The Glory of Strawberries

I went away last weekend for the Bank holiday to visit relatives. It was only for 3 nights but I was anxious to get as many of the seedlings in pots out of their pots and into the ground as possible before going away. With a bit of time/task juggling I managed to get everything except the pumpkin and tomato plants in the ground before I left. It was, therefore, something of a relief that it rained on the Saturday and gave everything a good watering.

On return from the relatives on Monday afternoon I went round to check everything had survived their unsupervised transplantation. I was pleased to see that the brassicas had settled in well, that the sweetcorn was thickening up nicely and the cucumbers were still intact. I was surprised, however, that the asparagus had grown so much in the meantime. The stems were so long that I hated the idea of cutting them back so I decided it was time to let it grow on. Usually asparagus can be cut until mid June so it was a bit early and it did mean that for once we had no veg to harvest from the allotment. At times like that I'm glad there are shops to fall back on.

One of the things I really hate about buying fruit and vegetables from the shops is the way you can buy anything at anytime regardless of whether or not it is in season. Not only are there issues about food miles and so forth but it takes away some of the variety and excitement associated with eating with the seasons. I have a rule never to buy strawberries so that when they are in season and growing on the allotment they are really a very exciting treat. My girls, particularly, look forward to June when the first strawberries ripen.

Well, I broke my rule this week and bought 2 punnets of strawberries - they were at least new season British strawberries, so fairly close to being homegrown. The reason being I needed to trial a strawberry knickerbocker glory recipe before the World Cup starts next week. The recipe, "Knickbocker World Cup Glory" uses the classic combo of strawberries and cream to create a red and white recipe to represent the England flag. As I'll be making the recipe next week with six seven year olds in after school cooking club, I decided it would make sense on many levels to try it out when my youngest had her best friend over for the day. I'm pleased to say it worked well - the 3 girls had a great time making it and an even better time eating it!

Knickerbocker World Cup Glory

(Serves 2 to 4)

1 tin of strawberries in juice

1 sachet of gelatine

400g strawberries

125ml apple juice

80g icing sugar

50ml whipping cream

50ml Greek yoghurt

Glace cherries

Open the tin of strawberries and pour the contents into a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes. In the meantime, put 2 tablespoons of water into a small pan and sprinkle the gelatine over then set aside. Drain the strawberries over a bowl then push through a sieve into the bowl. Gently heat the gelatine until melted then pour into the strawberry liquid. Leave to cool for a while then pour into a rectangular container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until set.

Weigh out 200g of fresh strawberries and place in a blender with the apple juice and blend until smooth. Add the icing sugar and mix thoroughly until dissolved. Pour the strawberry sauce into a jug. Place the cream into a small bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks then gently fold in the Greek yoghurt. Finally cut the jelly into small cubes. Now assemble the kickerbocker glory by layering together the remaining strawberries with the jelly, cream and strawberry sauce in tall glasses. Finish with a cherry on top.

When I did this I gave the girls plastic tumblers with an England flag on the side and then made mini England flags from pieces of paper and cocktail sticks. Great fun!

After walking my daughter's friend back home we stopped off at the local hedgerow and picked some lovely elderflower heads then later that afternoon I put them into a bowl to steep with the sugar water and citrus fruit. The kitchen was soon filled with the unmistakable summery smell of elderflower and lemons. The next evening I strained and bottled it and Steve had the first try, making it up with fizzy water and a good dash of gin. He declared it a definite hit!

Elderflower Cordial

2lb 4 oz (1kg) sugar

1½ pints (900ml) boiling water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon lime juice

about 15 large elder flower heads

1 lemon, sliced

1 lime, sliced

Put the sugar in a non-metallic bowl with the boiling water and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the lemon and lime juices. Wash and flick dry the elder flower heads then snip off the flowers into the bowl. Add the sliced lemon and lime. Stir then cover the bowl with Clingfilm and leave to stand for 24 hours. Scald a jelly bag and drain the mixture through it into a clean bowl. Funnel into sterile bottles then refrigerate.

Dilute to taste.

This weekend when we went out to the allotment what did we find? The first 3 ripe strawberries! Despite their Knickerbocker Glories earlier in the week the girls were still very excited about this and pulled each strawberry in half to share before running off to see if they could find anymore... a fruitless search (ho ho)!

Whilst they amused themselves in their strawberry hunt I pulled the autumn planted onions out of the ground. They have all bolted now so they aren't going to be particularly great onions and the ground can be better used for something else. I had just tossed the last of last year's stored onions in the compost bin so these new onions will at least fill the gap before the main crop ones are ready.

During the hunt for strawberries, the girls discovered the radishes were ready to pick. Not quite the juicy delights of strawberries but a useful crop nonetheless. So there I was thinking it was going to be a second week without fresh food from the allotment but instead we had 3 new things plus elderflowers from the hedgerow. And with the mangetout, peas and broad beans all flowering their socks off hopefully it is just the beginning of many weeks of homegrown food to come.

So two weeks ago I was shivering in the wind and rain whilst potting on strawberry plants and this weekend I was roasting in a May heatwave - no wonder us Brits are always talking about the weather! Now I'm suffering from Gardener's Sunburn. This is along similar lines to the Builder's Bum, except it is sunburn along that line of skin that becomes exposed between top of trousers and bottom of t-shirt when bent over.

I started my weekend with a hunt for the sunblock, shorts, hats and sunglasses for the girls. Somehow summer had snuck up on me and left me completely unprepared. Suitably attired and protected from the sun we went out to the allotment before it got too hot. First I helped my eldest plant a couple of rows of Mini Pop sweetcorn at the edge of her plot. It has been about 5 years since I last tried growing these as my attempts in the past have failed to produce the desired crop. It is all too easy to wait too long before picking by which time they have turned from mini corn into a not particularly great variety of corn on the cob. Still, I have decided to try them again and work a bit harder to pick them small. Maybe having impatient young children nagging to harvest them will help. We'll see.

At the other end of the plot we planted 12 conventional corn on the cob sweetcorn plants. I've been struggling with low germination rates on the sweetcorn this year so after planting the ones that had germinated I investigated the others to see if they had in fact germinated but were yet to emerge. This was the case for 2 apparently empty ones but in two more I found tiny maggots in the sweetcorn seed. Not sure what they were but it certainly explained the problem.

After that the girls each sowed 12 beans. My youngest went first, sowing a yellow climbing French bean to fit in with her all yellow vegetable plot this year. My eldest is trying bollotti beans, mainly because they are speckled red when mature and that fits nicely into her red and purple colour scheme. By the time we had done that it was nearly midday so I picked 5 more rhubarb stems and a big bunch of mint from our little pond before heading home again.

Whilst mad dogs and Englishmen had there turn in the garden, I retreated inside and made mint choc chip ice-cream from the bundle of fresh mint. If you're a fan of the bright green stuff that tastes like toothpaste then you'd probably not like my version. It is still surprisingly green but the taste is of fresh mint, not mint essence. I think it's yummy... my youngest thinks it takes like leaves! Oh well, more for me.

Mint Choc Chip Ice-cream

A big bundle of fresh mint leaves

10 ml milk

3 oz icing sugar

284ml double cream

2-3 oz dark chocolate chips

Strip the mint leaves from the stems and coarsly chop. Put the milk and the leaves in a pan and heat gently, without boiling, for about 5 minutes. Pour the leaves and milk into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the cream and stir. Pour into a suitable container then add the chocolate chips. Freeze for about 3 hours then remove from the freezer and whip up to break any ice crystals and to distribute the chocolate chips. Return to the freezer but repeat this after another hour.

Having chopped up the rhubarb, ready to make a second batch of rhubarb and ginger jam we went out to B&Q to replenish our supplies of potting compost and to buy some new canes. That morning whilst erectly a wigwam for the bollotti beans I had almost impaled myself boob first on a garden cane as it snapped under my pressure. They really do get quite brittle and dangerous after a few years and it was definitely time for some new ones. On our way home we popped into Dobbies and bought a few vegetable plants too. I know it's not best value for money but it is handy to have this facility when germination rates are poor or slugs have nibbled your seedlings. We bought carrot and beetroot seedlings (having failed to get any seeds to germinate so far this year), swede and red cabbage (having had snails eat all my seedlings), and sweetcorn (to make up for the poor germination rates).

That afternoon my girls went off to a party and Steve and I went back to the allotment. Steve cleared the last two beds whilst I planted my new carrot and beetroot seedlings and picked the asparagus. By then it was time to pick the girls up again before making tea.

On Sunday morning I made the rhubarb and ginger jam and in the afternoon we slapped on more sunblock and went back to the allotment. I started by erecting the new canes to support the French beans that Steve had sown the weekend before, whilst Steve rotovated the two beds he had cleared the day before. I soon filled these new beds with our freshly bought sweetcorn and brassicas. In the meantime, Steve sorted out the old strawberry bed ready to home our 48 new strawberry plants. By the end of Sunday things were really starting to look good - just the remaining brassicas, tomatoes and cucurbits to plant out now.

Back home, after a refreshing shower I decided to extend the feeling of a hot, sunny day by digging 8 oz of blackcurrants out of the freezer and making a blackcurrant trifle for pudding. The question is, will the trifle last longer than the heatwave?

Blackcurrant Trifle

Plain sponge or maderia cake

Apple juice or Creme de Cassis

1 sachet gelatine

3 tablespoons water

8 oz blackcurrants

5 oz granulated sugar

Custard

Whipped cream

Place the spong cake in the bottom of the trifle dish and soak with apple juice or creme de cassis. Place the gelatine in a small pan and sprinkle 3 tablespoons of water over it and leave to one side to swell. Place the blackcurrants, sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes until soft. Drain through a sieve, pressing the berries to extract the remaining juice. Gently heat the gelatine until melted then pour into the blackcurrant mix. Leave to cool then pour the blackcurrant liquid over the sponge and refrigerate for a few hours to set. Next, pour the custard over the jelly and return to the fridge. Add the cream before serving.

15 fl oz water

What a difference between today's weather and last Saturday's. Sunny, warm... cheerful even and just the right weather to really get on with things. So, after hanging the washing out in the lovely sunshine that's just what I did.

I started with potting on the brassica seedlings. I had sown loads of brassica seeds two or three weeks ago and they had germinated with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, snails had crept into the coldframe and munched quite a few of them, preferentially the Brussel sprouts it would seem. I put out slug pellets mid-week which seems to have helped but in the meantime the seedlings towards the back of the cold frame have grown leggy. So I rummaged around for a collection of small flower pots, some plant labels and compost and potted the seedlings up, burying their long stems deeply. I returned them to the cold frame with fresh slug pellets and a dose of hope.

After lunch we all headed around to the allotment. Here I started by running my hoe between the rows of onions, shallots, garlic, peas and broad beans, all coming along nicely. Next I moved some self-sown leek seedlings to a more convenient place and added my deliberately sown leek seedlings to the same rows. Then I resowed carrots and beetroot. I had sown them originally the weekend before Easter but apart from one very small patch of carrots nothing had germinated. They are notoriously difficult to get started and there is lots of conflicting advice out there on how best to get them started. I have heard it said that watering them every day for 14 days after sowing is the answer but I have also been told you should never water carrots but only let the rain do the job. Who knows! Anyway, this afternoon I used up a whole bag of sharp sand, lining the bottom of each drill before sowing the seeds. Maybe this finer medium will help. Time will tell.

Whilst we were there a man from the parish council turned up with a map of the site in his hand. He told me he was checking to see if any of the plots were not being worked at the moment since our tenancies are due for renewal right now. We had received the renewal notices in the post this week. I don't know whether our parish council is typical but I found the whole thing very unfriendly and a little stressful. The notice went on about things which were against policy and the checks that would be made. There was a deadline for returning the payment by, after which time your plot would be offered to the next person on the waiting list, and to top it all they had increased the annual fee from £12 to £25 without a word of warning. Not that that is expensive but it is still more than double what it was and no mention it was going to happen. Allotment gardening is a great deal of fun and other plot holders are a friendly bunch so why can't the parish council be a bit friendlier too? You know, thanks for being a tenant every year for the past 13 years, always paying on time, keeping your plot tidy... and so on... and is there anything we can do for you... cut the grass more often, trim the over hanging surrounding trees maybe? So when this man in his bright red jumper appeared with a clipboard and map this afternoon I found myself feeling nervous, wondering who would pass the grade. Is May really the best time to work out which plots are being properly worked? Lots of bare ground and the sudden growth of grass and weeds at this time of year is hardly catching us at our best. The man in the red jumper didn't look like he knew much about gardening and I suspect he didn't have the imagination to work out what the plots would look like in a month or two when the seeds have germinated, when the things in pots growing at home had been planted and the weeds were a bit more under control. Not that I need to worry but some of the other plot holders might need to, and they are my friends and they have lives too which can at time get in the way of perfect plots for a short while.

Anyway, shortly after the man in the red jumper left I did too. The girls were keen to go home and I had some rhubarb prepared and ready to turn into jam too. Usually I bottle my jams in cute little 4 oz jars, and a few 2 oz jars too, which I label and sell at craft fayres around Christmas. However, this batch of jam is already earmarked for one of the school run mums who bought my entire stock of the stuff last year. She's impatient for her new supply and not at all bothered about cute little jars and pretty labels so I ladled this panful into three 8 oz jars, slapped a simple name label on it and emailed her to arrange delivery. Job done. What a satisfying start to the preserve making season. £25 a year... worth every penny!

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

4-5 stems, weighing roughly 1 lb (454g)
The same weight of sugar as rhubarb
1 small lemon, rind and juice
1/2 oz (15g) root ginger, bruised
1/2 oz (15g) stem ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon syrup from stem ginger jar

Wash the rhubarb and cut it into pieces roughly 1 inch (2.5cm) long. Layer the rhubarb in a non metallic bowl with the lemon rind and sugar then pour in the lemon juice. Cover the bowl and stand overnight. Tip the contents of the bowl into a preserving pan and add the root ginger, wrapped in a piece of muslin. Bring to the boil then simmer for a few minutes until the rhubarb is soft, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a vigorous boil and boil for 5 to 10 minutes until the setting point is reached. Remove from the heat and discard the root ginger. Stir in the stem ginger and syrup. Ladle into warmed jars and seal immediately.

Cold, wet and miserable... and not just the weather

This weekend the annual Stoke Goldington Steam Rally and Country Fair was on, something I have enjoyed attending since I was a child. Having watched the weather forecast on Friday evening it seemed that Sunday was going to be the better day so we decided to earmark that as the day we would go. Having set aside Sunday for this family outing it meant that everything else that needed doing had to be crammed into Saturday. As we went up to bed on Friday night Steve asked, "What are you going to do tomorrow?" I replied, "The washing, clean the bathroom, make you some more flapjacks, pot on the tomatoes and strawberries... oh and make a model fire engine." Steve smiled and said, "And what about after lunch?

At half past nine the next morning the postman rang the bell and delivered a large envelope containing 36 bare-rooted strawberry runners. So that shifted my to do list around a bit.

After putting the washing on the airer and cleaning the bathroom, I put on my raincoat and wellies and went out into garden to construct a temporary potting shed under our shelter. It was raining steadily and a cold wind was blowing but I had to get the strawberries into pots. In fact, when I went around to the allotment to retrieve some pots and troughs I was surprised to find 3 our people there, gardening in the rain. "Well," one lady said, "it's May and these jobs need doing." How true.

That morning I potted up the 36 new strawberry runners, and potted on the 12 strawberries that I'd bought a fortnight previously. Then I potted on my 5 indoor tomato plants plus about 20 tiny tomato seedlings, 8 cucumber seedlings and 4 lettuce plants. By the time I came back inside I was cold, wet, stiff and miserable. As much as I love gardening, sometimes things can be a bit of chore. Still, on the plus side, whilst changing out of my gardening clothes I decided to climb back into bed for a few minutes to warm up under the covered and Steve came to my rescue and snuggled up with me!

Sunday was a much nicer day but no time for gardening. We went of to the country fayre and had a pleasant afternoon there. We even bought a few gardening bits whilst we were there. When we came home it was time to get the Sunday dinner in the oven. Earlier in the week I had been browsing the reduced section in the supermarket as I often do and had picked up a big block of meat labelled as "pork fillet". In my head the word "fillet" had equated with "best bit", such as in "fillet steak" but having got it home I began to have second thoughts. After all, in my opinion, the tastiest pork is the stuff with a bit of fat running through it. I imagined that a bit of roast pork fillet could come out of the oven with all the charm of the sole of a shoe. So instead I thought I might try a pot roast, not something I had done before. Still, I browsed the internet for a few ideas and quickly got the hang of it. And what a delicious result... tasty and moist roast pork and lovely gravy too. And as an added bonus it used up 8 homegrown shallots and some sprigs of fresh oregano from the garden. A lovely warming meal in May when the weather was still stuck in March.

Pork Pot Roast (serves 4)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 piece of pork fillet (about 750g)
150g pancetta cubes
Several sprigs of fresh oregano
8 shallots
2 sticks of celery
1 pint chicken stock
1 oz flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas 4 and spoon the olive oil into the bottom of a suitable casserole dish. Brown the pork all over in a frying pan then place in the casserole dish. Fry the pieces of pancetta for 2 to 3 minutes then add to the dish. Put the oregano in the casserole dish too. Peel the shallots but leave whole and chop the celery into a few large pieces. Fry the shallots and celery for a few minutes until beginning to brown then add to the dish. Pour any excess oil from the frying pan before tipping in the chicken stock. Heat the chicken stock in the frying pan, scrapping the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Pour the stock into the casserole dish too so that the vegetables are covered. Put on the lid or cover with foil then place in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes, removing the lid or foil for the last 20 minutes. Once cooked, place the pork in a warm place to rest, drain the stock into a clean pan and set the vegetables to one side. Mix the flour with a little cold water then pour into the stock and stir, bring to the boil to make a gravy. Carve the pork and serve with the shallots and celery and gravy along with some roast potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli and asparagus.

Plots and Polls

Well today the nation has gone to the polls to elect a new prime minister. The allotment, one might argue, would be a good place to go to avoid all the media hype about it but other than that what has politics got to do with kitchen gardening? Ordinarily I wouldn't think there was much in common but it effects my household because Steve is a presiding officer today, in charge of a polling station. This requires him to be at the polling station from 6am to 10pm - a long day. As such, I wanted to make sure he went out well loaded up with food for the day. So on Wednesday I spent a good deal of the day in the kitchen making him snacks and something tasty for his dinner.

Fortunately, the polling station spends the rest of its time being a community centre and is furnished with a kitchen, including an oven but no microwave. On previous election days I have simply bought him a ready made hotpot or Cumberland pie but I found myself wondering why I did this when I'm more than capable of creating "ready meals" myself. So on Tuesday I bought 750g of minced beef and on Wednesday I cooked it up following my bolognese recipe, using homegrown onions and a batch of pureed tomatoes retrieved from the safety of Sue's freezer. Half of it went nicely into 2 aluminium trays for Cumberland pie and the remainder went into a dish with sheets of lasagne and bechemel sauce for me and the girls to have whilst Steve was away. To finish the Cumberland Pie I boiled up one of my last parsnips with 2 potatoes and mashed them together with a knob of butter and a dash of olive oil. This went on top with a sprinkling of Parmesan just to help the browning effect. One went in the freezer and the other in the fridge for Steve to take with him on his long day. I also packed him up two rounds of sandwiches and a batch of my yummy honey and vanilla flapjacks. That should keep him going!

Often in the mornings I'm up and out on the school run before Steve is out of bathroom and I rush home again in time to see him off to work with a kiss. But this morning he was gone before 6am so there was no need to rush back from school. Instead I stood and chatted with 3 of the other mums. I was a little surprised that in addition to the school gate gossip we had kitchen gardening in common, each of us talking about which seeds had germinated and what to do with the seedlings we had. One of the mums even had half a dozen courgette plants with her to give out to anyone interested. It is pleasing that so many people are giving kitchen gardening a go, even if it is just in a few containers or wherever they can find space.

Back home I couldn't help but take a peek in my coldframe to see how I was doing compared to the other ladies. I had sown cucurbits, tomatoes, brassicas and sweet corn in pots about a fortnight ago and, although I knew the brassicas had germinated, I wasn't sure about anything else. It is always difficult to know when to worry. The lady with the courgette plants is impatient when it comes to these things and has even dug things up just to see if they have germinated - not to be recommended! It can be hard to have faith that things will grow, particularly when you are new to it, but you do have to believe... well, for about 3 weeks anyway and then it's time to give up hope and re-sow. So you can imagine I was relieved when I spotted my first cucurbit seedings, a spike of a sweet corn and even a tomato. Inside on the front window sill my chilli peppers had suddenly sprung up from no where... do you think they knew I had been taking about them behind their backs? And do you think they care that they have arrived just in time for a new political stage?

No, I don't either!

A bizarre crime

I went away on holiday last week and had a lovely time with the family on the south coast and Isle of Wight. We got back from holiday on Monday evening, feeling tired and hungry but pleased we weren't stuck in a foreign airport stranded by Icelandic volcanic dust!

I was pleased to see that my 5 tiny tomato seedlings had grown during the week and had survived a week without watering. The peanut seedlings had done well too and my hanging basket had burst into full glory of pink primulas - what a cheery site.

However, beyond the hanging basket I spotted my daughter's bike lying on the lawn instead of in the shed. Steve and I rushed outside and quickly discovered that the gate we had left bolted no longer was. We checked out the bike and could see nothing wrong with it and we looked around to see if anything else had been taken. All 3 of the other bikes were still in place, as were the abundant toys such as roller skates and scooters. Even the tools Steve had been using to make raised beds on the allotment were still there even though they were conveniently stashed in a highly portable bucket. We concluded it must have been children who had broken in, ridden the bike around and then left, and we considered ourselves fortunate.

I busied myself in the garden for a few minutes, watering the hanging basket and other container plants which were suffering after a week without rain. The leek seedlings in the cold frame were dry but still standing upright. Then it was time to make tea. Having been away for a week tea was to come from the freezer, only when I opened the chest freezer I discovered it was completely empty - not even a crumb left! Someone had stolen the entire contents of our freezer!

I stood there baffled for a few moments, racking my brain to think whether there might have been some kind of mistake, whether a friend or relative might have moved the stuff for some reason... all sorts of silly thoughts because the reality was just as weird. Now we realised that they had moved our daughter's bike out of the way just to steal the food. But why? Nobody these days is that desperate for food.

Our first thought was what we were going to have for dinner since our dinner had now been stolen so Steve, reluctantly after driving back from Southampton, drove round to the supermarket to get some things. As the minutes passed I remembered more and more of the stuff that had been in the freezer. Bags of chicken nuggets and frozen chips are really neither here nor there as they can be replaced but the homegrown and the home made food cannot and that is what was mostly in the freezer. Homemade ice-cream, pumpkin pancakes, leek & bacon quiche, stuffing balls, frozen soft fruit, a plum upsidedown cake... and on and on. When I told my daughter that her batch of mini pizzas she had spent 2 hours making had gone too she burst into tears!

I don't know what the thieves would have done with the food. I imagine that anything not in a branded packet and without cooking instructions would have been thrown away and yet these are the things that were so valuable to us. I went to bed that night feeling sad.

The next day I still felt bad about it and I stood at my kitchen window staring at the shed with a gutted feeling in my stomach. It was a beautiful sunny day and I shouldn't be feeling down so I went for a walk around the allotments to cheer myself up. Things here had grown too in the week we were away and stems of asparagus were poking out of the ground ready for picking. The purple broccoli was abundant too. It was nice to see things ready to harvest but I also enjoyed the signs of new growth - the teeny tiny apricots forming, the new stems of rhubarb, the first pea tips poking out of the soil. Later that afternoon when the girls got home from school were went around to the allotment and I watered the seedlings and harvested the broccoli whilst my eldest cut the asparagus and my youngest made a dandelion chain.

Over the next couple of days I remembered more and more of the contents of my freezer. By Wednesday I was ready to go shopping again to replace the easy stuff. It was weird having to do a weekly shop and buy something for every day of the week, knowing there wasn't just something in the freezer for tea on some days. I had to buy new storage boxes too as I had lost quite a few in the robbery.

I'm fortunate enough to be a positive person and I do tend to "make the best" in every situation and soon I was recovering and even seeing some positives. It was handy that they had stolen 4 tubs of "freezer coleslaw" that really hadn't worked out that well, and the homemade Cornish pasties that was missing a pinch or two of salt. And I had made rather more cubes of pectin than I had needed from last year's apple peelings so I didn't have to worry now about throwing those away. I am also pleased that I still have quite a lot of frozen fruit in Sue's freezer. Another plus is that right now I have plenty of freezer space. I had planned in January to have my freezer empty by June, I had just never imagined it would happen like this!

I started to replace the homemade food on Wednesday and I did a bit more yesterday and I was beginning to feel a bit better. Then at dinner time I got cross again whilst making crab cakes for tea because the recipe called for breadcrumbs and my handy bag of frozen crumbs had been stolen with everything else! I made fresh crumbs instead so wasn't defeated but it makes me cross that someone would steal something as "valueless" as a bag of frozen breadcrumbs. What annoys me more is that what was stolen won't have been appreciated for what it was - you cannot put a price on the time, energy and effort that goes into growing and making your own food and even when you try to steal it you fail to gain it's true worth.

Crab and Leek Cakes

Makes 5 (enough for 1 person)

1 small tin of crab meat in brine, drained

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 small leek, very finely cropped

2 sprigs of lemon thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

1 egg

2-3 slices of wholemeal bread made into crumbs

Oil for frying

Place the drained crab in a bowl and add the mayonnaise, leek, thyme and black pepper and mix well. Take handfuls of the mixture then dip it into the egg before coating it in breadcrumbs. Repeat until all the mixture is used and you have 5 crab cakes. Place on a plate and refrigerate for at least half an hour. Heat some oil in a frying pan then fry the cakes for 5-7 minutes, turning occasionally. Serve hot with chips and some sweet chilli dipping sauce. Not suitable for freezing.

Coming to terms with a summer without plums

Spring has arrived in glorious style - bright sunshine and a breath of warm air. The washing is back out in the garden, fighting for space with the nesting birds and the spring flowers. But it is on the allotment that things are really getting going. You can't step away for a moment without missing a growing opportunity but step away we did nonetheless. The traditional weekend for planting potatoes is the Easter weekend but instead we went for a long weekend to the mother-in-law's house! Well, what can you do when duty calls? Still, the main reason this weekend is traditional for planting potatoes is because it was one of the few occasions that people historically were given a day off from work. Fortunately, working practises are a little more relaxed these days and if, like us, you missed the Easter weekend, there are still 3 more in April to use instead.

As it happens, Steve took Tuesday off work too and it was a beautiful day. I decided to postpone the weekly shop for a day and we went out as a family to catch up with the gardening. It did mean having to eat cheese and crackers for lunch (no bread) and fish and chips from the freezer for tea!

It is a funny thing really, you spend all winter chomping at the bit, anxious to get things growing again and then suddenly before you know it you are behind schedule with the sowing of seeds. Steve worked hard all day with the intention of getting the rest of the first early potatoes planted but he didn't quite manage it. Instead he built a couple of more raised beds ready for the potatoes so hopefully this coming weekend he'll get them in.

In the meantime I found space for the last few onion sets then sowed some carrots and parsnips in between in the hope that it will confuse the carrot root fly... or at least the dozy slugs. Following that I filled half a bed with broad bean seeds.

By this time the girls had had a good run around and play and were keen to sow a few seeds on their little plots. First I used a staple gun, string and a tape measure to divide their long raised bed into five 1 metre square beds. The first of these will be their shared sweetcorn bed, the second will be my youngest potato beds, the third is her main vegetable bed, followed by my eldest's veg bed then her potato bed. The last 30cm that otherwise doesn't fit in the plan we will use this year to give mini sweetcorn another go.

You may remember that my youngest wanted to grow all yellow vegetables and my eldest wanted to grow red and purple vegetables. We got this underway by planting 6 Yukon Gold seed potatoes and 6 Roosters. Next my youngest sowed her yellow mangetout, golden beetroot, and radish seeds. In the meantime my eldest sowed purple podded peas, red beetroot, red lettuce and radish seeds. There was then a short pause from sowing whilst we mixed together a bag of multi purpose compost with half a bag of sharp sand. This we shovelled into a couple of square wooden planters. Into this mix we sowed their carrot seeds. This mixture seems to help the carrot seeds germinate as well as giving them an easy job pushing their way into the soil before making it easy to harvest.

I was pleased with the enthusiastic way in which they got on with sowing the seeds and was also pleased that they could get on and do it completely on their own, with me sat back providing descriptions and instructions. They are 5 and 7 years old now and have a promising range of gardening skills. They were happy with their work but pleased when it was done and they could return to their game. My youngest rushed off to see how many dandelions she could pick from the allotment site and none of the other plot holders there that afternoon complained about that! My eldest decided to see if she could dig her way to Australia! Well, we all have to try that at some point don't we?!

I finished off with the gentle task of tying the new tayberry stems to their archway support. I'm pleased to say that my two rhubarb crowns from Thompson and Morgan are now above the surface and unfurling leaves. The one from Wilkinson's is looking less promising. I am also very pleased to see blossom on my apricot tree. I planted that 2 years ago and this is the first year it has flowered. It would be brilliant to get some apricots off it! I also think the pear, planted the same year, could also be about to burst into blossom. On a less positive note, my plum tree shows no signs whatsoever of giving any blossom this year. It often has a bumper year followed by a lean year whilst it recovers but this year there seems to be nothing at all. Suddenly, the remaining frozen plums in Sue's freezer have gone from being something of a nuisance to a valuable commodity. A summer without plums... I've not had one of those for 12 years... how will I cope?