84 leeks

Planted out 84 leeks today.......... just another 100 or so to go.

Food!

We are finally getting some food, pulled some rather large garlic today,
along with some shallots, and of course new potatoes!
It looks like we re going to get it all at once!

It is pretty hard to tell when some things are ready to harvest,
still very much being a beginner, when there is no local wisdom
around I do feel rather lame.
So I normally google it or re read my Monty Dom book.

GOLDEN NUGGETS

MM pulled up a few of the early potatoes yesterday........ and the crop is GOOD.
each root has plenty of good sized potatoes.
Now we have FOOD!
Courgettes are hit & miss, some are happy, some are very unhappy!
so far 3 courgettes to eat, more to come soon, fingers crossed.

The only problem I don't think we can do much about is the amount of slugs.
Theres millions of them!

Sloe gin!

Just two bottles of 2 year old sloe gin

at least one of them is 5 litres!!!

I would happily tell you the recipe but killing over the internet is 

labour intensive.

If you want to make something like this then just do it.

You will need-

A bottle

Sloe berries

Gin 

Sugar

TBH you can 

prick

shake

wait

taste

use vodka

But really, time is all you need.

Get a clean bottle, add up to 50% berries

add sugar ( you could measure the amount, then you ll know for next year what you like)

I normally add enough sugar so that it CANNOT all dissolve on day one

about enough to cover most of the fruit

add gin (quality of the gin is your choice, as your going to be drinking it!)

I have used gordons, tanqueray & bombay before

but I ve also used Sains-A-boras own label.

Now most people say you must shake everyday for a week

some say 2 weeks 

others say something else.

Lets be honest, I ve forgotten plenty of things

so I definately forgot to shake it every day!

All I will say on shaking is after a few months the berries will start to 

break down, I wouldn't shake at that point.

Also some people use the berries after filtering the gin out, 

I don't because they taste like crap, just try them, you'll enjoy the gin all the more.

I have made sloe gin for the last 3/4 years with a friend CC 

he is master picker & co-gin buyer

so he will probably get the small bottle, well I have to do all the shaking 

(but like I said, sometimes I forget)

If you are gin, berry & sugar plentiful, why not make

a royale batch

go heavy on the berries & sugar

maybe even use some molasses or muscovado sugar.

If you do one home made thing this year 

make friends with a damson tree, 

it works with vodka

and only takes 2-3 months............ 

it easy & tastes great.

I m not saying sloe isn't worth the time, damsons just works a lot faster!

enjoy 

Self watering tomato planter

This tomato seems to be the happiest!

Plenty of flowers

Still early days, but looks like the container works!

New Potatoes!

Just showing off a bit..........

We planted 4 potatoes in march

3 were the same variety, 1 was different.

One potato bust into action

As you can see, 3 were much slower

The '3' started to catch up

Until the '3' got much bigger than the '1'

The plant closest to the camera was the first 

to show & seems to have given up!

One of the '3' starting to flower

The '3' have completely taken over, 

Time to have a look to see if we have 

any food?

SM dives in to harvest the spuds!

Now we know the '1' plant was an early

& the '3' are main crop Desiree

So we have finally got some food

'1' down '3' to go

I am hoping there is a few more at the bottom of the container

I ll have a good dig around in a few days, if not 

I might steal a few red potatoes from under one of the other plants! 

The main reason for this was to see the if & how of growing potatoes in containers, 

we'll maybe use this method to grow potatoes for xmas?

Hairy little fruits

 After waiting quite a while for the Kiwi to spring into action, we finally have fruits, which are
coming along a treat.

Late Feb buds explode with the sunny weather

It starts to grow quickly

I was suppose to plant it outside, I never got around to it

Regular watering & feeds, it seems happy enough inside 

 Hopefully we will plant it outside next year, maybe so it can grow over a

arbour or trellis?