Category Archives: Global Warming

Blackberry Jam and Global Warming

5th September 2012 – At Allotment Plot 326 cabbages that had been devastated by unknown predators moons ago had recently been producing substantial re-growth. The plants had now almost reached a point where hope of harvesting vital material from them may occur soon as long as predator intervention did not manifest itself again. The re-growth had generated from the plants stalks that had been left rooted in the ground. It would seem close to an allotment miracle if harvesting from these plants could be achieved. Other seeds that had been planted yet never germinated or never achieved growth beyond seedling state before they had disappeared remained elusive to vegetable reality and shrouded in mystery circumventing their demise.

It was a beautiful sunny day. The soil was dry. There was no rainfall and none expected anytime soon. Ella Montt gazed in to the crystal ball searching for evidence of rainclouds. Ella Montt fetched the fork tool from the shed and dug some potatoes. The potatoes were few and small in size. On every visit to the allotment it was becoming increasingly more important to water the vegetables. Ella Montt went back and forth with the watering can to the water source. Squash and Climbing Bean potential was still apparent.

Harvest: Potato Desiree = 2lb 12oz = 1.27kg; Chard = 1oz = 30g; Red Mustard = 2oz = 60g; Mizuna = 3.5oz = 100g; Wild Blackberries = 6oz = 160g; Raspberries = 1oz =30g.

6th September 2012 – Allotment Plot at MERL, the soil was very dry, plants were growing very slowly or not growing at all. Ella Montt fetched the watering can to assist the plants in their efforts. As they soaked up the water, the inaudible sounds of relief from the plants were almost loud enough to hear.

Harvest: A human handful of mint, chives and 3 Climbing Beans Runner Enorma.

9th September 2012 – Allotment Plot 326, there had been no rain now for days! Beautiful sunshine prevailed and extended the summer. Due north, in the Arctic, the ice was still melting. The reason for this extended summer melt had been declared as global warming as a result of human activity all over the planet. There was one more week to go until the peek melt process should halt and the freeze should begin again. There was now a forecast that the Arctic could be ice-free by the years 2015-16. This is very soon. A sense of inevitability in a time line of progression will bring doom to some species and life to others. These species will be both animal and plant. The scavenger human waited for the melt to be completed complying a list of actions to implement. But now, prior to the inevitable melt, a fleet of nuclear powered vessels are already operational, ready to break through the ice in the name of human consumerism, because the controllers do not want to afford the time to sail around the borders of the ice field. The total devastation of a seemingly pristine environment seems to be already on course and unavoidable because of human will.

Harvest: Wild Blackberries 6oz = 150g; Broad Beans Hangdown Green = 4.5oz = 110g; Potato Charlotte = 3oz = 65g.

Ella Montt’s extra tasty Blackberry Jam recipe = 1kg Wild Blackberries, 1kg fairtrade organic sugar, 1 wax free organic lemon, 1 stick organic cinnamon bark or ground cinnamon. Method: place clean jam jars to heat in oven at about 100c; simmer blackberries with cinnamon for approximately ten minutes; add sugar, dissolve, then boil rapidly for twenty minutes; add zest and juice from lemon, check jam regularly on chilled saucer to see if it set. Remove from heat and pour carefully in to hot jam jars, seal immediately, eat as desired.

13th September 2012 – Allotment Plot at MERL, it was warmer in the sheltered garden than beyond the walls of the enclosed space. Autumn was approaching. It had rained on the previous evening, the first substantial shower in weeks, but the shower was short lived and localized to a particular area, as was the habit of all weather patterns on the Island. Across the planet, in a different sphere to the nuclear powered ice breaking fleet, super trawlers from one land mass are poised in the ocean close to another land mass. The super trawlers prerogative is to trawl the water for living species that will then be ripped from their habitat, gutted and frozen on board the vessel. Ella Montt examined the Allotment Plot staring at the state of the plant life and wondered how these two types of vast seafaring objects were given human permission to exist at this point in time in the history and place in the universe? The vessels are part of the massive hyperobject known as global warming, but how much the vessels will affect the infinite space of the universe has not been calculated, because they are contained within the planet’s gravitational system.

A white butterfly, possibly a cabbage white, fluttered over the plant life at the Allotment Plot, but it did not settle; there was no brassicas to lure the butterflies sensory mechanisms. A Sunflower was growing out of the hardened soil. Before the rain on the previous evening, the temperature had dropped, bees were now franticly busy visiting the companion planting, not just the pot marigolds and cosmos, but also flowering wild rocket. The bees seemed almost aggressive towards each other in their pollen collecting activity and perhaps desperate to gain access to the flowers. Neither were ready to die in the cold yet. The fear of frost loomed closer to the plant and insect life. Ella Montt hoped that frost would stay away for at least a month if not more, because of vegetable production. A store of vegetables is needs to be accumulated in order to survive the winter season.

Harvest was once more about to be minimal. Allotment Plot at MERL’s days are numbered, time is running out, but the Allotment Plot will be continued elsewhere. Drought was once more overwhelming the Plot. Tomato plants on the Plot were still tiny and trying to flower. At another location, next to the fixed up greenhouse, tomato plants and tomatoes were growing and vibrant. At Plot 326 the tomato plants had rotted with blight early and Ella Montt had vowed not to plant tomatoes there again.

Harvest: Pot Marigold, Camomile and Cosmos seeds = 2oz = 45g; a mix of chives, mint, Celery leaves and Runner Bean Enorma = 5oz = 160g.

14th September 2012 – Allotment Plot 326 – In the attempt to remove potatoes from the concrete like soil the fork was in danger of fracturing. The Raspberries seemed to be dehydrating through lack of moisture. It was not clear if vegetable productivity would be realised or collapse in on itself due to weather temperature and conditions.

Harvest: Broccoli Raab = 6oz = 170g; Red Mustard = 4oz = 100g; Mizuna = 2oz = 40g; Potato Desiree = 2lb 12oz = 1.27kg.

19th September 2012 – Allotment Plot at MERL, the night-time temperatures are dropping alarmingly, frost happened in other places but not yet in the garden. Allotment Plot 326 was on higher ground and Ella Montt had been unable to visit it this week, she paced the virtual floor and waited anxiously to find out the fate of the vegetation.

Harvest: Celery leaves = 1.5oz = 40g; Runner Bean Enorma = 2oz = 50g.

The activity on Allotment Plot at MERL will be concluded on the 26th and 27th September 2012 when the Plot will be deconstructed.

March, almost without Precipitation

In the human settlement of Reading, the month of March 2012 was without Precipitation apart from on the 4th March. Even before the month was over it was possible for Ella Montt to gaze in to the crystal ball and see that the forecast contained no evidence that Precipitation would occur in that time period. The weather was and is beautiful. The temperatures seem perfect, yet a paradox exists, and within the paradox sits the object that is Global Warming. The object is almost a phenomenon, but at the same time it is still an object, a living, vibrant object, pulsating in a galaxy amongst other stars and planets. The humans, who existed within the object, were vigilant to extend the object so that Global Warming could continue on its path. The Warming that produced the pleasurable temperatures and dryness of March had the power to seduce the human population. Desirable sunshine mellowed each day as it passed. Some of the humans did not notice the Warming, because they existed in the state of mellow seduction and could not sense the dryness of the soil or the moisture levels receding.

1st March 2012 – Allotment Plot 326 – Ella Montt continued to cover the soil with processed tree products to act as a barrier mulch to decrease moisture evaporation. Leeks and a Parsnip were dug up.

Harvest: Leeks Blue Green Winter = 4oz = 100g; Parsnips Halblange = 6oz = 180g.

9th March 2012 – Allotment Plot at MERL – Ella Montt returned to the Plot, the anticipated sunshine was absent and the sky was dull grey. In the garden last night at another location Ella Montt had gazed at a large Moon, it was white and full, small clouds drifted through across the sky in formation. The sky on this particular night was a thing of exquisite beauty, the Moon a spectacle of infinite eternity. Beyond the Moon in further regions, many light years a way, new stars were forming. Back on Earth, the air that surrounded the Plot had a delicate refinement that was devoid of all moisture content.

At the Plot shoots of Garlic were starting to emerge. Broad Beans were not apparent. The Onions looked weak. Ella Montt harvested the remaining Leeks and then removed more Mint Rhizomes. The Sage plants seemed to be dead so they were dug up. Where the herbs had been removed, Rocket and Beetroot seeds were planted. The Bamboo wigwam was dismantled. The long Bamboo lengths were cut in half so that they could be stored in the rafters of the shed. Stones were gathered in to a wheelbarrow and dispensed to the wild part of the garden amongst the trees.

Harvest: Leeks Blue Green Winter = 5oz = 150g; Herb roots (Mint, Chives, Thyme, Sage, and Strawberry) = 3lb 1oz = 1.48Kg

14th March 2012 – At another location, a Sweet Potato was placed in a glass jar filled with water.

15th March 2012 – The day had started of shrouded in chilling fog, which had the gradually melted away to produce an almost cloudless light blue sky. At Allotment Plot at MERL the soil was very dry. A huge Bumble Bee murmured close by, it was in search of emerging petaled flowers. Ella Montt planted three rows of Broad Beans next to the Brick Composter. These Beans were replacements for ones that were planted in the Autumn to overwinter, which had never appeared. Next five rows of Peas were planted.

Seeds Planted: Rocket Esmee; Heirloom Beetroot Flat of Egypt; Broad Bean Superaquadulce x 1 row, Supersimonia x 2 rows; Pea Meteor x 60 seeds, Kelvedon Wonder x 60 seeds, Ambassador x 60 seeds, (Mange-tout) Oregon Sugar Pod x 60 seeds and (Edible Podded) Ezetha’s Krombek Bluaschokker x 15 seeds.

19th March 2012 – Allotment Plot 326 – It continued to be dry, a drought was in full effect. There seemed little point in planting seeds at Plot 326. The overwintered Broad Beans were gradually being nibbled. There was evidence of mouse activity. Garlic and Onions were slowly, slowly growing. Ella Montt demolished a mound of compost, distributed it and then covered the area with tree products (newspaper, cardboard, wood). A blue trap was unfolded, stretched across part of the Plot and then weighted down with wood. The tarp and the tree product mulch were aids in moisture retention, if there was any left in the soil at all, it needed to be contained and restricted from evaporation. Worms were sent messages encouraging their participation in soil maintenance production. Ella Montt had decided the digging needed to be restricted and weed growth hampered. There were no vegetables to harvest.

22nd March 2012 – At Allotment Plot at MERL, it was truly a hungry gap. It would be some weeks before any harvest could be contemplated. Pot Marigold seeds were germinating on the Plot and some Rocket. A Globe Artichoke plant that had been frost damaged contemplated revival. Ella Montt fetched the watering can, a hose pipe ban was soon to be enforced across the land.

24th March 2012 – In the fixed up green house at another location, more seeds were planted.

Seeds planted: Tomato Golden Queen, San Marzano, Rotkappchen, St. Pierre; Sunflower Tiger Eye,  Sunrise Yellow; Celeriac Ibis; Celery Tall Utah; Cabbage (Savoy) Marner Grufewi, Vertus.