From the beauty of Greece yesterday, to the slightly drearier shores of the UK today. This past weekend we actually got down to our allotment and planted four rows of Charlotte potatoes. We always seem a little behind on planting our potatoes, but were reassured when our local farmer told us he was only just getting his in the ground.
In the process of uncovering the soil Mr Rigg came across a frog. First he thought it was dead, turns out it was just enjoying the heat beneath the plastic that had been covering the ground (at least I think that’s what it was doing).
After an attempt to pick it up it leaped down a hole and disappeared. It made me realise there were a series of ‘tunnels’ that had been created in the soil and I wondered if this was the frog who had made them? Anyone know?
There was also a bit of time for sitting and reading – Buddy was busy on bee patrol…
There’s not much growing on our allotment at the moment, mainly because we only have a few things that come back year on year. Our handful of fruit bushes are budding up nicely, my sage plants seem to have died off (lack of rain recently?), but there are foxgloves and Welsh onions pushing through.
The rhubarb in the middle of the allotment is doing well, whilst those we replanted to the end of the allotment are only just beginning to peep out.
And I’m delighted to see that both angelica plants I added last summer are coming through. This one is looking particularly healthy, whilst the other has been a little drowned out by the grass and is only a few leaves. Now cleared I hope it will catch up a bit.
After a nice walk around the allotments, admiring everyone else’s predominately neatly tended beds, Buddy spotted a rather large bee and scarpered into the boot…big wus…
Over the weekend we also cooked and ate some good meals – I finally got down to some proper meal planning at the start of last week and it really paid off. Which reminds me I must do it again for this week!
From top left: mini scones made with sour milk, topped with clotted cream and raspberry jam; roast pollock with leeks, pancetta and goose fat potatoes; roast lemony chicken; mixed vegetables before roasting.
The mini scones have been a fantastic discovery in the back of the freezer – a whole tupperware of these bite sized mouthfuls of yumminess. Sadly there are only two left now as they were a regular feature of afternoons last week when Mr Rigg got home from work. This is the only way to eat them in my opinion – mostly clotted cream sandwiched between a bit of warm scone and a dollop of raspberry jam…
The roast vegetables were eaten with a pile of lemony couscous, wild rocket and minted lamb chops. The recipe comes from Hunstile Organic Farm (here’s the recipe) where we stayed this time last year and Lizzie the lovely owner cooked us this meal for dinner. It’s divine, better eaten at Hunstile and made by Lizzie in my opinion, and please don’t look too closely at how ‘well done’ my chops are – I prefer my red meat falling apart.
Mr Rigg took charge of sorting out my collection of vegetable and flower seeds…it seems I have hoarded quite a lot. Hopefully this year most of them will make it into the soil and bring us platefuls of homegrown veggies and bunches of flowers…
My other main task of the weekend was soaking and preparing nuts to make this nut topping for my breakfast yoghurt. I insisted on saving money by buying the organic almonds still in their skins, rather than ready skinless, so I spent a whole hour taking off their skins once they’d been soaked overnight.
I’ve confessed before to enjoying repetitive jobs such as podding peas and broad beans, but I must admit they are more enjoyable than skinned almonds. It is worth the effort though when you end up with two large jars of ‘nut crumbs’ (am thinking of renaming them Greek nuts as this was where I got the idea from) that should last me quite a few breakfasts.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend whatever you got up to. Next weekend we are being quite social with a birthday meal of tapas to go to, and lunch out with friends.
Eat the Earth 
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