Tag Archives: Leeks

Quick and Easy Leek and Potato Soup Recipe

Quick and easy, and very 'leeky' - our leek and potato soup recipe.

This leek and potato soup recipe has become a seasonal staple for us. Leeks are reliable, low maintenance and easy to grow. They remain ready to harvest for long periods at a time, meaning that we can enjoy regular harvests for many weeks. We began using them in soups – a delicious warming meal that is perfect for workers returning from a cold plot. But leeks can easily get lost in a soup. We wanted our homegrown leeks to come to the fore and be the stars of the show. We also wanted this soup to be quick and easy,…

Our bath tub containing the last of the leeks and carrots harvested from the allotment.

I started last month’s growing update with the old proverb ‘March winds and April showers bring forth the May flowers’. Well March was windy enough, but April brought us precious little rain. No April showers this year. We had so little rain that digging the fast-draining soil at the allotment has seemed like an impossible task. The first couple of weeks of April were very warm and dry and we started hardening off our tomato plants. But then arctic winds came in, and with them frosts, so we took to bringing our tomato plants indoors of an evening to protect…

Some of our young tomato plants enjoying the warm weather and longer days in their cold frame.

‘March winds and April showers bring forth the May flowers’, or so the old proverb goes. Well if this March is anything to go by, then May should be a floral delight! The winds that Storm Doris brought in, and Storm Ewan perpetuated, have died down, but never seem to have fully left us. But the days are now getting longer and spring is officially here. As of last weekend the clocks went forward which means it is still light when I get home from work. This week I have taken full advantage of this and I’ve been getting garden…

A romanesco growing at our allotment.

February has been a busy month for us. We’ve been enjoying our crops from our garden and allotment, and busy planning for the coming months. Regular readers will have noticed that there were no growing updates for the months of December and January. In truth there wasn’t a great deal to write about. We were rather busy every weekend over the festive period, and with the days so short at that time of year, getting outside and cultivating before or after work didn’t seem like it would be a practical option. In short we spent very little time in the…

An October curcubit harvest - courgettes that grew to marrows, a patty pan and a ball courgette.

October is always a fun month for us. We are still harvesting crops, and we are now also planting new ones for next year. This month we’ve sown some peas and broad beans in pots, which we will move to their final positions at the allotment once we have harvested enough carrots to make space for them. These pea and bean plants will then give us a bit of a head start for next spring. Although they won’t grow much in the short cold days of winter, when the conditions improve, they will already be established plants and should start…

An early autumn treat - the biggest pumpkin we have ever grown.

September is already coming to an end. It’s been a great month for us in the garden and at the allotment. We’ve had some exciting harvests and we’ve been enjoying the changing of the seasons. The month started with weather cloudier than we had experienced in August. It was still warm, but there wasn’t as much sun, and the days were getting noticeably shorter. We had a fair bit of rain in the first week or so, which prompted another surge in courgette production. But it did give us cause for concern regarding our drying Martock field beans and Boddington’s…

It's that time of year again! That summer staple - the runner bean.

We’ve had quite a successful, if a little hectic, month. August carried on where July left off and it has been hot and sunny most days. This has been great for our squashes and courgettes, which have come on leaps and bounds. It has meant we’ve spent a lot of time watering, and so our basic evening routine is either Liz or I water the allotment, and the other waters the garden. These tasks take some time, so what with weeding and cultivating the last of the space at the allotment, it’s been a busy month just keeping things ticking…

Mature Martock field beans growing in our garden.

What a contrast July has been when compared to June! Almost every day this month has been warm and sunny with very little rain. It’s been a very busy month for us. We’ve transformed the allotment and the plants there are thriving in the warm weather. It has meant that we’ve had to spend a lot of time watering the plants this month, and even more time weeding. In the garden the legumes bed has been very productive. Our Martock field beans have produced such a crop that we’ve had a couple of plants bend in two under their own…

Our new growing space - a 3 rod allotment.

There has been an exciting development for us and our fruit and vegetable growing. We’ve got an allotment! It’s something we had considered for some time. We thought about it a lot before we moved into our current house. But once we moved here and had more growing space than ever before, we were in our element and the idea of an allotment became less important. Of course more space would have been nice. Just a few weeks ago I commented in a post that due to our crop rotation plan and the size differences between our beds we wouldn’t be…

Slightly Self-Sufficient

Tasting The Good Life

Tag Archives: Leeks

Quick and Easy Leek and Potato Soup Recipe

April 2017 Growing Update

March 2017 Growing Update

February 2017 Growing Update

October 2016 Growing Update

September 2016 Growing Update

August 2016 Growing Update

July 2016 Growing Update

Exciting News – We Have An Allotment!