Late summer allotment update

The allotment is flourishing. I have no idea how much time we have spent there - I guess around 3-4 hours per week on average, which probably isn't enough, but we are all really enjoying the experience and we will be more knowledgeable and productive next year. It is also a real mood lifter for all of us. I have taken the boys when Harry has been grumpy and challenging at home and he has been a changed child upon arriving there. I have gone myself some evenings feeling like I would rather sit on the sofa and eat chocolate but have ended up staying for over an hour and being much more energised on my return.

The broad beans and peas are finished and the beds have been cleared. We have also brought home one bed of our potatoes so I pulled up a few leeks to go with them and have just made leek and potato soup for the freezer. As I write this post I am waiting for a batch of courgette bread to finish cooking made with our allotment courgettes and mint. It has been a bit of a struggle to use everything this week!

I am starting to think of a plan for the allotment and have drawn it on paper so we can decide where to plant the crops next year. We didn't use two of the beds this year but will need to or we will get into trouble. We already have a bed of rhubarb but I think we may plant some more permanent fruit bushes so that they fill the empty spaces with little annual maintenance. I think the boys are going to be very excited at planting time next Spring. They have been great at the allotment this year and Harry is actually a real help and does a lot of work. 

We have hundreds of tomatoes in the greenhouses, many still green but lots of red too. I used lots of these earlier in a roasted vegetable pasta/pizza sauce. 

The sweetcorn is still growing well. I peeped inside one of the ears but it was not yet yellow.

I pulled up the first parsnips this week and we had them for our dinner tonight, with our own roast tomatoes. I also brought 4 cucumbers! A couple of the other allotment holders bring us cucumbers too as they know Peter loves them (and like to see him start eating it whole, immediately) but this means we don't need all of ours so I am planning to make some cucumber pickle.