Monday 6 October 2014

Harvest Monday - not quince jelly

It's rainy today after some lovely sunny days. And we're meant to have rain all week so probably not many visits to the plot, even in my lunch break (the grass is quite long and I'd get soggy feet)

A quick round up on this weeks pickings first...

Still a few courgettes and apples to pick. And I pulled up a few carrots, which I'm quite pleased with as don't usually have much luck. I only sowed a few, there's a few more to come.

Got some more beans from the back garden. I had another lot about the same but forgot to take a pic. Pretty much the last few of these, maybe some more slim pickings to come. The last ones have been on a sort of spur I Iet grow out and trained up and over extra poles...it looks messy but has staggered the crops a bit more (the rest of the wigwam has finished)

Picked a bit of chard

And some more yesterday just as it was getting dark. We'd been out picking chestnuts during the day (biked out of the city to a wood a few miles away) and collected these...

We roasted some last night and have left the rest in plastic bags in the fridge (with holes in the bags for air circulation). They're meant to last a few weeks like that which is good as am really busy for the next few weeks and these need quite a bit of time for processing. There's still lots of chestnuts on the trees so might have another ride out in the middle of November, which is the only weekend coming up that we're not away or busy! ( not normally as busy as this, esp in autumn)

Also found a few more potatoes that I'd somehow missed! They're a bit scabby (due to our sandy soil) but should be fine. One massive one that I really can't believe I missed, it was right near the soil surface too.

 

And lastly from today, I picked the last butternut squash (popped to the plot in my lunch break before the heavy rain started) as thougt all the rain might split it. Also the last of the berries and some apples a work colleague brought in (I just took a few, there were loads, she says from one little tree!)

I was going to post about the quince jelly I've made this weekend but have run out of time, so will try and do tomorrow or later on this week instead.

Linking in with the good folk for Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions.

 

 

6 comments:

  1. I hope the rain stops for long enough this week for us to pick our quinces

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    1. Hope you managed to get them sue. Just catching up on blogs now so maybe you did, will take a look. I've just posted about making my jelly :)

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  2. I just LOVE chestnuts. You are incredibly lucky to have a tree nearby. They are so expensive here and so many of them often seem to be dried out that it takes a good chunk of time to pick out the good ones. Our weather has been very wet here too and it's been hard getting into the garden to clean things up.

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    1. We seem to have quite a lot of chestnut trees around, Margaret. Once you start looking they're all over the place. Yes we're defintiely lucky. Hopefully will get chance to head out and pick another batch later in November. I hadn't been to this particular wood for quite a few years so was pleased it still had some good trees. We spent quite a while in one area with slim pickings but then found a really good patch so will know next time to head a bit further in. We rejected quite a few squishy nuts we'd already picked as realised they wouldn't be any good. And a few with little grub holes had got past our quality checking too, so they ended up in the compost.

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  3. Those chestnuts are so pretty. I wish I had nuts around here. Some people around here do have walnuts, but not anyone I know.

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  4. Is there any public open space around you Daphne? Maybe there's some nut trees you've not discovered yet. I'm always keep my eyes peeled for free food! I don't know anyone with a walnut tree either. There's quite often one planted in church yards around here (of which we have a lot) but have never picked any of them, I reckon the squirrels get them early on or I'm just not around when they're ready. Some cities have got maps of all the free foragable food but I don't think Norwich has.

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