mmmh… Mark’s quiche

Harriet clearing around the pond

Brussel sprouts

progress on the new path…

…and progress on the new walled herb garden…

Gary carrying on with work on the compost loo…

Beware – Novice soup chef at work

I have never been a great fan of Squash, beyond Butternut Squash, not having taken the time to really try it. Last season I grew a few Butternut squash plants in containers at home from self-sown seeds in my compost. They were rather small, probably with too little by way of nutrients and watering. This year I repeated with seed I had saved, slightly better looked after, and larger results.

But we had a bumper crop of a variety of squash at TOPS this year. It seemed churlish not to try.

Squash harvest from TOP Community Allotment

On the left are 5 Crown Prince squashes (the bluey green ones). A single Turks Head squash (Orange – middle left, with fetching stripes down it, but rather smaller than the one I recall we grew years ago), a couple of small yellow butternut squashes, a big dark green one (not sure what that is), and the 5 mottled green ‘Sharks Fin Melon’ squashes. There are three eating apples there too – probably to avoid them being trampled.

So I took one of the Crown Prince squashes, the smallest, with no great plan. And it sat on the kitchen worksurface for -ooh, the best part of 2 months. When I eventually got around to it,I found it had a lovely firm orange flesh, very similar to butternut. I located a recipie for pumpkin soup in a recipie book (which I cannot now locate – too many books), and adapted it a bit. Onions, some potatoes, chicken stock. The main masterstroke was to hold back some of the squash, fry it in olive oil to soften, and put it in towards the end of the cooking. This gave a lovely extra texture to the soup, which was nutty, thick and warming. The second half of the squash got used in roasted chunks. Also yummy. I tried toasting the seeds (and saved some for sowing), but these seemed pretty tasteless and chewy.

Crown Prince Squash and Soup

We grew the Sharks fin Melon (also known as spagetti squash), because Gary had seen an oriental gardner on the main patch growing them. and thought it would be a novelty. Sadly everyone has been a bit shy to try it, and these have lurked in the shed on the allotment rather than be claimed by any of the TOP gardeners. With the extreme cold weather, some succummed to softening, and have gone to the compost heap. about 5 were still OK, and I posted some possible internet recipies to the group, but then thought I really should try one myself. Besides, there was finally some worktop free to sit it on.

Within a week, having been brought into the warm, the skin of the melon has developed a mould bloom, so spurred into ‘sort it or compost it’ action, I cut the squash open, scooped out the flesh (articles online speak of difficulties extracting seeds, but I found that OK), and went for it. A couple of the smaller seeds I missed floated to the surface of the broth, so were easy to scoop out.

Sharksfish Melon Excavations

Once open, it was obvious both why this squash got its names. Sharksfish – the flesh feels and looks a bit like white fishmeat, and the smell was strongly of melon. Spagetti squash is not so clear at this stage, but once cooked, the similarity with spagetti, or actually with noodles, was very apparent.

One of the recipies I looked at had crabsticks and freshly peeled prawns in it. I had neither, but lurking in the bottom of the freezer were the remnants of a bag of prepared shellfish, so I chucked this in. And that fish probably gave the soup most of its taste, with the squash adding the texture of noodles. The soup was certainly not unpleasant, I wasn’t the only one going for seconds.

Sharksfin Soup in the pan

I would be keen to grow the Crown Prince squash again, this had excellent keeping qualities even when abused by sitting in my kitchen for too long. Not so sure about the Sharksfin, though I would cook it again if we do try. They produced very different soups, both of them good.

Of course I should have produced the soups for a workday and taken them back to the patch to be consumed and compared. But that would require too much organisation. Am afraid the pictures will have to do.

Andy Hadley – Jan 2011

First TOPS Workday of 2011, Sun 2nd January

Not as cold or sunny and clear as predicted, but 4 degrees is still quite nippy.

Brendan and Ken laying slabs

I didn’t make much of the day, so only saw the stalwarts at work. This time of year is great for structural jobs around the garden, and that was most of what was occuring.

Main Path

Brendan and Ken were busy laying paving slabs recently reclaimed from a garden in Wimborne. We have used woodchip for most of our main paths, which tends to rot down over time, and need weeding of persistent deep-rooted dandelions and the like. This particular path, between the gate, shed and greenhouse gets a lot of traffic. With the newly re-dug bed on one side, and the steep slope to the stream on the other, and a tendancy to get water lying at the dip outside the greenhouse door, a more solid path seems a good re-use of these slabs.

Tidying the Greenhouse

I didn’t take a picture, but Harriet was busy in the greenhouse, clearing away the Tomato stalks, and the many vine-leaves that have dropped everywhere around.

Water works

Greeted by ‘the water is a bit low in the high tanks’, I took a quick look, and the opportunity to scoop leaves from the ice cold water in the bottom of the tanks. Distracted by a conversation with Harriet, I then notice through the misty window that the connection to the bottom of the tanks had completely detatched. That would explain why they were empty, the frost had presumably put the joint under extra pressure.

Mark has been keen to see the level of water in the hydroponic bath at the end of the greenhouse dropped. This is complicated, as the level is actually set in the bath next door, completely covered, and supporting a gravel bed. Now the peppers and other plants have died back, it was possible to explore. But my recollection of the arrangements was a bit wrong, the original bath overflow sets the level, not the pipe mounted in the outflow. So raising the soil level in the baths will be the easiest alternative.

Mark on the annual bramble tackling

Bramble Clearance

Our site was originally 8 foot high with brambles (in 1997 when we started). They are a pioneer plant on the natural journey towards woodland, looping over themselves, re-rooting wherever they touch soil, and protecting sapling canopy trees. We originally had to cut our way in through the gate. All over the site we are still wrestling with outbreaks of brambles, but because the neighbours love blackberry crumble (and so do we!), we left stands of them along the boundary fence with the church.

So every year, principally Mark, but sometimes others, prune the brambles along the church side of the fence, both to encourage new growth and crop, and to prevent those looking after the church grounds from feeling the need to clear the lot. The previous year’s growth produce the best blackberry crop, so the aim is to cut out old growth, and those pioneer branches that cannot be trained back into the fence.

They fight back, so eye protection is a sensible precaution. But the thorns always seem to penetrate my gloves when I help. Forgot to bring them with me today !

Composting Toilet

I forget how many years we have been debating the options, design and genesis of a toilet at TOP. Certainly 10 years. We have made do to date with a bucket, which had a corner developed within the compound (messy storage area screened off by wood reclaimed from old pallets).

I found a fascinating account of the Earth closets, which were invented by Henry Moule, the vicar of Fordington (now a suburb of Dorchester), and his invention competed with the water closet for a time. The following wasn’t the page, but there is a good picture here.

http://www.oldandinteresting.com/earth-closet.aspx

Anyhow, Gary found a good bit of mahogany in a skip, and some ideas from the way OTs develop toilet raisers, and some secondhand bits to create a bucket loo. For light and waterproofing, we have some double-glazed panels as a roof.

Ideally, we need to separate the liquid from solid waste. A little sawdust on the solid waste will keep it smelling sweet and gently rotting down over months. The liquid tends to create a smell, better put into the compost heap soonest.

Apparently the Environment Agency are relaxed about composting loos, so long as they don’t discharge into a waterway.

Gary busy installing the long awaited composting loo

Anything else

Apologies if anyone else was there and busy before I arrived. Tat and Lilian made a quick tour of inspection, having experienced the delights of Moors Valley for a birthday party. Otherwise, I missed you.

Andy