Well, the weather's changing anyway, and the nights are getting longer and colder. We still have a bit of warm weather, though it can be quite different one day to the next.
I love looking out for things to forage and this is a good time of year. This weekend I've been at my folks in southern England and even on their street in town I spotted quite a few bunches of grapes hidden amongst the ivy along a wall next to the pavement of a house being renovated. We picked a few just to see what they were like...quite small and pippy but the ones in the sun were quite sweet. I suspect the owners don't even know they're growing there. I hope they discover them as it would be a shame for them to go to waste.
I love seeing other people growing their own too, even if they don't have much space. Walking around, my eyes are always caught by fruit trees, looking amazing dripping with food at this time of year. There was a nice looking pear tree in a tiny front garden on the way to the train station from my folks, covered with fruit...brilliant!
Anyway, on to my harvests this week:
Still a few summer squashes tentatively growing. The plants themselves are looking very spent but whilst they're still producing I'll leave them in. I don't have anything to plant out to follow on from them at the moment anyway so may as well leave them.
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| Last few berries and squashes. I bring onions home from the shed when I need them. |
My late apples started having some windfalls but most of them weren't ready (didn't come away when twisted). I pick some chard when we need it, this lot is self-sown.
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| Corn, which I ate a couple of the small cobs but blanched the rest to freeze - I pick off the individual kernels as my cutting technique leaves too much on the cob. These are from the corn I direct sowed, the ones grown in pots were ready and eaten and while back. |
Still lots of potatoes to dig up, this bagful came from two seed potatoes.
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| Potatoes starting to get slug damage and really all need digging up when I get chance |
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| Minxie is not impressed |
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| Thursday...quickly picking as much as I can as not able to get down for 3 days |
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| Friday morning from the back garden lean-to. The red pears next to the bowl have a tiny bit of blossom end rot but not too bad. |
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| Friday morning, back garden beans. One particular plant is giving out lots of curly beans, even though they have space beneath them so no need to curl. Weird. |
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| Sunday from the allot, after I got back to Norwich. I'd read that at some of the larger allot sites two ladies were seen helping themselves to people's crops and loading them in a van, so I though I'd bring my winter squashes home to finish curing. I think our site is so small that it would be too obvious for someone to come with a van but you never know. Excuse the shadows on the photos, hard to get a good pic in my house after dark... |
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| Potatoes and berries - Sunday from the allot too. Usually I'd dig up the pots at lunch and go back after work so they have some time to toughen their skins but yesterday they only had about an hour, it'll have to do! I don't have a car so take my old-lady trolley to walk heavy stuff back form the allot. It was full on Sunday! |
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| Monday from the back garden...still lots of beans and toms. Also hacked back my rocket plants which I'd been ignoring for several weeks and had got pretty huge. I decided to make..... |
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| Pesto! There was so much rocket...I toasted a medium pan full of walnuts and blitzed with some olive oil and a teeny bit of salt. After putting in the jars I topped them off with a layer of olive oil to seal it in. I think it lasts better without the cheese in and I expect when we use it up we'll just add cheese to the dish. |
Tonight I also blanched some of today's bean harvest to freeze (the rest were fully cooked, which we take to work as snacks in the afternoon, it looks weird but tastes good!)
Linking in with all the good folks for
Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions
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