We've had quite a mix of weather this week, Saturday was really warm (we took a bus ride out to North Norfolk, the bus was packed with people going to the beach but we got off at aylsham, a historic market town, and walked across to Blickling, a National Trust property). The walk was quite nice and shady plus there were some tasty blackberries to snack on.
Anyway, since then it's been rainy, rainy rainy, helping my beans grow big and strong (except for when it's also been very windy, battering the leaves and blowing the flowers off!)
Here's my main lot of beans in the back garden, to the left of the bed is a wigwam and to the right they're growing up the fence (using poles and string) I've also got some stray shoots coming out that are twining round the low mesh fence - the same thing happened last year and I got lots of extra beans. I Have some more beans growing up the left fence (not pictured) which are borlotti I think but they're a bit behind these runners.
Lots of flowers (this was before the rain and wind though). This method of supporting the plants is a bit tricky to find the beans as they hide amongst the foliage but I kind of like hunting for them, there's always a surprise when you look from a different angle. If I was growing a bigger quantity I'd probably do something different.
You can see one of the shoots coming out to the bottom left, it'll produce more flowers when the main plant is getting tired. Also amazingly I have one plant from last year that's started growing again (not pictured) as I just cut it off at ground level and left the root in. They're meant to be perennial if the conditions are right but this is the first time it's worked. I'll let you know if I get any beans from it.
A nice crop :)
Goes well with pie and home grown corn (from the allotment)
Also good added to a curry
The rest of this week's harvests - a few windfall apples from one of my dwarf trees.i need to keep an eye on the apples as last year a lot of them rotted on one of the trees before I noticed. These apples have split for some reason (uneven watering?) But tasted good. The cukes are very slow now and the plants look bad but this rain might pick them up.
Friday's harvest - Still getting blackberries though they've slowed a bit. This rain will make them go bad quickly but on some of the branches there's some new berries coming.
From yesterday (Sunday). Though it includes some sloes picked on our walk on Saturday - they were only just ripe but as we wouldn't be going back any time soon it was worth a go. I've put them in the freezer which has the same effect as them going through a frost - splits the skins when they de-frost to let the flavours out into what ever you're making, like sloe vodka or gin. Oh, also a couple of greengages were from the walk (a round variety), hanging over a high wall. Most of them were too high to pick (or already squashed on the road) but we managed a couple - the rest are from the allotment, hanging over the adjacent lane. They were also mainly either squashed on the road or too high up but we used Jan's walking stick to hoik the branches down!
The toms in my lean-to are doing well still
I roasted some more in the oven, with my own garlic and onion. Mmmm, and used a bit of bread to mop round the dishes afterwards, tasty juices.
Jan decided to make gazpacho
So we picked a pepper too. It was funny - shaped as it'd grown squished inbetween two stems. No blemishes though, which was a surprise.
There was quite a lot of it, it's lasted several days! Here's yesterday as a starter (Topped with my own onion and cuke) with the rest all home grown too (except the lettuce and egg....one day we'll have chooks, cluck cluck).
So not a bad week, all in all though I really must do some 'proper' work on the allotment....picking blackberries just takes up all the time, in a nice way.
Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions
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Are sloes the berries? I've always heard of "sloe gin" but didn't really know what it was. Your tomato plant is gorgeous - very healthy. I'm growing scarlet runner beans for the first time this year and forgot that they can be eaten as green beans (was mostly intending to eat them as dry beans) but I'll pop out in the daylight tomorrow and see if any can be tried fresh.
ReplyDeleteHi Susie, yep the sloes are dark bluey- black berries from the blackthorn tree /shrub, which is often used in hedge planting. Sloe gin / vodka is pretty easy to make, you just fill about a quarter / third of a bottle or big jar with sloes, add the same amount of sugar ( I use organic demera) then top up the bottle with vodka or gin, then give it shake around every day for a couple of weeks or so to dissolve the sugar and leave it to mature for as long as you can wait. The advice is to only pick sloes after the first frost so that they burst when using them to let the flavours out but I just stick them in the freezer instead.
DeleteI know what you mean, at this time of year it's easy to spend the whole session at the plot harvesting. I'm going to mine later on this morning to pick beans, courgettes and cucumbers. I know exactly what you mean about finding more beans when you look at the plants from a different angle. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteHehe, yep this year especially I haven't been keeping the grass paths cut very often CJ, though even in a 'good' year my plot is pretty dishevelled, especially compared with my allot neighbour who's the more traditional long rows type of grower. The wildlife likes my plot though!
DeleteHope you had a good harvest, it's raining heavily here today, so no visit for me today unless the weather really picks up, I haven't been down since Sunday, *gasp*, getting withdrawal symptoms.
Love all those blackberries. Some harvests really are hide and seek affairs. My zucchinis are playing with my like that. There is just so much foliage I can't see in there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Daphne, it certainly adds some extra excitement when you have to hunt for your veggies!
DeleteI'd never heard of sloes - had to look that one up. Never fails to amaze me how many different types of fruit and veg there are out there - it seems every year I learn of a few new ones.
ReplyDeleteThat's fantastic with your perennial beans! I remember visiting a garden in Niagara Falls about 20 years ago or so & it had some bean plants that came up every year as perennials - I was floored. And I love all of your descriptions of the places you "journey" to - I really have to get a bit more pro-active in doing a bit of local sightseeing.
Yes it's nice to discover new fruit and veggies. Sloes are great because they grow wild in the countryside and often get used in planting of new mixed-hedgerows, so if out and about you stumble across them. They can sucker though (send up shoots away from the main plant) so I'd be reluctant to plant them myself. The thorns are viscous too!
DeleteIt'll be interesting to see if the perennial runner produces beans....there are about 3 stems that have grown out of the one root.(I should look closer) It might depend on what the weather does as they're quite a bit later than the ones I sowed this year (which were also quite late themselves due to slug/snail munching of earlier sowings)
Ah thankyou, it's particularly nice to get out at the moment, we're making more of an effort than usual to make up for all the time Jan was ill (she's still not fully better but much more energy than before)
I think this is the best time of year for home-grown harvests. I am particularly fond of Runner Beans and Tomatoes (together, I mean). My beans are loving the rain, but the (outdoor) tomatoes aren't!
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, yes they make a good combination don't they. I expect most people just have beans steamed as a side dish (which I also like) but they're quite versatile. Last year when I had loads of dwarf beans (yet to get going this year as it wasn't until my 3rd sowing that most survived slug/snail munching) I would cook them up and them take to work as an afternoon snack. Hoping to repeat this soon! Though I'm imagining all the snails n slugs munching away on them during this wet weather!
DeleteAh, even my lean-to toms are getting drenched at the moment, the lean-to really leaks during heavy rain but at least they're not getting battered about in the wind like the beans are. Hope your toms get through it all ok.
Your tomatoes and runner beans look great. And you're getting corn. Roasted tomatoes is a fantastic idea, there's a pile of tomatoes in the fridge that need to be used up.
ReplyDeleteI love how big the runner beans get. I tried growing them 3 years in a row but they never came up. Not a single one. They probably don't like our heavy clay soil. Boo hiss. They did do well in the desert when grown in sandy soil.
Thanks Phoung, mm the roasted toms are good, I actually froze them after roasting so can enjoy them a bit later.
DeleteAh, three years and no beans came up at all? Seems a bit odd. Could a little mammal have eaten the beans when they were sown, it happens over here sometimes particularly with direct-sown peas. What about sowing in pots first and then plant-out. I do that with some of my beans depending on what else I've sown and can be bothered to look after at the seedling stage. I use loo roll cardboard inner tubes and fill with compost, then you can just plant out the whole thing.
The wasps have noticed our greengages which is most annoying to say the least
ReplyDeleteOh that's a shame Sue, hope you got lots of greengages before the wasps
DeleteI love that you make faces with your harvests! I harvested my first broad beans today! :)
ReplyDeleteHaha thanks SH Susie. Ooh great, broadbeans, most people, won't be harvesting them this time of year so you've got something special there.
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