Huerto

The Farnham Allotment Show is always a happy affair; beautifully organised and populated by a wonderfully diverse cross section of local people, united by devotion to their allotments. I find it so sweet as we all arrive, carefully bearing our various baskets, jars and trugs – then painstakingly setting out our precious offerings. There’s always a gentle hum of concentration mingled with appreciation of others’ displays. All on a perfect summer’s day. How fortunate to be part of it!

The day started for me at 6am at the huerto, bathed in bright sunshine and loud birdsong. On inspection, this is what I picked – the best I could find (and not necessarily what I’d planned; the perfect red cos lettuces had been shredded by slugs overnight, drat them, and the promising dahlia bud still hadn’t opened (Bishop’s Children, from seed).

To my surprise and delight, I later found that the funny purple podded peas I entered on a whim had won Best in Show!! I had planted the whole of a mouldy old packet of heritage seeds – bought I think at a plant fair at Wisley – and only ONE had germinated. It then grew only very feebly, requiring agonising weeks of nurture before it finally took off …. but in the end here was this one plant’s crop proudly recognised. A lesson in perseverence.

It was altogether a lovely day of uncomplicated joy, sunshine and simple pleasures:

What a busy day; and how very satisfying to see things coming at last to fruition.

Aren’t they gorgeous?! Only a short time before they are the first delectable courgette harvest.  And what about the peas, only recently so threatened by those naughty weevils:

Tardis-like, my modest shed had somehow accommodated a massive jumble of ‘stuff’, much of it dirty from muddy winter days when tidy cleaning up was secondary to getting home to the Aga. But yesterday, the time had come!

Here it is in all its new clean and orderly glory. For contrast, I should have taken a picture of all the contents spread outside, but I was in the grip of that spring cleaning frenzy that sweeps all before it! Quite a lot of old plastic pots are now in the recycling dump, along with the remains of several broken fork heads and two decayed baskets.

No sign of cosy overwintering mice or wasps holding hands like we found during last year’s spring clean. Raining today, so I’m very glad this was all done yesterday in the sunshine.

Busy busy busy… so much to do at this time of year. On the plus side, seedlings are germinating in the cold frame, broad beans established in situ, all the beds dug and fertilised – and I’ve even managed to plan what’s going where this year, a conscious discipline after the ad hoc chaos of recent years. Mind you, I doubt it will all end up as per the plan…

The bean frame is in place. Initially my Engineering Advisor said I’d built a mere ‘mechanism’. However, with the addition of diagonal bracing apparently it now qualifies to be designated a structure. So that’s good (not that the beans will care :0)

On the not so good side, my dear little pea seedlings (variety Marvel), sown in a length of guttering under fleece and slid tidily into place as healthy plants, have been neatly serrated by what I believe are pea weevils. Little devils. But I think the plants are sufficiently healthy to survive.
Of asparagus we will not speak except to say that even in the face of dismal sprue fronds, I can’t quite bring myself to abandon hope.

I was overtired. You can see for yourself the consequence of delusional thinking that strength would prevail, despite an excellent start entailing a newly harvested pink French onion (the triumphant very first), yellow and green baby courgettes and my friend Mo’s fresh eggs….

Oh, Oh, Oh – I thought my determination and heavenly fritatta vision would win over the combined forces of gravity, the dramatic weight of ingredients, inverted white china plate and the massive ancient cast iron Le Creueset omelette pan.

Clearly not.

It took half an hour to clear up the debris. Who would have thought ceramic splinters could travel so far…. The frozen pizza somehow did not compensate. Thank you, Wine Society White Burgundy!!