Friday 2 December 2022

December 2022

 


Links to Mr. Middleton's tasks 1st 

December 1st Week
December 2nd Week
December 3rd Week
December 4th Week
December 5th Week
1st Thursday - Spent the afternoon at the community allotment garden working with the refugee volunteers who are helping to create a workshop suitable to host our Men's Shed group sessions. 
2nd Friday - No gardening today as I prepared for my first job interview in 17 years and prepared and went for that. I have a job, but I've been working through the night for over 17 years and need to get back to daytime work.
3rd Saturday - No gardening today as we visited the Manchester Christmas market today.
4th Sunday - Visited the allotment, more weeding done. Planted out some Swiss Chard and garlic. Harvested some more potatoes that I had forgotten about. I've plenty to keep me busy over winter.
5th Monday -
6th Tuesday-
7th Wednesday
8th Thursday
9th Friday
10th Saturday
11th Sunday - 
12th Monday
13th Tuesday-
14th Wednesday
15th Thursday
16th Friday
17th Saturday
18th Sunday 
19th Monday
20th Tuesday-
21st Wednesday
22nd Thursday
23rd Friday
24th Saturday
25th Sunday
26th Monday
27th Tuesday-
28th Wednesday
29th Thursday
30th Friday
31st Saturday
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Tuesday 1 November 2022

November 2022





 Below are the links to Mr Middleton tasks from his 1945 book:


Link to the November1945 Allotment & Garden Guide:


Allotment & Garden Guide NOVEMBER


1st
2nd , 
3rd , 
4th .  
5th , 
6th ,
7th , 
8th 
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12th , 
13th , 
14th , 
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Sunday 2 October 2022

October 2022

 

Links to Mr. Middleton's tasks 1st: 

1st Harvested squash, runner beans and apples. Sad to find that rats have managed to scale my apple trees and destroy the fruit. Mixed rain and sunshine today.
2nd 
3rd 
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5th
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23rd
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31st
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Saturday 3 September 2022

September 2022

 

September 2020

 Links to Mr. Middleton's tasks first :



1st
2nd
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August 2022

 Links to Mr. Middleton's weekly tasks:

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Friday 1 July 2022

July 2022

 Links to Mr Middleton's weekly tasks first:






 

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th 
13th 
14th
15th 
16th
17th 
18th Vegan raspberry tray bake, I've typed up the full recipe and method. Cooking time is around 1 hour (maybe a touch longer depending on whether the skewer/wooden toothpick comes out clean.)
Ingredients:
250ml soya milk
2 tsp white wine vinegar (you can use apple cider vinegar instead)
250g plain flour
150g light brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
75ml vegetable oil
2 tsp natural vanilla extract 
200g raspberries
Method
First line a 30cm x 20cm baking tray with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 220C.
 Then add the vinegar to the soya milk in a bowl and give the mixture a stir (this will make the soya milk curdle and thicken). Set this bowl aside whilst you continue with the rest of the ingredients.
 Into a large mixing bowl sift the flour and then add the sugar, baking powder, oil and vanilla essence. Stir the mixture up thoroughly before pouring in the curdled soya milk/vinegar mixture and stirring again until everything is thoroughly mixed.
 Next mix in the raspberries before pouring the mixture into the baking tin.
 Bake for 25 minutes before turning the tray round in the oven and reducing the oven temperature down to 180C, continue baking until the tray bake is firm and springy to touch and a toothpick/skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (about 30-35 min).
19th
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31st 
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Wednesday 1 June 2022

June 2022

 




 Links to Mr. Middleton's weekly tasks first:

June 1st Week
June 2nd Week
June 3rd Week
June 4th Week
June 5th Week


1st (Wednesday) Visited the allotment. Harvested Mexican tree spinach and lemon balm. Used the lemon balm that evening to brew herbal tea which was consumed the same day. Spent 1 hour weeding mainly nettle seedlings, cleavers and bindweed. Noticed rust on some of the leaves of the Concorde pear tree and so pruned away all affected parts. Pruned one of the small plum trees. Other observations were that the apples were steadily growing on the tree but "June drop" had begun with around 20 unformed apples on the ground,
 Had a meeting with my local council allotment officers on Tuesday evening regarding the process of our allotment site becoming devolved managed. Rather perplexed by the lengthy GDPR documents they gave us with all manner of details unnecessary for an allotment tenant. Ended up writing a letter to the National Allotment Society for some advice that might be more in keeping with allotments.
 Visited the community garden as I went to drop off some wood which was being donated from a local church.
2nd (Thursday) Received a phone call from one of the devolved managed allotment site secretaries this afternoon regarding allotment co-workers. His question was do the co-workers have to live in the borough and can an individual be a co-worker on several plots. I said I would forward his questions to the council for an official response. Seeing that it is the first of the Platinum Jubilee bank holidays today I am not expecting a speedy reply. I was supposed to be having a sabbatical from the role of allotment federation secretary. 
 Visited the allotment. Harvested a lettuce, some gooseberries and a selection of salad leaves (mizuna, ruby streaks, wild rocket and young Mexican tree spinach).
 Observations: green fly on the plum tree prunings from yesterday. The peas sown 2 weeks ago are making steady progress whilst the earlier sown Ne Plus Ultra peas are now over 6 feet in height.
3rd (Friday)
4th (Saturday)
5th (Sunday)
6th (Monday)
7th (Tuesday)
8th (Wednesday)
9th (Thursday)
10th (Friday)
11th (Saturday)
12th (Sunday)
13th (Monday)
14th (Tuesday)
15th (Wednesday)
16th (Thursday)
17th (Friday)
18th (Saturday)
19th (Sunday)
20th (Monday)
21st (Tuesday)
22nd (Wednesday)
23rd (Thursday)
24th (Friday)
25th (Saturday)
26th (Sunday)
27th (Monday)
28th (Tuesday)
29th (Wednesday)
30th (Thursday)

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Sunday 1 May 2022

May 2022

 


 Links to Mr. Middleton's weekly tasks first:

May 1st Week
May 2nd Week
May 3rd Week
May 4th Week

1st (Sunday) 
2nd (Monday) 
3rd (Tuesday)
4th (Wednesday)
5th (Thursday) 
6th (Friday)
7th (Saturday)
8th (Sunday)
9th (Monday)
10th (Tuesday)
11th (Wednesday)
12th (Thursday)
13th (Friday)
14th (Saturday)
15th (Sunday)
16th (Monday)
17th (Tuesday)
18th (Wednesday)
19th (Thursday)
20th (Friday)
21st (Saturday) 
22nd (Sunday)
23rd (Monday)
24th (Tuesday)
25th (Wednesday)
26th (Thursday) 
27th (Friday) 
28th (Saturday) 
29th (Sunday) 
30th (Monday) . 
31st (Tuesday) 
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Saturday 16 April 2022

April 2022

 

April 2022

Links to Mr. Middleton's tasks 1st  :


 


1st Friday, returned from a holiday in Cornwall and managed to pop to the allotment to pick some salad leaves and water the seedlings in the polytunnel.  
2nd Saturday, spent the morning on the allotment and the afternoon at the community garden.
3rd Sunday, focused today on ordering items for the community garden's Easter event next weekend. Visited the allotment and harvested some kale. 
4th Monday, (International carrot day) contacted the council manager today regarding our progress on becoming self managed since that same manager had promised us back in January that all would be sorted before April 1st. Alerted today that fellow plot holders had started to receive their invoices from the council and that there were several variations of these invoices being sent out that didn't equal the rates we agreed in January.
5th Tuesday. the council manager turned up at noon today whilst we did a joint meter reading on the water for when our association takes over management. 
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th
13th
14th
15th
16th Saturday, spent the afternoon at the community garden. Visited the allotment in the evening to water the seedlings. Radish sown last week is making an appearance.
17th
18th
19th
20th
21st
22nd
23rd
24th Sunday, pricked out tomato red bear & red cherry along with kale (Nero-Di-Toscana). Planted out Tom Thumb lettuce, Mexican tree spinach. Transplanted some garlic as it was growing where I had sown broad beans.
25th
26th
27th
28th
29th
30th
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Monday 28 February 2022

March 2022

 Here are the links to Mr. Middleton's tasks for the month of March:

 (please note that I have not updated all these tasks at present) :


1st (Tuesday) Visited the community garden this afternoon.
2nd (Wednesday) A rather bizarre event concerning the allotment federation. It would appear that the vice-chair has attended meetings with the local authority and has been totally clueless throughout. As the secretary, I have spent today comprehending where things went wrong and formulating a response.
3rd (Thursday) As the secretary, I have responded to the local authority and took the liberty to take a sabbatical from the position of the federation's secretary.
4th (Friday) Visited the community garden.
5th (Saturday) Spent several hours planting trees at the community garden. Managed to get 32 in the ground today.
6th (Sunday) Visited the allotment, replanted the fig tree. Cleared up one side of the polytunnel ready for seed trays. Dug up and relocated a plum tree. Removed two large branches from the old apple tree to make space for the polytunnel's relocation. Began lifting paving flags to lay as the base for the polytunnel. Planted some Ruby Streaks, mustard greens in the front Jerusalem artichoke bed which will grow as a catch crop. Harvested salad leaves, kales and Jerusalem artichokes.  
7th (Monday) No gardening today but did visit the allotment this morning. Focused my attention on pushing for the self-management of the allotment site that I chair the association on.
8th (Tuesday) Moved the pea and sweetpea seedlings into the greenhouse.
9th (Wednesday)
10th (Thursday)
11th (Friday)
12th (Saturday)
13th (Sunday)
14th (Monday)
15th(Tuesday)
16th (Wednesday)
17th (Thursday)
18th (Friday)
19th (Saturday)
20th  (Sunday)
21st (Monday)
22nd (Tuesday)
23rd (Wednesday)
24th  (Thursday)   
25th (Friday)
26th (Saturday)
27th (Sunday)
28th (Monday)
29th(Tuesday)
30th (Wednesday)
31st (Thursday)
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Parsnip Soup

Ingredients :

1 tbsp vegetable oil.

1 medium sized onion finely chopped

1 potato, peeled, washed and finely grated

Parsnips, peeled, washed and sliced

1200 ml of vegetable stock,

Salt and pepper for seasoning.


Method.

Heat the vegetable oil in a pan before adding the onion. Reduce the heat and apply the pan lid for a minute or two whilst the onion softens without browning.

Add the veg stock along with the parsnip and potato. Increase the heat to bring the pan to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes of simmering remove the pan from the heat. Add salt & pepper to taste before using a stick blender to transform the mixture into a smooth creamy soup ready to serve.


It will keep for several days if refrigerated once cool. You can add chilli peppers if you want a hotter soup.

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Monday 31 January 2022

February 2022

 Here are the links to Mr. Middleton's tasks for the month of February:





1st Tuesday,  
2nd Wednesday
3rd Thursday
4th Friday
5th Saturday 
6th Sunday
7th Monday
8th Tuesday
9th Wednesday
10th Thursday
11th Friday
12th Saturday
13th Sunday 
14th Monday
15th Tuesday 
16thWednesday Storm Dudley arrives. Wind and rain and much unsuitable for outdoor work.
17th Thursday Visited the allotment. Pruned some of the gooseberry bushes and began filling the hole in where the fig tree had been lifted from.
18th Friday Storm Eunice, a brief visit to the allotment today. 
19th Saturday Rain all day, attempted to do some lavender cuttings from the garden.
20th Sunday Storm Franklin, visited the allotment, surveyed the damage to my neighbour's plots and brought home some compost and seed trays for sowing at home.
21st Monday the storms continue today with endless rain and wind with localised flooding.
22nd Tuesday and more stormy weather.
23rd Wednesday and constant rain today.
24thThursday Snow and hailstones outside today. Russian invade Ukraine threatening the peace most of Europe has thrived in since 1945.
25th Friday Brief visit to the allotment. Harvested some kale and emptied the kitchen caddy in the compost bin.
26th Saturday Spent the day at the community garden planting trees and weeding.
27th Sunday sunny day turning to showering rain in the evening. (Made parsnip soup) 
28th Monday constant wind and rain today. Harvested indoor-grown oyster mushrooms today.
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Saturday 1 January 2022

January 2022

 Well here we are again at the start of another year, the warmest New Year on record. I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and didn’t put on too many unwanted pounds over the festive season. Still, even if you did, it is a good excuse to get out into the garden over the coming weeks as the weather begins to warm up and start preparing for the growing season. I guess I am not the only one, but as soon as January arrives I am eager to start doing something, whether sowing seeds on a warm windowsill or propagator or preparing the allotment ready for planting at the earliest opportunity. Even with this I still run out of time come May/June when everything should be in and growing.

 Below is an excerpt of Mr Middleton's New Year musing back in 1935 :



Click on the links to Mr. Middleton's tasks for January below: 




My 2022 Allotment/Garden/Kitchen Diary below:

1st (Saturday) Happy New Year everyone! Visited the allotment today and emptied the kitchen caddy into the compost bin. 
2nd  (Sunday) 
3rd (Monday) 
4th (Tuesday)
5th  (Wednesday) 
6th (Thursday) 
7th (Friday) 
8th (Saturday) Drew up plans for the community garden. Did a small amount of pruning trees at the community garden ready for an arrival on Tuesday. Plenty of rain today. Met with a potential new volunteer.
9th  (Sunday) 
10th (Monday)
11th (Tuesday)
12th (Wednesday) 
13th (Thursday) 
14th (Friday) 
15th (Saturday) 
16th  (Sunday) 
17th (Monday)
18th (Tuesday)
19th (Wednesday)
20th (Thursday) 
21st (Friday) 
22nd (Saturday) 
23rd  (Sunday) 
24th (Monday)
25th (Tuesday)
26th  (Wednesday)
27th (Thursday) 
28th (Friday) 
30th (Saturday) 
31st (Sunday)

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