At the plot today we cleared out the greenhouses and did a bit of raspberry pruning. In the mild conditions the autumn raspberries had plenty of leaf buds and even a few flower buds, but we cut most back to base, and some back to a third of the length. We did this last year and seemed to get a good long fruiting season. We agreed to swap some of our raspberry plants for another plot's gooseberries.
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| The beginnings of this years onion crop |
We cropped some cavalo nero, and some lettuce leaves from the greenhouse. Can't wait for the purple sprouting broccoli to develop heads. Talking to other plot holders it is clear we aren't cropping anything like the quantities of things they are, but since this is our second year it'll still be a bit experimental, and it's quite nice getting a little bit of different things.
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| Hunt the Purple Sprouting Broccoli Head |
In an exciting new development for this part of Walthamstow a new café has just opened at the end of our road, selling lovely salads, fresh bread, toasted sourbread sarnies etc. Within hours it was packed to the tinted windows with "hipsters" who are flocking to the area, having been forced out of their traditionally trendy habitats of Stoke Newington and Shoreditch by spiralling house prices. They must have been attracted by the smell of fresh ethically sourced coffee and the plentiful use of the word "organic". Like many others I am very pleased to the see the café and the clientele alike, and hope to save my pennies up so I can occasionally go in- it's very welcoming and rather lovely. I am wondering if they would be into swapping some fresh herbs or sweet peas for the table for a free tea and cake now and again?
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| The mildness of winter around here is bringing out both the primroses and the hipsters |
We were on our plot today too and I was pruning a tayberry - vicious thing!
ReplyDeleteThe tayberry we had in a pot in the garden escaped into the lawn, which is nice because we have had several plants to give away at the allotment! Haven't tackled it, or the one we wrestled down to the allotment yet!
DeleteI had to look up what ‘hipsters’ mean – I am not familiar with all new and trendy words that gets invented every week! I thought perhaps it meant older people, as in people with hip problems, a category I actually would fit into, even though I am only 49, but with 3 hip operations on my left hip behind me, and a hip replacement I am certainly a ‘hipster’….but after consulting Wikipedia I soon realised I am definitely no hipster.
ReplyDeleteAs for swapping flowers for cake, I would go for it if I was you, just wait until you got some fabulous sweet peas to offer, bring them around and tell them you can provide so and so many posies per week, and ask how often you could eat there for free for that? Won’t hurt to ask!
Ha- I know what you mean!!
DeleteI seem to keep seeing the East of London and hipsters mentioned in the same news reports (generally going on and on about house prices). The clientele at the café has settled into a nice pattern of all sorts of people, and the people running the café were very interested in the allotments, which are only a few minutes walk away. So I'd better get on with getting those sweet peas sown!