Its a conspiracy!!

THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT HERE IN OUR OWN COUNTRY!
We Must Stop This Immediately

Have you noticed that stairs are getting steeper. Groceries are heavier. And, everything is farther away. Yesterday I walked to the corner and I was dumbfounded to discover how long our street had become! And, you know, people are less considerate now, especially the young ones. They speak in whispers all the time! If you ask them to speak up they just keep repeating themselves, endlessly mouthing the same silent message until they're red in the face! What do they think I am, a lip reader?

I also think they are much younger than I was at the same age. On the other hand, people my own age are so much older than I am. I ran into an old friend the other day and she has aged so much that she didn't even recognize me.

I got to thinking about the poor dear while I was combing my hair this morning, and in doing so, I glanced at my own reflection well, REALLY NOW - even mirrors are not made the way they used to be!


Another thing, everyone drives so fast these days! You're risking life and limb if you happen to pull onto the motor way in front of them. All I can say is, their brakes must wear out awfully fast, the way I see them screech and swerve in my rear view mirror.

Why are the clothes companies so uncivilized these days. Why have they suddenly started labelling a size 10 or 12 dress as 18 or 20? Do they think no one notices? The people who make bathroom scales are pulling the same prank. Do they think I actually 'believe' the number I see on that dial? HA! I would never let myself weigh that much! Just who do these people think they're fooling?

I'd like to call up someone in authority to report what's going on -- but the telephone company is in on the conspiracy too: they've printed the phone books in such small type that no one could ever find a number in there!

All I can do is pass along this warning:

WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!

Unless something drastic happens, pretty soon everyone will have to suffer these awful indignities.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO WE CAN GET THIS CONSPIRACY STOPPED!
PS: I am sending this to you in a larger font size, because something has happened to my computer's fonts - they are smaller than they once were.

Filched from the Grapevine GYO Forum, hope you enjoy!

Balance sheet update - 19th July 2010

Well, since the hosepipe ban came into force, all it seems to have done around here is rain, its been soo wet that we cant even hoe the weeds at the moment, as all it does is redistribute them around the beds! We've been harvesting courgettes like mad, and plenty of broad beans and peas too, plus a fair number of rasps, with more of all of them coming along nicely!

We're off on Wednesday and Thursday, so I'm hoping that we can get a good weeding session in on wednesday .... if the weather allows us to, then we'll check the bees on thursday (and possibly harvest some more honey from them (as there were plenty of super frames that were partially capped (but not at 90% capped - which is where we need them to be before we can harvest the honey)

Anyhows, only a short post tonight, so on with the balance sheet!

Total Veg Plot Costs 2010

Rent + Subs for 2 full plots £100
Seeds £20
Seed Spuds £20
Onion Sets £6
Growbags £15
Chicken Manure Pellets £8
Plastic 'wannabe' Polytunnel £61
Bamboo Canes £8
Flower Plants £28
Scaffolding Boards £100
Watering Cans £8

Total Costs £ 374


Total Veg Plot Harvests 2010

Rhubarb £ 35
Fartichokes £ 4
Volunteer Spuds £15
Lettuce £10
Radish £10
Garlic £15
Strawberries £65
Raspberries £20
Peas £25
Broad Beans £30
Courgettes £35
French Beans £6
Red Onions £10

Total Veg Plot Harvests £ 268

So we're now £106 away from breaking even, but with most of the harvests still to start, then its possible we will soon have a positive balance sheet!

Hope your balance sheets are healthy, your crops are growing well and your plots are weed free! Thanks for reading, more updates to follow soon!

Jaring honey!

Just a quick post as we've just got back from Pat and Colin's, where we've been to jar up the honey we harvested on Thursday!

After seiving it into another tank (to ensure there is nothing but honey to go into the jars) we managed to fill, seal and label up another 28 jars, bringing the total number of jars from 8 super frames to 30! Thats 22 1/2lb of honey that the girls have produced for us so far this year!

Lee mentioned to some of his workmates the other day we'd got our first honey harvest, and took orders for 20 12oz jars, so hes got 20 of them to take to work tomorrow, we're giving our plot neighbours a jar each (to thank them for putting up with the bees on our plot), which (after taking a jar each for ourselves and one for Sarah) leaves another 4 that will be offered for sale to other plotholders on the allotment!

It's quite likely that we will have more super frames to harvest again this week (as there were quite a few that were almost capped), in which case we'll be extracting, filtering and bottling again later this week! Its even possible we may have enough to be able to offer some for sale via the blog, depending on how much demand there is from Lee's workmates and other plotholders!

Anyhows, I'm hoping to get to the plot tomorrow evening for some harvesting and weeding, and possibly there will be a balance sheet update then, but until then, thanks for reading!

Planting Plans 2010

After spotting a lovely pictoral planting plan on one of the blogs I follow (thanks Steph of the Green Grower blog), I thought I'd have a go at making one of our plots, (as it makes it easier for folks to work out where everything is on the plot and exactly what I'm talking about), which I did using Star Office, then found I couldnt convert it to a jpg format to post here, so ended up having to convert it into an acrobat document and then post it via an acrobat thingymajob to allow it to show up!

Anyhows, its below here (and in the side bar as the more observant will have noticed)and shows plot 2 (which is to the left of plot 1) at first, but if you hit the scroll arrow it will then show Plot1!

I know its fairly basc, but it gives you an idea of where all our crops are, and how the 2 plots fit together (they are adjacent) and how our 5 year crop rotation works with the 5 runs of beds (3 on plot 2 and 2 runs on plot 1), plus exactly where the apiaries are! You can choose to view it full size using the tools that are embedded into the gizmo!

I hope you find it useful to work out where we've got everything and how the pictures all fit together!

Yayyy! First Honey harvest of the year!

Well, delaying the bee inspections until Thursday was a good idea, not only because it meant all 4 of us could be there (and thus cut the time in half by tackling an apiary for each team of 2), but also because weather wise, wednesday was a washout (thundery and heavy showers every 10 to 30 mins) and thursday, although not ideal (windy and cool, but less rain), was a much nicer day!

Lee and Colin tackled Apiary 2, whilst Pat and I did Apiary 1, its amazing how different each colonies behaviour is, from playful to relaxed, from feisty to aggressive, you quite quickly get an appreciation of thier personality and temperament!

Pat and I started with Hive 1 (formerly known as the Lazy Queen, but now renicknamed 'Psycho' - as the bees stung Sarah 4 times recently, and this week got me once on my inner thigh, que sharp intake of breath!!Mind you, its rumoured that bee stings can be beneficial, a lot of folks claim they ease the pain of arthritis!) Hive 1 was fine, if a bit feisty, a few play cups, and we saw the queen, they are now on 7 frames and filling the super with stores, so much better than they were only a month ago! Hive 2 (nicknamed 'the Incredibles' as the queen is incredibly productive, has masses of bees and is filling supers like mad) was calmer than Hive 1 (no stings!), and there were 8 frames of capped honey, which we removed (gently brushing the bees off before transfering the super frames to a spare super) and put into Pat and Colins car as quickly as we could! On checking the nucleus in Apiary 1, it still has bees in it, along with some stores, so we left them alone as its far too soon for the queen to have emerged as yet!

Lee and Colin started with Hive 4 (now nicknamed the 'Hippy Hive' - as the bees are sooo calm and relaxed they are almost horizontal, they must be stoned on poppy pollen or something!) which is doing fine, a really nice colony, next they looked at Hive 5 (now nicknamed 'Headbangers' as the flying bees kept 'nutting' Lee and Colin!), again this hive is doing well, with some stores almost capped and almost all the frames drawn out! Hive 6 (Stingray) was calmer than the last few weeks, and has some super frames that are almost 90% capped (which is when we can take them) and Hive 3 (nicknamed 'Popodopolis' as the bees keep gumming everything up with propolis) was at about the same temperament and the same position with the supers as Hive 6. The nucleus in Apiary 2 ws also checked, we saw the queen, a beautiful dark coloured lady, and there were eggs present, but not yet capped, so we should be able to tell next week (if there are worker cells present) if she was properly mated and whether the colony should be viable, in which case it will be going to its new home very soon after!

So, we managed to remove 8 supers of capped honey, which should be about 19lb or so, but as we've been asked several timews now, 'Once you have a super of capped honey, how do you convert it into something that is ready to eat (and sell on)?'

Well, as it was our first honey harvest of the year, we decided we'd extract the honey that night, so i managed to take some piccies and will detail the process below for those that are interested!

Obviously the first thing you need is the super frames of capped honey, as you can see here, the bees 'cap' the honeycomb containing the honey stores with a thin capping of wax.

The next thing you need is a way of uncapping the honeycomb, there are many ways of doing it, but for the hobby apiarist the main ones are to either use an uncapping fork (like a steel afro comb that can be used to prise off the caps in small batches, easy to use but very time consuming) or an uncapping knife (either a basic one like we have or a heated one - a lot more expensive).

The next thing you need is a way to get the honey out of the frames once they are uncapped. Most folks use some sort of centrifuge (these can range from cheaper food grade plastic ones, through to 4 frame manual tangential ones - like ours - to radial and electric powered ones (much more expensive)). The one we have is a food grade stainless steel one, and comes with an integral fine mesh filter and a settling tank with a tap!

Looking in from the top the spinner is designed to take 4 super frames at a time for extraction!

So, once you've got the kit, then its time to start! First thing to do is to put down some protection (as it can be a very sticky and messy operation), then standing your frame on a tray (to catch the cappings and the dripping honey) you use the knife (which has been warmed by immersing in very hot water - makes it easier to cut the wax) to gently cut away the capping.

The closer to the cap you can cut, the less mess and the easier it will be for the bees to repair any damage to the super frame when we give it back to them (so they can refill it)!

Almost there now Lee! After each frame is uncapped (on both sides) it is placed into the extractor, ready for spinning!

We all had a frame or two each to uncap, Pat and I chose ours first (so we got the nice flat ones), leaving Lee and Colin to uncap the more awkward shaped super frames! Lol!

So, once 4 frames are uncapped, they go into the extractor........

......... where the honey begins to drip out and run down the sloping base to the holes through the bottom to drip into the seive!

Next you fit the clear plastic lid (you dont have to, but its a good idea if you dont want to have to wash the whole kitchen down!)

Then the extractor is spun up to high speeds, firstly 1 way, then in reverse, then again the one way, then again in reverse, this ensures as much honey as possible is spun clear to drip down through the filter and into the settling tank! Once 1 side of the frames has been spun, then the 4 frames are reversed and the extractor is spun up again in the same way, to remove the honey from the other side of the frames! Time consuming, but ultimately worth it!

Once the honey has been spun out of the frames they look like this, a little damaged from where they've been spun against the mesh of the extractor, but the bees will soon repair it in no time once we give it back to them!

The cappings that were removed are then also seived into the extractor, and after the honey has dripped down into the metal seive (below the centrifuge section) we remove the spinner and wash it, whilst also using a spatual to ensure all the honey within the extractor has passed down into the bottom part! (Then like big kids we fought over who could lick the spatula clean! Lol!)

The integral metal seive catches any dislodged wax and ensures that the honey is not filled with bits of wax and dead bee!

And below the filter...... liquid gold, pure, fresh organic free range honey from our own hives! Generally the honey is then left to 'settle', allowing any air bubbles caused by the spinning extraction process to rise to the top and disperce, but as it was our first harvest of the year we couldnt resist filling a jar each!

The tap on the settling tank allows you to easily bottle the extracted honey, we only did 2 jars yesterday, the rest we are planning on bottling on Sunday (after work) as by them it will have settled and become even clearer than it is now! At this point we shuld have an idea of how much honey we managed to harvest, our estimate is about 18 to 20lb, not a great deal, but as Lee has some of his colleagues queing up to buy it, then we need to get some bottled asap for selling to them!

And finally....... the finished product! Doesnt it look good! And it tastes even better, much nicer than anything you can get from a supermaret (you wouldnt believe the difference in taste), plus you are eating something produced locally and which can have health benefits (particularly for those who suffer with hayfever, its been documented that eating local honey - produced within 30 miles of where you live - can help with hayfever symptoms!). Personally though, I enjoy it for its taste, and the fact that in selling some of the honey on we are then able to reinvest that money in both looking after the bees and in the allotment itself!

Last piccy for today, I pulled into the drive tonight to watch this cheeky chap eating our cherries, he sat there as bold as brass wioth one in his mouth! Methinks the cherry harvest needs to come in NOW!

Hope you enjoyed the post, that it gave you another insight into the mysteries of beekeeping and perhaps answered some questions that you'd always wondered about! Thanks for reading!

We're ont he plto tomorrow night after work, so I'll try and get some update piccies to show you.... along wiht some more harvests of course! Hope your crops are growing well and your plots are looking good!

Rain, rain, glorious rain!

Well, the first of our 2 days off together this week dawned cloudy, with a weather forecast of heavy showers - possibly thundery! Not the weather really for inspecting the bees (they get very aggitated and aggresive when thunder is around), so after talking to Pat and Colin (Lee saw them walking their dogs past the front of our house whilst I was watering the greenhouse toms and peppers at home), and with the fact that Pat is off to see Hairspray tonight (with Sarah), we decided to put the bee inspections off until tomorrow!

Yesterday we had a fair bit of rain, with more forecast for today, so hoeing on the plot is almost impossible today, and as we need to get a bit of shopping in (plus I want to go and look at another branch of my company nearby), we decided to just pop to the plot, do some harvesting, then process it this afternoon, after shopping!

In addition to whats pictured - 11 stalks of rhubarb (possibly our last harvest for the year as we need to let them rest now), 10 more courgettes (with lots more coming), another 1 1/2lb rasps, another 2lb broad beans, 1lb french beans, 2lb peas, another lettuce, our first 3 turnips (milan purple top) and our first cucumber - we also took another 2lb of strawbs! I didnt get a piccy of them, because it started to rain just after I took this piccy, so we had to load everything into the car!

We didnt need to water the outdoor veg today, thanks to the rain, but we did water and feed in the greenhouses, polytunnel and hothouse! Plenty of toms, peppers, chillies and cucumbers all coming along nicely!

We also got a chance to look at the crops, this golden acre primo cabbage is beginning to hearten up, so hopefully a few weeks and we'll be using home grown cabbages to make our own sauerkraut!

The strawbs we planted from seed, really coming on well!

The late sowing of maincrop carrots are now coming up, as too are the weeds! I'd love to hand weed them, but its probably best to let them alone for a few days to allow the carrots to get established, then take the weeds out when the ground isnt quite so wet!

The late sown french beans are also coming on apace! Just look at the difference 48 hours makes, I can almost see them growing by the minute!

In addition to doing the bee inspections, we're hoping to harvest the garlic tomorrow, if the weather is dry enough, and possibly sow some pak choi or chinese leaf cabbages into that bed, we're also considering taking up a bed of spuds, the one thats been worst hit with blight, its still growing, but it doesnt half look a mess compared with our other spuds, and we've more leeks to go in after the spuds come up, so we'll have to look at what the weather is doing and how long it take us to do the bees inspections!

Hope your crops are growing well, thanks for reading!

Yippeee, rain!! Oh wait........ not on the plot! :(

Typical, I spend the day in work looking outsde to see a sky that were filled with torrential rain, and get home (30 miles from work) to find that we've only had a light shower at the plot, and there's me thinking I would get away without having to water today! Lol! Ah well, at least having several watering cans make s it a bit quicker!

Well, the harvests of soft fruit are going well, the bees from our apiaries obviously did a good pollinating job, the summer fruiting rasps are absolutely dripping with fruit, took 3lb at the first pick alone! Strawbs are just about still producing, another 8lb or so the other day, but I think they are now coming to the end of their fruiting, there doesnt seem to be much more coming along, except on the new bed we sowed from seed, this one seems to have a few flowers still coming! The blueberries at home are plumping up nicely, and the cherries are ripening too, the peas and beans also giving us a lot, as are (of course) the courgettes!

Our brassicas are looking good, the sprouts and broccolli are bulking up nicely, should be a reasonable crop from them this year (we hope), but the star brassicas at the moment are the cabbages.............

............ These are really coming on well! The savoy type are beginning to heart up, as are some of my fave (Golden Acre Primo)!

The sweetcorn is also looking particularly good, and the underplanting with our pumpkins and squashes is also working well, its adapted from the native american 3 sisters bed system (we did try a 3 sisters a few years ago, but the beans didnt do anything much, so we've not bothered planting them in with the other 2 sisters ever since).

We've even got our first set pumpkin and squashes, with plenty more flowers still present! I cant wait for the plants to fully fill out, they do a great job of smothering any weeds, so a light hoeing is all they ever need, no backbreaking weeding!

Our last sowing of Dwarf French beans are now coming up, you can just about see them in this piccy!

The overwintering onions are bulking up really nicely, I've got a feeling its going to be another good year for onions!

The first sowing of leeks are doing well (apart from ne or two that have been nibbled by our furry friends), and the early runners (on the canes to the right of the leeks) are now setting beans, shouldnt be long till we can harvest our first runners of the year! The borlotti beans (on the canes to the left of the leeks) have also shot up!

The victorian purple podded peas are going to produce a great pea harvest, and the late sowing of broad beans are also going to do really well! The late sown runners (to the left of the broad beans) are also now growing on apace!

The spuds on the other hand are still growing, despite the blight, but as many folks have been telling us of a really poor spud harvest, we're going to leave them in as long as we can, to ensure we get the best possible crops! The ealry mains are relatively blight free (to the left), the late earlies are suffering a bit, but by treating with bordeaux mixture and removing the blighted leaves, we are keeping it somewhat under control...... so far at least!

The late mains (behind Fester - our scarecrow, whos decided to try and help us by watching out for cabbage white butterflies and catching them in his net) arent looking too bad either, the bordeaux mixture seems to be working so far (fingers crossed!)

We've been talking about our plans for next year on the plot, we've a plum tree on plot 1 thats never fruited (we inherrited it with the plot), that we both feel needs to come out, but where its located is rather overshadowed to the north, so we're not sure if we are going to plant another plum there, or whether to plant some other soft fruits instead. The area to the left of apiary 1 (on plot 2) which is currently covered with plastic (from where we peer through the fence to see what the bees are doing) is going to have a step put in and a proper leveling, plus be barked over, possibly with some flowers planted around it. We also want to plant a redcurrant and some goji berries (as we both like them, especially in spicey chicken broth), but as yet we're not sure where they will be going, I think the redcurrant will be going in the bed to the right, at the very front of plot 1, and the goji's may be going into the lavender bed to the front left of plot 1. Lee also would like to plant an almond and possibly some other nut trees (I want a chestnut tree, but they grow too tall for the plot!), but instead of planting them on the plot we may be starting an allotment orchard!

There is a 'tree nursery' that was set up a long time ago by Groundworks and is occassionally used by Red Rose Forest, but as its been untended (and overgrown until we cut it back during the prejudging allotment tidy up 2 weeks ago) and unused, we made the suggestion that the allotment society takes it over and plants it as an orchard! This was well received by all present, and with a friend of ours (Dave, our beekeeping mentor and good friend) having already set up (regenerated) a community orchard at Balmorral Road Allotments, we are hoping that if we can get permission, then Dave may be able to help us with lots of good advice!

If we are able to take it over, then as well as some heritage apple and pear varieties, we are hoping to get a few nut trees in there too! As our concil liason is busy with the allotment judging for the next week or so, we wont know for a while whether its going to be possible to reclaim the tree nursery and develop it as a community orchard, but thats something we are hoping will be possible for the future!

Anyhows, its been a while since I posted a balance sheet, so I thought I'd share the latest update with you!

Total Veg Plot Costs 2010

Rent + Subs for 2 full plots £100
Seeds £20
Seed Spuds £20
Onion Sets £6
Growbags £15
Chicken Manure Pellets £8
Plastic 'wannabe' Polytunnel £61
Bamboo Canes £8
Flower Plants £28
Scaffolding Boards £100
Watering Cans £8

Total Costs £ 374

The plot costs have gone up a bit recently, as Lee got the chance to buy 20 scaffolding boards for £100, so as we have some beds with poor edging (where the wood has had it), we decided to buy enough to sort out a few beds and rebuild the retaining wall on the rhubarb patch on Plot 2! Plus with the hosepipe ban we had to get another 2 watering cans to let 2 of us water at the same time with 2 cans each, to cut down the number of trips back and forth to the taps!Y

Total Veg Plot Harvests 2010

Rhubarb £ 25
Fartichokes £ 4
Volunteer Spuds £15
Lettuce £10
Radish £10
Garlic £15
Strawberries £60
Raspberries £10
Peas £15
Broad Beans £20
Courgettes £25
French Beans £1
Red Onions £10

Total Veg Plot Harvests £ 208

So we're now £166 away from breaking even, but with most of the harvests still to start, then its possible we will soon have a positive balance sheet! There should be a healthy harvest either tomorrow (assuming Im home from work early enough to get it) or on our days off (wednesday and thursday) as we've rasps, broad beans, salad, peas, french beans and a few other things that we may take out this week, so I'll try and get another balance sheet up in the next few days!

Hope your balance sheet is looking good, and that your crops are growing on well and harvesting a plenty!

More updates soon, thanks for reading!

Wildlife locally on the allotments!

As we are in a fairly rural location here (on the very edge of Manchester and Cheshire, with the Cheshire border only 1/2 mile from our house, and with a 5 mile journey from Partington - down country lanes - to any form of metropolitan civilization), we are fortunate to have a lot of wildlife locally, so as I drove onto the allotment site today (after work to meet up with Lee for some weeding, hoeing and watering) and was met with the sight of this fine fellow, I thought perhaps it was time to do a blog entry showing some of the wildlife I've managed to capture with my trusty camera on the plot!

Quite often as you round the corner at the bottom of the site on the road that runs round the site you will catch sight of the local rabbits, usually youngsters, but as you drive up towards them, then they usually run off and leave the site! This one today allowed me to get close enough to take this piccy with my 300mm telephoto zoom lens before it decided to run around the corner, as I followed I got closer, and when it stopped in a bed (in a plot at the top), I managed to get the following picture!

They are beautiful creatures, but they can cause havoc with our crops, so generally we do try and discourage them (although they do taste nice in the pot - if you can get one)! They do face a lot of problems locally, there is a pair of buzzards living within 1/2 mile of the allotments, plus a fox that regularly visits the plot (we've not seen him, but his runs are visible, and a couple of other plotholders have seen him, a young male) and these do seem to be doing well with keeping the rabbit numbers under control!

This little fellow is one of a family of squirrels that live in the woods surrounding the allotment site, they can be a bit of a problem, eating sweetcorn, burying acorns (that sprout in the middle of our beds!) and pinching strawberries (Lee watched one last week sit and eat one on Pat and Colins Plot), but generally they dont cause too many big problems for us! Mind you, HFW does say they go well on a BBQ! Lol!

Other mammals we have also seen Hedgehogs (there were 5 hibernating in one plots compost heap one year, as you can see in this piccy), fieldmice and I'm sure the other day I saw a Shrew!

We also have a colony of Pipistrel Bats living nearby (in a cave off the side of the Manchester Ship Canal that runs just to the north of Partington), which we often see in an evening, flying round the houses!

The local birdlife is also proliffic, a pair of Blackbirds nested in the alcove of our shed earlier this year.

They hatched 5 chicks........

....... who all fledged succesfully! The nest is still in the shed alcove, though is no longer being used!

Other birds we are aware of living on the plot, wood pidgeons, magpies, robins, blue tits and great tits, sparrows, jays, peregrines, buzzards, blackbirds, ravens, crows, barn owls, and a heron who lives locally too! There are also seasonal visitors such as the swifts, goldcrests and others besides! I need to spend some more time with my telephoto lens on the plot to catch some piccies of some of these feathered visitors, but that will come with time!

We also have both frogs and toads on the site, both of which use our pond for spawning, and are regularly seen around the plot!

All you have to do is turn over something and out jumps a toad!

Or look into the undergrowth, and there lurks a frog!

Last year we also saw a small lizard at the site cabin, no idea what species, but if I see it again I'll be sure to get a picture!

There's also lots of insect life around, especially if you take the time to have a look, this orb spider was busy making its web when we noticed it!

Hover fly, there's lots of polintating insects on the plots, as well as our honey bees!

Plenty of butterflies too, I believe this one is a Monarch, which is quite far north for the breed, though one or two types (cabbage whites in particular) we could do without!

There's plenty of other fauna on the plots too, though one type we could definitely bear to see less of is the common garden slugs and snails!

Locally we've also got plenty of fields, the Dunham Massey NT Hall and plenty of nature in all its guises, sometime in the future I may get round to taking some piccies locally and do a future blog on it!

Anyhows, I hope you like the piccies and get more of a feel for the beauty of the natural world we have around us hereabouts!