Allotmenticity - 24-08-09 Aston FM Sod It Grow Your Own

Another Monday after a beautiful weekend. Lots of sun and everything is looking great on No87.
I've just been awarded my Official Share which makes you feel part of what's going on.

I planted the Lavender earlier this year and it's now really strong with a lovely perfume every time you walk by. I've also sown some French Lavender which has a shorter flower bud at the top.



The Climbing French Beans are producing loads of long pods. I'm having to utilize the freezer as I can't keep up with them.



The Sweet Corn is starting to ripen and really benefiting from being in the cage.


This is the Asparagus bed. I'm not quite sure when to cut the growth down. I think when it starts to go brown. After that I'll give it a good mulch of the Horse Manure I got recently.



These are the 100's & 1000's Tomatoes. They're really sweet.


And here's a visitor really enjoying the Oregano in flower.



Here's a recipe for Blackberry & Apple Pie from the Duchess of Edgbaston. It uses all the fruit from the Brambles which are really prolific right now.

Crust

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 9 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend
• 2 tablespoons (about) ice water

Filling

• 2 pounds tart green apples (such as Bramley), peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 1/2 cups blackberries
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons plain purpose flour

• Milk

For crust:
Combine flour and sugar in medium bowl. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until coarse crumbs form. Mix in beaten egg. Mix in enough ice water by tablespoonfuls to form moist clumps. Divide dough in half. Gather dough into 2 balls; flatten into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll out, about 30 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

For filling:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix apples, blackberries, 1/3 cup sugar and flour in large bowl.

Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish.

Spoon filling into crust. Roll out second dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Place on top of filling. Fold top crust edge under bottom edge and pinch to seal. Crimp edges decoratively. Brush crust with milk. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons sugar. Cut several slits on top of pie.

Bake pie until crust is golden brown and fruit is tender, covering edges of pie with aluminum foil if browning too quickly, about 55 minutes. Cool pie on rack 30 minutes. Serve pie warm with whipped cream.

Allotmenticity - 01-06-09 Aston FM Sod It Grow Your Own

Well Gary's back from "basting the Turkey" so we're off on another Monday Madness!
I was chatting with a neighbour as she watered a bed and it was amazing how after 5 minutes only the top surface was wet. We do have a low water table, but it just shows how much it takes to get down to the roots.



The spuds in the barrel are doing well. Not long now until the first earlies with a knob of butter!


Mysterious tracks left on the table after our BBQ on Saturday.



















The Asparagus bed has finally got going, so it's patience until the crowns get established.
Can't wait!




















This very attractive specimen arrived the other day and posed wonderfully for the camera.
Does anybody know what kind it is? I think it's a Peacock.
















And finally, here's the Lord Mayor of Birmingham and his Lady wife onstage with Steve Gibbons and yours truly performing Jailhouse Rock!
















As for Man Utd, the least said the better!!!

The Captain

This weeks recipe was suggested by my neighbour Carol.


Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble.

Ingredients for 4

• About 1lb rhubarb, trimmed and sliced into large chunks (about 7 1/2 cups)
• 8oz brown sugar
• 1 orange, juice and zest
• 8oz flour ( 4oz White & 4oz Wholemeal )
• 4oz cold butter
• 4oz rolled oats
• 2” piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

Directions

1.

Preheat your oven to 350°F Put the rhubarb and half the sugar into a pan. Add the orange juice and zest, put a lid on top, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. Remove the lid and simmer for around 5 more minutes, until the rhubarb has softened slightly. Spoon into an ovenproof baking dish and spread out evenly across the bottom.

2.

To make your crumble topping, use your fingers to lightly rub together the flour and butter until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the oats, the rest of the sugar and the ginger. (If you like, you can make the crumble topping in a food processor. Just whack in the flour, butter, sugar and ginger and whiz up. Add the oats for the last 10 seconds.) Sprinkle the crumble over the rhubarb and bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the rhubarb is bubbling up and crumble is golden.

Serve with your own choice of Custard, Cream or Natural Yoghourt.

Allotmenticity - 13-04-09 Happy Easter Aston FM Sod It Grow Your Own

Happy Easter to all my friends! I hope the weather has treated you well and that you've all been able to get out on the land.
I spent a very pleasant weekend planting my Asparagus crowns which arrived on Saturday morning. Heeding the advice to plant ASAP I got stuck in and dug out 2 trenches, made a mound of compost/sieved soil and then covered them in more sieved soil.
I just have to patiently wait for a couple of years before I can try them.



I mentioned in a previous blog about growing Parsley and in particular 3 different ways suggested by readers of The Times. One is to put the seeds in the fridge for a week, Two was to pour hot water in the drill and the third was to soak the seeds in urine (Male of course!) Well I've prepared a bed especially for the experiment as can be seen in the picture using a bag of B&M multi-purpose compost. The seeds are Plain Leaved 2 from B&Q at 98p and I've split the packet into 3. The first lot are in the fridge and next week I'll sow them at the same time as the other 2 methods.
Has anyone else done the trick of cracking the Coriander seeds? Here's proof of what the guy said on TV a couple of years ago on Gardeners World from an allotment site in Birmingham. If you carefully crack the coriander seed there are 2 seeds inside. So, without cracking them I sowed 5 seeds in the pot. And there are 10 seedlings! I know it's time consuming, but isn't that's what having an allotment is all about?????


Recipe: Baked Camembert

Here's a really nice way to bake Camembert as a starter or even a light snack.

Ingredients
Camembert cheese in a wooden box. (Lidl or Aldi is the cheapest!)
Clove of Garlic. Cut in half.
Tablespoon of Dry White wine.


Take the cheese out of the box and remove the plastic wrapping. MOST IMPORTANT!
Put the cheese back into the box and rub the surface with the cut Garlic clove.
Make a few small holes in the cheese and drizzle the white wine into the cheese.
Put the lid back on and bake in a hot oven, 200C for about 25 mins or until soft and runny.

To serve, remove the lid and scoop out the cheese with carrot or celery sticks, crackers or bread sticks.