Anyone with an allotment?

Gonna move out of my nice place with a balcony into god knows where pretty soon. Anyone want my tomato plants and assorted others? E14.

So... Came down to Devon, to find a greenhouse full of trinidad scorpion, chocolate habaneros, and a bunch of other chilis, about to find out how fucking hot they are. Also some cute as all hell hatchling chicks.
Oh and 100-odd ewe lambs.

Thread's been quiet of late. Not that relvant but needed to share. At the weekend I was planting some spuds and when digging the trench I noticed what I first thought was a slug. I pulled it out for a look and it was a massive (well about 5cm long at first) leech. I washed the mud off to get a better look and it started to grow and seek out my blood. I didn't realise they sometimes live in soil.

I've been telling people that bit of my allotment is water logged. Now they'll have to believe me.

Had our allotment annual show on the v. wet bank holiday. Was a semi sucess. Got loads of people attending despite the weather. Unfortunately loads of people coming meant loads entered produce which meant the competition was stiffer. I only managed two first prizes (best lemon curd, best marrow) when I managed 4 last year (only because I was the sole entrant - and even then I managed to get a second in one category on my own). It partly made up for a rubbish growing year. Am just hoping my tomatoes make it through the next week so I can some way preserve them.

Have any of you ever tried to store tomato sauce? And if so what's the best method and how long does it last?

you can freeze passatta for ages.
also ovendried tomatos are lush.

Oh I didn't think of oven drying - good idea. I've not much room in the freezer so was thinking of jars. Ever tried putting them in jars?

I haven't, but the use-by on dolmio is pretty long so you should be ok if everything is sterilised!
If you oven dry them, be prepared to have eaten them in a day.

Is that becasue of deliciousness rather than a need to eat?

deliciousness levels are high. its like tomato sweets.

Inquired as to availability of allotments behind us on Parliament Hill - waiting list of roughly 70 years.

As long as you sterilise the jars and the put the tomato sauce/passatta in straight off the hob I don't see why they won't last a decent amount of time in a cool place. Definitely a month or two, maybe more.

I have an allotment in Brighton for which I waited one whole year!l

You've probably already looked but sometimes there are sights near by where the waiting lists are far shorter. I'm on an allotment ctee and one of our sites is 3 years and one nearer 20.

3 yrs isn't so bad as the throughput of tenants is pretty quick as many simply find it too hard to keep a plot going.

I read that it's somethign to do with acidity and botulism. Unless it's acid enough you can be in trouble. I'm not sure how this works with jam.

When you say nearby, where do you mean? We checked Camden Council and all lists are closed. I was under the impression that you could only apply in your council area - is that wrong?

Yeah it all tends to be in borough now. We have about 6 or 7 sites all near each other with different lists - I think you can put your name down for three of them. I was hoping your area might have a similar arrangement.

Any exciting allotment news?

Yes!

Planted my potatoes on Saturday.
Valor, Accent and Sarpo Mira.
I decided, as with last year, to plant them all at the same time.

Also this year I've decided on a variety of French climbing beans and dwarf beans over Runner beans. French climbing beans are still perfectly good even if not picked at their prime, whereas Runners get stringy, as you know.

Other new entries to the plot this year will be Turks Turban squash, sprouting broccoli (3 types), Borlotti beans, and Kale 'Nero di Toscana'.

Dislocated, fractured and crushed nerves in my shoulder 8 weeks ago. Had surgery 6 weeks ago. Probably wasn't at the allotment for a couple of weeks before that. Felt good enough today to go and make a start getting it back on track one handed and it's a little worse than expected...

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Wow! Chain a cow in there and go back in a week. Job done.

We're having a bumper crop of soft fruit this year. This was Saturday's crop, got nearly as much again on Sunday and the head gardener got another load yesterday.

Excuse the child's toy suitcase, we were short of containers so nabbed it from the play house.

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Wow! Summer pudding time. Very envious of all those strawberries.

We've got strawberries 🍓 coming out of our wazoos, to quote my 7 year old.

The main bed is in its fourth year, so in theory should be past peak production but it's gone crazy. The dry spell has helped, slug and snail numbers are way down on previous years.

Well Jell!

I'm thinking about building a fruit cage on my plot for gooseberries etc.