work on the independence days challenge

1. Plant – planted more salad leaves (italian mix and extra rocket), oregano, parsley, beetroot (mainly to finish off the packet – might be lucky and get a winter crop), also planted the top of a pineapple in the hope it might grow. Planted out my biggest melon plant into the ground. It’s doing fairly well so far.

2. Harvest – eaten peas off the pod. Blackberries although they weren’t all ripe. Boo.

3. Preserve – I’m really bad at this one, I dried heaps more tomatoes as they go so quickly in this house.

4. Prepare for the future – I got a pressure cooker off freecycle so I can cook stuff quickly and make jam and that.

5. Cook something new or use up old produce – am rubbish at cooking new things I’ve been living off risotto ever since I learnt how to make it successfully, but I’ve used up a heap of berries and eaten the potatoes we dug up.

6. Manage your reserves – err…..actually I’ve been making the OH eat lots of leftovers. But could really do with reorganising the kitchen soon. Actually I’ve spent the past couple of weeks redesigning the allotment on paper so come the autumn that will be the big task, so we can have heaps more produce in a small space.

7. Work on local food systems – got given the website of a place that rents out cherry trees (we can’t have trees of our own), found a place that does 3kg bags of pulses.

I’ve been lazy, well with writing blogs and stuff. Well I was at Glastonbury, then have been nursing some of my dead plants back to life. And I noticed that part of the Independence Days Challenge stuff I’d written down was wrong. In there somewhere is supposed to be ‘learn a new skill’ and some other stuff. I’ll hunt it out at some point and modify it at some point.

Planted: aubergines, radishes, quinoa, tomatoes, started propogating strawberry plants, oregano, italian salad leaves, spring onions. Attempting to grow a pineapple.
Harvested: basil, chives and potatoes.
Preserve: made basil infused olive oil. Dried tomatoes.
Prepare for the future: Have started to sort out our plant pot collection and punnet collection, and got a few seeds for planting at the end of the year.
Cook something new or use up old produce: I’m a bit stuck on this one. Although I did go vegan so I guess I’m just having stuff without eggs and cheese now.
Manage your reserves: Got rid of some old stuff out of the freezer again…
Work on local food systems: Found a shop to get some local produce from when our veggie box doesn’t provide enough. Also discovered what else our veggie box scheme sells.

Our allotment is being hard work. But fun. We are about 75% up against the slugs i.e. they take about 25% of the stuff we plant. So we’re not doing too badly. And gradually I’m pulling away the cardboard coverings from the earth and planting stuff so weeding is getting less and less too. A lot of the soil needs improving, so I’ve sowed alfalfa (which has long roots which pulls up nutrients from the subsoil), on the bad bits, then before it flowers I will cut it down and let it rot on the surface as a kind of fertiliser.

The strawberry plant (yes, just the one) has been putting out lots of runners so I decided to let it out of its hanging basket and put it in the ground and let it run and get some more plants from it.

All of our tomato plants died in the heat whilst we were on holiday. However, somebody in my parents street had left a load of tomato plants out on their wall with a sign saying ‘free plants’ so we have two. Although they are a little straggly at the moment, hopefully they will do well.

The melons are doing extremely well. I just need to fashion a mini greenhouse for the allotment then the biggest plant can go in the ground as it is desperate to get out of its pot.

That’s all the news for now, garden wise!

1. Plant – I planted some mint, and planted out of pots and into the allotment, more squashes, more garlic, more sunflowers.
2. Harvest – harvested nothing! Haven’t had anything to harvest. We tried to harvest potatoes but they weren’t quite ready yet. Which was a shame.
3. Preserve – again been stupidly lazy on this one. Naughty mouse!
4. Prepare for the future – actually we’ve been looking at a new place to live and exploring what resources they have in that area. And have been clearing out our current house so we have less to move.
5. Cook something new or use up old produce – used up some sweet potatoes that my mum didn’t want. And cooked asparagus risotto as a new recipe. Yum!
6. Manage your reserves – got rid of some stuff in the freezer and have cut back on dairy items so we use up other stuff more.
7. Work on local food systems – this is a really tough one to keep going. I gave some friends a basil plant I think that counts!

1. Plant – actually nothing for the long term, but I have sprouted alfalfa and sunflower seeds this week. Oh! And planted out a squash plant, lavender plant and sunflowers into the allotment.
2. Harvest – again – nothing! Me = lazy
3. Preserve – we are in negative reserves as the freezer accidentally defrosted so I had to get rid of stuff.
4. Prepare for the future – got rid of old wellies like I said I would. Got rid of some unwanted books.
5. Cook something new or use up old produce – made a lentil curry! Used up old tomatoes in the curry. Also made home made pizza and used up some old tomatoes too for the sauce.
6. Manage your reserves – well the freezer accidentally defrosted so I lost some soup.
7. Work on local food systems – not in the local area but if we move I have been scouting out where to get food from ie veg boxes, dairy etc. Have found a great dairy that does unpasteurised cow, sheep and goat products as well as tofu which they make on the premises.

So I’ve been dreadful this week but I’ve been nursing a stinking cold. And the weather has been pretty odd – either really hot so everything is going off. Or really rainy so a lot of our plants drowned. Next week I’ll try and do much better! Have set myself a reminder and everything. I plan to plant up whatever seeds I have leftover. Clear out a few more bits – mainly paperwork stuff. And try asparagus risotto. I found the recipe but was too poorly to make it.

Well the independence days challenge was suggested by an online blogger – basically a weekly checklist to make sure you are working your way to food independence. I really like the idea. The targets are
1. Plant – anything no matter how small
2. Harvest – this might be a big job, might be a small job
3. Preserve – again might be huge, might be something as small as drying some nettles for tea
4. Prepare for the future – learning a new skill, or packing a first aid kit
5. Cook something new or use up old produce – pretty self explanatory
6. Manage your reserves – make sure nothing is going off, check you have enough of everything.
7. Work on local food systems – make friends with a neighbour, or seek out local farmers markets, that sort of thing.

I find number 7 the hardest.