Merry Christmas One and All!

Well, we have made it to the end of the allotment year with a polytunnel that still has a cover on it! We were very glad of it, because we did some entertaining today, and the weather would have made it very difficult if we'd been outside.

Today was our last official allotment session this year, as Tracey has a training course next week, so we invited folk over to have a "fuddle" with us to celebrate the Festive Season, and had a delicious meal with our main volunteers and some of the Access to Nature group from Framework.

The polytunnel was looking lovely, as Helen and Phillipa had given it a good tidy up, and we had the lovely decorations created by New College volunteers to put up. We brought the picnic tables into the tunnel as well, so we could seat 12 in comfort, which was great as we got eleven!

The decorated polytunnel, thanks to New College Nottingham

As always, we made it a "cook and eat", using some of our pumpkins and onions to make a risotto, which went down very well (you'll find the recipe a bit further down). Rosie brought a fabulous blue cheese quiche which also used some of our spinach. Helen and Dan brought cakes and mince pies, Ellis contributed sausage rolls and crisps, Phillipa brought fruit and the Access to Nature group brought quiches sausage rolls and nibbles as well, so we had a great spread.

Thanks to all who could make it, and to the many others who have helped us during the year. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sitting down to a festive feast.

If you would like to try pumpkin risotto, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 Onion
Pumpkin / butternut squash
Rice
Vegetable Stock
Sage
Olive oil / organic butter
Strong tasting cheddar (so you need less cheese for the taste)

Finely chop an onion and fry until it softens in a little oil or butter. Add at least 4 times as much pumpkin as onion by volume, also finely chopped, and fry until the pieces start to loose their edges. Add 1 cup of rice (we used basmati) and 2 cups of vegetable stock (we used a low-salt version), and some finely chopped sage leaves to taste (we reckon about 5 big leaves per cup of rice). Cook until the rice has been boiling for 5 minutes, then turn it off and cover the pan in tea-towels to finish cooking in the retained heat - this will reduce the energy you use to cook the food by about a third. After about 15 minutes, grate some strong cheddar and stir into the risotto to taste (we used about 4oz per cup of rice).