Despite the Autumnal feel there is still a lot to see in the garden and in fact harvest. For anyone with an innovative tomato recipe (green or otherwise) now is your moment to visit or add it to the plant database!
This Tuesday Shahan and I spent a gorgeous sunny morning weeding and harvesting, we had so much excess produce Shahan took a box back to Mind's office for the other staff!
A big belated thanks to Andy Findlater and Bam Nuttall for the amazing portacabin they donated to the project which now forms our very posh shed.
I've been waiting to post a picture until Karen and I's 'pimping' of the beast was complete. As you can see it now looks great and the Plaistow Landgrabbers can watch over us as we garden!
Topics: [Abbey Gardens] [landgrabbers] [shed]
You'd have thought that the Harvest Festival last weekend where we fed at least 100 if not 150 people from the garden would have left it slightly bare, but not a bit of it! My Dahlias have at last come into bloom and we still have an excess of produce.
This is the veg Tim and I took home just for the two of us on Saturday - although we stopped off at our allotment to share some with friends - including Poppy - here seen making short work of some fresh peas!
Topics: [food] [Harvest] [picnic]
There are loads of nice pictures of the Harvest Festival event, including all the competition judging and Moro's lovely cooking. I've put a good selection up on Flickr here.
If you like to follow progress on the site you might also want to join our shared Abbey Gardens Flickr Group.
Topics: [festival] [food] [Harvest]
Lovely pics - especially of our children and their prize winning cake of course! The pictures really capture the spirit of what was a lovely occasion. Our fridge is still full of veg coloured marzipan but, unfortunately, no more curly wurlies. Thank you so much for providing the opportunity for a real village show.
I think we can say that the Harvest Festival was a triumph! Great weather, wonderful food cooked by Sam Clark from Moro, the garden looked great, and the competition entries were fantastic.
This year's lucky winners in the competitive classes were:
101 A Vegetable Sculpture - 12 yrs of age and under
1st prize - no. 46 Emily Copley (Sad Octopus/Jelly fish)
2nd prize - no. 58 Finn Farnan Walsh (green pepper frog)
3rd prize - no. 55, 54 & 53 The family Farnan Walsh (for an impressive aubergine penguin family)
102 A Vegetable Sculpture - 13 yrs plus
1st prize - no. 1 Maria Benjamin
2nd prize - no. 7 Nelly Ben Hayoun
3rd prize - no. 4 Tilly Blyth
103 A Floral Arrangement on the theme of "What Will the Harvest Be?"
1st prize - no. 1 Dasha French ("excellent use of cauliflower")
104 A Garden-themed Home-made Cake or Traybake
1st prize - no. 1 The Keating Family
2nd prize - no. 7 Cath French
3rd prize - no. 4 Gilly Waller
FANTASTIC!
The only word to describe the event.
They say the sun shines on the righteous, and I think even the GOD`s & Mother Nature supported you yesterday with the weather.
Well done on winning the West Ham Trophy, and it was nice to both see and hear the support from local councillors.
Amongst the crowds all you could hear was praise (even down to the winning cake which I think all felt it had truly captured the theme of Abbey gardens)!
As somebody said of the event, `It created a small county show, bringing the flavour of the Country-side to the people of Newham`.
The cooking went down very well, and I spoke to a couple of people who said they had leaned a few new ways to cook vegetables.
It was nice that the gaps between the flower boxes was wide enough to allow a wheelchair, (although Mulch is not exactly Wheelchair friendly!) but by the nature of a Garden that is something that cannot be helped.
We're REALLY pleased and excited to announce that Sam & Sam Clark the owners and chefs at the fantastic Moro restaurant will be cooking live at our Harvest Festival event on September the 12th. We can't wait to see what they will do with all our fresh veg! They recently published a new book 'Moro East' with recipes inspired by the produce grown on their own East End allotment so I'm sure they won't be short on good ideas ... they even seemed excited by the mention of our challenging Kohl Rabi mountain.
Topics: [cooking] [event] [festival] [Harvest]
On Saturday Chris tactfully took me aside to break the news that half my precious crop of artichokes grown from seed seem to have mysteriously died ... after some discussion of foxes/birds etc. we decided someone must have accidentally weeded them out realised their mistake and tried to pop them back.
Today this email from Dasha "..I am sorry I have a bad news for you...I accidentally pulled out some of the artichokes from the central bed thinking that they were weeds (they looked like thistles). In fact Louis pulled some too because I told him that they were weeds and then we realised that they were kind of symetrical. So we quickly put them back but the damage is done..."
I actually think they might make it back, they have been through so much so far waiting indefinitely in pots for Danny and co. to finish their bed. Sadly they're quite tricky to grow from seed but we could try some more next spring. However, I have since read that it's in fact better to start them off by splitting older ones so we may want to try and find an allotment person with another type we can split from.
Sadly (for everyone else) this can only increase my manic labelling obsession, maybe I need a label each for them!!
Topics: [artichokes] [Harvest] [weeding]
This is why I avoid communal gardening - absolutely convinced I'd dig up a prize specimen! On the artichoke front I have for the last few years grown them from seed every year. I've used the purple artichoke seeds from Franchi and they seem very reliable. The ones that I plant in one year usually produce a crop the following year (not that we eat them - I put them in vases around the house). Haven't planted any this year as we have building works in the garden but am hoping that that we will have a mild enough winter for the existing ones to survive. Hope yours rally!
This is the only casualty so far to be fair! That's interesting that you do them every year ... maybe we can sow some more next year and have a staggered batch.
My worst ever was carefully germinating astrantia seeds (in and out of the fridge) and only managing to get a result with three seeds. I planted them out and forgot about them and then, of course, mistook them for weeds. Have been deeply scarred by the experience ever since! I think the issue about annual planting of artichokes revolves around how much space you have - I don't have the space for really huge things but of course that isn't a problem for you.
Yesterday we all had courgette quiche for lunch (Torange) followed by courgette cake (me) followed by some lightly grilled evening courgettes (Torange). I fear this is not an uncommon problem for allotment holders.
two things to do with courgette.
you need little time and lots of courgette..... so this might be popular.
fast track pickle courgette:
bring 3 parts of oil with one part vinegar to the boil. add finely sliced courgette and simmer for a few minutes. make sure everything is mixed in with the oil and vinegar. add salt and pepper and lots of chopped mint.
eat warm or cool. keeps in the fridge for a week.
courgette soup
fry garlic in oil, add diced courgette, cook for a few minutes. add vegetable stock, so the corgette is just covered. simmer for 15 min.
blend it. add salt, pepper and some creme fraiche or milk (roughly half of the volume you used for the stock), mix and eat.
both recipes are from marcella hazan s classic italian recipe collections.
I must get some from you, we love our courgettes....
(is this getting to be like the cucumber crop?)
If you mean the Japanese Cuncumber crop then yes!
Cucumber even
We are benefitting from a neighbour's glut of courgettes. This week we have twice had Nigella Lawson's courgette cake - the only time my children ever eat a green vegetable! The other way we use them up is to cook provencal courgettes (a very old recipe from the Radio Times).
You neeed 450g of courgettes, clove of garlic, 2 tbsps olive oil, 1 tsp of salt, black pepper,1 tbsp tomato puree and 1 tbsp chopped parsley.
Use a pan with a good fitting lid. Warm it up on the hob. Cut the courgette into roughly 6 mm rounds. Crush the garlic. When the pan is hot put in the oil and add the courgettes immediately with the salt, pepper and garlic. Put the lid on and holding it on tightly shake the pan thoroughly. Then cook without the lid for 30 seconds. Add the tomato puree, put the lid on again and shake the pan thoroughly for 10 - 15 seconds, then leave it all to cook over maximum heat for 45 seconds or so. Shake once more. Add the parsly, shake again with the lid on and serve immediately.
So in a couple of minutes you have cooked up something very different from the soggy veg that you can end up with.
Join us for a fascinating workshop with Margot Cooper, an experienced floral lecturer and demonstrator from the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS). Margot sits on the board of Flower Arranger Magazine and is now Treasurer of the NAFAS Woodford branch in East London.
She will help workshop participants select and pick flowers and foliage from the gardens, going on to guide you through making your own take-home arrangement.
This event on Saturday is free, no booking neccessary!
Meet at Abbey Gardens at 12.00 - workshop ends at 4.00.
Feel free to make a day of it and also join us for the morning Garden Club Session too.
We are an online personalized gifting and Studio. We make personalized gifts with your photos and Albums capturing your memories. We undertake orders for delivery of Albums in India, North America, Europe, Middle East, SAARC, APAC and East Asia.
picturebite.com
Note Goldie the lone yellow courgette - three years I've been trying to grow these and finally Abbey Gardens brings me success. We were there so late harvesting tonight a fox joined us.
website design & build by dorian @ the useful arts organisation