Allotment plots in Baldock
Good news! The onion and shallot sets, garlic, and flowering bulbs have arrived ready to buy from the Members’ Shop on Sunday (10 am-12 pm). The varieties and prices are as follows:
Compost Sunday will be on 30 January 2022 from 10 am to 12 pm at the BALGA Members’ Shop. You will see below, we have a selection of different types of compost including peat-free compost. 
If you need any large bags (20-25kg) of fertiliser (particularly chicken manure), please can you contact Stuart (tradesec@balga-online.co.uk). This will allow us to order in plenty of time.
As all of the other harvests are coming to an end, it’s a good idea to start clearing your plot and planting some Autumn onion sets, shallots, garlic and flowering bulbs for a Spring display.
The BALGA Members’ Shop has the following varieties in stock as of 7 October 2021.
As you can see, we now have elephant garlic in stock at £0.70 per clove. Elephant garlic is ideal for roasting with potatoes and vegetables as it has a more subtle flavour than traditional garlic.
It’s a good idea to plant some tulips and daffodils now for a colourful display in Springtime. Why not come to the shop this Sunday (10 am-12 pm) to buy your Autumn planting bulbs, shallot and onion sets and garlic.
I know it’s a little too early to think about Christmas but if you fancy serving new potatoes up with your Christmas dinner, now is a good time to plant seed potatoes. There is no need to chit the seed potatoes because they will grow rapidly in the warm soil. They will be ready from September/October but you can leave them in the ground until Christmas Day. Make sure you earth up in October after the first frosts to protect them from any further hard frosts. I tried it for the last couple of years with great success and I know Mick (Chairman) does it each year. It’s a great way to enjoy fresh potatoes on Christmas Day!
We have plenty of Markies available. Markies is a great variety for making chips with a yellow skin and flesh.
Seed potatoes are currently half price at £0.50 per kg. You may have pulled up onions and garlic and this a great way to fill the empty space. So why not come to the members’ shop this Sunday (10am-12pm) to take advantage of the half price seed potatoes?
The BALGA Members’ Shop will re-open on Sunday 18th April 2021 (10 am – 12 pm).
The BALGA Members’ Shop will open on Sunday 18 April 2021 and every Sunday thereafter until 21 November 2021 (subject to any future COVID restrictions). The Shop will be open from 10 am until 12 pm. Please observe a social distance.
The price list can be found by clicking here and clicking ‘BALGA Shop 2021 current price list March 2021’ button on the page.
Potatoe sales have been very successful. We’ve sold over 90% of our potatoes. Potatoes are selling fast and it’s not too late to make an order, but it’s better to do it sooner rather than later. Members can click here to place an order for seed potatoes, onion and shallot sets.
We have sold out of even more varieties and we have limited stock with some of our main crop and second early potatoes. It is not too late to buy your potatoes or onion and shallot sets, but we are selling out fast and you may want to buy your favourite variety as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
You may want to try Premiere as your first early potato because the variety is resistant to blight and common scab and they are ideal for frying.
Did you forget to plant garlic in the Autumn? We have garlic that is bred for Spring planting. It would need planting straight away, but members can make an order by clicking here. Garlic is not on our pre-order form, but you can request it in the “Additional notes” or email our Trading Secretary by clicking here.
We are now offering a delivery service to members for the following available types of compost:
Deliveries can only be made to addresses in Baldock. For members living outside Baldock, arrangements should be made with Stewart (the Trading Secretary) for convenient delivery to the member’s allotment plot or to one of our allotment site gates for Associate Members (non plot holders).
Autumn planting onion sets, shallots, garlic and flowering bulbs are now in stock and are available every Sunday until the end of the growing season (November).
We have the following varieties available:
Onion Sets (£0.70 per 200g)
Senshyu Yellow (limited availability)
Senshyu onions are a large round onion with a white flesh inside with a mild flavour that would go nicely in a salad.
Red Winter
Red Winter is a good quality large onion that can taste quite sweet. Red onion sets are prone to bolting but this particular variety has excellent resistance to bolting and pests and diseases.
Shallots (£2.10 per 250g)
Jermor
Jermor has a shiny brown skin with a pinkish flesh. This is a good sweet variety to try.
Garlic
Elephant garlic (£0.70 per clove)
Elephant garlic is not a true garlic, but produces stems like leeks and the large bulbs have a mild garlic taste that is ideal for roasting.
Flowering bulbs
Why not plant some flowering bulbs in your garden and allotment for some spring colour?
Mixed daffodils – £0.90 per 500g
Mixed Garden Tulips – 10 bulbs for £2.00
Hope to see you at the shop on Sunday. Remember to keep a social distance, especially if there are more than six people at the shop.
Our potatoes and onion sets are now half price! In order to clear the remaining stock we have halved the price of the seed potatoes in the members’ shop down to 50p per Kg. We’ve also reduced the price of the remaining onion sets by 50%, down to 30p per 200g.
Now is the perfect time to plant potatoes for a ‘second cropping’ especially if you fancy serving new potatoes up with your Christmas dinner. Click here for more information on planting Christmas potatoes.
The table below shows our current stock levels in the shop. As you can see, after a very successful delivery service and click and collect service, we have very few potatoes left. So why not come to the members’ shop this Sunday (10am-11am) to take advantage of the half price seed potatoes? Alternatively, you can make a click and collect order, click here to find out more information.
If you’ve just taken on an allotment, now is a good time to prepare an area and plant some seed potatoes. It’s a good way to break up the soil AND enjoy a harvest this summer.
Since starting the delivery service and then the click and collect service, we have had many orders and it has been a successful couple of months trading. Last week, our shop was starting to look quite empty with most products selling out.
Fortunately, as you can see from the pictures above, we have had a delivery from our supplier and our shop is now fully stocked! This is great news as compost is selling out of shops quite fast and our products are considerably cheaper than garden centre prices!
Click here if you are a member and you’d like to make an order.