In Praise Of: Water

An action shot of me watering some veg. High drama, I'm sure you'll agree.

Or, rather, in praise of having a decent supply of it. Until last summer, each plot on our allotments at Nunsmoor had it's own water tap. The problem was, they were all in some kind of loop whereby it only needed one or two people in your vicinity to turn theirs on to deprive you of any water at all. In dry periods, this was a serious pain in the arse. Then, after a vote at the AGM, better water pipes were installed, less dependent on others usage, and with much improved pressure. An increase in fees of £10 per year seemed very reasonable for this. Of course, we then had one of the wettest spells on record, rendering the whole thing a bit of a running joke. Until now...

We've got six large water butts on our plot that collect rain water, but to water the whole plot takes nearly a whole butts' worth (stop sniggering) of water, so if it wasn't for the fact that we can now hook up the Hozelock to the tap and water away, we'd be more or less knackered.

Not least as this year we're growing tomatoes and cucumbers for the first time. Although doing nearly everything possible to kill off the tomatos (Patchy Growth passim), they seem to have bounced back ok-ish, while the cucumbers are doing fine. What was a dinky little nugget of a cucumber a couple of days ago is now almost regulation sized, while there are lots more tiny little ones ready to hopefully tale its place.

Elsewhere on the plot tonight, things are generally looking fine and dandy.

I'm really enjoying the colours of the nasturtiums at the moment. They look and taste great in salad too.

In fact, that's what we just ate for dinner. A salad of nasturtiums, broad beans, onion tops, and thinly sliced baby courgettes, supplemented with shop bought lettuce and mozzarella. Perfect summer food. I've got a pretty nifty dressing going on, involving rapeseed oil and pomegranate molasses; I'll maybe bung the recipe up here some other time

It's hard not to think a bit about people with no access to water at all, never mind no access to it on their allotment, while we're spraying it around the place with gleeful abandon but what are you gonna do? At least I can say how much I, and the stuff we're growing, appreciate the ability to give everything a good drink in this wonderful hot spell of weather. Jammy buggers, basically.

The makings of a very fine salad