Courgettes, Zucchini, Courgettes, Zucchini

Pretty much the only thing I can guarantee will grow without fail in our allotment is courgettes. After 3 weeks of only eating courgettes, I never want to see another one again. Especially after I gave them to my nearly one year old twins so many times that even they got sick of them. Once particular vomiting incident has left me with scars for life. 

When my enthusiasm for the garden wanes a bit (usually at the most fruitful time of year), I don't go for three weeks and we have huge, giant marrows to deal with. I shouldn't be ungrateful for these lovely vegetables  though. We have been making a lot of courgette and lemon juice which is actually delicious and really cleansing. 

I grew two different varieties this year, both from Franchi seeds - the Courgette Rugosa of Friuli which has been described as 'one of the ugliest courgettes you'll ever see' (however probably one of the tastiest) and the courgette Genovese. Both delicious and very easy to grow. 

M&C not quite sure about the Friulan courgettes!

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WTF to do with Redcurrants?

I still have a huge bag of redcurrants in the freezer from last year. They are pretty bitter little berries that I don't think taste good on their own and you don't often see recipes using them except for jams, chutneys etc.

I love their beautiful colour though and they really look great in the garden so this year I was determined to use them somehow before they rot on the tree and go to waste. 

I found a great article on the Huffington Post with a number of redcurrant recipes. 

I ended up making this red currant tea cake from the gorgeous Fork Spoon Knife blog. It was surprisingly delicious and the use of ground almonds gave it a sticky, marzipan-y texture. I must have got the measurements wrong somehow when converting from cups to grams because it didn't rise at all but it tastes delicious nonetheless and was eaten in one sitting.

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Woodchip Paths & Planting Flowers

We decided to put down woodchip paths this year to make the expanse of the plot less daunting and to keep the weeds at bay. Hopefully they won't blow away in the wind. I'm also going to try and sow some flowers to cut - started off with Calendula and Echinacea.

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Rotivating and Häckselsammlung

3 pairs of hands definitely make things easier to manage so with my mum visiting we managed to rotivate the huge expanse of earth ready to plant. It was also the day to get rid of any sticks and other debris to chuck (Häckselsammlung) so we took a lot of stuff to dump that has been lying around. The plot is starting to take shape and no longer looks like the sore thumb amongst all these immaculately kept gardens! 

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Spring Has Finally Sprung

Started digging over the allotment this weekend. We are a bit late but the weather has just turned good and it's not so easy organising yourself with two small babies! The garlic is coming along well and looks healthy. I haven't put any compost in the soil yet and I'm not sure if we ruined the compost heap by dumping huge big twigs in it then ignoring it for over 6 months... I only have about a window of an hour before the twins wake up needing attention so we are doing small sections as we go along. Sorting out the compost heap is the next job. 

Cant wait to get planting some flowers this year and improving on what we grew last year. Cucumbers, fennel and chillis will definitely be planted again.

                               

Motivated by the reward at the end!

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Panorama-Weg - The Allotment Jungle

One of the best things about having the allotment is getting the chance to be so close to nature only 10 minutes from the city. Panorama-Weg is a walk way above the city which is lined by hundreds of allotments. Here are a few pictures of the surrounding area and some of the typical allotments round about. Ours is in amongst this lot. 

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