Harvest Monday - red and green

One of the many good things about Harvest Monday is it makes you look back at everything you've picked. At this time of year it's always surprising the amount that gets harvested in just one week....

The tomatoes have finally started to get going

Yesterday I removed a lot of the lower leaves to improve air circulation around the plants and to let more light in, which should speed up the ripening more as well

And I picked a few peppers too - they're on the top shelf in the lean-to. I'd been hoping they'd ripen but noticed they'd started going a bit funny so didn't want to risk losing them completely

I'm not a fan of raw green peppers so as I was heating up something in the oven i decided to cook these up too, with a splash of olive oil and crunch of black pepper

Yum

The blackberries have been going mad this week again, I have a long bramble hedge down one side of the allotment

And the runner beans from the back garden, weird shaped cukes (which I gather is when they're under stress - it's been very dry), and lookee....a few apples! They're just windfalls but are quite tasty

And some more

Excitingly, the first sweetcorn! I meant to pick some more this weekend but haven't had chance.

My plum tree didn't have any fruits this year so I was pleased to pick a few greengages - one of the allotments has a couple of large trees that overhang the adjacent lane and I noticed a load were on the floor (squashed by cars), so I found a few ripe ones on a low branch - the guy is happy for anyone to help themselves plus they're growing over a public lane anyway.

And aha! Some more plums.....we caught the bus out to the countryside on Saturday for a lovely riverside walk, (though it was a bit too long for Jan, she's been quite tired since then, recovering from the thyroid problem) and, always looking out for free foraging I found a few plum trees, small but quite sweet, nice to just snack on. I could've picked loads more but left them in case anyone else wanted them too (didn't look like any were getting picked though)

Some of the simple meals this week have included - Oven potatoes with veggies softened in goats butter

Noodle soup

Curry with cuke & mint raita and quinoa

Mixed veg with basil and Spelt pasta

And the corn....mmm

The rhubarb in the back garden was getting in the way again

So I mixed it with some of the blackberries to make a flapjack (I was considering making a blackberry cake but went for the flapjack in the end), based on the recipe I used recently (but increased the quantities a bit and used mainly date syrup instead of honey, cause I didn't want to use up all my local honey). The rest of the blackberries are in the freezer, to be made into mixed fruit later.

Some of the buttery muesli oat mix gets put in first, in the base and up the edges

So you can fill in with the fruit mix

Then top with the rest of the muesli mix

The morning after

I took most of it into work (and saved some for us too of course), it was easiest to cut it all up first rather than faff on in the office. A good way to make you popular with your work colleagues.

 

That's it for the week, linking in with all the folk for Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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