The Good Life - Green shoots

 Redcurrants beginning to flower

The good weather has continued for yet another weekend and the green shoots of growth are everywhere to be seen in the allotment. The beans and peas have broken through the caked dy earth and I have been sowing more peas in order to lengthen the harvest period when it arrives. There are early signs of slug visitations, so we must be vigilant to prevent these guys from taking up permanent residence. There have alsobeen lush green leaves appearing on the currant bushes, some of which are already bearing small flowers. The leaves on the raspberry canes are slowly shooting and we expect to have a good crop from them throughout the year in the berry garden. In contrast the gooseberries are slow to show signs of life, but I am prepared for this annual disappointment.

Forcing the rhubarb has been profitable; the large drum covering the rhubarb crown was lifted off the ground such was the extent of the growth. It has since been plundered a few times for tarts and my personal favourite, rhubarb and walnut sponge.

We have three small nursery beds into which have been sewn a variety of lettuce, cress, mustard leaf, radish and beetroot. The mustard leaf is growing rapidly under a thin protective cover as have the radishes. Meanwhile the lettuce is somewhat frail and slow however they will soon grow to be big and healthy specimens once transplanted into a larger bed.

 The colourful and rapid growing mustard leaf

My nettle beer brew was slow to ferment at first but after about three days the situation changed and the fermentation went into overdrive. The temperature of the room where I had left the brew was quite stable only dropping to a low of 16C and rising to a maximum of 19C during the week. By Sunday morning the fermentation had stopped and I racked the brew into my expensive swing top lemonade bottles priming each bottle with a teaspoon and a half of demerera sugar. I hope this does not mean I shall be picking shards of glass out of the walls in the coming days but it should guarantee a bubbly brew. Instead of tasting the beer after a few days I have decided to let it stand and clear for at least a week. 

The next entry should be interesting. By then I will know the result of my labours. I may also know where I went wrong because I should have received Mary Aylett's book on Country Winemaking by then. In particular many of the recipes and methods I have read to date use cream of tartar in the process, and I must admit I do not understand what this ingredient actually brings to the mix, or what its purpose is. Mary might help out on this point! In any event, if it tastes good all will be well for a week or two; if it does not hit the spot the slugs will die happy. Corinne has suggested that we might experiment and develop a black fly treatment for the vegtables based upon the nettles; I have of course ignored this suggestion because picking nettles to fix a few black fly is not my idea of fun when a perfectly acceptable beer can be produced from them.

The skies have been remarkably clear since a little volcanic activity commenced in Iceland on or about midnight on the 14th April. Dublin normally has a lot of planes coming a going, and passing over on transaltlantic routes. Hence, it was quite remarkable to have an unmarked skies overhead late last week with not a single vapour trail to be seen. I have heard there are quite a few people looking for clean underwear and wondering when they will make it home, but the photograph below demonstrates just how empty and beautiful the sky above Dublin's docklands was on Thursday evening.