Worms! and Giant Beetroot

With April just a matter of hours away we discovered that there was rather a lot to be done on the allotment. Much as we try to keep on top of everything; work and a constant stream of social commitments (the latter more for the girls than ourselves!) invariably tends to get in the way. Before we know it seed packets are claiming that they should have been sown yesterday and our ground preparation is far from complete.  

With heavy rain predicted for the whole day, the weather forecast was far from ideal for a day at the allotment but needs must. It actually turned out just to be heavy showers and with 'the smallest shed on the allotment' to shelter in we managed to make pretty good headway with our digging, weeding and sowing. Some of us got plenty of rest as well!

We have finally relocated our old wormery to the allotment and are hoping that we can kick start it again, without the cost of purchasing speciality worms. Apparently Tiger worms are the best species for the job but they are fairly costly (£20 for 1/2 a kilo from worms direct). Unfortunately our history of worm survival is rather poor. Over the last couple of years we have invested three times in this particular species of worms and only succeeded in killing them.
We are convinced that this is partly owing to the poor design of the wormery. The worms are able to wriggle through the holes in the bottom and then drown in the sump of liquid worm juice/fertiliser that is stored underneath.

Our alternative to this rather costly (and cruel) method is to collect our own. The girls have become our designated worm collectors. The bigger and juicier the better and with a bit of luck they will be too fat to wriggle to their deaths. 

At best our wonderful peelings will become fabulous worm juice (rather than soup!) and help us to grow enviable vegetables. At worst, the peelings will just compost away in a bin and we won't have killed half a kilo of worms and wasted another £20.

On the subject of enviable vegetables, it turns out that, what I had thought last year, was chard, and merrily cropped the leaves accordingly, was in actual fact a beetroot. A beetroot of enormous dimensions!

The girls enlisted their knowledge of 'The Enormous Turnip' story and pulled and pulled and pulled! Until...........

Just like the story, we roasted it to eat with our dinner and whilst it was definitely rather woody in places, that one enormous beetroot was big enough to share between 8 of us. A far cry from our dismal attempt at cauliflower growing!!