Category Archives: overwintering alliums

Hobbit homebrew, overwintering alliums, Soft fruit, success

Harvest and homebrew kick off 2015

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The garlic foliage has dramatically keeled over, indicating that it is rather good to go. The seed garlic was sunk last autumn, having been purchased from the garlic farm. Over the years, I have brought and planted lots of different varieties of seed garlic. This was the first ever batch from the garlic farm, and I do have to say, I have not been disappointed.

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As of yet I have only harvested the one bed; I have two beds of over wintering garlic. The foliage had fallen over completely, was all very straw like and yellow. The bulbs didn’t take much lift, and moved out of the soil quite easily. The vast majority of the bulbs are very, very big. By far the largest that I have ever managed to sow and harvest. Big clumps, that are almost trying to split away from the main one. And they honk. Honk of garlic. There are assorted varieties here, and the purple ones are my own personal favourite. Not least because of their size, but because of their smell as that indicates the flavour they will yield. These are solid and stable cloves. What will happen now, is that they will be left to dry for at least a few weeks. The skins and peel should dry out and become crispy. These are better than good garlic bulbs, and I don’t do plugs of people just for the sake of it. This is produce that has come from an excellent seed producer and exceeded my expectations. I would certainly order again from The Garlic Farm.

Then comes the home brew.

Also harvested from the plot today was the last of gooseberries and and also raspberries. I am lucky to half allotment neighbours who ask me to liberate their excess fruit. I don’t ever filch fruit, by virtue of ethics, I always ask permission for the fruit is liberated.

With the gooseberries, this was always going to be their final fate for this year. I have so far made an experimental jam with them, and also an experimental Indian pickle. Their final fate, was to be used to infuse gin. There was a lot of experimentation last year with all sorts of fruit. An interesting learning experience, that produced interesting Christmas presents for family and friends. I also received, via a twitter conversation, really good advice from the lovely Thane Prince. Add coriander seeds to the gin. This advice worked last year, so I am taking it up again, having raided mum’s garam masala stash. Whilst I also plan to make some form of raspberry ice cream; the gin is one possible experiment with those that I have been looking at for a while.

The process is simple. Put fruit into jar, add sugar and steep. Then place into an airing cupboard and wait for a bit. The raspberry gin is apparently quicker than the gooseberry gin; a matter of only a couple of weeks. Gooseberries will be left for a while longer.

chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, grapevine, Lost label roses, overwintering alliums, roses, Soft fruit

The journey of June: fruitful

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Hello, everyone, happy Sunday; I do hope that you have had a nice weekend.

Firstly, an apology. For not having updated properly, the plot is kicking off now and that means watering and harvesting. I have made two batches of ice cream in the last two weeks, with the strawberries from the plot. I have even harvested some tonight. The ice cream was fabulous, the ice cream maker, a good investment and highly recommended. I have been harvesting strawberries daily, and I don’t particularly have a preference for them.

As you can see from the gallery, the plot is coming into it’s own. There is nothing to report yet, as far as squashes and things go. They are just forming large leaves as of yet. In the poly though, the tomatoes are getting leafier, taller, and sending out yellow flowers. I have had to stake them into sentry like positions to prevent them all falling over.

cream sausage tomatos
cream sausage tomatos

The stars for the moment, are the chillies.

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These are currently sat on a warm window sill. There are also a few more cayennes on the plant. Whilst walking through the poly tunnel with the watering can, I saw the rather chunky, lime green form of the hungarian hot wax. There are about five fruit, I shall leave them there for now.

Soft fruit is coming quick, with the strawberries especially. I have been watching the raspberries carefully. Especially as half canes don’t look to be doing an awful lot. These were canes planted last autumn, all thirty of them in the full season collection. There were an additional 10 yellow ones, The raspberries you see above, all three of them are the harvest of tonight. That yellow one, didn’t make it home, I ate it on the spot.

It was delicious. Get some. These are a variety called Fall Gold.I suspect they are a bit confused, as they are meant to be autumn ones.

I will continue to monitor the growth of the raspberries, to see if any more of them come to life. Also last year, I sank gooseberries and currants. The gooseberries have already yielded one small harvest, the next one, is most likely to be a pickle of some kind. The currants, are still babies, so there is not an awful lot expected.

But they do taste good. I swear, that the berries that I have collected were ready to burst. Beautifully red, they have given the strawberries a good run for their colour money. Not as tart as I would have expected, but a little full of seeds.

I had one black currant berry. May be next year, we can cordial or cassis. Yet to see if I have any white currants, if I can work out whether or not they are ripe. The two blueberry bushes are also laden with fruit, and again, ripeness check needed.

Last but not least, William Shakespeare 2000

william shakespeare 2000
william shakespeare 2000

Big, beautiful blooms, this rose bush sits in the middle of the plot. A sprawling mess, we like this sprawling mess, with green foliage and red blooms that burst in a matter of days in the shape of a fuzzy pom pom. This is the rose that I have been waiting for, as the other roses heralded the start of summer.

In a bit of pickle, overwintering alliums

Garlic and gooseberries

No, no together, I assure you. At least not yet, not until I make a gooseberry pickle type thing. Two harvests in fact. The first, was of the garlic bulb. Purely as it had fallen over. I hoiked out the purple and and green bulb,not expecting the bulb to have split into cloves. Lo and behold, it had! There were quite a few cloves actually, and all very potent. These are the over wintering ones from the garlic farm, and  I do have say that at the moment I am rather impressed. Have yet to harvest any more, I usually wait til the foliage has gone all pale and raffia like. This went into an aubergine, tomato and pepper chutney.

Another experiment, came courtesy of the maiden gooseberry crop. These are my first ever gooseberries. And they went into a jam. I did bite into gooseberry the other day. I didn’t like the gooseberry, the gooseberry didn’t like me. I did want to experiment though, so these were jammed with a scotch bonnet.

overwintering alliums

#NABLOPOMO: Garlic growing good

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NaBloPoMo_GROW_april

#NABLOPOMO April 201 starts today and the theme is Grow. Seems fairly apt for a blog that centers on growing your own fruit and vegetables.

garlicbed

Garlic, this is something of an update. I have a number of varieties that are currently growing. These are::

  • Early Purple wight
  • Lautrec Wight
  • Elephant garlic
  • Provence Wight

Other than the odd weed, the garlic seems to be doing okay. The green shoots appear to be strong and robust. With he wind of the last 24 hours, they are probably little wind scorched today.

This crop was sunk in the autumn last year. Here in England, sowing garlic happens-in my experience-from about October onwards, and then can also be done during the following spring months. In my experience, I have found that sowing garlic in October, and in raised beds, is a more effective, and produces a reliable crop. In comparison, sowing into open ground, and I have heavy clay, has not been as effective. They require little maintenance, and are pretty much left to their own devices.

In years passed, I have sunk a lot of garlic. Mostly to see which varieties produce the most bulbous, most garlick-y of bulbs. We use a lot garlic in Ma’s kitchen, most of her cooking has garlic in it, so it is always used. I think I even have a large jar of pickled garlic, somewhere in Ma’s pantry. There are of course, also a number of health benefits associated with it.

The seed garlic that I have sown, is from The Garlic Farm on the isle of wight. I know that some growers do tend to use the sprouting garlic that they may have lurking in the back of their cupboards. I’m not sure if this is a good way cultivation, since I have never done that. Some of the garlic that we buy in the supermarkets is better suite to different climates and is commercially produced.

overwintering alliums

Garlic update March 2015

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It’s been a long time since I wrote about the garlic that was planted during the autumn last year. You can find that post here where I planted it.

The varieties are:

  • Early Purple wight
  • Lautrec Wight
  • Elephant garlic
  • Provence Wight

Generally, I will plug it in, and then pretty much leave it alone. Such is the beauty of planting garlic, other than feeding during the spring and weeding from time to time, I have observed that not much else is needed. In the past, I have grew it both in open ground and also in raised beds. In my experience, planting and growing in raised beds has produced a bigger and better crop compared to growing in the open ground.

So far so good, I will  have to feed these in the coming weeks. At this moment, the need to weed isn’t too bad. There is nice green foliage that has some way to go before it is shows that the bulbs are mature. The full maturity is indicated when the foliage becomes raffia like and pale, it also keels over in some cases.

NaBloPoMo, overwintering alliums

#NaBLoPoMO: Planting Autumn Garlic 2014

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Once again, I am planting garlic. I have already planted one batch of Provence wight into a raised bed. So today, I have plugged in garlic into a second bed. A third has been prepared and tidied up as I might plant some more yet. Every year, I try to identify and plant an appropriate variety. it’s been fun trying to establish the best, the results have been quite interesting. The one key finding, is that raised beds are beneficial. In the past, the cloves planted into raised beds have been bigger and more flavoursome. By that, I mean pungent!

On the other hand, cloves plugged into open ground, have been much smaller. Ma has complained that these are then very difficult to peel and prepare. You would easily use a dozen of those smaller cloves in the place of three larger ones.

Beyond the Provence wight, I am also trying Elephant garlic this year. It is technically, a leek with garlic tendencies, The first that I have tried this, and the difference is already clear in the size of the cloves.

The garlic arrives in bulbs, as you can see. This year, I have found some from http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/ I was impressed by the size and quality of these. As well as the fact that this is a nice autumnal collection. Whilst there were three loose elephant garlic cloves, the rest of the bulbs are broken down into singular cloves. These cloves are then plugged into the dirt, with only their tip exposed.

Many people, will use supermarket garlic. There has to be caution with this, I think, In some cases, the garlic is for different climates and may not necessarily take off. I’ve never done it, but that’s not to say it can’t be done or isn’t successful.

In the past, when there has been an abundance of garlic, some the crop has been pickled. Rather nice actually, and has kept rather well. The majority has been used successfully in cooking. There is just something about fresh, home grown garlic. It certainly keeps longer, and definitely tastes different.

overwintering alliums

Garlic planting: Provence Wight

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It is that time of year again, where I look at overwintering allieums. That’s garlic, onions and shallots. This year, there are no over wintering onions and shallots. These crops are simply not successful enough for me. With the heavy clay, tendency to flood, these tend to be written off. However, garlic is something of a staple. It grows well, and is always used. It is sad, when we run out of home made garlic.

This year, I have taken the decision to plant garlic into raised beds. Mainly as I have more success in raised beds, in comparison to the ones in open ground. This is across varieties, and I have sown many different varieties over the years. This year, I have gone with provence wight as it has performed the best when planted previously. At this stage, I have planted about four bulbs worth. This has filled one raised bed of 2m x 1. Far fewer than I haver planted, which is a little sad. I am looking into perhaps sinking more, being more scrooge like. Plus, mama H will bend my ear about how much room I am going to dedicate to garlic. Thing is, I can sow it around the edges of raised beds, and then plant things in the middle.The allotment wouldn’t be the same without garlic being planted.

overwintering alliums

Damp harvest

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Yesterday, I harvested four small onions for the aubergine and mint chutney.

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Back again today as some more are needed for currying lamb chops. There are even some red ones ones in there. As ever, limited success with these red ones. Ma reckons that there is about two or three full size onions worth here. Will be used with some home made garlic.

overwintering alliums

Lifted; up we come

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Have lifted the garlic from the largest bed. Have to say, that I’m not convinced by this years crops. Purple wight was this years go to, in previous years it has been brilliant. Yielding big fat juicy cloves. This years crop is smaller in bulb and Clove size. The vayo and sultop does appear to have done better. There is further evidence for putting it in raised beds.

Now left to dry out and use as and when.