Harvest Monday - a bit 'lite'

Ok, it's been raining all day today and I've been busy with guests over the weekend and haven't been down to the plot since Friday. I'm sure there's absolutely loads of lovely produce down there waiting for me ;)
So this is a bit of a 'lite' report on this weeks gatherings. Everything has definitely slowed-up a bit too, especially with the weather turning cold (apparently coldest august on record I thnk I heard?). These are all difffernt veg in each photo:

Thoughtful curcurbits

Sad beans (not as many as last week)

Happy harvest from the back garden when it was sunny featuring blauhilde purple beans and Lady Di runners. And looks a bit like Sideshow Bob?

I hadn't picked the beans in the back garden for a few days and found some really long ones growing over the fence. I usually pick them a lot smaller so will see how they compare with taste and texture. The longest (the nose) was over 40cm long ( I wrote it down somewhere but can't find the bit of paper). The little courgettes are green bush.
This week I also started picking elderberries from around the neighbourhood and will continue probably on weds. There's a big variety in ripeness depending on aspect etc so although some are already going over, there's still plenty waiting to ripen. This rain might swell them up a bit too, more juicy.
Oh, almost forgot a big bowl of tomatoes from the lean-to at home picked on Saturday.

A mixture of Sweet Cherry, Super Marmande, Money Maker and so e others that you can't see as they're underneath.

So I'm linking in late again to Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions :)

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Harvest Monday (just)

This is my first 'harvest Monday' post...lots of people share what they've picked on a Monday. I had today off work so seemed like a good day to do it but am a little late in the evening as had a friend round for tea (two types of curry made all with home grown produce). Anyway, so a quick post of what I picked from the allotment today....I hadn't been since Thursday.

Plums are windfalls, not that ripe, lots of cucumbers and gherkins and some courgettes. Loads of beans. One crystal lemon cucumber. Apple windfalls. Blackberries (both have gone into stewed fruit concoction with gooseberries from the freezer). There weren't as many blackberries as I thought there'd be and quite a few are spoiling before ripening due to the heavy rain over the past few days. Onions are from the shed at the allot where I have them drying off and just bring a few home at a time to use. Doesn't include the toms for the greenhouse at home.

Been windy today with a thunder storm this evening and even some hail! My plants are looking a bit battered but hopefully will pick up again.

Well, a brief post from me but it's getting late zzzz. Linking through to Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions.

Tonight's exploits....

It's amazing what you can achieve in an hour and a half....

Fruit mush for on our breakfast (blackberry and gooseberry with old fruit preserve added as a sweetener)

A quick curried squash (our first winter squash, picked young so has a thin skin):

Cooking up some beans:

Bottling up some gherkins and making a snack pot for tomorrow (home grown beans, toms, ridge cuke and crystal lemon cuke):

Oh and I made sandwiches with home grown toms, gherkin (the wild fermented batch that I'll report on another time) and basil, plus cheese (not homemade!) And here's a pic of today's curcurbit harvest...I've never had so many ( this is my first year for gherkins). There's also some vine leaves for adding to tomorrow's pickle:

Sorry about the shadows, our kitchen light is in the wrong place for taking photos on the worktop.

Right time for bed

 

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Gherkiny #2

Well I didn't get chance to take a pic of the next stage as it was late last night. I set out some more in salt last night too, to do a comparison, this time adding a vine leaf as this is meant to keep them crunchy. Here's a pic of the two jars, see the colour difference.... fresh green for the jar made tonight and loss of colour for yesterday's, with today's curcurbit harvest in front. So for both jars I rinsed the gherkins with clean water a couple of times, patted down with kitchen paper, and packed in to the jars, adding freshly picked dill and mustard seeds plus white wine vinegar. 

With today's harvest I'm trying natural fermentation, you use salted water instead of vinegar. This process is meant to produce healthy bacteria, which is inhibited by vinegar. Pics will follow.

Here's a pic of some of yesterday's harvest, more dwarf French beans and berries! Tonight after work I picked the last big batch of red gooseberries and gave them to a friend from work who's going to make wine :)