Allotment Update: May 2016

It is amazing what you can do in the two hours that your children nap. To try and keep on top of the garden (and get some exercise) my husband and I have been taking it in turns to go up to the allotment during our twins' afternoon nap time. I am so thankful that they are now predictable sleepers (and that my husband regularly works from home).

He runs and I cycle. It's only about 3 miles but it's uphill all the way and a decent workout. Once there, it is an hour of digging, weeding, planting, watering then we meet up at a park half the way between the allotment and our home. We manage about 3 visits a week in total which is really helping to keep on top of things.

So far on our balcony I have loads of seedlings growing that are almost ready to plant out: celery, romanesco, cauliflower, butternut squash, tomatoes, cucamelons, cucumbers, Swiss chard, fennel, aubergines.

For the first time ever, something keeps eating the courgette plants in the allotment. I have now planted them for the third time. I'm not sure if it's birds, slugs, caterpillars, mice... Any advice on what to do?

Our plot looks pretty bare at the moment. Our neighbours have potatoes, beans and onions growing at great speed and filling the place up. I really need to get organised next year and plant some things to fill the gap between November and March.

These are cucamelons in the first picture - who knew these even existed?!

My courgette seedlings keep getting eaten. This is the 3rd time I have planted them out :(

Romanesco busting out of their shell. Planted them out...let's hope they survive.

My balcony is FULL!

My neighbour's garden, definitely a pro.

My patch. Lots of small flower and plant seedling making an appearance but overall a bit bare.

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Rhubarb and Almond Cake

When I started this blog I decided that I was only going to post recipes if I had grown the main ingredient myself. So far, this is my first recipe post and hopefully, this year, the first of many.

It is currently the middle of May and I have had 3 loads of rhubarbs so far. I have been picking it much younger and smaller this year because when left to overgrow it becomes woody and inedible when the stalk are too large. I am aiming to be more mindful of waste this growing season and not letting our precious crops end up back in the compost bin.

I was going to write one long post with all of the different rhubarb recipes that I have cooked using this years' crop. However, this Rhubarb and Almond cake was so good that it deserves it's own post!

This cake was really easy to make, pretty healthy and came out well both times that I made it. Here are some photos of my rhubarb in situ! I just love my little rhubarb patch at the bottom of the garden and it is one of the first vegetables (yes, rhubarb is a vegetable not a fruit) to make an appearance in the spring.

This recipe was adapted it from the lovely website, The Floating Kitchen. I wanted to be able to give it to my young children so I used a lot less sugar, less flour, and added more almonds).

• 100g raw cane sugar
• 113 grams unsalted butter
• 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg
• 3 egg whites
• 1 tub Greek yogurt (about 200g)
• zest of one orange
• scraping from quarter of a vanilla pod
• 100g white flour
• 200g ground almonds
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 6 or 7 small rhubarb stalks
• splintered almonds to decorate top of cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom of a 10 inch cake tin with a little butter then dust lightly with flour. Set aside.

2. Separate 3 eggs. Beat 50g of sugar with the butter until light and fluffy then gradually add 2 egg yolks and one whole egg. Then beat in the orange zest, yogurt, vanilla and cardamom.

3. In a separate bowl whisk 3 egg whites with the remaining 50 grams of sugar until you have formed stiff peaks.

4. Combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the cake batter, adding in about one-third at a time. Finally, fold in the egg whites.

5. Wash the rhubarb then cut into thin diagonal slices.

6. Spread about half of the cake mixture into the cake tin then layer half of the rhubarb slices over it. Add the remaining cake batter on top then repeat the rhubarb layering being careful not to let the rhubarb touch the sides of the tin. Sprinkle the splintered almonds and a dusting of sugar on top.

7. Allow the cake to bake for 45-50 minutes then cool on a wire rack.
 
I have tried this recipe with both full- fat Greek yogurt and 0% fat and both turned out well. A handful of raspberries would also work well in the middle layer to sweeten it up a bit of you find the rhubarb too tart.

Enjoy!

 

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Oh and here are some interesting rhubarb facts:

- Rhubarb leaves are toxic due to the high levels of oxalic acid in them so be careful if you have young children. The leaves can still be composted though.

- Rhubarb is used in ancient Chinese medicine to treat stomach ailments, constipation, liver and gall bladder problems and much more. 

- Rhubarb is very high in calcium. One cup of rhubarb has just as much calcium as a cup of milk.

- Rhubarb originally comes from Siberia.

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Blooming Tulips

I planted tulips in the allotment for the first time back in November. And I am so glad I did.

It is a bit of a dead spot between November and February when the frost comes but it has been fantastic to have something to look forward to appearing. 
The purple ones bloomed first, then the yellow and red and finally some cute three-pronged orange beauties. When a bunch of tulips in Zurich costs around 15 francs, it has also been a big money saver.

I plan on letting them rot down a bit, then I will dig them up, hang them out to dry in old tights (handy tip from mother-in-law) then replant them in winter.

I gave my twins a few sacrificial flowers to play with each time I brought a bunch home. In the battle between tulip and toddler, toddler won each time...

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March in the Garden

March is the time to start preparing the allotment if it's not been done already. It has been mixed weather in Zürich but thankfully there have been enough sunny days to get stuck in and start making the beds ready to plant.

We finally got round to tackling the compost heap which has been untouched for the last 3 years. We have been chucking things in but never turning it or using the compost for anything. Amazingly it is in pretty good shape and once the beds were weeded I added it to the earth and dug it in. We bought a new compost bin so now have two to alternate between. Our allotment neighbours all seem to have 2 or 3 on the go...

Our tulips are doing well and are coming up. The rhubarb is coming alive again and the rich red colour looks ready to burst out. I have seedlings all over the house and love this period of time, where I start to imagine all the things that will be growing in the garden soon. Definintely need to get control of my seed addicion though! I am trying out cauliflower, celery and lots of different varieties of flowers this year for the first time along with the usual courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes.

We had a lovely picnic with the twins at the end of the month and went well prepared with food and plastic buckets, spades etc. They helped out by putting weeds in the bin, digging in the mud and enjoyed a wheelbarrow ride along the path! Looking forward to many more this year. I think the allotment will be manageable with toddlers if we go up there for short periods of time and give them specific things to get involved with. We also now have a sandpit and paddling pool for warmer days.

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Feeding My Seed Addiction

Some people buy clothes. I buy seeds. So here is a list of my favourite places to buy them. #seedaddiction

Higgledy Garden

If you are thinking about growing flowers in your garden, look no further than Higgledy Garden, based in Cornwall, England. Alongside an online shop full of the best quality flower seeds your money can buy, he also offers a huge array of free information to help you get started. Orders come beautifully packaged and shipping to Switzerland is often free (or very reasonably priced).

http://higgledygarden.com/

Franchi Seeds of Italy 1783

Probably my favourite seed company of the lot. The oldest producer of seeds in the world and a family business now run by the 7th generation. We have had a lot of success with these seeds and there are many organic varieties available. Seeds from Italy and based in the UK but they ship to Switzerland at a very reasonable price. Artichokes from Rome, Cardoons from Turin, Celeriac from Venice and many, many more...

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/

C. und R. Zollinger

Just bought seeds from here for the first time so will  tell all once the growing season ends! Based in the French part of Switzerland, they have an array of organic seeds available. Shipping is only CHF 1- and super speedy. They also have some useful growing guides on their website. Also love the packaging and growing advice on the back of the packets.

https://www.zollinger-samen.ch/

Piccolo Veg For Pots

An Italian start-up, based in Venice, that offers a selected range of vegetable varieties suitable for the container gardening: 'compact and dwarf varieties that fit like a glove on the small spaces of the terrace'. Love the idea of this company and the unusual seed varieties they offer.

http://www.piccolovegsforpots.com

Beat Heuberger Weine & Gewürze

The self proclaimed 'hottest shop in Switzerland', owner Beat Heuberger, is a chilli specialist and connoisseur. Over 100 different varieties of chillies available to buy online - seeds available all year round and seedlings/ plants come early spring. He also has a shop in Kreis 4, Zurich - a treasure trove of all things spicy (and vast amounts of wine). We grew these spicy little numbers a couple of years ago in our tomato house.
https://www.beatheuberger.ch

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Mother's Day in the Garden

It's was Mother's Day in the UK yesterday. I have lived abroad for about 10 years now so rarely see my mum on this day but I still spend it missing her even more than usual.

Me, my mum and my bowl-cut.

With twin toddlers it can be quite hard to get time to yourself. Now that they are walking (running) everywhere, going anywhere alone with them is pretty challenging so my husband and I rarely spend time alone at the weekend but there are days when I just crave an hour to myself!!

When we first got our allotment garden I envisaged us spending a lot of time up there barbecuing, sunbathing, planting a few courgettes and strawberries. Eventually, once having a family, I saw us pottering around with plants and enjoying the space we have so craved after living in a city apartment (with no garden) for so long. However, the reality is quite different and I now really appreciated the effort it takes to grow good, healthy, organic, pesticide-free produce. The main tasks are weeding, watering, preparing soil, composting, cutting hedges, mowing the grass. In 3 years we haven't yet sunbathed or had a barbecue up there but I wouldn't change a thing.

Our allotment has become my sanctuary, the one place I go to alone. Two hours up there and I feel like a new person, with no technology, phone, company, twins to take care of. I am able to completely switch off. This time of year the garden is full of anticipation. There is little growing but the odd snowdrop, daffodil or bluebell. Now its the time to start preparing the beds, weeding everything in preparation for planting at the end of the month.

So this mother's day my husband gave me the gift of 3 hours up in my happy place to dig. After 5 minutes of hoeing, the blue skies disappeared and horizontal snow started pelting in my face. So I sat in my shed and went through a ton off seeds, planning what to grow this year and savouring every minute.

The walk up to the garden at the bottom of the snowy Uetliberg.

Everything looking a bit barren. Our shed is the one in the middle. It looks much better from the inside thanks to the Italian touch of the previous owners.

Not surprisingly I was the only person up there in this weather.

 

I think I have a seed addiction. There are about 100 more packets like these...

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10 Plans For My Allotment in 2016

1. Keep on top of weeding
I NEVER want the garden to look like this again! This was the result of 3 months of allotment abandonment in 2014 (too preggers to walk let alone garden). In the end we were too scared to go up there and even look at the state of the place. We paid a guy to do 8 hours of digging, fill up some rubbish bags and throw all the weeds out. Very expensive in Zurich when giant rubbish bags cost about five quid a piece. 2015 was way better but still far from perfect. I think the minimum we have to aim for is to weed twice a week...

2. Get into companion planting
Planting different types of veg and flowers together can work wonders on your garden - flowers attract bees, bees pollinate your veg plants.

3. Sort out and use the compost heap
We have a huge compost heap that we've been bunging stuff into for the last 2 years, never turning it, never covering it properly. Hmmm...time to sort it out! A second compost bin is probably the way forward.

4. Grow fresh herbal teas
We have loads of herbs in the garden. Would love to plant some chamomile, lemon verbena, mint (in pots otherwise it will take over) to make my own tea...Any other ideas?

5. Use my plums
We have 2 glorious plum trees. One doesn't seem to produce plums anymore but the other fruits gorgeous golden plums. Two years in a row we have missed these beauties and arrived at the allotment to find them rotten on the ground. 2016 will be the year of the plum!
 

6. Harvest when small
Small courgettes are delicious, massive marrows not so much!These bad boys were heavier than the two babies growing inside me at the time.

7. Cut flowers regularly
Many annual flowers will bloom over a long period if cut regularly.

8. Enjoy relaxing in the garden
We have a beautiful garden, complete with a 2 room shed that is fitted with a dining room, table and chairs, BBQ, sun loungers. I am sad to say we have never had a bbq up there and never had any friends over to visit. Shameful! There always seems to much to do but this year I really hope we can actually enjoy some time there and not do any gardening.

9. Fill the garden all year round
This year I will plan better and maximise our space - I need to make sure that there are crops growing in the whole of the garden and not leave huge areas empty. There is nothing worse than weeding a patch of ground that has nothing growing in it!

10. Plant only edible flowers

My toddlers love to eat and aren't all that fussy. They are still at the stage of picking up handfuls of sand, soil, sticks..you name it..and shoving it into their little mouths. Argh! I have just bought a selection of edible flowers from Higgledy Garden. Fab shop that often ships to Switzerland for free and all packages come with a handwritten note. Lovely. 








What are your plans for 2016?

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