What I've been up to - March

This month seems to have flown by and yet by birthday seems ages ago now! You will be glad to hear we managed to fit the tap to the water butt.........

 

So what have I been up to this month? With spring finally on its way I've finally managed to sow some seeds indoors. Some summer cabbages - Bourbon - germinated within a week

 

 

They are much bigger than this now and starting to get their next set of leaves. I'll need to re-pot them soon I think.

 

We also sowed some tomatoes and leeks which took a little longer to germinate but they are coming along nicely too now.

Added to these were sweet peas this week. So the conservatory is looking a bit like a greenhouse at the moment.

 

The potatoes are chitting nicely and we're hoping to get at least the earlies in this weekend as the weather is looking very mild

 

 

I've been busy digging over the potato bed in readiness for planting them out but there has been a frost this week.

 

Cooking-wise I made a delicious cream of leek soup this week after a fellow plot holder gave me a few leeks and we harvested the first of the rhubarb a couple of days ago (which the cat promptly sat on)

 

 

and we turned it into rhubarb and custard cake (without cat)

 

 

It took forever to cook because I made it in a loaf tin but it tastes pretty yummy!

 

My sewing has consisted mainly of making blocks for a layercakesampler quiltalong which is great fun

 

 

And I have also gone back to making my City Sampler blocks. I thought I would try something different and use a striped fabric in each block together with some Kona solids which my parents bought me for me birthday

 

 

And while its working quite well

 

 

These are blocks 1 to 6, I'm not 100% sure about it. Mainly I think because I thought I would arrange the blocks in a barn raising style........which means most of the blocks are green ones.....

 

So I've also added to the taupe ones I started.......

 

 

I'm making these blocks as a quiltalong with a couple of quilting friends as it does help to keep you going with them

 

So quite a lot done in March....and its not quite over yet!

 

 

Yea Gads!

I have become a really crap blogger!

 

August?

 

I haven't blogged since August?!

 

In my defence I have been blogging, just not on this blog. There's the blog for my business, the occasional post on the magazine's blog and then the parallel blog I started to chart the journey of TK and me as we took on an allotment.

I think it might be best to merge the allotment with this one........as then at least I might say something every now and then!

 

So new year and all that, let's have a bit of veg growing as well as quilting on this blog.

 

First off, here's what the plot looked like when we took it over in May last year.

 

 

A tinsy bit overgrown!

The plot extends as far as the metal frame at the far end. Its quite a big plot. I love working on the allotment; it gives me the chance to get a bit of fresh air, a bit of a workout as well as a bit of time to think.

 

And here's what it looked like at the end of December

 

 

It actually looks like an allotment again!

 

We had a small harvest last year and are just gearing up for a new season.

 

In the meantime TK and I did a little bit of sewing today when we visited a quilt group. Block D1 of our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt.

 

 

 

So this could work right? A bit of quilting with a bit of vegetable growing?

 

 

Something Different - part two:Veg

Last year I thought I would try and introduce more of a variety of veg into our diets, by trying a new one each month. This was a bit of a failure and only lasted a couple of months.

So part of the new year's resolution for not buying food in the supermarket was to get a vegetable box delivered each week. I hoped this would also force us to use vegetables we wouldn't usually buy.

I had tried veg box deliveries in the past but they were fortnightly and the problem was the potatoes and carrots ran out really quickly and we ended up with masses of onions.

 

So this time I signed up for a small weekly box from a local farm. The first week was fine, although there were too many types of veg - eight - for us to get through in a week.

 

The second week I downgraded to a very small box of 6 types of veg and added a small fruit bag, to keep us over the minimum order level. The veg were ok. I made a squash soup with the round squash; although when I cut it open it did smell like a melon and I suddenly worried about whether it would go with the onion and garlic I was already softening in the pan! As luck would have it the farm shop phoned me at the precise moment I was wavering about whether to continue and confirmed it was indeed a squash!

I was already building up a stash of onions so I made an onion soup for lunch one day which was rather yummy.
The fruit bag was a bit of a disaster; apples and a grapefruit so that was scratched off the order and replaced by a box of eggs each week. Might as well do some baking each week?!

Week three was not good. No delivery! They had a box for us but we weren't on the delivery list. They did offer to deliver the following day but I was away last weekend and when I heard what was in the box I said not to worry - didn't like half the things in it!

Week four was nearly a disaster - left the empty box out for them to take away with them when they delivered  - but it was still there when I got home late afternoon. Was beginning to think I had been forgotten again when it arrived at 6.20pm! It didn't have the parsnips I was hoping for/thought were coming unfortunately.

 

So after a month, I'm thinking it isn't really being successful. It's a bit hit and miss so I'm going to cancel it and visit a farm shop instead. I have about three or four in a 15 miles radius of here. Spending £10 a week on veg and not really liking or getting through half of it, doesn't really make sense does it?

I have the day to myself today which means it's a sewing day! I have a little quilting experiment I want to try and will blog some photos of that next time