[debih]

October is our first anniversary of having our allotment and we have had a great year.

We have had about 40lb of raspberries from our canes, around 70 courgettes (with still more to come), 12 enormous cauliflowers, broccoli, broad beans, runner beans (which we are still picking), carrots, beetroot, strawberries, cabbages and loads more.  We are still harvesting the chard and the leeks are really growing.  We have put cabbages, caulis, calabrese and kale in.

The children have grown copious amounts of radishes that they have been taking to our local pub to swap for pop and crisps with the landlord/chef!!!!!

I have become a dab hand at jam making and have my own little liquer factory going!!

We have learnt by our own mistakes and next year know that we need to get potatoes in (we didnt bother this year) and also keep a diary of what goes in when and record how much we harvest of everything (for my listamania mind).

But the best thing to have come out of it all is the amount of time we have spent as a family at the allotment.  My aim this year is to become more familiar with this forum as I just never seemed to have the time to come on here before!

[plum crumble]

Hi Debih - sounds great. You are right - there are so many benefits. I love my grandchildren - age 8 and 4 - coming on the allotment. You should have seen their faces the first time - they no concept of where veg came from, apart for the supermarket. The excitement they had in "finding the biggest bean", or spotting the caterpillars for nanny to dispose of! Ah, love em. And then there are the burgeoning shelves in the garage full of marrow, courgette, tomato chutnies, pickled shallots, plum jam, etc. I think we will get one more picking from the beans, and that's it! Even the miserable old gits who have had an allotment since the Crimean War can't help smiling when my grandkids show them things they've picked..Priceless!