Ralph's allotment story
I took over my allotment in March 2011. The secretary said ‘I’ll find you a good one that doesn’t need too much work to clean up, so you can make a start straight away’. He offered me plot 100, and I thought, this is a good one.
Weeds? Well, yes there were a few….. well, a lot really, and 3 feet high, as well as thistles, nettles, old carpets, tyres, a lot of broken glass which went up to the tip, luckily not too far away.
There were some runner beans still left standing on the bean canes from the previous year. After picking I had 1000 beans, far too many to use. So what did I do with the rest of them? I made 2 gallons of wine.
I thought to myself ‘ What a good idea having an allotment is, I could make a lot of different wines and what is left the wife can have’. The wife said different – what is left I can have for my wine.
Because it was getting a little late in the day to dig over a full plot, I had it ploughed then rotovated by another allotmenteer. Potatoes went in first and I had a good crop – well, I thought I did until I saw the other people’s crop on the allotment. Mine were very small, but never mind, the wife took all she wanted then said ‘You can have the small ones that are left’. After I had dug them all up, I looked at them and thought ‘I can make 5 gallons of wine from these!’
Over the 3 years on site I have grown just about everything, and do you know, you can make wine from just about everything, from broad beans and beetroot to peas and pumpkins (and even cabbage).
I haven’t made wine from onions or leeks yet, but they do make lovely soup. I also grow a few flowers as well – marigolds to grow around my carrots as the carrot fly doesn’t like the smell, and yes, you’ve guessed it, you can make wine out of marigolds and it tastes lovely. There is an elderflower tree at the end of my allotment – and yes again, for elderflower and elderberry wines! I also have a few roses, nice red smelly ones, and yes, they make a nice rosé wine
I have just put down my copy of the ALLOTMENT and picked up my wine making book and found a new recipe for flower wine – carnations – so it looks like I’ve got to find somewhere to grow them, this one I must try.
I do put all this wine to good use: on bonfire night we have a barbecue – I provide the wine and beer – oh, did I not say? I make beer as well, not grown on the allotment, shame. We also have the odd barbecue throughout the year.
We have just had a new pavilion built, so we will have an open day, another good day for wine tasting.
Besides the winemaking, the wife also makes different kinds of jams and pickles, beetroot chutney is my favourite.