Frugal freebies and a Delia

Fistly I have just seen over on KittyKittyWeaselFish's blog that next weekend the 20-21st April the National Trust are having a free weekend.  Go to their site here to download a voucher for up to 4 people; 2 of them adults, for a load of their special places all over the UK.  I fancy going to Killerton, which is only about 7 miles from us but we haven't seen it yet and as they have their regular farmers market on that saturday too it's a double bonus reason to go.  :-)
Another freebie next - on Facebook Heinz currently have an offer here where you can get a free packet of tomato seeds.  Lord knows the last thing I need is more seeds but hey - they're free!  Sounds like a nice variety - the pack (which arrived in a super-fast-for-a-freebie 8 days) says they are San Marzano - 'a plum shaped Italian variety specifically bred for bottling, cooking or producing home-made sauce and puree.'  I'll give them a go - if the rain lets up this year that is!

Lastly I wanted to share my frugal Delia bargain - chuffed to spot this in a local charity shop at £1.99.  Considering full price it was £17.99 on the back I think that's a pretty good buy.  It's about frugul food and although I don't generally go for Delia; finding her *OCD prep and didactic delivery somewhat irritating, I'm not arguing that her recipes are generally pretty good.  (*I got gifted a copy of Delia's Christmas years back and find the entire planning everything hour by hour from 3 days in advance a leetle bit too much.)
This is a reprint of a 70's book she did which immediately interested me with my love of old/vintage cook books and it's been issued in a lovely hard bound cloth covered edition with some beautiful photography.  So it ticks my 'food porn' box too - I just need to find somewhere on the groaning shelf of cook books to wedge it in now... 
(Excuse the curious easter chicks/egg tree still up - I like decorations m'kay?)

Allotment update

Well, where to start?  It seems rather a long time since I got a proper regular 'this is me wittering on about what I've been up to' post up on here.  Perhaps a little allotment update as it seems to change daily at this time of year.  Every time I look around the seeds in the front window have grown another inch I'm sure!  Triffids on a bid for world domination!  (Yes, yes - I know that was an excess of exclamation marks then.)

My allotment is long and thin and one short edge abuts the track round the site.  Theres a small slope here from the track to the plot which was just dead space with grass on it which I wanted to utilise better with some 'raised' (built into the bank) 3 sided beds.  These could then be planted up with bee friendly plants - good for the bees and hopefully good for my plot by attracting more pollinators to it.  Well - mention it and it shall be done.  Chap was there with wood assorted and power tools and in a couple of hours I was the proud owner of 2 smart, free, upcycled beds.  All the wood came from other jobs - old fences, roofs etc.  The preservative I've used on the insides was a branded end of line one in £land that I've had sitting around at home for a good 8 years!  From this:

 Grassy bank and scraggy old bits of wood. 

To this:

Pretty smart eh?  (Ignore the rasps there - they need tidying up I know!)   Both are now nearly full of earth - as I've been prepping, raking over & planting each bed I've been shoveling the rock hard lumps that refuse to break up [see pic above left to see what I mean] into these.  I'll cover with some compost and plant up very soon.  I have various wild flower bee happy seedlings at home to go in and more seeds to sprinkle over.

Speaking of seeds here's some random exciting heirloom bean varieties a friend sent me.  I have planted a few of all of them and passed some on where there were spares.  I also got the Pea Bean recently after reading about it on littleblackfox's blog.  It's also a heirloom variety - I found them at Nicky's Nursery - incidentally very reasonable on price and very helpful on the phone when you realise you forgot something on your order the day before so call up to see if you can add it in!  Lovely people. 

I hope they all do ok - the Pea Bean is the only one not to have sprouted yet!  They're in loo roll inners at home along with 3 different runner beans, celeriac, 2 types of beetroot, the bee plants, asparagus peas, soya beans [they haven't come up yet either thinking about it], herbs, the Chap's chillis, pumpkin, 3 different squashes, courgettes, chard &c, &c, &c... 

Since these photos of the plot, where you can see my [somewhat straggly] broad beans; we've also planted the spuds, onion and garlic sets, peas x 2 varieties, parsnip x 2 varieties, salsify - not expecting much there as the seeds were somewhat out of date - I've put the lot in to see if anything happens, Hamburg Parsley and 3 different types of salad leaves as catch crops between these.  Also 2 different radish types in the centre of the runner poles which are in but so far only colonised by a few sweet peas - worth having a few in amongst the runners to attract the pollinating insects to the area.  More pollinators = more food for you.  Companion planting a go-go!  Plus I like sweet peas.  Anyway, this is the product of a couple of weekends.  Now the rest to do - toms, carrots, kale, perpetual spinach beet, the oriental radish the Chap bought, swede, land cress, saltwort, cabbage, cauli, sprouts, er - I'm sure there's lots more but I'll have to check the seed box[es.]  I defy anyone to have as many packs of seeds as me and remember them all!!  :-D  What have you planted?

Irish food fail

Well, I got in last night full of ideas for soup but thinking that first I and the Chap would get some seeds sorted. We've been meaning to do this for a week now! So now was the time. Cleared stuff off kitchen table - check. Cleared stuff in lounge window bay - cd rack, 2 small tables, footstool - check. Extricated table from kitchen, round corner, down hall and into bay in lounge where it'll get the best light - check. Plastic sheeting on floor - check. Compost carried in - check. Varied plastic trays and receptacles - check. Big box of toilet roll inners - check. [For growing beans in for the uninitiated - they give a deeper root run and as the beans dislike disturbance to their roots you can plant the entire things out when the time comes.] Chap filled a module tray for his chillies &c; I filled up toilet roll inners for various Broad Beans [including some exciting crimson flowered heritage ones] and some sweet peas [Arthur Hellyer in case you're wondering]. Having omitted to keep back an empty 1 pint plastic milk carton to use for a handy compost scoop/funnel (cut off the base and leave lid on to use as a scoop. Remove lid to use as a funnel) I ended up using the jam funnel. TBH given my various poor efforts at preserve making so far this may be the best use for it! It worked very well so if you want something prettier to fill up your toilet roll liners with than an empty milk carton [though if you're using toilet roll liners in the first place it suggests to me you're not too worried about prettiness where this stage of veg growing is concerned] I'd recommend one. Expect to pay around the £3-4 mark, mine was from The Range for filling flasks with soup since we moved to our new and microwave-less building. Long story!

Anyway, a while later we had a neatly filled module tray, 4 sets of broad bean filled loo roll inners, one set of sweet pea filled ones and I'd laid out all the potatoes to chit and labelled their cardboard egg trays and *fridge egg trays as well.

Thoughts turned to dinner. And eyes turned to the time... :-O

Needless to say at 10 to 10 in the evening I'm afraid I no longer had the will to start making bread; not even soda bread, nor soup from scratch. We had veg and hash browns (cacky emergency freezer food I'm know - though the veg were fresh) with some grated cheese over the top of the veg. So - er - potato cakes are kinda Irish right? [Although I don't think LIDL is...]

I did chop the veg for a soup in the slow cooker overnight so I wasn't completely slack, and it meant I could have fresh home made potato, leek and Dorset Blue Vinney soup today for lunch at my aforementioned work sans microwave. Yum. Anyway, I'm pleased with the seed sowing, we, and especially the Chap, were getting a little twitchy feeling we were behind. Chap has the bad fortune to be working the weekend so I'm planning on getting a lot more seeds and planning done [and rugby watching - final weekend of the 6 nations people!]. Enjoy the weekend and any sun it brings your way! :-)

*You may remember (or not) me wittering on about these previously. I am currently coercing work colleagues into giving them up to me. Mwah ha ha haaa.

Quick quick post

Another 'one good and one bad thing' post.

Love this ingenious use of a recycled tin and a party popper casing for bird feeders here - seen at the local St Bridget Nursery. These have holes punched in the base and a seed & fat mixture inside. And yes; if you're wondering we were there buying seeds! I just can't stop myself... We got these nifty little free guides as well. Also - by searching the ranges available we got the radish seeds for £2.29 for 60 from the Suttons range as opposed to the first pack we picked up - £3.99 for 30 seeds from Unwins! Half the seeds for nearly double the price, go figure. (As an aside to this I find Mr Fothergills good value for money and they don't charge P&P for seed only orders as opposed to T&M who do and take longer to dispatch.)

Gutted and really rather annoyed at myself - managed to break my trusty fork at the weekend trying to extract a big tuffet of grass from a path on the allotment. I can't believe my honourable friend is busted. :-( Think I'll have to borrow the chaps until I decide on a replacement - his already has a broken tine though!

Well, off to Dorset for the weekend for Ma's birthday, fingers crossed for the sun!

Free (ish) seeds

Well ok - they cost me the price of the postage but not bad for under £3.00. Looking forwards to trying out the Squash 'Potimarron'; a French heirloom variety that apparently has a chestnut like taste. Sounds like a winner for roasting to me! These arrived in the post yesterday - I ordered them Friday evening so just under a week delivery. T&M send me emails all the time since ordering something off them way back in the mists of time. Sometimes though it's not a bad offer - this was £10 off - you had to spend a minimum of £10 and pay the postage which is what I did. These 5 packs on the site plus the P+P would normally cost you £12.54, I paid £2.54 so just over 50p a packet. That's more like it! I love Pak Choi and the coloured mix sounded interesting. I'm always buying more packets of Celeriac seeds as each year mine seems to be a dismal failure and I'm determined not to be beaten. The Roma tomato sounds tasty and I'm liking the sound of 'nearly seedless' having a strange kind of phobia-but-not-exactly of tomato seeds. I've long had a love affair with flowers like Scabious, Cornflowers, Love-in-a-mist &c. If it's good for the bees too that's an added bonus! Win-win I reckon.

Brighter here today though damn parky. No more snow since yesterday; in the city at least. I don't mind the cold so much when it's bright - cheers me up no end. Sparkling lights like fairy lights on a tree glinting off the ice and snow and tumbling away down the river.

Surprise gift

I returned home yesterday to find an intriguingly rattly and slightly portly envelope residing on the doormat. I love receiving proper post but sadly it barely happens these days, it's either all junk mail or the bank / utility companies telling me something I don't want to know. This then was a lovely little lift for me at the end of a long day, especially when I recognised the handwriting of a very good friend on the envelope.

Intrigued I tore in, noting that the postie had been kind enough to let me off the 19p underpayment on the stamp, plus a £1 'handling fee'! Thank you postie! :-)

I had...seeds!! I love seeds, I am addicted to seeds and although I may have a plethora of seed packets spilling out of their box and threatening world domination; or at least front room domination, I am certainly not averse to receiving some more.

My friend had sent me a mixture of veg, leaf, herb and a gooseberry which I've never grown before, with a little note to say she thought I may like these. What a star, and what a simple thing that made me a happy bunny for the rest of the evening.

I shall wrack my brains to think of a suitable reciprocal little item to send winging it's way to her.

Small kindnesses gladden my heart and make the world that little bit nicer a place.

Seeds

I can't believe I forgot to tell you about my seeds I got at the show!! Only 2 packs from these people who specialise in organic and unusual / heirloom varieties. One was Pak Choi as I grew this last year but hadn't got any new seeds for this year yet. The other is the exciting one though - Tree Spinach!! How great does that sound already? I don't have a lot of info on the pack but it can grow up to 2 metres and that was enough for a seedaholic like me to snatch it up with cries of wonderment. (I think I rather startled some of the surrounding people with my enthusiasm actually!) But 2 metres tall spinach? I mean - how cool is that gonna look.

Still on the subject of seeds my free packs from the BBC's Dig In campaign arrived yesterday. Having just checked the site it says due to the response you can longer sign up online to receive them but can pick them up at their roadshow events. You get Basil, Carrot, Courgette, French Bean and Mixed Salad with a growing booklet. Not bad for free and considering the cost of the licence fee...

Any I don't use will be donated to a friend whose work place is starting a veg garden so they won't go to waste; and seeds last a few years in most cases anyway. More to get planted at the weekend!

Total apathy

My lack of enthusiasm for my work knows no bounds. Hey ho - here's a couple of cheeky nice free things instead:
Cheese! - There is no conceivable time free cheese could be a bad thing lets face it!
Seeds - Finally the BBC Dig In website went live and you can sign up for 5 free packs of seeds.
Go to it my friends. :-)

Home again

Now ensconced back in the familial home, here for mother's birthday and mother's day this sunday. She liked her 'Front Garden Repair Kit' I bought all those seeds for (and you thought they were for me didn't you?!) so hopefully soon the garden will return to the riot of colour it once was.

This photo is an old passport photo of my father; probably taken late 70's, that I had on a board here. Sometimes the past ambushes you rather. Still miss you dad.

Anyway, speaking of seeds (addicted - I know) if you have a Range store near you they have bogof at the moment on their 99p De Ree packs. This includes Runner Bean 'painted lady' which is the pretty two tone one. These are in packs of 9 seeds (kids pack) but coming out at 18 for 99p it's rather better than T&M's £3.49 for 50 or Mr Fothergills £2.99 for 40. They aren't available on line though, you have to visit the store.

Arghhh!!!!

Well - I had a nice long post all typed out and off I went to find a link and the entire t'internet followed by my pc had a massive effing up fit and lost everything. Goramit I'm sick of this happening!!!

I went to find the link to a sensibly sized blank printable seed packet template I found here.
I have ordered yet more seeds this time from T&M (For my Ma!) but am only now wondering if they'll turn up in time as the last lot I had from them took over a week to arrive. If it's later than next Thurs / Fri that's too late for me as that's when I'm off to visit. These along with various other seeds are forming her Mothers day gift of a 'Front Garden Rescue Kit' as the whole thing had to be dug up last year to put a new soakaway in; whatever one of those is. It involved a lot of mess and concrete and the loss of years of care and attention lavished on the garden anyway. Today I've managed to get the labels with a pic on printed for them all, handy for colours etc. The rest of the details I'll maybe write freehand or if I can work out the correct spacing print onto the template sheets. I'm hoping she'll like it anyway.
Off to the local pub quiz tonight with he of the 'win' at the weekend and friends various. Wish me luck!

Seed-aholics Anonymous

I have quenched my seed lusting - for today at least. I can claim the mitigating reason that most of them are not for me. Yes, yes, sounds highly dubious I know but there was only one pack of veg seeds in there and they're more my style. Mind you there's a couple of lovely looking things on e-bay I may 'need'...

You gotta love payday!