Well another week has sped by with so little time to spend working on the plot, with the news of the rejection of the councils bid to close Edge Lane site I was kept busy answering calls from the local press and local television.

However I did manage to fill my leaf bins with the leaves brought to the site by the council workers, we still have plenty left to keep the rest of the plot holders busy filling their bins. The winter crops of sprouts, leeks, kale, etc are continuing to produce and the crops in tunnel 1 are looking good.

I have managed to dig tunnel 2 ready to to cover the beds with manure in preparation for next year, and I hope to finish the load of manure, that I have, in the tunnel this week. I also hope to finish digging at the end of tunnel 1 and erect the new manure heap sides, ready for the next load.

If the rain keeps away I may manage to paint the shed with a couple of coats of paint which should keep it going for another year or two. It will then be time to sort out the compost bins, move them and take out the compost and start filling them again.

JOBS FOR THE WEEK

1. Dig tunnel 2 – done
2. Manure tunnel 2 – done
3. Dig over end of tunnel 1 – done
4. Paint shed
5. Move and empty compost bins – done

WORK DONE THIS WEEK

Week one

1. Dig tunnel 2
2. Water

Monday

1. Finish digging tunnel 2
2. Water tunnel 1

Tuesday 

1. Spread manure in tunnel 2 - ran out
2. Clear manure area ready for more work

Wednesday

1. Remove wall to manure heap and start digging strip – rain stopped play 

Thursday 

1. Finish digging end of tunnel 1
2. Start erecting supports for new sides

Friday

1. Finish erecting sides to manure area
2. Pick 

Saturday

1. Move three compost bins, refill two with the contents 
2. store compost from binds.
3. Start clearing dead leave fom brassica bed.

CROPS PICKED THIS WEEK

1. Red cabbage
2. Celery
3. Sprouts
4. Leeks
5. Cabbage
6. Kale
7. Spinach

GOOD NEWS !

The decision has been made by the Government office of the NW.

                        Edge lane is safe.

The decision was that the council had not proved that the site was surplus to requirements.

The announcement was made on 20th November and was circulated to all interested parties.

Since the publication of the decision I have been contacted by the Manchester Evening News, a local paper in East Manchester and Channel m television.

Articles have appeared in these papers and an item shown on channel m news which was filmed at Edge Lane and on my plot.

The allotments are getting some good publicity at last, lets keep this up by getting in touch with our local councillors and ask them what they are doing to help provide the extra allotments needed in Manchester.

Strictly speaking, November’s dish started cooking at the back end of September when I cut the last of the summer cabbages before they rotted on the stalk or were eaten by the slugs or both. And what do you do with 20 pounds of white cabbage? There is, after all, a limit to the amount of coleslaw or boiled cabbage that even a glutton can eat. In many parts of Europe the answer would be so obvious the question wouldn’t be worth asking: sauerkraut in Germany, choucroute in Northern France.

Home made sauerkraut

This is what you do. Take:

10lb white or green cabbage
2tbs juniper berries
2 tsp black peppercorns
10 bay leaves
2-3oz coarse sea salt

Halve, or if large, quarter the cabbages. Cut out the cores and discard along with the outer leaves. If your cabbages are anything like ours have been this year, you will also need to wash thoroughly in cold water. You then need to shred the cabbage as finely as you are able, as if you were making coleslaw for 200. Then pack the cabbage in layers in an earthenware crock. Sprinkle each layer with salt, juniper berries and peppercorns and insert bay leaves at random. Put a plate over the top of the final layer and a heavy weight. (I use a 4lb weight sealed in a plastic bag.) Put a clean tea towel over the top of the crock and the lid.

As the cabbage ferments under the weight, it will produce a surprising amount of liquid which will cover the cabbage in no time at all. You should remove any excess liquid together with any scum that forms. Be warned, the process is quite smelly but providing you have used plenty of salt and the liquid covers the top of the sauerkraut, it will not go off. After about a month, the sauerkraut should be ready. It can either be kept in the crock or decanted into large jars. It should keep to several months in a cool place or in the fridge.

Sauerkraut and smoked sausages

Traditionally sauerkraut is cooked with smoked pork, bacon, or as in this simple dish, smoked sausages. The sausages I used came from a Polish delicatessen.

Four 4 you will need

2lb sauerkraut
1 lb onion
2 oz lard
Medium cooking apple.
Glass of dry white wine
8 smoked sausages

Rinse the sauerkraut in cold water and drain. Slice the onions and fry in the lard for a few minutes until they start to soften. A heavy, ovenproof pan in best. Peel, core and slice the apple. Add the sauerkraut and apple to the onions and fry for a few minutes. Then add the wine. Lay the sausages over the top of the sauerkraut, cover and cook at about 150 degrees C for a couple of hours. If you like you sauerkraut to be completely soft, you can cook for longer, up to 4 or five hours, adding the sausages a couple of hours from the end. Serve with boiled potatoes.

A good pub quiz question is what is the second crop of the champagne region of France. The answer, as you will have guessed, is “cabbages”. The champagne method is a means whereby winemakers transform a slightly thin, slightly acidic, dry white wine into something very special. While I sincerely hope that victorious FI drivers do not take to spraying the crowd with sauerkraut, I hope that you will agree that home made sauerkraut is also something special.

PS If anyone knows a vegetarian dish you can use sauerkraut in, please let me know.

This is the time of nice sunny days, warm enough to work in shirt sleeves but cold nights. Ideal time to carry on with the preparation of the plot for next year and hopefully a few frosts to kill off some of those nasty bugs and diseases. If the weather is to bad then it’s time to sit down with the seed catologues and work out next years order.

The other jobs that can be done are the hard landscaping as it’s called these days. I intend to rebuild my manure storage area since the sides have rotted to nothing. I am still digging all the areas of the plots as I clear them and then cover them with manure so that the worms can mix it into the soil and save me work.

Tunnel 2 is now cleared and waiting for a rainy day to be dug and manured ready for next year. The asparagus bed is cut back and waiting to be covered with either manure or leaf mould. I also want to move my compost bins so I can empty the usable compost from them, this will give me some room to put the green waste materials that I’m producing at the moment.

JOBS FOR THE WEEK

1. Finish digging root bed. – Done
2. Dig back of manure area ready for new wall
3. Move compost bins
4. Paint shed
5. Dig tunnel 2

WORK DONE THIS WEEK

Monday

1. Empty leaf bins ready for new leaves.
2. Finish digging root bed

Tuesday

1. This is a new event for me- Flu- so no work today

Thursday

1. Leaves are now being delivered to site - fill leaf bins(11/2)

Friday 

1. More leave delivered, and into bins.
2. Water tunnel 1
3. Empty small leaf bin.

CROPS PICKED THIS WEEK

1. Sprouts
2. Celery

I had better start with an appology this week I don’t know where all my time went last week! The presentation evening on Monday night went well and was an enjoyable event, but I don’t know what happened to the rest of the week apart from the time spent on the allotment.

The mild weather has managed to keep many things growing but not producing except for in the tunnel where all the winter crops are doing very well. The carrots are growing into a useful size, the spinach is begining to make more leaves and the spring cabbage are becoming a nice size.

Outside on the plot I have pulled up the climbing beans and removed the cane supports before digging and manuring the area. That means that I now have a complete plot, i.e. beds 6 and 8 dug and manured. I have spread a layer of last years leaf mould over the flower bed between beds 6 and 8 this is allnow ready for next years plans.

The frost two weeks ago finished off the courgetes so I have pulled them up and dug the ground over. Tunnel 2 has now finished producing crops, so it is ready to be cleared and prepared for next year, waiting for a rainy day.

This week I have re-felted the new shed roof and hope to give it a coat of paint oprotect it for another year or two. The carrot bed has been cleared and the carrots stored, the frame now needs taking down and the area digging. The asparagus ferns have turned brown and they have been cut down to ground level so that I can mulch the area.

JOBS FOR THE WEEK

1. Remove carrot frame -done
2. Lift and store beetroot – Done
3. Clear other old roots and store the best – Done
4. Dig over root bed
5. Clear tunnel 2 – Done

WORK DONE THIS WEEK

SUNDAY

1. Felt shed roof
2. Dig up carrots and store
3. cut down asparagus and weed bed

MONDAY

1. Water
2. weed tunnel 1
3. weed carrot bed

TUESDAY

1. Lift and store beetroot
2. Tidy up roots that are too smal 

WEDNESDAY

1. Clear tunnel 2 of cucmbers, melons and tomatoes

THURSDAY

1. Finish clearing and weeding tunnel 2 

FRIDAY

1. Water tunnel 1
2. Weed root bed ready for digging 

SATURDAY

1. Lift remainder of root crops and store
2. Start digging root bed 

CROPS PICKED THIS WEEK

1. Sprouts
2. Celery
3. Carrots
4. Cabbage
5. Chillies
6. Aubergine
7. Leeks
8. Swede
9. Turnip