.

10th July 2013

Today, I pulled up the remaining  spring onion 'Purplette' to prepare and pickle tomorrow. I also pulled up the shallots I planted in the autumn and left them to dry. I have been picking them a couple at a time for the past few weeks but I wanted to use he space for some radishes and parsnips.

These beauties are bound for a pickle jar.

Also, I planted out some pea 'Maro' plants. Between them I sowed some more seeds which will hopefully come on later. Pea 'Maro' is a marrowfat type which I am hoping to dry and store for winter.
I can taste the fish, chips and mushy peas already, yum...

30th July 2013

I have been wanting to post for over two weeks but have been far too busy to have the time.

I have been busy with pickles and jams in addition to freezing a batch of chard.

In total I have made ten meals worth of chard for the freezer. I wilt and then freeze it in little pots and when they're frozen I pop them out into freezer bags.

I have made twelve jars of blackcurrant jam, four of blackcurrant, apple and strawberry and three jars of strawberry jam.

Additionally, the first batch of beetroot made two kilos of pickle and I managed one jar of pickled onions so busy,busy busy.

The courgettes are growing beautifully; I've harvested many beans of Runner, French and Broad types.

The sweetcorn is now starting to develop too

This last week I have planted out leeks 'Below Zero', and some more lettuce (a week apart).