Harvest Monday - blackberry and apple loaf

After a long period without much rain we finally had a decent downpour last night, hooray. It was quite windy at times too but there doesn't seem to have been any damage.

 

This week the harvests have picked up even more, loads of runner beans, courgettes and cucumbers. I haven't photographed them all but you get the idea....

Couldn't resist a little face, hehe

Several batches of beans like this

More self-sown chard too

And kale

I've made a tasty curry (freezing a portion of leftovers)

And a big batch of a more Mediterranean - type thing, with courgettes, tomatoes, red onions, lots of garlic and rosemary. My red onions are teeny, the slugs really attacked the stems, which hindered their growth.

I also added in some kale plus some haricot beans which I cooked-up today in the slow cooker, after soaking them yesterday. Haricots seem to be one of the quickest pulses to cook that I've tried so far (they're quite small).

This week I've harvested the first sweetcorn, it was really good, mmm, didn't even need any butter. On the whole the corn hasn't done too well but we'll get a few cobs.

Onto more fruity things...

First tiny sweet peppers with a pen for scale (I think they're meant to be bigger!)

A crown prince squash from one of my plants plus a spaghetti squash from an allotment neighbour. I'll try roasting the spaghetti squash - I cooked one that way years ago which I think is nicer than when just boiled. I'm not sure how many winter squashes I'll get this year, they sulked for a long time before doing much, so we'll have to see how the next few weeks go weatherwise.

I've had a couple of nice big bowls of tomatoes though

Picked today

I'm continuing to remove lower leaves and thin out ones higher up to let in more light and air..this is the 'after'. I'll remove some more soon too.

From the allotment I've had a few apples including these below. You can see some codling moth damage (and the caterpillars were still inside). There was still a good amount of edible apple though.

(A joke from my childhood "Q: what's worse than finding a maggot in your apple? A: finding half a maggot")

I cut into these apples rather than biting into them and risk finding half a maggot!

These were better. There were a load more windfalls too, which I combined with blackberries, ginger and cinammon, and froze in tubs (after a shuffle round in the freezer to make more room).

I used the peel and (non-maggoty) cores to make a couple of batches of cider vinegar - just add water and a few teaspoons of honey. Mix around, cover with something breathable (I've used kitchen towel), leave for a couple of weeks to bubble and ferment (check occasionally to push any poking-out bits back under the liquid, otherwise they might develop mould), then strain out the liquid and leave it to mature a few weeks or longer (I use old cider vinegar bottles and feel rather good when I see a price sticker still on them, knowing I've just made some for virtually free)

Talking of honey, my friends who have a couple of hives in their back garden in the city gave us a jar from their latest harvest, mmm. By the sounds of it they've had a bit of a nightmare with swarms this year but the honey looks good.

My friend Andrew has a greengage tree on his plot. The fruits all seem to ripen at different times, which means you have to keep checking for windfalls, but they've got quite a nice flavour

I've picked a couple of big tubs of blackberries again (and eaten quite a lot straight from the canes). There are some lovely big plump ones which attract your attention but also when I tried a few tiny ones of a different variety they were super sweet. The smaller ones take longer to pick but it's worth adding a few to the mix. There are so many though, I can't pick them all (well I would if I had more freezer space).

I wanted to use some up in a cakey-thing so a Google search came up with Blackberry and Apple Loaf on BBC Good Food. I simplified the recipe by just using Demerara sugar and didn't bother separating out any of the mix. I also doubled the recipe to make two loaves. Some blackberries get gently mixed in whilst others are popped on top. Oh, also I didn't include any orange zest but it didn't seem to matter.

Turned out nicely!

And it wasn't too sweet either. I gave half a cake to our neighbours, shared some with friends and family, and we ate quite a few slices ourselves, hehe.

We're having a picnic with friends at the weekend so this recipe may come in handy again, especially as there's so many blackberries around at the moment.

 

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

 

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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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Harvest Monday

Another quick one from me this week - I've picked the last of the gooseberries and first of the blackberries. Unfortunately I've missed most of the blackcurrants, which is a shame as there were masses of juicy ones. But it looks like a good blackberry year, so I'm not going to be short of fruit over the winter.

More runner beans are coming along on the allotment and there's a load nearly ready at home too.

The courgettes are getting going. I've been freezing some by dicing them up, freezing flat and then bagging up. I got the idea from Mrs Thrift at Not Just Green Fingers blog, who always has good tips. She says you don't need to blanch them this way so I'm happy to give it a go - much less hassle.

I've had another white scallop marrow too, though the plant seems to have slowed a bit

The cucumbers and gherkins are rather prolific. I don't have time to make pickles at the moment so we're just eating them all as cukes.

They're nice to snack on

The greens are doing well, here's some chard

Nero kale

Curly kale. The plants of these and the Nero are quite small but as I've got quite a few they're producing lots of leaves between them.

More (self sown) chard

Greens are always a nice side dish to accompany a pie

I've blanched the majority of them though, packing into tubs for the freezer....the first year I've done this I think. I'll probably just add them into stews and curries throughout the winter.

The different tomato varieties are ripening now

A welcome summer addition to the good old sarnie (with purple basil again). If I get round to it I'll sow some more basil and lettuce to keep us in supply into the autumn.

That's me again for the week, thanks for reading. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

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Harvest Monday - anyone for courgette?

I just have a quick report this week - things are picking up as is to be expected at this time of year (barring any major weather or pest problems etc of course).

 

I've picked a few peas, they're so delicious raw. I only have a handful of plants that escaped the slugs so am savouring all the tasty morsels. On the plus side, I haven't found any pea caterpillars so far.

A quick trip to the plot one evening included the discovery of a marrow (possibly to make into a chutney if I get time) and a small orange squash. It's actually a winter squash (kuri I think) but I find that the plant usually puts out one early fruit which can be eaten now and then goes on to produce more later, which can be cured for over winter use.

Tomatoes from the lean-to are going nicely with purple basil and cheese

I have some Nero kale that's ready for eating. There's quite a bit more to pick which I might try and freeze before the white butterfly caterpillars get stuck in (I've noticed a few adults flying round today).

More green things....the runner beans, courgettes and cukes are speeding along now. At least one of the cuke plants is putting out bitter fruits though so I need to work out which one/s. Last year I had some bitter cukes and I thought it was due to lack of water but now I think it might be a duff pack of seeds as some of them are bitter but some are very sweet.

Tonight I made a curry thing with the orange squash, some kale, chard, courgette and tomatoes. I forgot to bring any onions home from the plot so instead I used a jar of chopped onion I recently froze.

Down at my folks' one of the parks has a plot dedicated to veggies, to commemorate growing during WWI. It's looking very healthy and green too.

So that's short and sweet from me. Am hoping to pick some berries tomorrow if I get down the plot...blackberries are ripening and there are some blackcurrants still ok for harvesting plus more red gooseberries and a few raspberries for munching on the go (got to keep your strength up!).

 

I'm linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

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