June 28 2008

I have been informed today by the Potato Councils Blight Watch control that the weather in the last 4 days as been ideal for potato blight to take effect. Watch your potatoes and tomatoes carefully. You can spray for blight with Dithane 945 ever fortnight but this must be done before the potatoes are effected. If they become infected make sure the potatoes are well covered then cut the leaves down to ground level. This will stop the blight getting to the potatoes.

If you want to go on the Potato Councils blight alert log on to www.blightwatch.co.uk enrol and they will send you warnings automatically.

Doug Allen Cheetham & Crumpsall

Well it seems that vandalism takes place on elsewhere than allotment sites. Thanks to a number of these people it has been impossible to work the site for some time. The vandals  got into the codes which make the site work and fiddled with them so that the site would not function. I hope that they enjoyed themselves.

The good news is that it is now fixed and can be used again, so i will have to get into gear and start writing and taking photos again. I hope to get started this week with a summary of work done since the last my plot and back to normal next week.

I hope to continue with my plot and to do a monthly item on the Alderman Hill Cup winners plot , he has won it twice in a row so there must be something to be learned. I also hope to do a regular item for new plot holders, pointing them in the right direction.

WELCOME TO THE MEETING.

As you are aware I am not with you yet, but I am on my way. This is to show you how the web site can be for all sorts of different uses.

Hope you enjoy the demonstration and the site, if any of you want to contribute to the site see me after the meeting

Martin

 I would like to start of by wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

This is the time of year when most of us have time to relax and think about the past year and the future. What did we do well and what can we do better next time, that is the one thing about growing vegetables, each year you start with a blank canvas and a new picture is painted on the plot.

What has happened this year off the plot?  AMAS and the Edge Lane Society has won an important and significant victory in fighting off the threat of closure of the site. Let us not deminish the emensity of this, Manchester City Council applied to the government for a Section 8 order for the closure of the site under the Allotments Acts. They used the full backing of the legal department and other sections of the councils staff to make a case for closure, even though the factual evidence was weak.

The objections by the Society and AMAS were made on the grounds that the Council’s case was not proven, that actions the council took after the decision to close Edge Lane site and the information supplied in the ‘Section 8 Application’ was incorrect.

The Government Office of the North West rejected the application on all points. This was a complete vindication of all our statements and arguments.

The second item of good news is that this web site has been shortlisted for a national award for web sites. Much of the work toward this shortlisting was done by the staff of MDDA who sorted out a specification for the site and e-connect who designed the site. Many thanks to them, and to all who contribute to the site and to all you who visit the site.

Looking to the future, a meeting has been arranged between AMAS and the councillors who lead the Leisure Section to open a dialogue to discuss the future of Allotments in Manchester. The meeting will take place in late January and we will report back to the committee and the meeting afterwards.

Back to the plot, as I said at the beginning this is the time to plan the new picture for our plots, so let’s hope that the weather is more favourable this year and potato blight does not visit with the same results as this year.

Once again enjoy your Christmas and New Year but don’t forget about the plans for next year.

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.