May 3, 2017
Today has been stressful and I have proven to myself that I have zero resilience to the negative thoughts generated from toxic situations.
I’ve had several meetings today which have left me with the impression that the feeling of hopelessness is endemic among my colleagues and that led me to a ‘why bother’ mindset.
It is clear that management of stress is going to have to form part of my experiment.
May 2, 2017
Sarah Knight says that avoiding a negative can be more motivation that trying to imagine some dream like outcome that you find it hard to believe in. This approach does align with my psychological makeup so it will be the technique I employ for this experiment.
Why am I changing my daily habits? Because….
Most of these negatives are remedied by the lifestyle habits I am experimenting with and I will just both the success of the habit and the chance of long term change at the months end.
May 1, 2017
I am someone who puts a lot of pressure on myself which means every goal I set myself becomes an all or nothing exercise, and pretty soon the joy of the journey is lost. Not long after that I end up feeling overburdened or a failure.
I have been looking for help with this personality flaw for a long time and from my search it seems that the people who are most successful in introducing change in their lives are the ones who see each change as a lifestyle experiment.
I know from my professional life that experiments are able to succeed or fail to produce the outcome. Both results are good results as you end up learning something. So on that basis I am going to conduct a month-long experiment to determine what lifestyle will work for me going forward.
I am using advise from a number of sources to inform ‘a perfect month of health’ to see how I feel if I am diligent in applying the recommendations.
My sources for advise are:
The key principles and tactics that I am using this month are:
I will conduct and record my observations and metrics each primary goal and the impact is has on my physical and mental state in this blog every day in May.
August 13, 2010
Its time to harvest the blackcurrants from the allotment and turn those purple juicy spheres into jelly.
Protecting the Blackcurrants
I’ve had the blackcurrant bushes under wraps to prevent the birds getting to the fruit before I can. (They have more time at the Allotment than I do!) I don’t use expensive fruit cages. I attach my Environ-mesh to the plants with clothes pegs.
Environ-mesh and Clothes Peg.. my home-made fruit cage
This has worked brilliantly and the timing is such that when I have finished covering the seedlings from the frost at the start of the year, the blackcurrant flowers have been pollinated and the little green fruit are ready to be protected.
Harvesting the Blackcurrants
I use two techniques to harvest the blackcurrants. The first is a tip from Sarah Ravens Garden Cookbook which advises to cut whole branches off, making it easier to get the currants and pruning the bush at the same time. However as you should only pruning a third of the bush, this technique should not be used to harvest all the blackcurrants.
Blackcurrant Branches
To harvest the rest of the blackcurrants, I lay Environ-mesh on the ground beneath the bush, then slip the clusters of blackcurrant off the bush with scissors. This is the quickest way to harvest I know. I can then gather the material carefully together, and transfer the blackcurrants into the poly box .
Blackcurrants caught in the Mesh
All the ‘bits’ of leaves, wood and dried out Blackcurrants will be removed when washing the fruit. Fill a sink with cold water, add the blackcurrants and swish. All the bits will float to the top of the water, and you can remove them with a sieve.
Making Blackcurrant Jelly
Put all the blackcurrants in a heavy bottomed pan, and cover with water. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 20 – 25 minutes.
Cover blackcurrants in water and simmer
Check the blackcurrants about half way through the cooking, and if they are soft, mash them with a potato masher. This makes sure you maximise the blackcurrant flavour in the liquid. Once the fruit is cooked, and mashed, turn it off and let the blackcurrants cool a little.
Mashing the Blackcurrants
This year I invested in a jelly bag frame and it has proved fantastically useful. Once set up over a large bowl, which is as easy as screwing the legs into the ring, I start ladling the juice and blackcurrants into the bag. This has to drip slowly overnight.
Jelly Bag Frame
Later, I measured the liquid to work out how much sugar I need. For every pint of liquid, I use a pound of sugar, so I matched the 2 1/4 pints of liquid with 2 lbs 4 oz of sugar. I use the jam making sugar as it has pectin added, and this ensures the blackcurrant jelly with set
Silver Spoon Jam Sugar
The blackcurrant juice and the sugar go into a heavy bottomed pan, and is warmed slowly and stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture slowly to the boil, and cook for about 20 minutes until it reaches the ‘jelly’ temperature on the sugar thermometer. If you haven’t got a thermometer, put a small amount on a chilled plate. Push the cooled liquid with your finger. If it wrinkles, then it will set nicely.
Meanwhile, wash your jam jars, rinse and dry in a hot oven. Let them cool to warm and ladle the jelly into the jars. The jelly will set as it cools.
Tips: Don’t be too fierce with the heat or it can burn, and skim off any foam on top as it cooks to get a really sparkling jelly.
The Results:
The harvest from the two bushes resulted in two large summer pudding, two punnets of blackcurrants given away and 5 lbs of lovely blackcurrant jelly.
Summer Pudding
Set Blackcurrant Jelly
Crystal clear and a good balance of sweet and sharp.
July 23, 2010
It was a busy evening at the allotment. The last of the peas and broad beans were picked and the planted area cleared. I planted some more ruby chard and white kale in the vacant areas. I sowed some quick maturing veg (probably to be harvested as baby veg in a few weeks).. beetroot (3rd time lucky this year), mixed lettuce, pak choi and radish.
Picked:
These last three are joining some red currants in a couple of summer puddings which we will share with some friends this Sunday.
Here are the latest pictures:
Lollo Rosso Lettuce dressed in its pretty pink frills...
Onions still swelling nicely.....
The sweetcorn is starting to develop its flowers....
The first New Potatoes.. which turned out to be a floury variety
The surprisingly mature French Beans after a week of rain and sun...
A huge Yellow Courgette (and its baby brother)...
The mysterious squash.. part of a random selection of seeds...
An enormous baby pumpkin.... only one on the plant, an only child...
These are the Dahlias that were knawed to near extinction in Spring..
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July 2, 2010
Bumper harvest today:
We have had the first decent rain for about 3 weeks. The water butts are full again, thank goodness. Pictures show the updates on the vegetables and fruit.
Redcurrents are almost there...
Red Gooseberries.. prickly to harvest and destined for jelly
Raspberries.. picked about a pound.. delish.
The Dahlias survived the slug attack and are looking purdy.
The Shallots are finally dividing..
Peas plump and sweet
Calvero Nero.. not sure when I need to start picking this...
Yellow courgettes.. the male flowers have only just come out ...
The sweetcorn has trebled in size... its in a hurry to grow up.
A basket full of fresh, organic, homegrown fruit and veg....lovely.
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June 12, 2010
Every visit to the allotment is exciting at the moment. New pods appearing or something to be harvested. We have had plenty of sunny days and a bit of rain, and the green stuff is really getting going. This week I have had three different types of lettuce.. cos, which I find a bit chewy so won’t plant again, Butter-crisp.. yum and a green oak leaf variety. I also harvested some Swiss chard and more gooseberries.
The Allotment in June
I had a few different types of squash and courgettes to plant. Last year I dug over the end of the plot and covered the area with black weed suppressant material and planted courgettes through the fabric. It was an unmitigated failure. Every plant was nipped off at the stem base by something (Slugs?) and killed within 24 hours. Being an eternal optimist, I thought I would try again this year.
The Doom Squash planted through Bio Roll
I don’t want to create raised beds in this area of the allotment, as I have a number of fruit bushes destined to be planted there in the Autumn. I have rotovated the area but I still wanted to put weed suppressant down. I found some paper mulch called Bio Roll which I am trying this year. Four squash planted yesterday… only 3 survived the night!…. This is despite ample application of slug pellets. I don’t hold out much hope for the rest of them.
Anyway a few more pictures of how things are growing.
More Gooseberries Harvested...
A Bee enjoying the chives... We love bees!
The Fennel all frondy
Can't wait to taste these peas...
Enviromesh and Clothes Peg.. my homemade fruit cage
Borlotti, Runner and Climbing French Beans..
The Raspberries are on the way...
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June 4, 2010
I know it is a typical British habit to talk about the weather, and looking back through the blog, it has been a recurring theme. However I’m going to do it again. The weather is GLORIOUS! It is sunny, hot and there is a mild breeze so the humidity is low. Every plant, fruit, vegetable and flower has pulled out all the stops in response to the sun so I have decided to let them do the talking in this posting:
Tomatoes are appearing...
Mint next to the back door.. lovely with our potatoes..
Strawberries plumping up nicely...
Shimmering wall of white clematis....
Mad looking flowers that I don't know the name of.....
The blue iris flags are starting to appear....
At the allotment, all those little seedlings are growing up....
The marigolds are cheering up the chard, lettuce and spinach....
The potatoes, peas and beans are all in flower.....
The first gooseberries were picked....
And the chives are in flower, bring in the bees...
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May 3, 2010
Today was supposed to be the driest day of the holiday weekend… instead we have had just about every type of weather in rolling successions. Still, plants had to be planted and seeds had to be sown.
Jobs completed today:
I have covered the new planting with metal mesh, not environ-mesh. This will keep the pigeons off but let the rain and the sun in.
One more bed completed:
A New Bed of Parsnips, Chard, Fennel, Peas and Beetroot.
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May 2, 2010
There is something compelling about the ritual of tying our holidays with the demands of the agricultural year.
These breaks in the routine of work to concentrate on the routine of nature are very satisfying and every hour invested now in preparing the soil, weeding and planting will reap rewards at harvest time.
Unfortunately I only have one three metre bed left to sow, and have got parsnip, fennel, chard and lettuce ready to go in it, as well as more peas, beetroot and radish seeds to plant. I am going to be waiting for crops to finish before I can find room for the tender plants…. this is a yearly problem.
Summary of the jobs completed today:
Here are the progress pictures:
Huge Cloche for Brussels, Broccoli, Kale and Carrots
Pak Choi, Kohl Rabi, Fennel, Lettuce and Broad Beans
Currants, Gooseberries and Raspberries covered in flowers
The 'Before' picture of the Monster rhubarb
And here is the results of the first harvest of the year, served with Rachel’s Organic Rice Pudding
First Harvest Rhubarb and Rice Pudding
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Nutty as a Fruitcake 