Jammin part 2

Homemade, homegrown 'Hot mexican' chilli jam (not too hot - will leave seeds in next time!)

Beetroot and chocolate cake

The future part 2! :-D

Jammin!

The first ever pot I've made! It's the future!!!

Busy busy busy

Good morning!  Despite feeling very achey, itchy and sunburnt (I'll never learn but it was cloudy and drizzley yesterday!) we had a very busy day up at'plot and didn't get home til 8ish. 
The plot was looking a complete jungle so Alex got strimmer and strimmed!  What a difference already and it's not all done yet.  Put some old underlay down (thank Garden Hoe!) and made a proper path.  Now, it's looking all lovely again!
All the potatoes are now up but think the blight got to some but still got plenty.  Anyone want any??  The potato patch was cleared and raked so now got peas and beans in.  The brocolli is growing and showing some flower heads and the onions and garlic are very nearly there too!
There's still no sign of next door so I went scrumping again and rescued some black currants.  There weren't many so topped them up with a few raspberries that I could find.  Anyway, I've already been busy this morning and the next post will show what happened to the currants! 
I'll also post a pick of the beetroot and chocolate cake that was demolished at work.  That's a recipe that'll be a Julia special!
The sun is out now and off to get ready for more allotment fun (may also christen new bbq up there too if anyone wants to join us!)
Bye for now!

Today's bounty

Right, I've had a snooze so time to tell all about the allotment adventure of the day. Despite feeling fuzzy-headed (don't know why!!) I was up and off earlyish and in a mission! Went to buy a greenhouse type thing in the hope of saving my tomatoes. Got the plot and it looked like a jungle!! Serves me right for neglecting it for a week! So got my hoe and my trowel and tackoed the weeds. I cleared quite a lot in the beds but need to do the onions and tidy a bit more.

I planted more borlotti plants and was delighted to see some seeds I'd sown had started to sprout! Then I had to tend to my courgettes the poor things. Slugs had had a feast and they were looking a bit feeble so the pellets were scattered! And same for the sprouts and broc (the broccoli is starting to show some flowers!!)
And so to the tomatoes. I put the greenhouse up, put the toms in and gave them a prune. There are some teeny tomatoes showing so I hope they are happy and start to show more!
After the hard work and as a reward I dug some potatoes and pulled more beetroot! (guess what's for tea!)
Suitably achey, prickly from nettles and worked-out it was home time. I had a peer at the wild strawberry (got a fright by a frog!) and picked a few berries. So here's a photo of today's loot:

Beetroot!

Here's the first of the allotment beetroot :-) there doesn't seem to be a lot of it despite sowing a fair bit of seeds so I will cherish this first lot! It's in the pan cooking away....any ideas for what to do with it? I'm thinking beetroot dip...mmmmm!