We are now well into September, the kids have returned back to school and the allotment still has plenty of wonderful produce to offer us. In light of this I thought I would give you a little update of what healthy fruit and veg is on my kitchen table this month.

As usual come September in West London there’s been plenty of opportunities to dance between the rain drops, but this hasn’t damped my allotment spirit, far from it. This is due to wonderful abundance of produce still available to us this time of year. I’m happy to report that we are still collecting a good amount of raspberry’s, apples, pears and grapes, so I won’t be going short on fruit this autumn and winter. The tomatoes, basil, spinach and beans are still going strong.

As we head towards autumn at break neck speed the new kids on my allotment block are the cauliflowers, sweetcorn, carrots, and chilli’s which again seem to be in plentiful supply. With all this glorious bounty I’m definitely feeling a kitchen cook-up of spicy Chilli Con Carne and a comforting Shepherd’s pie and cauliflower cheese. Yum!
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For the first time ever I’m doing the London Marathon Walk for charity next week, so look out for my blog on this. I’ll need all the nutrition my allotment can offer me, as I estimate a 9 hour walk from the start to the finish line.
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Here are few photo’s to celebrate all nature’s glorious bounty on the allotment at the moment, and I hope they will give you the inspiration you might need to get outdoors and try and grow a little produce for yourself.​

If you like this article on the allotment let me know by posting your comments below. Tell me the things you’d like to hear about and the articles you’ve enjoyed reading so far.

Happy September!
Julia
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Discover your star potential with Asteria Life Coaching!

Hi there, I thought in this blog I would write a few lines to update those of you that love to hear about my allotment endeavours.

It’s now the end of July, and what a busy month it’s been on the allotment. As you know we had all that wonderful sunshine in West London and around the UK at the beginning of July. Now we’ve ended up with slightly overcast and showery weather at the end of the month.

​Even though all this changeable weather hasn’t been the ideal for many holidaymakers, the same cannot be said for all the plants in the allotment garden. Our fruiting plants have adored all the sunshine and showers. So picking fruit and weeding have been at the top of the allotment jobs list for me and my neighbour during July.

The fruits, veg and herbs we’ve been harvesting this month are plentiful, and include; blackberries, raspberries, rhubarb, apricots, black red and white currants, gooseberries, courgettes, squashes, marrows, salads, beetroot, coriander, cucumbers, French beans, carrots, curly and black kale, tomatoes, spinach, basil and rosemary, to name just a few. All this fruit and veg allowed me to get very creative in the kitchen, so I’ve been cooking, pickling, preserving and fermenting like crazy to capture all that summer goodness.
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See some of my favourite photos from July on the allotment.

In my next blog I’ll give you the recipes to my favourite apricot jam and also the recipe for the best basil pesto EVER!!

​If you like this article on the allotment let me know by posting your comments below. Tell me the things you’d like to hear about and the articles you’ve enjoyed reading about the most.

Till next week – Julia
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Discover your star potential!

Hi there,
In this blog I thought I’d tell you about one of my great pastimes, the allotment, and how it came to be.

For about 15 years now I’ve been working on a couple of allotment plots with my neighbour. I got into the allotment world by complete accident. Literally!

I’d been skiing in Morzine, in the French Alps, when a freak accident had me air-lifted to hospital. Very embarrassing. I was diagnosed with torn ligaments on my right knee. Ouch!! It still makes me shudder today.

When I returned home I had to take three months off work, under strict orders from my GP. As you can imagine, time laid very heavy on my hands, and I was getting very down.  So my friend and neighbour invited me onto her allotment. She said it would be good for me to get out in the open air and do something constructive. I’m glad to say from that point on, I never looked back. I was hooked!

It just goes to show you that sometimes good things can end painfully, so that better things can come together.

Anyway, I thought you’d like to see a little gallery of our allotment. I’ll blog about this from time to time, so that you can see what I’m up to on it. I hope you enjoy my little gallery of flora and fauna of our allotment, which my neighbour and I lovingly care for.

I would love to hear your comments, and please share with me your photos of your allotment or garden.
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Discover your star potential.
Happy June!
Julia