balga shop | Baldock Allotment Association

September 24, 2019March 31, 2020

Autumn Onion Sets

Summer may be winding down and we may be enjoying bountiful harvests, but now is the time to start thinking of the next growing season and this means the planting of autumn onion and shallot sets and garlic.

The members’ shop took delivery of the autumn sets a couple of weeks ago and this year we have available:

Onion sets (60p per 200g) :

Radar
Shakespeare
Tornado

Shallots (80p per 250g) :

Golden Gourmet
Red Sun

Garlic (70p per head)

Thermidrome White
Carousel Pink

You can also sow broad beans in the autumn and Broad Bean Aquadulce is the ideal variety for growing over the winter months. There are packs of 200g for £1 available in the shop.

This year we are also trialing the sale of assorted narcissus and tulip bulbs. The narcissus are available for 90p per 500g and there are five varieties of tulip available; the price for these being £2 for 10 bulbs.

The members’ shop is open every Sunday until the end of November.

March 18, 2019February 22, 2020

Availability of potatoes, onions and shallots 2019

After a successful few weeks of trading, we have sold out of even more varieties and have limited stock of some of our first earlies, salad potatoes and shallots. It’s not too late to buy your potatoes, onions or shallots, but as we are selling out of certain varieties, you may want to buy your favourite variety as soon as possible at the members’ shop to avoid disappointment.

We have sold out of Casablanca, but Swift is a good alternative because it produces large tubers and it’s one of the fastest maturing first early potatoes.

Setanta is a good main crop potato which you might not have tried before. It is blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and is ideal for roasting and mashing. Why not try this as your main crop potato?

We trialled pre-packed potatoes in 2.5kg bags this year and they have proved to be very successful with nearly all the bags sold. We still have Cara, Kestrel and Setanta available in pre-packed 2.5kg bags, although the Cara and Kestrel pre-packs are nearly gone.

With all the poor weather we’ve been having, it’s a great time to buy potatoes and let them chit until you’re ready to plant them out. The members’ shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm or click here to take advantage of our pre-order form to save time as your order will be ready for you on collection. Click here to see a full list of potatoes still available as well as more information about each variety.

March 8, 2019February 22, 2020

Potatoes, Onions and Shallots Availability 2019

After a successful few weeks of trading, we have sold out of some varieties and we have limited stock with some of our first early potatoes. It’s not too late to buy your potatoes, onions or shallots. Order your potatoes as soon as you can to avoid disappointment, as some varieties are nearly sold out.

We have sold out of Golden Gourmet shallots, but we still have plenty of Red Sun shallots. Why don’t you try Red Sun shallots instead because they have a tasty distinctive flavour with red skin and will store for months.

We have sold out of Desiree and Setanta is a good alternative to Desiree because it’s blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and they’re ideal for roasting and mashing.

It’s not too late if you have not bought your seed potatoes. The shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm or click here to take advantage of our pre-order form. Click here to see a full list of available potatoes and more information about each variety.

February 23, 2019February 22, 2020

Potato Weekend 2019

Potato Weekend has proved very successful, with some varieties already sold out. We had an increase of members using the pre-order/click and collect service this year and this has been very successful because members’ orders were ready on arrival! Thank you to all of our members who took advantage of this and supported us on Potato Weekend.

Potato Weekend 2019

After successful trading over Potato Weekend, we have sold out of Abbot, Desiree, Charlotte, Rocket and Foremost. Setanta is a good alternative to Desiree because it’s blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and they’re ideal for roasting and mashing. We still have the following varieties available loose at £1 per kg:

First Early Potatoes

Arran Pilot
Casablanca
Colleen
Foremost
Lady Christl
Swift

Second Early Potatoes

Kestrel (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Wilja

Main Crop Potatoes

Cara (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Maris Piper (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Nicola
Picasso (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Setanta (available in a pre-packed 2.5kg bag)
Vales Sovereign

It’s not too late if you have not bought your seed potatoes. The shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm. Click here to see a full list of available potatoes and more information about each variety.

January 23, 2019February 22, 2020

Compost Sunday 2019

The traditional curtain raiser to our trading season is Compost Sunday when our members’ shop is open for members to stock up on composts and kick start their growing year.

This year we have several new composts for you, including a fully peat-free compost in response to requests from members.

The full list of what is available below.

Members will note we have two types of seed compost for this year. Kings Seeds recommend growers use seed compost in their seed trays because the fertiliser in multi-purpose compost can kill seeds.

We also have a small number of Jack’s Magic left over from last year’s stock.

The shop will be open from 10am to 12 noon.

March 26, 2018April 16, 2020

Recipe for a quick and easy potato salad

Recipe for a quick and easy potato salad

Ingredients
Salad potatoes such as Charlotte
1 tub of cheese and chive dip

Method
1. Cut potatoes in half or quarters so they are all similar sized pieces.
2. Boil potatoes as you would do usually and drain once cooked.
3. Place cooked potatoes into a bowl and add several spoonfuls of dip.
4. Stir to ensure all the potatoes are covered.
5. Serve immediately or allow to cool before eating if preferred.

September 24, 2017

What to Grow on your Plot in September

September is the month when you start to see bare patches on your allotment as you harvest and dig up this season’s plants. But worry not, there’s still things you can plant out during the autumn months and first up is autumn onion sets.

Onion sets are immature onions which have been lifted and dried to stop any further growth. You can buy several varieties from the members’ shop now. We have Radar, Shakespeare and Blood Red available.

Plant them out now and water well and they will then resume growing over the winter months. Autumn sets are hardy so no need to worry about protecting them from frosts etc.

The sets can either be planted direct into the ground, just push them in root end first so just the tops are showing approx. 4″ – 6″ apart.

Or they can be started off in modules with compost and planted out once the top growth is a few inches high.

Either way, I like to protect mine from being pulled up by pigeons until they have established themselves by covering them with a mesh tunnel.

Autumn planted sets are usually ready for harvesting a short time before spring planted sets, so I find it’s a good way of spreading the harvesting season. Once harvested, onions store well. Just string them up and hang in a shed or bin store in my case.

May 16, 2017September 18, 2019

Starting from Scratch – A Year in the Life of a New Plot

In this series of articles we follow Yvonne and Steve during their first year as allotmenteers showing you what can be achieved with a bit of effort and hard graft.

New tenants, Yvonne and Steve took on their plot in mid April 2017. They had no previous allotment experience other than going to their father’s allotment with him when little. They chose a half plot on the Clothall Road site. The plot hadn’t been worked for many years, although a recent tenant had dug out outlines of beds.

The plot had been strimmed in readiness for letting by site rep, Martin Luker, but some weeds still remained.

Keen to get started, they made good progress very quickly and had dug over several beds within a couple of weeks.

A quick visit to the members’ shop and they were able to plant seed potatoes and onion sets and start some seeds off at home.

A week or so later and more beds were dug and a base laid for the shed, both of which were picked up for free after searching online.

Within a month, amazingly they had dug over the whole plot.

And were excited to see the first signs of growth as their seed potatoes made an appearance.

Yvonne and Steve have worked really hard over the month to get the initial digging completed. They have also followed sage advice and planted a little too so they can see signs of growth; a reward for all their hard work.

In the next instalment we’ll see what plans Steve has for the shed!

May 11, 2017August 16, 2020

Excess Seedlings

One of the worst faults of a gardener is sowing too many seeds and then not being able to throw any surplus seedlings away. We just can’t bring ourselves to do it, can we?

Well worry not! If members have an excess seedlings they’ve grown, they can now bring them down to the Members’ Shop before it opens on a Sunday where they can be sold to raise funds for the association.
Or maybe some of your seedlings have failed this year and you are looking to plug the gap at a good price?
Don’t forget the shop is open every Sunday from 10am to 12 noon until the end of November.

On a similar note, if it’s plants you are after, the Baldock Horti Soc have a stall at the Baldock Street Fair this coming Saturday where they are selling plants to raise funds; there may be even some veg plants available!