Perfect timing, it was raining and windy today, and a wonderful time to make a batch of Seville orange marmalade. As you can see from the above photo, they are not at all like sweet oranges.
Another Sunny day out on the veg patch today. When the wind wasn't blowing it was almost warm out in the sun, but once in the shade with a bit of a breeze it was still definitely Winter. Just in the last couple of days the first leaves of rhubarb have shown their crinkly little heads above the soil. I am keenly awaiting my rhubarb this year. Last January a good friend gave me some crowns to plant, so I did not pick any stalks at all last year to allow them to establish. I have also given them many dressings of rotted manure, so they should do well.
I spent some time in the greenhouse today, dusted off my heated propagators and plugged them all in. I have already planted some early tomatoes in the propagator, I thought I would try Supersweet 100 this year, has anyone tried them? Here is a picture of some purple podded peas which I seed swapped with Celia from ... purple podded peas along with some of her crimson flowered broad beans. Here you can see I've made good use of more toilet rolls as root trainers. Roll on Summer!
Now is the time of year when you will see Seville oranges on sale in the shops. They are only available for a few short weeks in January and February so make haste if you want to make marmalade. Seville oranges are grown almost entirely for the British market to make marmalade, they are much too sour and full of seeds for anything else. It is this combination of acid and high pectin content which makes them ideal for setting jams and jellies.
Here is the family titbox! At the end of last Summer I gave it a coating of a varnish preservative to help it last a few more years. Last Spring we did have blue tits start a nest and it was wonderful entertainment watching them fly in and out every minute of the day. Sadly, some creature probably a cat or a magpie took the lid off the titbox and destroyed the nest. Today I took all the old nesting material out from the box and gave it a bit of a tidy up. I also nailed the lid shut! Fingers crossed a family will be putting a deposit on the property soon!
I also took the opportunity of tieing up the loganberry stems. You can just see here that I had 7 stems from the root. I used a staplegun and some plant ties to fasten them to the fence. 3 each side and one in the middle. The tits can help themselves!
I took advantage of a beautifully clear and bright weekend to put some hard work in. Yesterday I dug, weeded and raked flat an area for my onion bed this year. Overnight some wretched cat had walked all over it and dug holes and defacated all over my nice new bed!! Today I did more digging and weeding. It is so satisfying to stand back at the end of the day and see what you have done. Much more satisfying than pushing papers across a desk all day, eh?
Tomorrow night 25th January is Burns night! Scottish people all over the world will be celebrating the birthday of the Scottish poet Robbie Burns. On Burns night one consumes haggis with 'bashed neeps and tatties' - that is mashed swede (Americans call them rutabagas?)and potatoes. I love the emphasis on the 'bashed' as my ideal mashed potato still contains lumps of potato, not creamy smooth. This supper is traditionally washed down with a dram or two of Whisky.
Just in case you don't already know, haggis is a meat dish containing lamb offal, oatmeal, fat, onions, salt, pepper, and spices. This is all bound together in natural casings, ie. stomach and intestine. In my mind Macsween make the finest haggis. 
I went out today in the drizzle and dug up some of my Jerusalem artichokes. The soil is based on London clay, so it just sticks to your boots, your spade, your fork, your bucket, hands.. anything it touches. After washing them in a bucket of cold water - my hands nearly froze, I had the most wonderful lunch. The taste of these fartichokes is very similar to that of the globe artichoke (you know, the one that looks like a thistle) but they are related in no way. Jerusalem fartichokes have a very complex carbohydrate structure which makes them very good for diabetics or anyone following a glycemic index (GI) diet. The side effects of this wonderful but windy vegetable are just beginning to become apparent to me!
I have finally decided on the varieties of potato I am going to grow this year. I always have a hard time trying to decide which ones to grow as I am quite short of space. In past years I have grown Epicure. I remember growing Epicure when I was a child down on our allotment with my Father. I suppose it is out of sentimentality that this is the first year that I have not ordered them. So many other varieties to choose from, so in a spirit of adventure this year from the Thompson & Morgan catalogue, I have ordered Red Duke of York and International Kidney. By the way, if I was to grow International Kidney and I was living on the island of Jersey... I would be able to call them Jersey Royal. Looking forward to trying them. As soon as they arrive I will plant some in a container in the greenhouse for an ultra early crop.
Look what Santa gave me for Christmas! My gardening guru, Bob Flowerdew has come up with another essential gardening book. He really knows his stuff! I do try most of the time to be as organic and as environmentally friendly as I can, but I am afraid slug pellets are the reason I cannot claim to be totally organic down on the allotment.
My all time favourite veggie gardening book is the Gourmet Gardener. Bob has years of practical gardening experience but really knows his onions, right down to the chemical intricacies of ripening hormones. If you want to know the reason why companion planting really works - the scientific reason - not just native American folklore... you must find out from Bob.
Here you can see one of my leeks complete with its toilet roll protection! Not only does it add a few more inches of partially blanched stem, but I have found that there is considerably less mud and soil to clean off from inside the layers when I take them in to wash them. This protection seems to make for much longer stems and much cleaner leeks as well.
Another experiment which worked well last year as well of this was my mini leeks. These are the same seeds as the larger leeks, but the final size of the vegetable is directly proportionate to the space between the plants. Just planting the seedlings a couple of inches apart makes for a large number of smaller leeks of about a pencil thickness. A wonderful mid-Winter delicacy when there is not much else about. A useful way to use up a couple of spare feet of soil.
I managed to get out for a day's digging down on the allotment this week. It was something I had meant to get around to doing but never quite managed. It's like blowing the cobwebs out isn't it? I cleared out the greenhouse and swept the floor. I am now thinking about planting my first, earliest seeds in the propagator.
It is always a thrill to get my monthly edition of Kitchen Garden Magazine. Just fruit and veggies and no flowers or garden furniture, phew! My hero Bob Flowerdew writes an article every month which is entertaining and informative.
Blog readers will remember that way back in September I started my first attempt at making sloe gin. Well, 4 months later the results are stunning! Most advice was that Christmas was a little too early to be drinking it, and that it was really better left for about 6 months to a year. We decided on Christmas Day to sample a little sip each.... er... well it was rather nice. I think it tastes rather like a very grown up, sophisticated version of cherry brandy. Absolutely delicious. I do have a second un-opened bottle which I will try to leave as long as I can.
You can see here the appearance on the day I made it. Just gin, sloes, and sugar... I must remind myself next year to make loads more!
Just the bare bones in the garden at the moment. Sticks, fences, stones, concrete, mud, compost. I did notice a few daffodils poking their early heads out of the soil today, Spring is on its way.