Allotment Christmas

OH returns from the Christmas “plot shop” with two bags – one containing 4 parsnips, 7 carrots, 3 Bavarian radishes plus fresh parsley, and the other bag contains two fat red cabbages. OH says the allotment was superbusy – practically everyone was harvesting their Christmas dinner. I can't get over just how productive this place is, that we can still get so much produce out of the ground.

Later on I slaughter the first red cabbage, thinking it probably full of slugs by this point. But nothing. It's pristine. It's without a doubt the nicest, cleanest, most appetising red cabbage I have ever seen come out of the wild. Stripped of the coarse outer leaf layer, the cut cabbage comes to about 1kg. Raw, it's surprisingly peppery but also quite sweet. Actually, the pepperiness explains the absence of slugs – they probably took one bite and spontaneously combusted.

I'm using a recipe for German Blaukraut that I've pulled online. This recipe calls for 2 bay leaves (from the shrub next to the kitchen door), 2 onions (from the allotment), 3 apples (still good from our September apple fest) plus some juniper berries, cloves for spiking the onions and golden syrup. It's all arranged in layers in the maslin pot with a glass of red and a pint of water and lots of duck fat (out of the fridge) and set to simmer. Meanwhile, I go upstairs with the rest of the wine and have a bath.

OH joins me in the newly installed double bath, a very pleasant interruption, and the blaukraut will have to wait until tomorrow.

Later on, OH makes 2kg of mussels in cider sauce, again with allotment onions, using up the last of the smetana from the Russian shop. Our Christmas Eve meal is utterly gorgeous. The only regret: our own cider isn't ready for drinking just yet.

Half past eight – we're digesting our delicious evening meal in the warm light of the Christmas tree. Time to make Rote Gruetze with semolina pudding for dessert. Rote Gruetze or Rødgrød is a Northern European compote that can be made out of any red berries or fruit. I'll use our homegrown redcurrants from the freezer.

OH tells me he'd seen tracks of muntjac deer going neatly down the central path of our allotment today. We don't have a fence so anyone can wander in. Ironically, nothing had been eaten, which surprised me a little – there are still shedloads of non-heading cauliflower, or kale, or parsley, or tender new lettuces.