A Lovely Allotment Trivia Quiz

Answer: Broad Bean

Broad beans are also called Fava beans. There are several types, but all of them have the beans inside a long pod in a velvety cushion. There are usually up to six or seven kidney-shaped beans inside each pod. If you have a really good crop, any beans over and above immediate requirements can be frozen and saved for winter.

Answer: Brussels Sprouts

Each Brussels sprout is like a small cabbage. They form at each leaf joint along the stem of the plant. They take several months to grow, and plants started in the spring will be ready to harvest around December. When the sprouts are picked there will be young green leaves left on the top of the plants and these can also be cooked and eaten.

Answer: Strawberry

Strawberries grow close to the ground and their name comes from the practice of putting straw round the plants to stop the fruit getting muddy and eaten by slugs and snails. Each plant will produce clusters of sweet, juicy berries.
The plants are at their best for a three year period and really need replacing after that. However, after fruiting every strawberry plant puts out long stems called runners and new, young plants form on these. Put these into pots and cut them away from the mother plant when they have rooted and you get a lot of strawberry plants absolutely free every year.

Answer: Carrot

All vegetables that grow below ground are called root vegetables. You can tell which are the carrots by their feathery leaves, and sometimes just the very top of the carrot will be showing as well. In fairly loose soil you can just pull them out, in heavier soils you will need to carefully loosen the earth around them with a trowel to get them out.

They are a very good source of vitamin A, which is good for eyesight. It is a myth that eating a lot of them will let you see in the dark, though.

Answer: Tomato

Tomatoes come in indoor and outdoor varieties. However, a cold early summer means they will flower and set fruit quite late, and then it may not be warm enough for them to ripen. Grow them in a greenhouse, in large pots or even a growbag, keep them warm, and you can pick lovely red tomatoes from about June.
Although they are used more as you would use a vegetable, tomatoes are actually a fruit.

Answer: Rhubarb

Rhubarb plants produce long red sticks that can be pulled away from the plant. The leaves are at the top of the sticks and must never be eaten as they are very poisonous. Raw rhubarb can be quite sour, but when cooked in a pie or a crumble it is nice and sweet. Rhubarb plants last for many years, you just have to be careful not to over harvest it in the first two years.

After that, well-grown plants will produce more fruit than you need.

Answer: Potato

Early potatoes are the nice new potatoes you have in early summer. You can have varieties that you can cook and mix with mayonnaise to make a potato salad, or others than can be just boiled or chipped. Late potatoes, as the name suggests, are harvested around autumn and they are best for roast and mashed potato, as well as chips and jacket potatoes.

There are a lot of different types, but all of them grow below ground, and the potatoes grow on the roots. The leaves are above ground and the plant flowers.

When the flowers die and the leaves turn yellow they are ready to be harvested.

Answer: Seal the packet and keep it somewhere cool

Some packets of seeds have so many in them that if you sowed them all you would have far too many plants. So, just sow what you need, seal the packet again with sellotape or similar, and keep it somewhere cool. A small container in the fridge will hold several packets. This will keep the seed fresh until next year when you can use it up.

Answer: Cucumber

Cucumbers grow on a long vine and need a lot of water. You can buy special bottles to put them into as they grow to keep them straight. Cucumber sandwiches are often served in England at tea time, but cucumbers make a nice refreshing salad too. They can also be made into soup. If you have sore, tired eyes then a slice of cucumber laid over the eyelids will help to revive them.

Answer: Put them on the compost heap

Every lovely allotment should have a compost heap. This can be either just a big heap of plant material covered with a tarpaulin or special compost bins. Put all your old plants in complete with roots and bits of soil clinging to them. Weeds go in as well: stinging nettles in particular make lovely compost. All of this will turn into crumbly compost that you can then spread on the ground to feed and nourish your next lot of crops.