Hotting up and beetling about

Windmill was boiling today. It was the kind of weather where people venture into the polytunnel and quickly back out again, even with all the vents open. Fortunately there were lots of jobs we could do outside, which included creating one of the most "local" meals we've had this year. We gathered a boiling of the first potatoes of the year, and made them into a warm salad with onions also gathered fresh from the ground, and thyme from our herb patch. We teamed that with a salad from the lettuce mulch we've got growing around our brassicas, to which we added leaves from our red orache, beetroot, nasturtium, marjoram, coriander and chives, as well as petals from the marigolds and chives. We dressed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and added a little cheese or cashew nuts to the mix - delicious, and incredibly fresh!

Enjoying lunch outside in the sun

Fresh and tasty - what more could you want?

Of course, there were still lots of jobs to get on with, and the volunteers are a hardy bunch, so they got on with things, despite the heat. First job was to mend all the holes in the fruit cage net - Guy and Tracey were the only ones with the patience for this fiddly job, but it's done now and the net is ready to go onto the cage shortly. Until then we've stored the net by twisting it until it lies in coils, so that it doesn't get tangled up. Thanks go to Lynn, our allotment fairy Godmother, for timely advice on this.

Net twisting in progress.

Lynn - purveyor of useful allotment advice!

 Lynn also let us know that asparagus beetle had appeared on her plot, so we had a look and discovered that ours was also home to several of the little bug***s. Dear reader, I'm afraid we squashed them - seems like the only way to make a difference. Now we need to keep a lookout for the caterpillars to emerge, as it's almost impossible to remove all the eggs from the plant, though we did have a go.

An asparagus beetle caught in the act.

Another job was to transplant some of Komala's Nepalese Saag, which we are looking forward to trying soon. Looks as if the pigeons like it too, so we had to net it. And we started harvesting some of our garlic. The bulbs look pretty good, and smell amazing - Carrie was certainly delighted to take one as part of her reward for an afternoon's hard work.

Nepalese sage ready to be covered by a net

Carrie with the fruits of her labour
(or should that be veg?!)