What a whopper!

I harvested a parsnip for tea tonight. It was almost dark so I had to guess where the plant was and managed to put the tines of the fork through it as I lifted it but I was over the moon with the monster I dug up. It weighed 700g! I also picked 15 sprouts to try but as we were running late with tea and I suspected them to be full of unwanted bugs I’ve covered them in a salt soak . I think that’s what you do with fresh sprouts full of insects. Normally I’d just take them (the sprouts not the insects!) out of a plastic bag from the freezer once I’ve bought them from a supermarket!

 

Burning the blighters

Katie Thear suggests that an effective way of getting rid of red mite is to use a blow torch. Well, I didn’t have one of those but I did have a weedwand which is the same but with a longer tube so I’ve blasted the little coop out with that. The wand normally produces an intense blue flame but when held horizontally or, even worse, slightly vertical, the flames go from a nice concentrated blue to a massive, wide spreading yellow. Several time I almost set fire to the pen; at least the mites would be killed! I’ve never used a blowtorch and found it difficult to judge how long to hold the flame on the wood. As it was raining and very windy, I couldn’t tell what was steam and what was smoke. I didn’t actually scorch anything so I think I did well and fingers crossed that when the pekins go in, the mite have gone.

At 3pm I went over the lotty. I’ve been saying for months about all of the plot holders getting together and clearing communal areas such as pathway and the carpark. It was arranged at the last meeting (which I didn’t go to) to do that today. DFS had been there since 13:30 and when I got there there were quite a few people – which made a change.
There was us, KM, DK, RP, PH, JH,  E&GT, and TW which was half the plot holders and a very good turn out for us and a fair amount of clearing was done. It means we can now see the back fence and where we stand with the trees. There are a few small oaks to come out which will be fun!