Allotment diary part 8: allotment joy

Our next door allotment neighbour is very experienced. His plot is immaculate and several times bigger than ours. He doesn't laugh at our efforts though. He encourages us and says nice things about my lavender hedge. He also gives us lots of things. Today, it was a beautiful bunch of asparagus and 60 bean seeds. He also tried not to look too disapproving when I planted out some of my courgettes in my impatience to get the summer going. He thinks it is a little early and he will probably be proved right.

These neighbourly interactions bring me great joy. The allotment gives me something else every time I go there. Peace, quiet and relief from a world which now and again gets a bit overwhelming. There is something so soothing about weeding around my chard plants, checking to see if any seeds have germinated in the last week, testing the gooseberries and admiring the progress of the blackcurrants. It doesn't really matter to anyone other than me and Anthony but every little bit of progress lifts my spirits and gives me more satisfaction than ticking everything off my to-do list (and I really like ticking things off my list).

And we are making serious progress this year. I've fallen behind a little with my allotment diary (the overwhelming real world again) but we've got lush looking potatoes:

We managed to erect some (very) rustic netting around the blackcurrant and gooseberry:

My marigolds are blooming and all is well:

Allotment diary part 7: allotment dreams

I've discovered the secret to really enjoying the allotment. Tea and cake. I'm a member of Cambridge Blue Belles WI and we have our own allotment. I had been down to see it once or twice last year but already overwhelmed with my own allotment I had never been down to do any actual work. Last week I popped in for a quick visit and weeded the herb bed. In return I got a bag of nettles to take home, delicious tea and cake and lots of ideas for what I want to do next with my own plot. 

The first of these I instigated on my own plot yesterday. I'm a sweet pea lover but tend to grow them in a haphazard way in my back garden. The lovely gardening Belles are similarly sweet pea obsessed and were building a cane support structure while I was there. Seeing how easy it was inspired me to just get on and do it. Result: slightly wonky sweet pea structure now built on my allotment.

Both the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes are shaping up to have their best year yet. They really need to be netted to ensure we get to enjoy them and not the birds. I had a dream about netting them last night. I'm worried. I need to get back down there.

The potatoes are growing (with only a little bit of frost damage) and the strawberries are covered in flowers. The rhubarb is going crazy. It's all starting to come together. My next mission is to get a shed. 

Cocktail of the month: gooseberry margarita

I'm seventeen years old and Sarah and I are doing our best to get through a bottle of cheap tequilla in one night, armed only with table salt and some disappointingly dry limes. Those first experiences with tequila will certainly not be filed in the classy section of my cocktail memoirs. 

Oh but the youthful abandon, the joy, the hope for the future. The alcohol snob I fear I have become would secretly trade the vintage glasses, the bitters collection and the library of cocktail books to spend one night in a sweaty, youthful, worry-free and crap tequila-fueled fervour.

But then I pull myself together and get right back to the alcohol snobbery. The tequila we drank was horrific. I wish I had known then that the only tequila to drink should be clearly labelled 100% agave. If it doesn't say that on the label it will contain 51% agave and then rest will be made up with added sugars. Now, I'm not going to claim that tequila is some kind of health food but surely it makes sense to begin with the best ingredients we can. I'm a big fan of the Aqua Riva brand: fantastic taste, understated but pleasing labeling and available at a great price. 

I do love tequila and I was reminded of this at a fabulous brunch "supper club" I went to hosted by the lovely Ivana and Jenna. A Bloody Maria was served up alongside the brunch and as the warm tequila glow began to spread through me I knew I was going to have revisit tequila myself. I couldn't hold my head up if I didn't make it somewhat local and seasonal. Luckily for my cocktail cred the universe intervened and sent me a box of gooseberries in my veg box.

So it had to be a gooseberry margarita. Let's revisit how to make a standard margarita first. It's really not hard.

margarita (serves one)

45mL 100% agave tequila

30mL triple sec

15mL freshly squeezed lime juice

ice

salt for the rim

First prepare your glass. Run a spent lime wedge around the rim and then rotate the wet lip through a dish of salt to create your salt rim. Fill the glass with ice. Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add plenty of ice, shake or stir for about 30 seconds. Strain into your prepared glass. Drink and feel tequila happy.

If you have some gooseberries and fancy something a bit more exotic then I highly recommend this variation. First cook down your gooseberries with a little sugar and a tiny bit of water. Once your gooseberries have disintegrated, push them through a fine sieve to create a smooth puree. The resulting cocktail doesn't look pretty but it tastes fabulous.

gooseberry margarita (serves one)

45mL 100% agave tequila

30mL gooseberry puree

10mL triple sec

15mL freshly squeezed lime juice

ice

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add plenty of ice, shake or stir for about 30 seconds. Strain into a glass full of ice. Drink and feel tequila happy.

Hear me talk more about this on Flavour tomorrow (Saturday 12th July) at 12pm.