Planting Cauliflowers

It is time to plant out the cauliflowers in the allotment.

First, I cleared the area of weeds, making sure I got out the long tap roots of docks.


Then I dug holes about 3-4 inches deep with a trowel, spacing these about 10 inches or so apart. (I plant in patches rather than rows for brassicas)

The cauliflower plants were all popped in the holes, leaving the plug of compost on them as to not disturb the roots, and then the holes filled with liquid feed made from comfrey leaves to add a bit of fertilizer.





I then back-filled the holes with soil - as it was evening when I planted these, I ensured that dry soil was on the surface, as wet soil overnight would just attract slugs.





 I then pressed down on the soil around the plants
to firmly support the plants.


I will water the plants again in the morning as the forecast is warm and dry for the next few days.

Signs of Spring!

At last! Spring is here, or at least its having a jolly good go.... The damson and pear trees are in blossom, and the apples and blueberries soon will be.
Sand Martins are flying up and down the river, and there's a few house martins and swallows as well.

The last of the winter crops still in the allotment are some leeks, the last of the parsnips we have let go to seed for next year. This patch is going to be brassicas this year and there's already some overwintered cabbage and lettuce in. 

The second patch, which was peas and beans last year, is now onions and garlic, and there will be carrots to sow soon. There's japanese (overwintered) onions and overwintered garlic and there's more onion sets coming on.

The third patch is the fruit bushes and I really need to pull some of the rhubarb.

Next down is peas and beans, with some overwintered broad beans setting flowers already and plenty of peas in. On the edge of this patch is hopefully an asparagus bed but there's no signs of life yet.

Last patch is potatoes this year, 4 rows in so far, at weekly intervals.

Birds in the Allotment

One of my hobbies is birdwatching, and over the time we have had the allotment, the variety of birds either in or flying over the allotment has been considerable.

In the allotments

Linnet                            Blue Tit
Goldfinch                       Great Tit
Chaffinch                       Coal Tit
Greenfinch                     Long Tailed Tit
Bullfinch                        Dunnock
House Sparrow             Robin
Carrion Crow                Rook
Jackdaw                       Collared Dove
Woodpigeon                 Sparrowhawk
Common Gull                Black-Headed Gull
Mistle Thrush                Song Thrush
Redwing                       Blackbird
Starling                         Tree Sparrow
Magpie                         Wren
Chiffchaff                      Pied Wagtail
Yellowhammer

Over the allotments

Peregrine Falcon           Red Kite
Heron                           Cuckoo (about 4 years ago)
Canada Goose              Greylag Goose
Cormorant                     Lapwing
Oystercatcher                Curlew
Buzzard                         Mallard
Mute Swan                    Swallow
Swift                              House Martin
Sand Martin                   Skylark
Meadow Pipit

(also possible Whooper Swan and Pink Footed Geese)

In the wider area I have recorded about 70 species including Woodcock, various warblers and winter visitors such as Waxwing

Winter again!

18th of March and woke up to a good covering of snow! Not unprecedented though but right now we should be expecting Spring! It is the duration of the cold weather that's really quite unusual though, cold easterly winds and nothing expected to change much for the next two weeks. This time last year we had 25 deg C about now, but that was indeed the only summer we got!

So, we've had three cold winters out of the past 4 years, which is actually rather normal, although winters 09/10 and 10/11 did have some really quite severe cold snaps with snow for a fortnight and -13 to -16 deg C at one point at night.

But going from 25 deg C last March to a summer with nothing but rain

http://cashandcarrots.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/allotment-report-or-weeds-r-us-with-bit.html

and then having the cold winter last into Spring, really is making problems for farmers and growers. I don't think we did too bad last year with the potatoes, they lasted until Christmas whereas I know that agricultural yields not just for potatoes were well down on normal. I even heard of sheep getting foot-rot from standing in flooded fields for too long.

Now, the cold means that many farmers, already losing money from having to buy in animal fodder, the various animal diseases going round, now find they can't plant seeds for this year.
We would normally have got parsnip seeds in by now and started germinating seeds etc. but it's too cold.

Parsnip Wine Making - part 2

Well, I finally got around to making parsnip wine. Or should I say parsnip and sultanas wine as the raisins make the wine taste a lot better, or so I am told!

Some links are on my earlier post
http://cashandcarrots.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/parsnips.html


Anyway, I started with 2kg (4lb) of parsnips, 1.25kg (2.5lb) sugar, 0.5kg (1lb) sultanas, 7g (0.25oz) of citric acid (lemon juice) and 1 UK gal (4.5 litres) of water.

First step was to dig up the parsnips! And then scrub and scrub them again. But not peel!

That's what 2kg of parsnips looks like!

Now to chop them up, not too small

And then boil them for approx 15 minutes with the sugar, you want them softer but not in any way mushy. 

I had to do them in two batches as I didn't have a pan big enough. 

So, once cooler I poured the mixture of parsnips, sugar and water into the plastic pail...

I then added the sultanas and citric acid and the remainder of the water to bring up to 1 Gallon, as well as the Campden tablet

A day later I added the yeast and yeast nutrient and it only too about another 24 hours for there to be visible signs of fermentation. 

I now took a reading on the hygrometer, and it was right in the middle of the blue bit that said "start wine". Which was a relief! Though I am still a little confused as this seems to be between 1.070 and 1.090. whereas you are supposed to start between 1.095 and 1.110. However a quick search on Google and a bit of head scratching showed that there's correction factors for temperature, volume of wine etc so it seemed to be ok And it was in the right range on the actual hygrometer!

The plastic pail lived in a corner of the bedroom for 3 days, in hindsight it should have been slightly warmer as the fermentation did slow down a bit. 

However, now came the awkward bit. With the help of one of my daughters (money changed hands!) we filtered the mixture into a demijohn using a plastic funnel with a sieve placed inside the funnel. Not an easy thing to do, as the plastic pail is quite heavy and there is a danger of a stray piece of parsnip or sultana falling into the demijohn off the side of the funnel! If that happens, pour the mixture back into the pail and start again. 

You will need to scrape the sieve out quite frequently as the holes get clogged up. 

So, after about half an hour or so of careful pouring and cleaning out the sieve we managed it, and fitted the airlock. In the top of the airlock (the u-shaped bit) I poured a small bit of water and within a short space of time the gas from the wine pushed the water up to one side. (Once no gas is being given off, fermentation has ended and this water will be level)

So the wine is now sitting in the demijohn, plopping away every so often as the bubbles come up and there's a small thermometer on the side reading 20.5 deg C which is a bit warmer than in the pail as the demijohn is smaller and can be put a little closer to the radiator. Don't go over 30 deg C or you'll kill the yeast and below about 10 deg C the fermentation would slow down or even stop - there was a noticeable difference between 20 and 15 degrees C in the pail.

So, in 3 months time I should have some wine ready for bottling but it depends on the dryness, I may need to add more sugar and ferment a bit longer as I am not keen on dry wines. 

Parsnips

Hacking parsnips out of the ground again! As with most of England we have snow and frost just now, -8 deg C last week, so the ground is a wee bit frozen!

Wilkinsons have expanded their range of wine making and home brew kit, was in their shop in Northallerton last week and got quite a nice surprise as I was expecting to have to trawl the internet to get what I needed for wine making, but it was all in one place to get!
So I spent about £30 and got a large plastic tub with lid, another demijohn (I already have one), tubing, yeast, a hygrometer, yeast food, campden tablets, a funnel and something else which I think is for clearing the wine.

Why all this? Well shortly I want to try parsnip wine making, we deliberately planted an extra row of parsnips this year so as we can try this.

Here goes with various snippets from the internet

WARNING! I HAVE NOT TRIED ANY OF THE LINKS AND RECIPES LISTED BELOW SO I CANNOT VOUCH FOR THEIR ACCURACY! HOWEVER, THESE ARE BITS OF RESEARCH THAT I WILL BE USING TO HELP ME NEXT MONTH.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/nov/09/how-to-make-parsnip-wine
http://jonathanspain.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/home-winemaking-tips-for-beginners/
amylase
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/juicy-gossip/hazels-parsnip-wine_11876.html
10-20 mins boiling
Having had great success with elderberries last year, I'm just making some parsnip now. I've sort-of averaged a load of recipes I've found, and come up with:
4lb parsnips srubbed and sliced, boiled about 25 mins, strained onto 3lb sugar (1lb is dark brown coz I happened to have that in the cupboard, should add an interesting colour), about 1/2lb chopped raisins and 2Tbsp citric acid. When that's simmered for about 40 minutes I'll put it in a fermenting bin with a crushed Campden tablet and leave it to cool to 21C. Then pectolase, yeast nutrient, and yeast; stir daily for 10 days; rack into a demijohn. Then the long wait...

http://www.wine-making-guides.com/parsnip_wine.html
http://www.lowcostliving.co.uk/home-brewing/recipe-parsnip-wine.php
http://www.lowcostliving.co.uk/home-brewing/recipe-beetroot-recipe.php
http://www.yobrew.co.uk/parsnip.php
http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?3960-Parsnip-wine-another-one

Energy saving tips

It is amazing how much energy some people waste! You would think in these days of high energy costs, everyone would be switching things off at every opportunity, and insulating everything in sight!

10 ideas for energy saving

1. Lights off when you don't need them! Same goes for the TV and other electrical appliances - one of the neighbours seems to leave the TV on all night!

2. Drive slower, I drive at about 60mph now on A roads and motorways, and now get about 550 miles to 50 litres of petrol (car is a 1.6l Scenic). The way you drive is also a factor, steady not zooming around from junction to lights etc

3. Turn the heating down - adjust the timer for the times you really need it, and turn down to 16 or 17 deg C, plenty warm enough apart from in really cold snaps. Heat the rooms you are in.

4. Close the curtains at dusk, make sure windows are shut when the heating is on.

5. Change energy supplier - I have just changed and will save about £100-150 a year all being well. Look at your energy use in cooking, electric rings stay hot for a while after switch off, food will still cook with the remaining heat, switch off the kettle before the end, it's boiling quite a bit before it switches off.

6. Look at your appliances and central heating - I went from a G rated back boiler to a A rated combi, most appliances are A or even A+ rated nowadays

7. Keep doors shut - retain the heat in the rooms. Make sure visitors do the same when they come in!

8. Look at renewables if you have the spare cash to invest, and can justify the payback time. User solar or wind up chargers for phones and radio etc.

9. Grow your own - better for you (if organic), better for the environment (massive food miles by supermarkets), buy local

10. Insulate - loft grants are still available, as are cavity wall ones. If you don't have cavity walls, put a layer of loft insulation on a bare wall, with wooden slats between the lengths, then tongue and groove panel over the top to give a nice insulated wall, and it stops damp as well on cold walls.

Above all, just think about what you do, and what you can do to save energy!