My Plot Runneth Over

Every year I forget what a fruitful season this is. I visited my allotment today for the first time in a week and it’s gone completely mental.

I learnt my lesson in my first year of allotmenting (I might have just made this word up) that one or two courgette plants are plenty for two people, even if you like courgettes a lot. So I have grown one yellow and one green plant. Even so the Bracknell Courgette Mountain is beginning to re-establish itself – it first emerged the first year I had my plot when I grew four plants which resulted in a legendary courgette glut and many, many jars of courgette pickle.

One of my best successes has been the Rainbow Chard which I grew for the first time this year. Not only does it look pretty – I’m a big fan of this, and grow four different types of beans black (Blauhilde), yellow (Goldfield), Green (Cobra), and stripey (Borlotti) which not only taste great but look gorgeous – but it’s totally delicious. The pigeons and slugs seem to leave it alone and it seems to do better and taste at least as good as Spinach which I love. I put in two 1.5m long rows which I’ve been picking since April and it’s still going strong.

I picked some beetroot and am going to make a Goat’s Cheese and Beetroot tart which I found in the Guardian weekend magazine - sounds yummy! I’ve also taken to roasting my beetroot – it is a bit of a fiddle because you have to individually foil wrap them and roast them for two hours, but it preserves more of the goodness and flavour than boiling or steaming – very tasty.