HARVESTING CHRISTMAS DINNER / WINTER ALLOTMENT GARDENING

Hi everyone, long time no see. If you're new to my channel my name is Emma. This is my channel all about my allotment plot, my allotment journey, going into my fourth year next year on my first ever allotment plot. I keep saying it like that because I don't feel like an expert and I don't really feel like I know anything yet. I think it takes a long time of gardening to feel confident and like you know what you're doing. I'm a long way off that but I'm having fun and if you subscribe to my channel you will see that and you'll be able to follow along my lovely journey. I've come here today in the snow, it looks absolutely stunning, so beautiful. Obviously no one else is here because why would they be? It's just covered in snow but there's a few things I need to harvest and also I've been sick, I've been really unwell. You can probably still hear I've just had a terrible sore throat, it's taken ages and ages to shift and it's still not completely gone but I'm itching to get back here. When I got sick it was still sort of not like that cold, you could still get out in the garden and do stuff and now that I'm like well enough to be out again it's like covered in snow, so typical huh? But here we are, I'm a bit concerned about the state of my plot, I don't know what I'm going to find. I can see that Rocky the cat has been very busy because there's lots of Rocky footprints everywhere. I'm assuming these are Rocky, I know he's got a couple of mates now and there's also lots of bird footprints everywhere which is quite sweet but look Rocky's already been here so he's seen the state of my plot already. It's just so stunning everywhere, it's just so beautiful. Just walking past one of my neighbour's plots here and this is one of the reasons why you have to come and clear snow off of stuff, you can see she has this lovely netting up to protect things but the snow is just like weighing it down and if it collapses you know all of her lovely cabbages you know you might be in trouble guys and so she needs to come and clear the snow off really but then obviously not everyone likes to come down when it's freezing cold like this and for that I only have anything, I have nothing but sympathy because I completely understand why people would not want to come to their allotment plot in this, so you know each to their own. Oh I just saw Rocky the cat or a fox or a giant raccoon, we can't really be sure guys because we don't know. Right okay this is my concern, my concern was my polytunnel, I thought the weight of the snow might have caved it in but it hasn't so that's a really good start. Here's my polytunnel, you see it's covered in snow but it's not caved in, this is good right wow wow okay not sure how much gardening we're going to get done today guys to be honest, how pretty so all that weeding and mulching and sorting out and um you know what I can't even see my parsnips I'm a little bit concerned about that and then over here I don't want to tread on like where I planted my tulips I don't even know where the beds are anymore oh dear this isn't looking very good is it completely frozen over didn't really consider like how much damage snow can do to like a garden I think I think snow is more like it is a bit of an insulator so you know where I planted like my tulips and the spring bulbs I think snow acts as a bit of an insulator so I think they'll be nice and warm and toasty under there but anything that's been covered by snow I'm just a bit concerned with I don't know if I'm going to be able to get into the shed either it looks completely frozen over hmm interesting also I'm wondering what creatures are like resting in here and taking refuge so this should be interesting what are we gonna find okay all right just a big blooming mess no it's all looking okay and my gloves oh my gosh I put my gloves in here I was thinking the whole way I was like where did I leave my gloves because if they're outside I am never going to find them oh my god I don't think I'm ever gonna get over my fear of creepy crawlies and bugs I've had my allotment like I said I'm going into my fourth year next year and I'm still terrified of anything that moves oh god I even get like you know what I mean like creeped out by slugs I can't stand them I think the first thing I'm going to do is check on the state of the sprouts I think I need to harvest them all today um Christmas is in two weeks time and I really wanted my kids to come here and harvest stuff but at the same time I just think we're going to run out of time and also it's so cold and all they're going to want to do is play in the snow so I might just take them to the park to play in anyway I'm going to check on the sprouts oh guys look at you give me a little pat come on warm up warm up it's all right it's all right cheer up cheer up just a bit of snow you'll be all right I mean the good thing is and what I've heard and what a lot of people have told me um things like sprouts cauliflower broccoli um parsnips and things like that they tend to taste better after they've had a good old frost um and I looked up the reason for that so the reason is when a plant um like a sprout plant for example gets really really really cold um it releases starch no it doesn't release starch let me try and get this right because I always I always say these things like I know and someone points out and goes what um well that was completely wrong right let me start that again when a sprout gets really really cold the plant starts to turn its starch into sugar in an attempt to give the plant more energy um and keep it warm so it turns starch into sugar and the sugar acts as kind of like an antifreeze in the plant um so it can create its own antifreeze and it stops the sprouts from freezing like the sugar stops the sprouts from freezing over so the plant can survive basically um you can see this plant is very much alive which is just you know brilliant it's green it's it's lovely right um and for us obviously sugar is delicious and um the more sugar in a plant the more delicious and sweeter it is um if you like it sweet if you don't like it sweet this is absolute rubbish harvest them way way way before it's frosty um and have it nice and just plain but I like it quite sweet and I I'm I'm interested now because last year I didn't do this and um so yeah it'd be really interesting to see the difference in flavor because this has actually had a frost this year and last year they didn't anyway that's what I sort of wanted to say this looks good doesn't it it looks like a giant sprout on the top what's that then can I eat that I expect I can eat that can't I this looks delicious to me I just want to pick that bit there and like cook it and then eat it do you know what I mean it looks really it looks really good um this plant here has collapsed this is the danger of letting snow sort of appear on your plants is that sometimes they can collapse under the under the weight of the snow because he's only little this little baby one it's just sort of collapsed and also I didn't stake him could be another reason look at that I don't mind that that's all right right okay so the juice is going again come on right this um Romanesco oh I've got hair this Romanesco cauliflower broccoli hybrid thing and it was ready to harvest about two weeks ago and I wasn't here so so what looks like has happened is that basically I've left it too long and it's sort of started to spike up now I think it's probably it would have flowered but I don't know if it will flower now or not I don't know if I can still eat it because it's got lots of black black things on it can you sort of see like some of the tips and stuff are like turning a bit black I'm wondering if that's like damage like frost damage I don't know if maybe he's had too much frost I guess you can have too much of a good thing mate um yeah and I'm not sure what to do about him part of me wants to leave him to flower because I'm so curious as to what he'd look like flowering I think I might leave him to flower I'm quite interested to see what kind of flowers I get or if he just dies I don't know if he'll just die now um and then there's something under here I have a feeling it might be a pak choy pak choy are you a pak choy tap you oh dear oh goodness cute oh you poor thing oh he's been absolutely munched absolutely munched by slugs but that was that was a pak choy the other thing of of major concern right now is my blooming parsnips which I can't even see anymore god's sakes blooming snow oh my god I might just start digging I might just start digging oh I should have harvested them a while ago I really should have oh wow look at the size of that one absolutely unbelievable oh god it's in perfect condition guys I've literally I've not impaled it I've not impaled it oh wow two little ones there oh these are just the best thing I've ever grown in my life I still cannot get over how good these are oh it's a little baby one oh no I think I impaled he impaled him a little bit flipping heck I just it's just that I'm not expecting him to be this big crazy look at the size of this one oh my god he's a whopper he'll feed us for the entire Christmas these are so good I can't believe look if I got an entire harvest of just that I would be thrilled the fact that I'm getting massive ones is insane thank you brace yourself oh my goodness all right we have a winner guys we have a winner look at the size of him you can't buy ones like that in the shop look at that my toes are so cold I feel like I could cry but at the same time we've just had the best harvest of parsnips can you believe this is like my first time of successfully growing parsnips so I think this one is the winner look flipping heck um this is second I mean look at them I can't get over it and then we've got some really really fat ones like that just super fantastic um even the smaller ones are still like this like they're still pretty good parsnips it's the best harvest I've ever had in my life that is just insane I cannot believe I've grown these from seed and they've done so so well I'm pretty sure it's to do with the fact that that is a complete no dig bed and I really put so much into it I mean it had manure leaf mulch um what else did it have compost wood chip um layer of cardboard I mean everything that you can put into a raised bed went into that raised bed um so I can only assume that this harvest has come from the fact that that is a proper no dig bed a lot of you pointing out with sprouts oh sorry a lot of you pointing out with sprouts that you can just pull off the sprouts and then more will grow or you can cut the top of the plant off and then all the sprouts will develop at the same rate and become the same size but I'm pulling the whole thing out because I want to eat all of the leaves and all of the sprouts and I've literally grown it for Christmas I am going to leave a couple of the sprout plants in there to keep growing I think they're going to last through to January maybe early Feb and I'm just going to leave them there to do their thing and keep growing and I might still get harvests um in January so I'm going to do that right now I'm going to go check on the polytunnel because I'm freezing it's definitely like a few degrees a few degrees maybe a couple maybe one degrees warmer in here definitely feels warmer um and obviously there's no snow in the ground because it's a polytunnel and that's what polytunnels do they stop snow and ice things do look relatively alive which is quite nice to see actually and obviously the slugs are sort of finished now so I'm hoping some of these will be able to develop um so I've got some stuff can't remember what they are I think this is broccoli and cabbage at the back I wonder if it needs a water actually how weird to be watering in this kind of weather but at the same time it needs it needs it right and then over here I think these are either beetroot or they might be oh gosh don't know radishes or something these are some oh one's developing there so I guess we'll just find out we'll just find out and then over this side the ones that I thought were dead that I actually left because I thought they might come back well this one has this is a mini kale um which should last me a long time if he survives and I think he's got a good chance now doing quite well and I have another one there which is also coming back these I reckon they'll come back because they the middle is growing the middle little leaves are growing so they could come back all in all it's looking alive I'm just wondering if it needs a water feels a bit weird to be like watering in this weather but then I guess no rain can get in here it hasn't rained for a while yeah I guess maybe they would need water yeah I guess that's not that weird is it why does it feel so weird okay this is the watering thing oh my gosh it's totally frozen over I don't even know how I would attempt to get water out of that I kind of want to smash it with something I want to smash it I don't know how I don't know maybe this would be strong enough oh they've got a brick here I might just borrow their brick I've got a rock that I'm borrowing and I might just try and smash it and just see I don't know if this is gonna work though I don't know where to put the camera oh yeah it is gonna go hang on a second let me move you back rock shit that was their rock I'm really sorry Steve if you're watching it I borrowed a rock I will find you another massive rock and put it back I promise I will find you another rock it just went in there I I respect you but I do I'm not putting my hand in there to get it out oh it's not even big enough for my watering it's not even big enough kick it over the ice is just so thick I just can't I just can't do it I'm scared of falling in to be honest so all right we've got a little bit of water we've got a little bit of water we lost a rock we owe a rock so that's okay I'll find another big rock and then I'll just water it what we've got and they can just they can just deal with it because it's snowing guys what do you want me to do you know it's snowing I thought that you need water in the snow is it I've only got a little bit of water so you're gonna have to share are you gonna share the wealth it's what we do there's not enough to go around all right okay look just a little drizzle share it with your friends someone didn't get some guys do you think they'd like some ice I could just leave some ice I'll leave some ice about and it will melt and turn into water okay okay I think that sort of does the job so right the other thing I want to do is get the snow off of the top of that because I don't want that collapsing on me so that's good that is that's better because the weight of it was really starting to dip it and just one more snowfall and I think it might have given in a little bit especially as half of it is held together with hair bands you know we have to remember that information the tree behind me I just wanted to say something about it because I'll just whizzle you around you might be able to see behind me a tree now I don't know what tree it is some people say it's a poplar some people say it's a red cherry a cherry a baby cherry tree or something and but the point is it's a multi-stemmed tree so there's like trunks on it right so it's like multi-stemmed it's causing a lot of shade over my plot now and when I first got here it wasn't causing that much now it's causing too much so over the winter I am going to chop it down and I'm a bit sad about it because I really like the birds in it but at the same time it's stopping a lot of my crops from growing and this is an allotment plot that tree there is staying so there's another tree literally there that can stay right you can see that a lot of people got buildings and sheds and stuff here so I don't think this tree is causing anyone any bother I hope not anyway because I think it'd be nice if that one stayed and then I'll get rid of that one so unfortunately I think the tree just has to go this year I'm not going to do it today because I don't think it's safe and also I'm freezing my butt off um but that will be a job for the winter before the leaves come back so yeah it's time to say goodbye to the tree I think so there we go just about fit just about fit in this little Morrison's bag but I don't know if they're gonna hold up on the way home I hope it doesn't break everywhere um but yeah so I'm absolutely freezing now I can't get over how beautiful it is today and I hope you've enjoyed this vlog as you can imagine there's not going to be that many vlogs left until the new year because I just have nothing to vlog I can't garden in this guys so it's just really difficult for me to get here and actually film something substantial so I had harvest today which was great but next time I'm I don't really know what to do so um I think I might be one or two more videos before the new year and they'll probably be in my back garden giving you some ideas on bird feeding and things like that maybe showing you my plans for next year something like that but I'm going to be back properly in January um and starting my allotment plot all over again so if you've got your hands on a new allotment plot and so many of you message me to tell me when you get your hands on your first allotment plot because you're so excited and it reminds me of how excited I was when I got my hands on this one um and how happy I was so I love getting all your messages and your comments and stuff about your allotments and um yeah so if you've just got a new one I'm going to be starting again in January and you can just completely follow my journey um you can copy some bits of it some bits I would I not really advise you to copy um a lot of it is experimenting and just whacking stuff in but if that's the method you want to go for then go for it there's nothing wrong with just whacking stuff in and seeing if it grows that's my whole concept here on this channel um I really hope that you've enjoyed these vlogs this year you can go back and watch some of my other playlists um if you're missing me I'm also on Instagram quite a lot I'm also on TikTok now as well I'm a TikToker so you can come over and see me on TikTok too um if I don't see you again before Christmas have a lovely Christmas a lovely new year I will try and have another video in my garden before then but you never know it depends if my sore throat comes back I'm rambling now but anyway I just want to say thank you for watching and I will see you when I see you see you next time guys thanks for watching bye