It's all going Pete Tong

Not having a very good week with the allotment. Firstly something has munched my brassicas - they were being brought on in the mini greenhouse at home. I initally thought it was a slug or two - I found some large examples lurking around my tomatoes and threw them over the fence. I covered some of the plants as best I could, and moved some out of slugs way. But they are still being munched - it could be birds I guess.


Then tonight I made a rare mid-week trip up the allotment to pick the promised strawberries - only to discover that some bastard had beat me to it. Well bastard children - as they have also trampled my rhubarb and french bean seedlings and uprooted the paving slabs in search of slow worms. I am very tempted to write to the local school to ask them to remind the bastard children that slow worms are protected species and it is a criminal offence to remove them from their natural habitat.

Thankfully I managed to salvage some of the rhubarb - especially as today I treated myself to a home winemaking kit to deal with the pre-bastard children excess. I have trawled friends and foes to find a decent recipe without using sulphates - which make me sneeze.

Rhubarb Wine

Cut 2-3 lbs of rhubarb into chunks – freeze overnight in freezer

Add 2lbs of sugar and half a pound of squashed white grapes to the rhubarb and cover and leave for 24 hours.

Add 1 gallon of boiled water that has been left to cool, then strain into a demi john adding a sachet of wine making yeast.

Leave to ferment (approx 3 months) then rack into bottles.