Summer Newsletter

 Remember to collect your seed catalogue – you can order your own, or get together with some pals and make a joint order. In any event, remember to add the postage – and remember that things like onions etc have specific date “windows”, or cut offs for ordering.

 Please take time to read the stuff about the community trees project – some copies for you to read today are on the table with the seed catalogues.

 Thank you to all who have paid their fees this year – a very good turn out!

 Potatoes have done well this year, as have courgettes and the runner beans have gone mad! Share with us your own successes, failures and advice.

 My experimental old car tyres produced over 5 pounds of good potatoes this year – see me anytime for a run down of how it works – there is a new “Christmas crop” potatoes currently in progress.

Thank you for your support, Howard Marsh

Summer BBQ @ The Allotments

A big thank you to Howard and Ruth for Hosting this years allotment BBQ this sunday! There was a good turn out, and the weather was lovely and warm.

As a newbie at the allotments, it was lovely to meet some new faces and some of the more experienced allotment holders. A good time was had by all, over a few drinks and some tasty food; accompanied by a good old chinwag about sheds, growing and chickens.

Courgette Cake

I don't know about you, but I have been over-run with courgettes at the moment and was in desperate need of some inspiration.

After a quick search on google, I found this recipe on the smallest small holding blog, so I decided to give it a whirl, and guess what? It tastes yummy! This is certainly a tasty way to get one of your five-a-day. The grated courgette keeps the cake moist, so you don't have to use as much fat as a normal cake recipe, which makes it even healthier.

I used yellow courgettes, which I didn't have to peel (because I don't mind yellow flecks in my cake), but I reckon it would work well with any type of squash or marrow. Like any recipe, you could experiment with different ingredients, I think lemon zest or coconut would make a nice addition.

Courgette Cake

(Makes 2 x 1lb loaves or can be Tray Baked)

8oz Courgettes - grated. Peel if you don’t want a green cake!

5oz Margarine

9-10oz sugar

4 Eggs (Beaten)

11oz Self-Raising Flour

2tsp Ground Cinnamon or Mixed Spice

4-5oz Seedless Raisins

3oz Chopped Nuts

2tsp Vanilla Essence

Method: Preheat oven on Gas Mark 4. Grease tins or tray. You can line the tray bake with greaseproof paper. Cream the marg and sugar, beat the eggs and then add the flour alternatively, making sure that it is well mixed. Beat in the cinnamon, courgettes, raisins, nuts and vanilla essence. Cook for 1 hour. Make sure that you leave the cake to cool once it is done, as the mixture is quite moist. You might find that you have to really gently ease the cake out of the tin with a pallet knife.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Bocking Allotment Society Blog, where we hope to be keeping you regularly updated with news and events, as well as top tips and recipes.

The blog is in it's teething stage at the moment, so any suggestions and feedback are very welcome, just click on the 'comments' link below this post or any other post on the blog.

We are also on the look out for new material for the blog. So if you would like to contribute some top tips, recipes, or anything else that you think your fellow allotment holders might find interesting or useful, let us know by leaving a comment.