Well I had written a post but my delightful other half kindly closed my laptop before it saved! boo.

We went to the allotment last  weekend and FINALLY my sunflowers have now got flowers on them.

Here are the latest pics:

Taller than me

So pretty

And a Pumpkin!!

Sophie had a bit of trouble with Moira’s bees so cut her weeding short but I stayed a bit longer to finish off; after getting cankles from a bee sting a few weeks ago she didn’t want to risk anymore definition reducing swelling.

It looks like Rob’s Leeks have got rust which is a fungal infection. We may have to cull the badly infected but if it prevents the rest of the crop being lost then it’s well worth it. Rob’s away at a festival at the minute, so I’ll break the news to him when he gets back.

Me and Sophie are dog-sitting at Robbie and Michelle’s tonight. Robbie has cultivated an awesome set of Habanero chili’s and a Birds Eye – I am jealous (pics at the bottom)

Weeded and trimmed

Tomatoes

Unidentified chili

Jalapeno

The eye of Sauron

Robbie's Habanero chili's

Robbie's Birds Eye chili

You will need:

Serves two 

• 450g Lamb Mince
• Halloumi
• Sundried Tomatoes
•  2 x 1/2 bottom of a breadcake

1. Pre heat oven to 175 – gas oven, 150 electric
2. Bind the mince in a bowl – no need for eggs- and form into two patties
3. Place on a baking tray and put in the oven at 175 for 20 minutes
4. Keep checking the burgers as they will swell due to fat. You might want to prod them a bit to remove fat.
5. Once the burgers are almost done, turn on the grill
6. Cut two slices of halloumi 
7. Place halloumi and burgers under the grill. 
8. Once halloumi is golden, take out. Your burgers should be ready now too.
9. Toast the bottom of your breadcakes and place the burgers on top. 
10. Add the halloumi and then add a couple of sundried tomatoes.
11. Stick a stick – kebab or cocktail through the top to make it look well posh
12. Serve with salad / chips / onion rings and Philslaw

 As you can see even my closer magazine loves it! xx

We have picked so many courgettes and they were huge! So Phil decided to make a gorgeous soup on Saturday night…we rock!

So you will need:

• 10 courgettes
• 1 large potato
• 4 carrots
• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Vegetable stock (Phil prefers swiss boullin)
• 1/2 teaspoon tumeric 
• salt and pepper

1. Chop up courgettes / carrots / peeled potato / onion and garlic
2. Put a large pan on the and add two large glugs of olive oil
3. Gently fry the chopped onion and crushed garlic (be careful not to burn garlic)
4. Once softened add the courgettes, carrots and potato and stir thoroughly
5. Turn down the heat and put the lid on, sweat the vegetables for about 15  minutes
6. Add the vegetable stock (make up as directed) and fill to the top of the pan about an inch below the top veg line.
7. Add salt, pepper and tumeric
8. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes
9. Blend the soup and then serve.
10. Add a touch of cream and fresh basil for garnish

The plot is still churning out food though we’ve got a few bare patches in the plot now which we could do with filling. Not sure what to plant yet though.

The courgette plants have turned into monsters, I’ve never seen plants so big. I lopped off three giants (marrow size) which I’ve turned into courgette soup (recipe to follow).

The runner beans have continued to grow beyond the top of the wig wam. I hope they now realise they need to focus on making beans.

Runners

Gherkins

The Courgettes

Joes Long chilis

Red chili

The Plot

Prize winning cabbage

Prize winning onions

Prize winning tomatoes

Anyway, here is the recipe. I will attempt to make another one this weekend so hopefully will attach a pic.

You will need:

• 150ml double cream
• 150ml milk
• 2  Large eggs
• 75g Red leicester cheese
• 1 courgette
• 1 red onion
• salt and pepper
• And pre made shortcrust pastry. Obviously you can make this yourself but I’m  lazy

1. Mix the cream, milk , eggs, salt and pepper in a bowl.
2. Add chopped courgette and onion.
3. Grate the cheese and mix that in.
4. Pre heat oven to 180.
5. Roll out the pastry and line it in a heatproof quiche / flan dish.
6. Pour the mixture into the pastry
7. Put in the oven for an hour or until set.
8. Don’t leave in oven to go to the allotment so that it burns on top. 

Seriously, the plants are huge and if there was a competition for the largest plant and the most grown then I’m pretty certain that we’d defo win! We already had 3 in the fridge and I’ve just picked another 3 after work tonight and one of them is huge! Phil’s going to have to make some more of his delicious relish again.

I might add it to the recipes but it’s one we’ve pinched so feel a bit guilty.

We do have friends coming over tomorrow night so I might just chop up a couple and add them to my Lasagne.

We’ve picked another cabbage, lola rossa and a few carrots which haven’t really done too well  The peppers, however, are gorgeous and look like supermarket peppers. Well chuffed! The poly tunnel has done us proud again.

xxx Sophie xxx 

You will need:

• 4 tomatoes
• 1 red or white large onion
• A handful chopped basil or coriander (not spelled the way I thought)
• A good glugfull of olive oil
• A dash of cider vinegar
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of sugar

1. Chop up the tomato and onion and place in a bowl. 
2. Add the olive oil covering the onions and tomato
3. Add the vinegar, salt and sugar and mix until dissolved
4. Roughly chop the basil and add to the mixture.
5. Cover with film and leave in fridge for an hour, then serve.

You can add this to a salad or to accompany chicken or fish. Or even, add it as a side dish when you have a BBQ! 

One of the cucumber plants has been producing massive cucumbers which unfortunately tasted really bitter. It was at some point after that I remembered it was a lunchbox cucumber, meaning you were supposed to pick them when they were tiny. So, we picked some small ones and they still tasted bitter so I gave the plant three more days to produce something edible.

It didn’t and it was culled to make more room for the gherkin plant and the Chinese cucumber. While extricating its many tentacles from the polytunnel frame, I noticed that at some point I had beheaded the Chinese cucumber plant, oops. So we are down to just the gherkin plant, but that should see us through the summer.

We’ve had some good cabbages, my purple carrots and plenty of onions. Rob’s Leeks are coming along nicely and so are the French beans.

The space where the lunchbox lived.

Marigolds, good for washing the pots and for adding some colour.

Reach for the sky, beans!