Our friends J and K have some allotments near the nearby villages. They are completely into allotments, in a big way! and because she is now retired and free from commitments, she has the time to do that.
She is always down on the allotment every day, but she has no dependent children (but she has some grandchildren) so she can do it part time and sell some vegetables.
We, my husband and me, we used to have an allotment some years ago, and it all went very well for a while but unless you are completely dedicated to looking after it, it just doesn't work.
It started off ok, but our family commitments got in the way at the time ( hospital and Drs appointments for our son) and this meant we couldn't keep up with the allotment work at that time. We had too many other commitments!
However, today we went to visit our more capable green fingered friends, to give them some encouragement and to re-live a bit of our own nostalgia for allotment days too!
Her husband was off work today and so they had asked us to drop by and say 'hello' while we were going past their allotment for our walk.
They were now teaching their grandson to drive the mini tractor, as they have quite a large plot of land. The grandson was driving the tractor and we were all gathering up the potatoes and putting them into bags.
He (mr) was carrying large bags of potatoes on his back, ones that had already been gathered earlier, he was putting them into the van to take home.
The vegetables are all organically grown, and they always fresh and taste very good. She then asked us if we would like to gather up some tomatoes from the greenhouse, and she said I could have some tomatoes (free )for my salad! We were doing this for a little while and we managed to gather up quite a lot, also for us !
The rest of the tomatoes were not completely ripe yet, so she said to leave them, for another time.
Next, we collected the french green beans. first we placed them in a basket , ready to bag up later, into smaller bags. Kale was put into another bigger basket, all ready to put into the van. They also gave us a ( free) bag of Kale too! They are very kind!
After a while K called us over to the table next to the shed, that they have built there. The shed is large enough for sitting in when the weather turns cold or if it rains, but today we were eating outdoors, in the fresh air, as the weather was nice warm with a little breeze.
K poured us all a glass of red wine, which we ate with some crusty bread , a pie, and some cheeses with pickle sauce, cooked potatoes and of course with their own, very good, allotment tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, lettuce and a little beetroot!
Very tasty!
We had thoroughly enjoyed our day with friends down on the allotment.
🍅🥒🥬