Today's gardening consists of starting some seeds in the polytunnel.
Greyhound cabbage.....in 12 cells.
Winter Density lettuce in 9 cells.
Mustard on kitchen paper in a re-cycled punnet.
Cress on kitchen paper in a re-cycled punnet.

Also a parcel arrived with two more lots of shallots in it. I'd forgotten I'd ordered these. I am not dismayed as you can never have too many....especially as DH is so very partial to them pickled. I am saving coffee jars ready for next pickling season. (Does anyone have any good recipe tips for doing them? This years weren't bad, and DH loved them but all tips gratefully received.)

I have decided to use coffee jars with plastic lids this year as the lids on the beetroot jars I re-used last year didn't like the vinegar and we struggled to open them. We even resorted to a tin opener on one of them....! Does anyone know if pickles have to be airtight (vacuum tight) in order to store....or just closed? Do I have to go to the expense of Kilner jars?

I am in even more of a hurry to get the plot dug as the shallots really need to go in soon. I thought I had until February to get the onion bed dug....but now I need to revise that back to next week if possible now the shallots are here.