The Harvest

The sun is shinning, the skies are blue so there is only one thing for me to do. Yep, that's right folks I'm going to don the wellies, put on my gloves and head down to the allotment.

There is nothing quite like growing your own food. It can be very rewarding. To see the fruits of your labour sprouting out of the ground can give you a comforting sense of mother nature's awesome power. Your mind boggles at the seemingly infinity possibilities and you can think of little else other then what delicious fare you can conjure up from all this produce.

However, it can also be heartbreaking. You have toiled for months and one day you have a beautiful crop promising a wonderful bounty only to discover the next day it has all been eaten by a freak swarm of some evil critter, hell bent on ruining your life.

Oh the joys of the allotment!


We have only just got our allotment after being on various waiting lists for over a year. It is already established with a gluttony of turnips, beetroot and carrots which are just begging to be dug up and roasted with a nice herby butter.

There is just one slight downside; it has been left unloved for months and as a result the weeds have moved in and set up home. There is a lot of work to do but let's face it, that's part of the fun, right?




Before we can get the plot back to it's former glory we need to harvest all the goodies that are already in the ground. So with spade in hand, lets get to work!






After a couple of hours of pulling, digging, sorting and bagging we eventually had ourselves an assortment of tasty vegetables ready to take home and transform into something delicious.

So now it's time to decide what to do with all these wonderful vegetables.

I feel a recipe coming on...






I cannot take credit for this following recipe. It's one I found whilst researching and it looked so simple but tasty I just have to give it a try.

Shredded Root Vegetable Pancakes:

Credit - Eating Well

And here it is: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/shredded_root_vegetable_pancakes.html

I find it almost impossible to follow a recipe without adding something or substituting an ingredient for something else.  That's one of best things about cooking; taking inspiration from others but making it your own with a few little twists. In this particular case, I had to use wasabi instead of horseradish because that was all I had in the cupboard (don't use anywhere near as much, 1 tsp is plenty). I used turnips as well as the beetroot and the carrots and used fresh coriander instead of dill. I am not a fan of dill. I also used gluten free flour owing to the fact my husband Jon is intolerant to gluten.

Nonetheless the little pancakes turned out great and I served them up as a side dish to nice bit of roast chicken with roast potatoes.

Fun Food Facts:

• "Jack-o-lanterns were originally carved out of turnips. It is only when the tradition reached America that pumpkins started to be used instead." - www.turnpitime.co.uk

• "One of the earliest known benefits of beetroot is its use as an aphrodisiac during the Roman times. And it wasn’t all folklore as it has been found to contain high amounts of boron, which is directly related to the production of human sex hormones." - www.lovebeetroot.com

Coming up soon...

Halloween special - including my attempt at carving a turnip!

If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in future posts please feel free to leave a comment below.