Now that the frosts and wintry weather have fully arrived it can be rare to see another human being down at the allotment site. The water has been turned off as a precaution against burst pipes and there is little to do other than piling up barrow-loads from free deliveries of muckon the compost.Generally all is peaceful although I have had a few glimpses of a fox which, together with a couple of cats, will have free run of the place over the weeks ahead. This fox seems to like digging and I found deep holes in my compost heap, perhaps where it had been preying on frogs searching for a place to hibernate.I am now working my way through winter crops of parsnips and swede and whilst clearing the beds I discovered a bonus crop of pink fir apple potatoes, which I had missed several weeks earlier. These tasted all the more delicious in the knowledge that they would be the very last of my allotment grown potatoes until next summer.Another surprise was finding broccoli florets on plants that I had thought would be ready in spring, but after looking through my seed packets I found that I planted green sprouting Calabrese. This variety has a shorter growing season and can usually be harvested from late summer, whereas broccoli grows more slowly and would be ready the following year. Calabrese has a more delicate flavour than broccoli and along with the remainder of the chard, I am happy to have another green vegetable to pick at this time of year.Read
