10th August 2021
A visiting friend comes down to see the allotment. He has just moved house, and grew strawberries and vegetables in his old garden; the landlady’s “gardeners” had destroyed the last of his harvest as he left by dumping cut grass and branches on the strawberries, and had cut down growing potato plants. There is something strongly metaphoric here – a man rents a patch, improves it, grows a harvest, but ultimately is not allowed to have ownership over the land he improves. Loss of the commons and enclosure come to mind.
5 eggs, 2 large Golden Zucchinis, 2 French Breakfast radishes, 1.75oz Ruby Lights chard
A visiting friend comes down to see the allotment. He has just moved house, and grew strawberries and vegetables in his old garden; the landlady’s “gardeners” had destroyed the last of his harvest as he left by dumping cut grass and branches on the strawberries, and had cut down growing potato plants. There is something strongly metaphoric here – a man rents a patch, improves it, grows a harvest, but ultimately is not allowed to have ownership over the land he improves. Loss of the commons and enclosure come to mind.
5 eggs, 2 large Golden Zucchinis, 2 French Breakfast radishes, 1.75oz Ruby Lights chard
11th August 2021
The tomatoes have had a late surge in pollination – suddenly dozens of extra fruit have appeared! Despite being in a north-facing yard, they are doing reasonably – the warmth of the adjacent house helps. My estimates of how many fruits we’ll end up with have gone from more, say, 30-40, up to 60 or so – from disappointing (but breaking even) to beginning to profit on seeds sown, even if only by a little.
6 eggs, 1 large Golden Zucchini, 1 small De Nizza courgette
Twilight working, with the harvest continuing to roll in. The Golden Ranger hen is very broody, and often sitting on the eggs – that is, she gathers them and sits on them in the middle of the coop, not even in the nestbox! We may have to deal with this, as broody hens can cause problems for the other hens laying.
Earlier in the day, Joe (4) picks his first radish from the
pot of radish and lettuce he and Zeb (2) sowed last month.
7 eggs, 1 French Breakfast radish, 2.1oz Welsh onions, 1
small Golden Zucchini, 1 large Golden Zucchini, misc onions, 1.8oz Meteor peas
(0.6oz shelled), 1.2oz blackberries
13th August 2021
The blackberries continue to beg to be picked, and the branches lie heavy on the bushes. We have several that overhang only our patch, which are therefore solely our crop – shared with the birds, of course. Given the relative value of soft fruit, this is an incredibly efficient activity. A few minutes for an ounce, say – 28g. 150g costs £2 at Tesco. 15 minutes for £2 – pretty much minimum wage, but of course this is all off your own back, with the food going directly to your table or freezer.
I also spot some uncovered Earlies, and set straight to –
leaving them till tomorrow means losing more to green weight.
4 eggs, 5lbs8.375oz Early potatoes, 1.64oz blackberries,
0.25oz raspberries
14th August 2021
A few poor condition courgettes come home – every chance they’ll both end up going to the chickens – but one is our first of whatever the Scallop variety we grew. I also pick a very small but ripe strawberry from the plants at the allotment – the ones at home have both struggled from drouth but also, as far as I can tell, pollinated very poorly, so even where fruit developed there were basically no seed-cells to grow to fruit. Exciting to think that next year we should have a healthy crop of fruit.
5 eggs, 1lbs11.5oz Early potatoes, 1 small Golden Zucchini,
1 very small Scallop courgette, 1.375oz blackberries, 1 small strawberry
15th August 2021
A second hen (the bantam) has started to brood on the eggs. We really need to dip their bottoms in water and discourage this.
4 eggs, 0.63oz blackberries
16th August 2021
Our 4-year-old comes down with me after dinner and works with me for an hour and a half. Some of this is self-directed – he starts to fill a hole in the perennial bed (a job that needed doing, actually), he uses some grass shears to cut weeds – whilst some is under direct instruction (he sows radish seeds with me; he helps herd the chickens to bed; he cuts chard under my direction). Why shouldn’t he both contribute to the household now and gain competencies and confidence?
In time we want to give the kids their own chance at “businesses”
– next year, perhaps, we’ll set up a quail shed and work on it with our
4-year-old, at first – he can collect eggs and help with feeding and cleaning,
and in time (when he’s 6 or 7, say) take it over fully. We can then sell the
eggs, and he (and any siblings who join him) can split the profits with us.
We drop off a food box to the family who sometimes work the
allotment with us: 15 eggs, 2 courgettes, half a bag of chard, 5 radishes, a
couple of heads of lettuce. Abundance.
5 eggs, 4.5 Beauregard lettuce heads, 1 large De Nizza
courgette, 1 large Golden Zucchini, 5 French Breakfast radishes, 1 bag of Ruby
chard, 0.77oz Meteor peas (0.28oz shelled), 1lbs1oz Early potatoes, 3.84oz
blackberries, 1.5oz Welsh onions
The tomatoes have had a late surge in pollination – suddenly dozens of extra fruit have appeared! Despite being in a north-facing yard, they are doing reasonably – the warmth of the adjacent house helps. My estimates of how many fruits we’ll end up with have gone from more, say, 30-40, up to 60 or so – from disappointing (but breaking even) to beginning to profit on seeds sown, even if only by a little.
Twilight working, with the harvest continuing to roll in. The Golden Ranger hen is very broody, and often sitting on the eggs – that is, she gathers them and sits on them in the middle of the coop, not even in the nestbox! We may have to deal with this, as broody hens can cause problems for the other hens laying.
The blackberries continue to beg to be picked, and the branches lie heavy on the bushes. We have several that overhang only our patch, which are therefore solely our crop – shared with the birds, of course. Given the relative value of soft fruit, this is an incredibly efficient activity. A few minutes for an ounce, say – 28g. 150g costs £2 at Tesco. 15 minutes for £2 – pretty much minimum wage, but of course this is all off your own back, with the food going directly to your table or freezer.
A few poor condition courgettes come home – every chance they’ll both end up going to the chickens – but one is our first of whatever the Scallop variety we grew. I also pick a very small but ripe strawberry from the plants at the allotment – the ones at home have both struggled from drouth but also, as far as I can tell, pollinated very poorly, so even where fruit developed there were basically no seed-cells to grow to fruit. Exciting to think that next year we should have a healthy crop of fruit.
A second hen (the bantam) has started to brood on the eggs. We really need to dip their bottoms in water and discourage this.
Our 4-year-old comes down with me after dinner and works with me for an hour and a half. Some of this is self-directed – he starts to fill a hole in the perennial bed (a job that needed doing, actually), he uses some grass shears to cut weeds – whilst some is under direct instruction (he sows radish seeds with me; he helps herd the chickens to bed; he cuts chard under my direction). Why shouldn’t he both contribute to the household now and gain competencies and confidence?
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