More planting – and the Apple Crumble!

We were back in the Growing Garden last Monday ready to finish all our clearing and planting – and harvest the remaining apples on our Bramley apple tree. Here is our chief apple picker hard at work.

And here is chief apple picker’s mum Jacqueline…

….who not only put in a good shift on planting and apple picking but who then made the apples into the MOST delicious looking cakes.

Jacqueline, btw, is a fab yoga teacher. She works with children, teens and adults using both traditional mat-based yoga and seated yoga. She offers fun studio class, calming gym sessions or one-on-one online guidance – something for everyone! As she says, it is all about fostering well-being and mindfulness and she is always keen to welcome new participants. You can email her here to find out more.

Meanwhile – here she is with Paula planting out our pak choi – around the Crown Prince squash which seems to have no desire to stay in the planter and is heading out across the grass.

…and here is the chief apple picker-turned-waterer watering them in!

The ex-tomato planter was also getting a makeover – this time onions, spring oions – and crocus Sativa! These are autumn crocus which should flower in the next two months giving us not only pretty mauve flowers but beautiful gold saffron stigmas which we can use for colouring our vegetables!

And here is Ness using a firepen to make wooden labels for each of the planters so that we remember what we have planted where!

Meanwhile, across in the potato bed things have really taken off. These guys were only planted just over two weeks ago – and look at them! The pack said ‘plant in September and harvest in November’ and it looks as though they could be right.

But what about that crumble? Relieved from planting duties, Paula had been making a fire in the firepit and putting on some of our apples to cook.

Once they were reasonably soft, she mixed up the crumble topping and spread it over the top – then covered the crumble with foil and piled the half-burned wood from the fire on top of the foil. How genius was that?

And did it work? You bet it did…. Look at this for crunchy topping!

Fortunately there was some yogurt left in the fridge so a crumble feast was had – and it definitely got Paula’s seal of approval.

Next week we plan to make a chart so that we know exactly what we have growing where and when we can expect to start harvesting.