Meal plan - Live Below the Line

So, as I'm sat here with the children asleep, with a cup of tea and a rich tea biscuit with nutella on it (soon to be forbidden luxuries all), I thought I'd write out my meal plan.

I'm not sure I can afford to do it this way, as I think I'm a bit short on veg in my budget, but this is what I'm thinking at the moment. It may change to dhaal and pinto bean chilli before we actually get to the date, but here is where I am for now. It would be a lot more bean and pulse heavy already if it wasn't for the boys' aversion to all pulses except baked beans.

This is on a budget £20 for all 4 of us for 5 days. I'm hoping to find cheaper cooking oil than I have so far which will give us more money for veg, I only need a little bit but the Live Below the Line budget rules means I have to account for the whole bottle, the only thing you are allowed to just budget for a portion of are herbs/spices.

I've underlined the text below each time a new thing makes an appearance, for ease of reading.

As you will see it is somewhat monotonous, but we knew it wasn't going to be a gourmet experience:

Day 1
Breakfast: porage made with milk, plus fruit for the boys (kiwi, banana, blueberries).
Lunch: Split pea soup, homemade flatbread, plus cheese for the boys
Tea: Roast chicken and roast veg, flatbread, plus yoghurt for the boys.
Rice pudding
Snacks: oat and apple biscuits

Stock will be made with the chicken carcass to use for risotto on another day.

Day 2
Breakfast: porage made with milk, plus fruit for the boys (kiwi, banana, blueberries).
Lunch: Split pea soup, homemade flatbread, plus cheese for the boys
Tea: Roast chicken and roast veg wraps, rice? flatbread, sweetcorn fritters, plus yoghurt for the boys.
Rice pudding
Snacks: oat and apple biscuits

Day 3
Breakfast: porage made with milk, plus fruit for the boys (kiwi, banana, blueberries).
Lunch: Split pea soup, homemade flatbread, sweetcorn fritters, plus cheese for the boys
Tea: chicken and veg pizza, plus yoghurt for the boys.
Rice pudding
Snacks: oat and apple biscuits,

Day 4
Breakfast: porage made with milk, plus fruit for the boys (kiwi, banana, blueberries).
Lunch: Split pea soup, homemade flatbread, sweetcorn fritters, plus cheese for the boys
Tea: chicken risotto, plus yoghurt for the boys.
Rice pudding
Snacks: oat and apple biscuits

Day 5
Breakfast: porage made with milk, plus fruit for the boys (kiwi, banana, blueberries).
Lunch: Split pea soup, homemade flatbread, sweetcorn fritters, plus cheese for the boys
Tea: chicken risotto, plus yoghurt for the boys.
Rice pudding
Snacks: oat and apple biscuits

So what have I forgotten? Help me!

I must be missing something glaringly obvious and this lot takes me up to £19.97!

As I say I'm a bit light on veg at the moment, but I hope I'll be able to either find some cheap almost best before date veg/fruit bargains, or find some cheaper oil so I can get more veg.

I also think I might need more milk, I've put a 4 pint big bottle in the budget but I'm note sure that will see my milk guzzling boys through (as well as the rice pudding and all the porage making). Although they do usually leave quite a bit in the glass, so I guess it will just be a case of giving them less and then topping up if they want more to try and eke it out further.

I also need to look at my flour usage, I've not looked at my flatbread/pizza base/wrap/fritter recipes to double check how big a bag I'll need.

That's it for now.

yesterday and today (and tomorrow)

Weeding, weeding and more weeding mainly.

You can now actually see between the rows of strawberries, and the rows of onions.



And the Jerusalem artichokes aren't having to fight with the docks.

The squash have got some room round them too now. And they are starting to form fruit, I'm very excited by the yellow ones and the round ones.

And I got the sweetcorn in, a block of 3 by 3 up next to the Kale, garlic, carrots, and turnips.


We got a load of flower seedlings into pots too. Tomorrow I need to get the salad out from the leanhouse, it is too hot for it in there and it will bolt if I'm not careful.

more growing, less typing

I've been neglecting this blog, so my apologies.

However, you will be pleased to know that I haven't been doing quite so badly on the allotment. It is still a running battle between us and the weeds, but we are winning in enough areas to have some decent crops going on.

So, a catch up post. In May things just kept on growing. I was away on Skye for a while, but everything survived my absence. The summer squash and courgettes went into the beds, the salad started filling out the bath and the peas and beans grew like crazy.


In June this first bit of June we have got our scarlet kale in, potted up our peppers and chillis to bigger pots, saw the Jerusalem artichokes shoot up, and loads of fruit and flowers appear.

The tomatoes have started to flower, the vintage wine and red robins are furthest along: the biggest and smallest fruit.


And the sweet peas have been planted to grow up the old metal frame we put in our flower 'meadow'.

Bath O' Salad and summer squash

More salad in the bath this evening. Rocket this time to add to the lettuce and endive.

The greenhouse is looking quite lush, plenty of tomatoes, peppers, chillies, and squash.


We are going to put the squash out (into what was the strawberry bed last year) in a couple of weeks time. We will build another of the tunnel cloches for them to keep them safe from the late frosts.

peas and cloches

This evening we got the pea plants, which we had started off in the greenhouse, into their bed. 3 Ambassadors (and one seed in the ground to make it 4), 4 Starlight (with pale pods and dark leaves for easy picking), and 4 Kelvedon Wonder (an early). We also got 7 broad beans in, with another 5 or so in the ground to make it up to 2 rows.


We made a cloche for them with a wood frame we had (an abandoned cold frame attempt from last year) and some correx from the previous leanhouse™ covering.


Hopefully that will help them get acclimatised. They were in biodegradable pots, so there shouldn't be much root disturbance, and we have put the copper pipe frame around the bed in an attempt to foil the slugs again. It worked really well with the cabbages last year, so hopefully it will keep our little seedlings safe.

Mmmmm peas!

Back Down To It

I've been a bit lax of late, in blogging here and in going to the allotment. But I'm back to it now.

We have actually been doing quite a bit, but it has been in our flat. We have a small heated propagator and several unheated ones that we have been starting everything off in, and it is turning into quite a production line now.

And several things have made it to the allotment already. Corn, courgettes, tomatoes (several kinds), aubergines, peppers, chillies.



We have also set off plenty of things in the greenhouse at the plot: lettuce of various kinds, including a salad leaf mix, scarlett chard, peas, broad beans, and various herbs and flowers.


Also yesterday I did a bit of DIY pot making. We received a parcel the other day that had tubes of paper scrunched up in it. It was perforated so that they could just tear off as much as was needed. As with most things these days we looked at it and asked 'do you think we could so something with that at the allotment?'. It turns out: biodegradable pots for beans/peas/sweet peas. They don't like root disturbance (their growth slows down for quite a while after being moved too roughly) so it is ideal to have a pot that they don't have to be taken out of when you move them on to their final location.

I separated the paper into a tube about 20cm long, twisted the base together and then turned the whole thing inside out so the twisted base was inside. I put a couple of beans in each, and also did some with 5 sweet pea seeds in each which can just get planted out whole when it gets warm enough.

We will see how they hold up, I'm hoping they don't disintegrate before I want them to!

With these peas Ambassador you are really spoiling us!

We have peas! Ambassador, and Kelvedon Wonder are coming up. Nothing from the Starlight ones yet.


It is lovely to see those bright green shoots popping up.

I also checked out the temperatures we have been getting. I have a weatherstation in the greenhouse and put the little remote sensor in the propagator (also in the greenhouse) with the peas.

It has got up to 27.8ºC and down to -2.6ºC in the greenhouse and up to 20.3ºC and down to -1.6ºC in the propagator itself, so although it isn't keeping them particular warm it is ironing out the extremes a little, which is good.

A Happy Spring Day!

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, and I got a serious case of allotment joy! It was an amazing day, I was working in short sleeves and we sat outside the shed in the sun to eat our packed lunch.

I had been a bit disheartened by the number of weeds, overgrown grass, and messy looking beds but we got a grip on a couple of them yesterday and I started to feel a lot more positive. I can really see it coming together again quickly now.

I also realised that two of my purple sprouting broccoli plants were salvageable; I had about 6-8 and I thought all of them were too tiny and stunted from the rubbish wet year we had. So, when I went to totally clear out the bed that they were in, I was delighted to discover might actually get a 2008 crop.

When we got the allotment last year (very close to this time of year) the only thing that we could harvest from the previous occupant's crops was the purple sprouting broccoli, and we made some great soup from it. I'm so glad that one year on we may have another crop.

Artichokes are go!

Well we got ourselves organised and planted the J. Artichokes today. We made a separate bed last year as there was a wasted bit of space at one side of the allotment, so we figured that was a good space for them. It is a bit sheltered from the wind and also not connected to any other bed, so volunteer ones next year (which seem to be guaranteed from what people say).

We also dropped off our 2 new fruit bushes, bought from Lidl for 99p each. We got raspberry, gooseberry, redcurrant and white currant last year. They all did well and we got lots of fruit off them, so we decided to add blackberry to the mix. They will go into the hedge on the western edge of our plot, which is where moved our tayberry to last week. Edible hedge here we come.

Jerusalem Artichokes

In a lovely bit of serendipity my first batch of 'seed' Jerusalem Artichokes arrived today, and Hugh Fearnley-Whitinstall featured some lovely recipes for this knobly veg in today's Guardian.

I know it will be a year before I will be able to use them, but it pleased me that they both came to my attention on the same day. I'm going to pdf them and save them.

We are going to try and get them into the ground tomorrow, but if they ground is too hard the (good and clear Organic Gardening Catalogue) planting instructions say that we should store them in damp soil until we can. So either way it is a trip to the plot.

We have another box to come (I confused myself when ordering!) so we are going to do a swap with another friend for something else. I'm hoping he has squash seeds.

Compost

We had a look at our home compost heap today, as it needed a tidy around it, and it seems to be doing quite well. We just have one of the subsidised 'council' bins. You can check with Recycle Now by putting in your postcode to see if there is a deal via your local council.

We have been throwing in all our 'fresh' kitchen waste, shredded bills/receipts, sometimes our cat's paper based litter, and a minimal amount of cuttings and weeds from our small garden.

The big issue will be what we do with it once it is done. Our garden in too small to use it (and mostly paved) so we will have to work out a transport system to get it to the allotment. Could be an interesting day!

Tomato-tastic II

The 8 tomato seedlings have been transferred now; 4 to a smallish terracotta pot. I'm hoping to keep them in these until they are big enough to get moved to their final pots, probably in April.

I planted them quite deep, as they had got quite leggy. They seem to be doing OK so far. I kept them in the heated propagator for the first day and night, and then moved them out of it this morning.

Here's hoping for good strong plants this year.

Tomato-tastic!

We bought a little 7w heated propagator the other day to start off our tomatoes, chillies and aubergines at home. Last year we couldn't start off our seeds until quite late in the season and with the rubbish rainy summer they didn't really get far enough along, a lot never ripened at all. We got something off them, but the real stars were the tiny 80p plants we bought (Shirley, Golden Sunrise, and a Plum I think) .

So the plan this year is to get the plants from our seeds to a similar size before taking them to the allotment. We decided to try 2 of each of our heritage seeds from last year first, we had 4 seeds of each left and had slow and patchy germination last year: Vintage Wine, which is a kind of knobbly stripy one ; Banana Cream, which has long 'plum' type yellow fruits; Christmas Grape, which produces vines of small cherry toms; and Lemon Tree, which has surprisingly lemon looking fruit, right down to the point at the end!


And so far 2 of each of everything except the Banana Cream have come up. In just a week. The Banana Cream took longer than all the others to come up last year, so I expect that to pop up in a few days. Then we will stick them in a normal propagator, and then pots, and try and them get a bit bigger ready for transferring to the allotment.

Next on the list are: Red Robin tomatoes, little bushes of cherry ones; Purple Calabash, lovely knobbly dark red/black ones; Bolivian Rainbow chillies, and Money Maker aubergines.

Here is hoping for a good crop this year.

Clean House

Today we decided to clean out the greenhouse ready for the new season.



So is has now been scrubbed out with insecticidal soap, under the benches have been sort of tidied, and trays and propogator cleaned out.

Once that was done we decided to try starting off some peas and beans in the propagator. It is a bit early really but we figured it was worth a go as we have some little biodegradable pots very cheap the other week, so we can put them in the propogator, out in the greenhouse, then out into the coldframe before transferring them to the ground when they are a bit bigger without disturbing their roots.

We have sowed 4 broad beans, 4 starlight pea, 4 early kelvedon wonder, and 4 ambassador. Last year, we didn't do successional sowing, so ended up with a glut. Next lot of the same can get sowed in 4 weeks. Dwarf beans and runner beans later in the season.


We also put some mushroom spawn in a try under the bench, not sure it is warm enough yet for it really. It is also an old packet from last year, which has got a bit damp at some point so it may not sprout anyway. We will see.

Borscht

I have made borscht tonight, I'm just simmering it now before giving it a bit of a blitz.

The beetroot isn't homegrown unfortunately, but the cabbage is. I love how cabbage looks when you cut into it: like marble.



I softened onion in a pan, added the cabbage and beetroot (about half the amount of cabbage to beetroot, by weight) added a tablespoon of cider vinegar, a bay leaf, and some salt and pepper, and then added stock and am simmering for an hour or so. I'll leave it to cool a bit, before blitzing in the blender, and then reheat before eating and serve with a blob of yoghurt or sour cream.

I think I'll make some red coleslaw, and some braised cabbage with the other cabbage and a half I have left.

Back after another break

I know, it is all holidays with us.

This time our friend L came into water and harvest for us, she more usually resides in London and has her name down on a very long list there, so this was an opportunity to pretend she had an allotment of her own.

Most stuff seemed good when we got back, apart from the courgette and the beans. All the courgette's leaves had gone brown and flopped over (the squash was similar) and the leaves of the bean plants (way over the other side of the allotment) were floppy and brown too. I've taken all the leaves off the courgette as the rest of the plant still seems healthy, but I'm not sure what to do about the beans, they are only small plants and if I remove the brown leaves there won't be much left.

It has been wet so I don't know if it is some kind of rot. Any ideas as to what is going on, and how to deal with it, welcomed.

Plans for Autumn

Our seeds have arrived from the Organic Gardening Catalogue so the next few days before we go on holiday will be spent sowing seeds so that they have hopefully have germinated by the time we return.

The beetroot, radish, and turnips will get sown direct into the beds (I will harvest the beetroot and carrots that are in at the moment), but the spring onion, endive, swiss chard, and lettuce will get sown in trays for later transplanting outside. I'll probably only be able to do that with one sowing unless we have a very mild autumn, but after that I hope to be able to continue with lettuce and endive in a cold frame or the lean-house™ through the winter. I already have some little gem lettuce going which I'm going to put in all the gaps that are emerging as things get harvested. They aren't quite big enough to go out yet, but they are getting there.

I'm also considering a fig tree, I've been wanting one for ages and I don't think I can stop myself any longer. The choice is now Gardening Express or Guardian. I had some lovely witch hazels from Gardening Express, so maybe I should go with them. Hopefully the tree will come with small fruit already on it.

<edit> Just noticed that you get 15 free Purple Alliums with the Guardian, so that might swing it!

New Potatoes for Christmas and Tales of Other Veg

I wanted to get some Ransoms (wild garlic) which started an order with the Organic Gardening Catalogue and turned itself into an order for various things to grown from late summer through til the end of the year. On the list are turnips, 'spring' onions, some fast growing beetroot, rainbow chard, endive, some long spicy radish, and some lettuce to grow first outdoors and then in the Lean-house™ later on. That should keep us going through the winter.

We also want to grow potatoes for Christmas. I know that if we put some second earlies in now they should be good in time for Christmas (some ready as early as October), but getting hold of the seed potatoes was quite tricky. A wild goose-chase to somewhere with no stock via the Telegraph, a cancelled order somewhere else, and then finally Dobies seem to have the goods.

We plan to grow them in bags, maybe on one of the beds that is having some down time, some maybe in the lean-house™ to keep them warm. Then hopefully home grown new potatoes on Christmas Day.

pea moth

We had loads of peas yesterday so decided to pod them at the plot so that we could fit them into our tupperware. Which is when ended up discovering the pea moth larvae. The cheek! Eating our peas!



Fortunately they were only in a few pods, maybe 6 or 7, but I think it might be time to take in the rest of the peas in case more damage is being done. We'll have to remember to net the peas next year when they flower.

However there were still plenty of peas left.


Along with broad beans, tomatoes, and salad. I think this is the first 'pest' attack we have had really (excepting wood pigeons and slugs), which is incredibly lucky I think.

then and now

A little post to just compare where we are now with where we were when we got the plot this February. It is nearly 6 months now and I came across the 'panoramic' pic we took in the early days, so I took another from the same position the other day. The 'now' is at the top in case you can't tell!


I guess it might not look that different to someone who isn't there most days, but it just seems like such a huge difference to me. I had forgotten what a huge overgrown mess it was. The ground was covered in layers of carpet and metal and wood, all grown through with weeds.

And on the 'architectural' side we have moved the compost heap from one side of the site to the other, put the fruit cage in, covered the roof of the shed, created and edged beds. And of course all the sowing and planting, and the recent addition of the leanhouse.

I'm feeling quite proud of us today. We just have to make sure we keep up the good work.