The Allotment Diaries : A Year of Growing and Remembering

February produces an abundance of leeks; May inspires blackberry ketchup.June's glut of courgettes demands endless recipes; August's blight strikes the tomatoes.October sees beans soaking in home-made broth, red wine and barley.December's branches 'die back', yet life still stirs under the soil. The Allotment Diaries follows the year Thom joined his father on the allotment.It is a year of growing and pickling, musing on wildness and cultivation, documenting his family's odd yearly rituals, and unknowingly saying a last goodbye.Above all, it is a melodious, nourishing month-by-month portrait of the earth we all have in common.