Allotments 4 All

A punnet of Southern Strawberrys yesterday fresh from the lottie.

Picked 500 Dandelion flowers on the plot paths and verges for making my Dandelion Honey.

Ben Acre that Dandelion honey sounds lovely would you be able to post how you make it pretty please ;)

Ive had a fab mixed salad made with oriental leaves, rocket & radishes. And my first small punnet of strawberries ;D

spring cabbage, new potatoes( red duke of york) , frox=zen beans with a bit of lamb and mint sauce  ;D

Ooh dandelion honey - I googled it, and it sounds tempting!! I've never heard of that. And I have to say we always get a good crop of dandelions!  ;D But 500 flowers!!! How much honey does that make, Ben?

My first new potatoes, with mint and lashings of butter with microwaved buttered onions and steak.   :P ;D

I assume that's honey mixed with dandelion flowers. Dandelion honey collected from the flowers has been recorded, but it's unusual as most colonies are too small at that time of year, and whatever they bring in just gets used for brood rearing.

as it's my OH's birthday today, he'll shall be getting a Braised Duck and Little Gem and Pea dish tomorrow (knackered from work this week, so tonight's he's getting his Roast Gammon & Chips instead - normally, he'd order that in a restaurant as I don't like gammon). The Little Gem and Pea thing is braised with cream and some herbs the last 15mins of cooking in the oven. I've gifted about 10 Little Gem's this week to my work colleagues and they're just having theirs with salad... ;)

It seems to be a syrup made from the petals, Robert, not actually honey. That's only found out from googling it though, I'd never heard of it, until Ben mentioned it. But they eat similar syrops of flowers in Belgium, you can buy them in the supermarket there. Sounds like the same type of thing? We're waiting for your tips, Ben!

Today I was proud and slightly in awe of my first strawberry harvest (I've never grown them successfully before) These came from Cambridge Favourites, and unknown feral strawberries, which had been surviving underneath couch grass and brambles for more than 30 years, when my allotment was unused! 

Mine is not a lottie, but we had some new pots and a cabbage with the Sunday roast.
For tea we had a thomb thumb lettuce in our sarnies, with a few spring onions.

Broad beans! Several times. Mostly the overwintered ones as the newer ones have not quite caught up yet. Also chard, herbs, strawberries, asparagus, onions, lettuce, radishes. A lovely time of year.

First of my new strawberry plants. Marshmarvel is quite nice, but not as good as Marshmello IMHO. Still waiting for the Cambridge Late Pine, Chelsea Pensioner and Amelia which are late ones so hoepfully I will  get a bit of a succession!

spaghetti with home made sauce from the freezer  :)

( On Sunday )  New potatoes, Cabbage and Peas for lunch then at tea time Lettuce, Spring Onions and Radishes

4 lovely artichokes, one each with mustard vinaigrette.
And peas... Kelvedon, the Alderman talls aren't quite ready.
I have already had the first lot of strawberries, they will come back in about a month now.
I got a pound of new potatoes but they are still too small, they will be lovely though.

baby lettuce leaves in my sandwiches today and corriander in my butternut soup  :)

Onions in spag bol and Strawberrys.  :D

Romanesque broccoli , strawberries and lettuce .

A handful of mange tout (giant Bijou) in a stir fry,strawberries and spinach in courgette fritters that is spinach fritters 'cos no courgettes  ;)

lots of lovely lettuce, and even brought some into work for the girls on account of I have so much of the stuff. 

Picking red currents this weekend... :)