First frost, November 2023

 Although we were forecast frost last month, and subsequently harvested all our squashes, it's not till this weekend it actually touched down.  The son, daughter and I all visited the allotment that morning to do a little sheet mulch and clear back some of the encroaching brambles and it was cold!  It's maybe a little early for it, but a frost in the garden and allotment means death to slugs and snails.  Or at least a setback in the population, so I definitely need some good hard frosts in winter.

Speaking of slugs and snails, every time I turn something over or pull something out at the allotment, I uncover an unholy amount of them.  I really desperately need some frost, but the best thing would be some concentrated duck action there--and for that I need some secure fencing.  I had hoped this would be the year, but funds don't allow it;  maybe next year.

However, my own garden is well fenced and my two remaining ducks (Girl Duck and Boy Duck) have been free ranging for a few weeks.  I still have some veg in the beds but the only thing I've excluded them from is the pak choy, about five or so heads surrounded in temporary wire.  I would really like to let the chickens free range too, but I don't trust them around the remaining veg;  unlike ducks who are mainly focused on slugs and bugs--and don't scratch up the soil--chickens much prefer plants and I don't dare let them at my radishes, fennel, chard, etc, unsupervised.

Harvesting for Thanksgiving 2023

Nearly Thanksgiving already?  We are hosting some friends, feeding a total of three adults, three teens, and one toddler.  It's actually the husband who does most of the cooking as my workplace (a school) has scheduled vacation days only;  I will be making pies the day before but he'll do most of the rest. This year we are eating:

Pumpkin pie with homegrown squash and our own eggs.  We're still getting a couple eggs a day (unlike in previous years).  And there is plenty of squash.  In fact, we'll be serving it as a vegetable side too, either in cubes or as puree.

Homegrown cabbage from the allotment.  There are only two winter cabbages this year, as the slugs and bugs disappeared the rest, but one is ready to pick now.  I was thinking of saving it till Christmas, but might as well eat it with friends.

I will have a good prod around the rows to find a couple of nice parsnips too--hopefully there are some good sized ones, like the one I dug up last week.

Our turkey came from the supermarket, as did the potatoes, but we'll make some gravy using our garlic and herbs. 

And one more pie:  cherry pie from last year's cherries, waiting in the freezer all this time. 

Root veg

I pulled up my largest black radish only to discover it had been mostly hollowed out by slugs.  What should have been an 8 oz root ended up being just 2.  None of the other radishes seem to be so big, though there are probably several which are around 2 oz.  After this disappointment, I decided I should probably dig up some of my other roots, and accordingly have retrieved one very large parsnip, beautifully unblemished and a whole 12 oz.  Hopefully the rest of the parsnips at least will be equally successful;  but I won't be in a hurry to dig them all up.

Additionally, I've been cutting the fennel one by one, ranging between 4 and 8 oz each.  These have been better growers than the radishes, with only a little slug damage.  Technically not a root veg, but it certainly looks like a bulb.

There are still some small beets at the allotment which I will try and harvest soon--the son and I have been going up maybe once a week to sheet mulch, but the weather isn't cooperating!  I'm going to try and stop by after work in the next day or two.

I had only a few carrots come up, probably because it was so dry after I sowed them in spring.  And then the few I've pulled up haven't been worth much:  small and bug damaged.  Next year I might grow them in the containers I grew cucumbers in this year, though I will probably have to top them up with some sand to lighten the compost in them.  Carrot fly can't reach them if they are 18 inches off the ground, and hopefully I can keep them better watered too.

Keeping the wood stove going

Those kindling bundles I made during the past year have been excellent in starting our wood stove, and far more convenient than rummaging out a handful of twigs from the wood pile.  I trim a handful of dry sticks, up to pencil thickness, to about 30 cm long (a good size for the stove);  I then wrap a strip of a dry yucca leaf around the handful and twist the ends together, tucking them in to keep it nice and tight.  The bundles then go to the wood pile in their own convenient stack.  

It's true they are somewhat time consuming to make.  However, one thing I like to do on nice days is sit in the sunshine in my garden;  these are good days to make a few kindling bundles if I have any twigs on hand.  I'll collect my materials next to my comfy garden chair and make some at my own relaxed pace.

I have a couple of overgrown hawthorns at the hedge at back, earmarked for a hard pruning this winter once all their leaves have fallen.  Although hawthorn is a good dense wood and a quick grower--and takes pruning very well--its slight drawback is it doesn't grow very straight.  It has fierce thorns and can grow in some pretty strange contortions, making it less desirable for firewood.  Nevertheless, it will go into the green wood pile for next winter--and I'll try to negotiate with those thorns to make some more bundles.

As well as keeping us warm, we heat water on the stove for hot drinks, cooking, washing dishes;  we also do occasional cooking (I will hard boil eggs on top, for instance, and we've even baked pizza in the firebox--now that's an exciting meal!); we dry laundry on racks in front of it, and I've even dehydrated vegetables above it.  Although we have to buy in fuel to run the stove, I don't mind spending a few hours throughout the year making the prunings from my garden into bundles to keep the stove going.