Lovely large leeks

My head is a good bit better, still a little fuzzy but okay. Thank you so much for all the kind comments; oh, Allotments can be dangerous!

So I have wanted to tell you about our leeks for a while now, I'm really rather proud of them you see. They have their own dedicated bed this year in 14b and have been going so well there. We plant ours in modules and then transfer them out into the bed, when they're settled in there we cover the lower stem with cut offs of drain pipe we found dumped in a river (waste not, want not). This gives them a great size to grow to and they get blanched whilst they're at it. Andrew told me it was in a recent gardening magazine that Pringle crisp tubes are good for this too. You'd have to eat a little more than your fair share to get enough for the whole bed of seedlings, but they do say 'once you pop, you can't stop'.

I was also introduced to the traditional way of growing them when we visited Glenarm Castle Gardens. The young seedlings are lifted here and put into a comparatively wide and deep hole, they grow to fill the hole and of course being in the ground, they get blanched in that way. Each to their own.

We've been eating ours for a good month now and of course it has just been getting better and better. Look at this beast, I couldn't believe it. Now they are all like that. I can't eat onions but I can cope with leek so this is super duper rewarding, they are very strong so 1 leek would do 2 dinners. Last week when Andrew was chopping one up in the kitchen I was crying in the living room - that's how strong they are! We have only ever grown 'Musselborough' leeks and I reckon that is the way it will stay. They did get some leaf rust this year but it's only at the top and doesn't effect the white bit, so I can't find fault in this variety at all.

Here's 2 more in amongst the autumn harvest of last Saturday. They're still in the fridge with everything else - a huge vat of soup is going to be made ~ yummy!! Perfect for these colder nights. Plus Andrew is off on Friday and has it planned that we are allotmenteering our socks off so some hearty soup will be needed!!

It being the 1st Wednesday of the month Andrew and all the other committee members are off having their meeting. Wish them well please, I don't think I could cope with that job - never going to please everyone.

I'll have a vat of that please!

Okay, shame on me for not writing much these days; I have been sick :(

Yep, mentally not good at all, not even a wee bit but on top of that an upset tummy ~ is there anything worse when the raspberries are ripe and you can't bear to eat just one!!? All I could cope with was a single berry-ette from a Raspberry. I have been puking all over the show (even in the hedgerow of the lottie, so watch out guys, I blush).

There have been a couple of up sides to this period of dicky tum. I got to sit on Sunday by the wood stove with my blanket and just watch Andrew working hard. It is lovely to watch others run around like mad and just sit there calmly. Mint tea was the order of the day, we did have lots but the pot broke with the force of all the roots and I hacked it in half and potted up two. I thought it was 'proper' to cut plants back when you did this so there are about 3 tiny mint leaves now, but hey it doesn't taste so good on the way up again anyway!

Then there is the little bit more attention you receive and the extra hugs, always nice.

And lastly there is SOUP. Oh, if only everyone could have a Hubby like mine. Well you can't have Andrew, he's mine alone and don't even think about stealing him, though I know you want to. Andrew is a whizz in the kitchen and the lottie produce does not get harvested in vain (most of the time, blush again) when he is on top cooking form. So the healing soup he made at the weekend was Wonderful! I didn't take a photo because ironically it looked like sick, ha..

Andrew's 'Lottie Root Soup' contained:

Garlic

Leek

Celeriac

Parsnip

Potato

Carrot

and bought in Chicken Stock

It was all cubed, simmered and mooshed ~ yum.

I ate it all and it stayed down, hoorah. I think I would like to bathe in that soup, so good and thick and gooey and yum. Can't wait for more and more and more.