Happy Solstice!!!

I don't like Christmas and I don't apologise for that.

So this is as Christmassy as it gets.

Arthur is clearly coveting a leading role in panto

Wheareas Boris patently feels the same way as I do about Christmas.

I do, however, very much like sausage rolls and mince pies. And I have made a Christmas cake which I've been feeding alcohol for the last couple of months. I've actually been feeding it Cointreau, for in a deliberate departure from tradition I've made a spicy orange rich fruit cake.
Last night it came to decorating it. When I was little, Christmas cake came with peaks and troughs of royal icing with various traditional figurines poked into the top - Santa Claus, a reindeer, some fir trees.
I felt this would not be appropriate for my cake, so opted to go with the orange theme. This is what I came up with. I'm rather proud of it.

The flowers are about looking forward to Spring. I've decided that a Solstice celebration would be more appropriate for us in future - it's probably where Christmas started anyway. But don't worry. I don't intend to get dressed up in a long cloak with a pointy hat and start prancing around a fire in some woodland clearing. I will celebrate quietly with Sue and the animals.
The Winter Solstice is a turning point in the year, especially for those of us who have chosen to live off the land. The coldest months are ahead of us, but the days get longer. Winter Solstice this year occurs at 04:49 on 22nd December. Hopefully the dank and damp dullness of November and early December will give way to crisp and clear winter days. A bit of frost wouldn't go amiss either and a good cold snap would make a refreshing change.
I'm already thinking about sowing seeds and I've just put in my big seed order for next year. I've started edging the veg beds ready to cultivate them and I've started a big tidy up.
In the next couple of days the shallots and garlic will be planted as they need a cold snap to encourage the cloves to divide.
So I guess that's it. The 2016 season is upon us. Let's hope it's a good one.

Onions galore

It's been a good year for onions. This could be due to the weather we've had, or it could be that I've finally learned how to grow them properly. Probably the former.

Early April and the onion sets are all
neatly laid out. They'll be netted just
until the roots take hold properly.

Back on 6th April I planted out two rows of Giant Stuttgarter onion sets, three rows of Red Barons and a row and a half of Sturon. A few shallots had already been in the ground since just before Christmas. I always buy onion sets as opposed to growing from seed. 350 onion sets cost me just £4, so at just over a penny an onion, why not take the easiest growing option?

The guinea fowl perform the final soil preparation, fine tilling.

I used to grow my onions mixed in with carrots and beetroots in an effort at companion planting, but it wasn't very convenient and never seemed to work tremendously well. I'd always get onions, but nothing special. Last year I devoted a bed to just onions, but I made the mistake of not keeping it weeded. To be precise, I took out selective weeds but decided to let a few nasturtiums grow in amongst the onions. Well before I knew it the nasturtiums had smothered the onions and created a warm, damp microclimate under their canopy. The onions did not like it and many of them started to rot.
So this year not a weed was allowed. The onions thrived, despite the relatively cool and certainly very dry early summer. Some bolted in the dry conditions, about one in six. No matter as Sue will use these ones to make her delicious onion marmalade and chutneys.
The late July deluge seemed to help them swell further. Don next door always folds the tops over on his onions, all the same way like regimented soldiers. I wondered if I should do this, but the interweb says that is an old practice which can encourage rot to enter at the bend. So I left mine. Most of them fold themselves over anyway and once the majority have done this, another week or so for the bulbs to mature and then they need to come out of the ground.

Onions drying in the sun.
The basket contains the bolted ones,
ready to go into marmalade and chutneys.

Last week I decided it was time to uproot them and lay them out on the soil so that the sunshine and warm winds could really get to work on the drying process. They managed to get three days outside but showers forecast for yesterday afternoon found me moving them inside to the polytunnel, where I came up with an ingenious way of hanging them through the slats of my greenhouse staging.

Hopefully the onions will cure well
in the polytunnel.

They won't need long in there before they are ready to be strung or hung up in onion bags. I'll be keeping a close eye on them though, as I have so many that they are a little crowded on the racks. I'm pretty sure that there is enough air circulation in the polytunnel and that the warm air will cure them quickly.

Now here's a link to some proper advice about harvesting onions. It's American, but the principles are sound.

I'm off to find a way of ridding the house of the smell of onions when Sue starts making the marmalade.

That's Shallot (and other Alliums)



Alliums ready for drying and processing.
Red Onions, Shallots and Garlic.



Wednesday 29th August 2012

A bit late for this really, but I've been clinging on to the hope that my onions, shallots and garlic might just somehow manage to plump up a little more. This goes against all the laws of nature, as the leaves have faded long ago.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I unearthed a few of my alliums and presented them to Sue to do something with. She consulted her books of potions and turned a dirty, straggly basket of onions and shallots into this...

Last year, Sue conjured up a most wonderful Red Onion Marmalade which went down very well with all who tried it. The lingering aroma of slowly cooked onions has just about left the house in time for this year's harvest to be preserved.

I also had a good first go at plaiting onions and garlic. Unfortunatley a repeat is unlikely this year as the stems are gone.

Anyway, though not a classic year, there's more to pick and process when the weather turns dry again and there'll be enough to keep us going till the next harvest.

Won't be long now until I need to start thinking about autumn planting some garlic. The shallots traditionally go in on the first day of the year, though I suspect this is not too critical if that New Year's Day hangover is too heavy.