Harvest Monday - late summer

Well the tomatoes are still looking good, though there's not too many left on the plants.

And the peppers are picking up, prossibiy because the tomato plants aren't shading them much anymore. These are two Lipstick I think.

The runner and French beans in the back garden are limping along a bit now though. On the allotment they've gone stringy and aren't really worth eating....I am still picking them though (just not eating) in case we get some decent rain which gets the plants going again...if you let bean pods mature on the plant, the plant stops producing anymore. In previous years I've been harvesting them into autumn but I think the dry weather hasn't helped.

I've only picked a little bit of chard because there's been other things to use up.

I really like the little yellow summer squashes, but the plants are looking rather poorly (mildew etc) so not sure if there'll be any more.

You wouldn't think it from this piccie but the courgettes are going the same way. (I can't get down the plot for a few days so have today picked even the smallest fruits to avoid getting marrows).

I lifted some main crop potatoes...this year I've grown Golden Wonder for a change. This was from two plants, so not bad.

And we baked the spaghetti squash I was given

WhIch along with some borlotti beans from the plot..

Went into a tomatoey thing, featuring all veggies from either the plot or at home....onion, garlic, toms, courgette, sweet pepper, spaghetti squash and borlotti beans, mmm

Today I also brought home one of my winter squashes....I won't use it up for a while though hopefully.

Now, this week I volunteered at a gleaning day organised by Feedback....it was great! These are events where a farmer lets us go and pick crops leftover after harvest, which then get given on to charities etc. So about 15 of us spent the day harvesting broccoli (calabrese), cauliflowers, cabbages and marrows. It was incredible the amount of food that would've otherwise been wasted (Thank you mister farmer for letting us pick it)...and we didn't have time to pick all that was available either, so the more people who help at these events the better....you can find out more on the Feedback website. They're only just getting going in Norfolk but have been around a while elsewhere. I'm hoping to help at some more this autumn, and take a camera next time too.

 

Anyway, there were some broccoli plants which were a bit past it to harvest for the charities but still edible, so we could take some for ourselves. There were already loads of plants that had gone to flower...the bees were enjoying it though. The farm was organic and it was nice to see lots of wildlife...buzzards, hares, a huge flock of goldfinches...lovely.

 

Anyway (again), I made a big ol' pot of broccoli and potato soup, which we had with a bit of added milk and Stilton cheese (much tastier than it looks in the photo)

And we also made a big roasted veg 'allotment salad' following a recipe Jan found from the restaurant "Bill's". We roasted the spaghetti squash at the same time but didn't use it for a couple of days - it kept fine in the fridge.

With quinoa..mmm

Back to allotment veggies, I've made-up a couple more batches of fermented courgettes, and one of runner beans

I did one lot of courgettes in thin strips (thinking they might be good in sandwiches) and the other in chunks, leftover from cutting the strips to the right length for the jar. There's a vine leaf in with each too, which is meant to help keep the courgettes crisp.

Here are the ones I set up a couple of weeks back...they taste real good now

And to finish, one of the delicious figs, from my friend's allotment last week...so good.

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

 

Posted with Blogsy