Harvest Monday - hello summer veggies

I've not been doing too badly on the summer veggies so far, but this week they've picked up apace.

 

At the beginning of the week I was picking a few tomatoes every day or so.

But today I got a lovely bowlful. A few sunny days here and there have really brought them on. I've also been snipping off quite a lot of lower leaves (and even a few higher up ones where the plants have been very congested) to help with air circulation and to let light in.

Back in the kitchen, mmm look good. I'm heading round to a friend's tomorrow so I'll take some with me.

There've been lots of green things (with the occasional splash of colour)

This cucumber is from a plant I have growing in my lean-to at home. The cuke was hiding away and got a bit big but was still quite tasty. Funnily enough the outdoor cukes are doing much better than the indoor one. There's a tomato plant nearby that I think is affecting it, plus the rhubarb plant just outside the window has been shading it.

Allotment cukes

Blackberries have also been on the increase this week, I'm picking a large tub every two or three days (and actually could pick a load more if I went wearing thicker clothes to reach further in)

Of course there's more (and more) courgettes too

And beans

Yesterday I went through harvesting leafy greens too, about 1.5 lbs in the bag

So, using up some of these goodies I've made salads

Frozen some of the beans

Made loads of these mixed veggie meals (adding tomatoes really lifts the dish too)

Frozen the majority of the greens

Oh, and I made a spiced marrow and tomato chutney today. I'd been meaning to make it for the last couple of weeks, so luckily the marrow was still ok. It seemed to take most of the day to make, what with all the chopping and simmering

But the end result was ten jars of (hopefully) tasty chutney. I whizzed it a bit with a stick blender so it's easier to spread in sandwiches. I made a bit of a mess to begin with when I was pouring it into the jars (I use a small glass jug) because I forgot I actually have a funnel which sits nicely in the neck of most jars, doh. They cleaned up ok though.

This coming week I need to try and find some time to do a bit (a lot) of weeding and grass cutting...but it's much more fun just picking things to eat.

 

Thanks for reading, I'm linking in with Harvest Monday kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

 

 

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