An allotment helper, still too many vegetables, making kimchi and ice cream

 

A helper at the allotment, July 2026

That little amphibian pictured above also has a friend, slightly smaller.  A female and a male maybe?  We don't have a pond at the allotment but instead an old pond liner smothering weeds;  it has a dip in the middle that has a continual puddle from watering--our little frog puddle.  This one had been lurking in the zuc patch that day and quickly made its way back to the puddle and the safety of the tomato overgrowth nearby.

Speaking of tomatoes, we (well, the husband mostly) have been picking a reliable 2# every other day this past week.  So far I've been making tomato heavy meals, but supply is starting to outpace demand.  I really want to bottle some--but have very few jars left.  The freezer is seriously full now, and the dehydrator is constantly packed with shredded zuc (we're going to be eating this for the rest of the decade I think).  What to do?

I had another kimchi marathon, making about 9 L over the course of three or four days.  I've got an additional 1.8 L of pak choi kimchi and another 1 L of komatsuma too.  And have been slicing up zuc for fresh/unfermented kimchi as needed.  To me it tastes less spicy when fresh, maybe because it doesn't have the sourness.  The zuc softens down so fast I think it would turn to mush if fermented;  I like the fresh texture, and it has a slight sweetness too.  The Savoy cabbage I used for the majority of the kimchi is much more robust;  I probably won't get to it till autumn or even winter--when the zuc gives up!  I've read that kimchi can last a year or more, although I doubt mine will--I'll eat it long before a year's over.  Unlike with the tomatoes, I don't have to have hermetically sealed jars for kimchi or other fermented vegetables;  the salt and acidity prevents spoilage, so long as the jars are kept tight shut.

The daughter and I are waiting for the figs to ripen, although I also have some trepidation:  it's loaded!  It's been such a hot dry summer, our dessert of choice has been homemade fruit ice cream--no doubt fig will be a delicious flavor.  She and I have gone out on our bikes to the local country park to pick wild blackberries, to tide us over.  They're big and juicy this year;  some years they're small and seedy.  

To make ice cream, I cooked them slightly in a pan with a tiny bit of water, just to soften--they really released a lot of juice.  After cooling down a little, I put the entire contents through my food mill with the smallest plate size to catch all the seeds.  Then refrigerated until cold, sweetened to taste, and gently folded with whipped cream.  I froze this mixture in a variety of containers (some silicone muffin cups and a plastic takeaway tub) and we enjoyed it the next day after dinner.

Cherries and also not cherries

(The Vegetable Challenge has restarted!  More details next week!) 

It turns out I've not been getting many Kordia cherries or Czar plums off my trees for the past several years because of a pair of pigeons.  They were witnessed in the spring, methodically stripping both buds and young leaves from my trees, meaning hardly any fruits formed at all.  These are wood pigeons (we don't currently have any feral pigeons around);  one of the neighbors has been known to shoot them with an air rifle in his own garden--but in this case I would have been quite happy to shoot them myself!  They're too big for netting:  I don't know if I can protect my trees in the future.

Hiding the few cherries that survived the pigeons, June 2025

Only a few Kordia cherries, but at least they're perfect underneath their cloth napkin, June 2025

On the other hand, my little Morello cherry tree produced a good amount of cherries this year, maybe because the branches are much smaller/thinner (wood pigeons are pretty big birds) and the tree itself is very close to the house.  I fully netted it a little while ago and have been picking red cherries and freezing them this past week.

Already picked a freezer bag of Morello cherries, June 2025

I can only assume the pigeons treated my small Stella cherry tree the same way they did the Kordia as it also has very little fruit.  Its top has died back and it's suffering from aphids in a bad way;  I don't know if it'll survive.  My plum tree, just around the corner (seen a little bit in the top right corner), had a couple years of bad aphids which I think the local sparrows eventually sorted it out;  this tree isn't visible from the house (unlike almost all of my other fruit trees) so I don't know if the birds are helping it this year or not.  While every ladybug and/or larva I find goes onto this tree, other than that, my policy is to not intervene.  I focus on setting up healthy conditions for my little garden ecosystem, a la permaculture;  it's up to the ecosystem to sort out its own details.  If I lose this tree, I can console myself with the thought that it only cost me £4 or £5, and I do have another healthy tree.

Sad Stella cherry tree, June 2025

As an aside:  there are a lot of wild cherry trees at our local country park just a few streets away;  some are pretty sour but others are quite nice.  Just much too small to preserve in any way:  good for eating and spitting out the pits.  At least we've been able to eat cherries this year, one way or another.

Harvesting from the park

These past few weeks have seen me and the kids at our local country park, just a few streets away from our house, foraging for some wild food.  There are quite a lot of wild edibles there that we know of:  mint, bullaces (a small wild plum), oregano, raspberries, hazelnuts, pears, and even an invasive species of crayfish.  However, we have been picking:

Blackberries

It's been a good year for wild blackberries.  Often they turn out small, sour and seedy;  but this year I've picked a lot of big, sweet juicy ones.  Still seedy of course!  But more juice per seed.  In the past I've made jam, put them in smoothies and used the puree in ice cream.  I've also combined them with wild elderberries to make wine, which is my plan for this year too.

Apples

It seems it's not been a great year for apples however.  My own trees have been producing biennially, and this was the off year:  no apples.  There are quite a lot of wild trees at the country park, and most are nice enough to eat though nothing spectacular (we only know one phenomenally bitter tree).  Unfortunately, the trees there haven't produced much either, and most of it quite small.  The son and I went picking at the weekend and came back with a sack of which the largest were golf ball sized.  These will be for eating only--at least they are free and the kids don't mind the size.  I know of another couple of trees we didn't visit so we'll have to check them next.  

---

Our country park used to be a coal mine, and our village a mining village.  When I moved here almost 20 years ago, the park was mostly just a flat grassy field with a small memorial to the miners and a largeish fishing pond at the far end, with a young weedy forest around that.  The whole park has since been planted with many trees;  other plants have recolonised to make it a real haven for wildlife and local people alike.

I have in the past harvested quite a lot of different things at our park, including herbs for simple remedies such as plantain and alder to make a soothing skin cream.  I've even gathered reeds for basketry and old dead wood to use as kindling in our wood stove:  it's a bountiful resource practically at our doorstep. 

Fruits for winter

Checking them every day, August 2022

I wish I had more veg growing for winter harvest!  Hopefully I'll get some cabbage, chard, Brussels sprouts and a few leeks.  As it is, I'm preserving all I can of the summer harvest to make up for it.  We are concerned about food security (though to be honest, I've been concerned about it for years, ever since we got snowed in for two weeks during the winter of 2009-2010), and while we're eating a little bit fresh, most of it's going in the dehydrator or freezer.

Those two Kumoi pears above (and their third and final sibling) will probably go into the fresh category.  I've now dehydrated most of the figs and the plums and Sparta apples are almost ready (though the Laxton Fortune apples have nearly all been eaten).  I've got a bag of Morello cherries in the freezer from earlier in the summer, and a bag and a half of wild blackberries the son and I picked--it was a great year for them (they're usually small and seedy).  I was hoping for some good grapes, but it looks like they haven't thrived in the dry summer we've had;  there's a lot of small, partly-formed bunches.  If I possible I'll dehydrate them, but they might only be good for the birds.

Now at the end of August, fresh fruit season is nearly over for us.  I would normally have yellow raspberries next month, but I transplanted them to the allotment early this spring and they haven't flowered.  Hopefully next autumn.  In September I hope to pick some wild (or feral, at least) apples to store, and that will be it until next June at the earliest.

Eating from the garden, Aug 2021

A bit weedy, July 2021

We are self isolating in our household until the end of this week, which means no shopping trips or going to the allotment.  Thankfully at this time of year there is fresh veg in the garden to supplement our food storage (currently at a good level: about a month's worth of meals).  We even have fresh fruit, and we also have some of last year's harvest still in the pantry.

 Mainly our veg out back is the multitude of chard!  It makes a nice salad green and cooks well too, whether on its own as a side dish, or in a stew or the like.  I've also started pulling up some of the carrots.  There are only two short rows;  enough for eating fresh about weekly.  There is an even shorter row of kohl rabi, one of which we have eaten so far.  And fresh herbs to liven things up;  the basil and rosemary are particularly welcome.

We have the garlic from the allotment earlier this summer;  but I'm hoping to save the broad beans in the freezer until winter.  I'd picked a couple of zucchinis and some French beans from the allotment too, which are in the fridge for today (two of the zucs are in the dehydrator for later use).

One by one figs ripen, July 2021

Our figs have finally started ripening and have been fantastic in smoothies with frozen strawberries, but are also good eating as is.  The rogue blackberries are also coming into their own;  I did not plant them, nor do I want them!  However, the daughter really enjoys stuffing them into her mouth;  they're a bit sour and seedy for my taste but she just loves them.  

We even had a couple of slightly underripe Sparta apples which fell off as I was inspecting a branch.  Sparta is a red apple but these were in shade and completely green.  I staked up the branch and the remaining green apples now have a red blush on them, just a few days later.  However, I don't anticipate eating the remainder till the end of this month at the earliest;  we still have some applesauce and a jar or two of apple halves in the cupboard from last year so we're not completely bereft of apples.

Food Totals, November 2019

Vegetables:

111.5 oz potatoes
144.5 oz pumpkins
5.5 oz celery
17.5 oz chard

Total: 278.5 oz, or 17 lb 6.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

No fruit harvested this month

Eggs:

Total: 7 eggs from 11 hens and 2 ducks (one rescue hen died this month)
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40 kg), 1 bag mixed corn (20 kg)

Preserves:

4 medium jars mixed berry jam from own frozen berries (blackcurrant, redcurrant, raspberry)
10 medium jars dried apple chips (from wild harvested apples)

Homebrew:

6 L cider vinegar bottled up (from wild harvested apples)
4 L cider vinegar still fermenting

Food totals, October 2019

Vegetables:

33 oz cherry tomatoes
29.5 oz chard
20.5 oz runner beans
89 oz potatoes (incomplete)
7.5 oz zuccini
4.5 oz celery
15.5. oz cabbage
10 oz achocha

Total: 209.5 oz, or 13 lb 1.5 oz
Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

175 almonds
17 yellow raspberries

Eggs:

Total: 74 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40 kg), 2 bags mixed corn (40 kg)

Preserves:

10 medium jars dehydrated apples (wild harvested)
2 medium jars dehydrated carrots (bought carrots)
2 medium jars dehydrated parsnips (bought parsnips)

Homebrew:

10 L apple cider vinegar begun (from wild harvested apples)
1 L apple cider vinegar still fermenting

Food Totals September 2019

The view from the kitchen sink, September 2019

Vegetables:

156 oz potatoes
15.5 oz cabbage
78.5 oz runner beans
93.5 oz cherry tomatoes
33 oz spring onions
8 oz Aztec broccoli
74 oz tomatoes
5.5 oz French beans
13.5 oz chard
2 oz celery
0.5 oz chili pepper
14.5 oz zuccini

Total: 494.5 oz or 30 lb 14.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

21 oz figs
17 yellow raspberries
182 plums

Eggs:

Total: 106 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg), 2 bags mixed corn (40 kg), 3 bags growers pellets (15 kg)

Preserves:

1/2 medium jar dehydrated cherry tomatoes
3/4 medium jar dehydrated figs
2 medium jars dehydrated plums

Homebrew:

1 L apple cider vinegar begun (from wild harvested apples)

October 2018 Food Totals

Spring cabbage seedlings on the left, random assortment on the right;  Oct 2018

Vegetables:

7.5 oz Aztec broccoli
10.5 salad greens (leaf lettuce, miners and lambs lettuces, baby chard, sorrel)
48.5 oz tomatoes
2.5 oz cherry tomatoes
37 oz achocha
18 oz runner beans
12 oz chard
1.5 oz chili peppers
4 oz patty pan squash
2 oz melon!!!
0.5 oz nasturtium leaves
4 oz beets
3.5 oz immature green squash
3 oz cabbage greens
9.5 oz kohlrabi
5 oz leeks

Total:  169 oz, or 10 lb 9 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Does not include one large green squash which was unweighed.

Fruit: 

77 Sparta apples
156 almonds

Eggs:

Total:  23 eggs from 5 hens
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg)

Preserves:

1 very small jar fermented hot sauce
1/2 medium jar dried nasturtium leaves
1/2 medium jar dried chard leaves
1 small jar dried mint leaves

Homebrew:  

4 L cider started from wild harvested apples

4 L cider vinegar started using pulp leftover from cider making

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Fizzy elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting

Previously made cider still fermenting

Previously made cider vinegar still fermenting

New homebrew, September 2018

The newest cider, Sep 2018

After a full year in the jugs, 2017's cider finally got bottled up.  I used our entire collection of bottles (some new, some seen lots of use) and filled up the drinks cupboard.  We've pretty much finished off all our homebrew by now, so it's good to restock.  The cider's not extremely potent, but fruity and refreshing.  I think one of the five jugs actually turned to vinegar by accident, but that's ok--cider vinegar is useful too.

The son and I went to our country park and picked two sacks of apples from various wild trees we know.  We juiced them in our electric juicer to fill up two new jugs for cider.  It's a big job, juicing up 8 L of apple juice all at once!  I put about half the pulp into some big plastic tubs, topped them up with water, and let them ferment too--for vinegar.  Once they stopped bubbling, after a week or two, I strained out the pulp and have been stirring the liquid once a day to help the process along.

Elderberries and blackberries to brew, Sep 2018

The son and I also took two weekends in August to collect almost a full kilo of wild blackberries, again in the local country park.  We found a spot with some big juicy berries, very sweet.  We froze these, to wait until the elderberries ripened earlier this month.  When ready, I picked elderberries from two trees/bushes on the margins of our property and combined them with the blackberries, some sugar and yeast to start wine.  I made some in 2017 and we agreed it was much nicer than plain elderberry wine--and more potent than the apple cider.  I hope this new batch lives up to our expectations.

That's three out of five demi-johns in use now.  What to do with the last two?  I hope to pick another two sacks of apples, though we'll have to go slightly farther afield than our own country park now.

August 2018 Food Totals

New season (and a couple old) leeks, surrounded by squash and zuccini, Aug 2018

Vegetables:

33.5 oz chard
81 oz cherry tomatoes
12 oz cucumber
16.5 oz achocha
11.5 oz spring onion
5.5 oz Aztec broccoli
15 oz French beans
15.5 oz lettuce
13 oz zuccini
21.5 oz carrots
49.5 oz Savoy cabbage
5 oz runner beans
9 oz beets
1.5 oz basil
1 oz squash blossoms
101 oz tomatoes!
9 oz curly kale
4 oz patty pan squash

Total: 405 oz, or 25 lb 5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include fresh herbs which were too small an amount to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

4 Sparta apples (not fully ripe)
50 Laxton Fortune apples
8 figs
22.5 oz plums (incomplete)

Eggs:

Total: 46 eggs from 7 hens
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg)

Preserves:

1/2 small jar salted French and runner beans
1/2 small jar dried savory
6 small jars plum jam
6 small jars apple jelly (from wild harvested apples)
1.5 large jars fermented salsa fresca
1 large jar sauerkraut
3 large jars zuccini relish (from gift zuccini)
1 medium bottle thyme vinegar
2 medium bottles mint sauce (mint from a friend's garden)

Homebrew:  

20 L cider bottled up

8 L new season cider begun, from wild harvested apples

8 L cider vinegar begun, using pulp leftover from cider making

June 2018 Food Totals

A few more broad beans, June 2018

Vegetables:

103.5 oz spring sweetheart cabbage
21 oz  Savoy cabbage
41 oz broad beans
8 oz mange tout peas
28.5 oz salad greens (red leaf lettuce, baby chard, spring onion)
35 oz cauliflower and leaves
3 oz spring onion
2 oz artichokes
3.5 oz carrots
3 oz beet
8 oz snap peas
7.5 oz chard
6.5 oz turnips

99 garlic bulbs (unweighed)

Total: 270.5 oz, or 16 lb 14.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include fresh herbs which were too small an amount to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

28 strawberries
1 alpine strawberry
9.5 oz redcurrants (incomplete)
32 raspberries
28 sweet cherries
1 blueberry
6 oz blackcurrants

Does not include a small bag of morello cherries which were unweighed

Eggs:

Total: 146 eggs from 9 hens
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40kg)

Preserves:

3 medium jars dried marjoram (wild harvested)
0.5 L mint sauce

Homebrew:  

Cider still fermenting

No new homebrew begun

At the seaside

We went to the beach recently, which is over an hour's drive from us--we don't go often, unfortunately!  But we thought we'd take advantage of the nice weather while it lasted.

Though the beach itself was cold and misty, the town was sunny and warm:  the whole drive was hot, until the last three streets up to the sea itself!  We've never seen such a thing.  So while we had fun exploring the cute little town, including playing at the park, we also had fun walking and splashing on the chilly beach, doing a little foraging for the garden.

What did we bring back?

Seaweed

The tide was just going out as we began to walk the beach, and on the smooth sand were many little patches of black seaweed.  The eight year old had a great time running around collecting them, and between the three of us, we filled a carrier bag full.  When we got home, I used it as a mulch around my (extremely small) asparagus plants.  The idea is that as it breaks down, the seaweed will release its minerals into the soil.  Last time we went to the beach (last summer), I collected some and put it around the redcurrant which has now doubled in size!  Coincidence?

Shells and crab claws

Admittedly, we didn't find a lot of these--we collected a lot more seaweed than seashells!  However, the eight year old managed to fill his two hoodie pockets with these.  Once back home, he put them in a canvas bag and crushed them with a mallet.  We put them in a small dish for the chickens to peck at.  They certainly enjoyed them, and gobbled all but the biggest pieces.  It's supposed to be a calcium supplement, and of course a good source of grit for their gizzards.  They tore little holes in the canvas bag, though:  sharp.  Hope they're not too sharp for gizzards.

Ocean pebbles in the blueberry pot

Smooth ocean pebbles

We always like to collect lovely stones, with the idea of making a small mosaic patio with them.  I actually made a little mosaic last year, but as it was non-mortared (just set in sand), it's kind of disappeared into the soil.  I need to excavate, rescue the stones and start over.  Some pebbles have become decorative mulch in a few containers, too.  As a side note, we also used a dozen of the prettiest beach agates in our mancala set, which was missing some marbles.