Monday 7 September 2015

Anyone for a tomato?

I was away for a few days last weekend and got back late on Monday night, so was keen to get down the plot after work on Tuesday.
What would I find? A lot of weeds (I knew this already), really long grassy paths (I already knew this), lots of massive slugs (I knew this already too unfortunately) but also......
A lovely range of goodies! All the eating apples were ready, they came away from their branches with a little twist - I think the variety is Charles Ross - I have it written down somewhere. I have 4 apple trees, all dwarf ones that I've planted myself since taking the plot. Although the cooking apples / dual purpose varieties had some insect damage, these ones were perfect. We're still working our way through them, yummy
Now, although all my first few brassica sowings got eaten by beasties, I had left a couple of last year's plants in place on the plot, mainly just to see what would happen (and flowers for the bees etc). In the pic above you can see some Nero kale that's now producing some leaves, plus a cabbage that didn't really do anything last year, which in spring produced lots of flowers and extra side shoots, that have now got some decent leaves too. Luckily I'm not a very tidy allotmenter or else I'd have cleared these away in spring and missed out on extra bonus crops!
 
We've had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks, and the squash plants have really benefited - otherwise I think they're have had it by now. I'm also just getting the first few dwarf beans (a late crop this year due to beastie damage on earlier sowings). I keep my onions in the shed at the allotment and bring some home every now and then.
The runner beans in the back garden had produced a steady crop every few days but it it's now getting quite cool during the day and at night, so they've slowed a bit. But the tomatoes in my lean-to have been coming along nicely....
Early in the week
Saturday - it's important to keep picking the toms as they can start to split with over-watering, as you can see below. I use these up straight away as otherwise they get mould in the split.
I did some more roasted toms, with one of my own green peppers, red onion and Rosemary. I keep forgetting about the peppers as they're up on a shelf but there's some nice looking ones which're actually turning a bit red
Yummy
I also made some mixed pesto with walnut, basil and rocket. The rain has really given the rocket in the back garden a boost too so I should make some more. The mint in the front yard has gone crazy but that's another thing I keep forgetting about. I'm not really sure what I should make with it either.
Pesto - topped with olive oil to create a seal to preserve it
I've use up most of the pesto now though anyway.....On toast
With a side dish of toms and summer squash
More toast
Sandwiches for lunch today, very tasty. I was going to do a sort of open sandwich but changed my mind, so we ended up with double pesto!
Tonight we had a mixed veg curry with quinoa (No pesto this time), with everything veggie from the plot or back garden, yummy. Just when we were dishing up I thought we should've made a yogurt and mint side dish but it was too late by then, doh!
It's not all been about veg - I've picked a few small batches of blackberries, added to them some from the freezer plus some of my cooking apples and a huge chunk of frozen raspberries peaking out. There's frozen gooseberries in the bottom of the pan too.
I've frozen it all back again in portions in tubs - it's much better in terms of maximising freezer space than in the bags the rest of the fruit's in. I didn't freeze them very well and they're mainly in solid weird shapes!

I should really make a tomato sauce or something tonight to freeze the rest of the harvest but time is getting on, so that'll wait til tomorrow. There's more toms ready to pick since Saturday too, phew.

Yesterday, after a lovely day out at the Maritime Festival over in Great Yarmouth (where we went on the world's tallest Tall Ship - the amazing timber Gotheborg from Sweden), I headed to the plot for an hour to start shearing the long grassy paths. All was going well until the gnats started coming out, so I'm sitting here trying not to scratch a big itchy bite on my neck, argh.

Anyway, That's it for now...linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

15 comments:

  1. Quite a lovely harvest this week! I made fresh apple sauce last night, and was thinking how nice it would be if I could grow them here where I live. Yours look delicious!

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    1. Thanks Audrey! My apple trees are a few years old now and starting to produce quite a few fruit, my best year so far :) I originally planted two but they were too far apart and I didn't get pollination between them so I planted one next to each, which has really helped.

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  2. A great variety this week! I wish I could throw together quick curries the way you do, they always sound delicious and look so healthy,

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    1. Thanks Susie! The curries are really easy, they don't take long to make - just soften onion, garlic and add mixed curry powder or any other spices, fry for a bit then add all your veggies (harder ones first) with a bit of liquid if needed (at the moment I'm adding my own toms to the mix). Then at the end depending on the mix, I add a tin of chick peas and a chunk of coconut block (creamed coconut). The rest of my meals aren't always so heathy!

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  3. That's a lovely harvest - especially envious of those apples! If you have no other plans for the mounds of mint, how about trying to dry it and using it for tea - I've been meaning to do that for a long time now, but just keep forgetting as well!

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    1. Thanks Margaret, yes I'm quite proud of those apples, wish I'd taken a close up. I'm eating a big one and a little one each day! Only a few left now though.
      Hmm that's a good idea, I do quite like mint tea but I'm not very good at drying herbs. I'll have a read -up and see.

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  4. What you say about the second cropping cabbages and kale is interesting. In the past people used to leave the stump of a cabbage in the ground after cutting the main head, and then cut a cross in it. You then used to get four (small) new cabbages growing from the same stump. This is basically what you have done. You could also try leaving the Runner Bean plants in the ground. Technically they are short-lived perennials so if they survived the Winter frosts they might grow again!

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    1. Hi Mark, I've done the 'cross' trick before and got a few extra leaves but not full cabbages (my brassicas are usually quite late in the season). It's interesting to see what happens when you just leave something, I thought the plants might just die after flowering and seeding but maybe the wierd summer kept them going? There's a PSB from last year that cropped, then flowered and seeded which is looking quite healthy so I'll see what that does too.
      Ah yep, I've actually left bean plants in the ground a couple of years but it was only this year when one has made it through the winter and has produced 3 shoots from the one root, which are now in flower - if the weather doesn't deteriorate too much more I might get some beans from it, exciting!

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    2. Ooh, I meant bean roots left in the ground, not plants.

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  5. I always love when the garden gives you surprise harvests. For me it is often lettuce in early spring as the seed blows all over.

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    1. Hi Daphne, ooh yes I spotted some corn salad seedlings this week where I left some to go to seed earlier in the year. It's great as I'm not as organised as you and haven't sown any crops for autumn!

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  6. Hmm, I'm thinking that all the rain that is most definitely not falling here has to go somewhere and maybe that somewhere is where you are... :-) Your harvests make it look like you are in the middle of summer, lovely.

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    1. Hehe, thanks Michelle. Well, we had a very dry, cool summer before the recent rain, it's decided to all come at once, though today was very sunny (when I was at work of course). My beans are very late so I hope they carry on cropping a while longer :) especially the dwarf beans that have only just got going. The winter squash plants have gone crazy too!

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  7. Our tomatoes are going red nicely now. Do you thin your apples are are you like us and just leave them to grow?

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    1. Hi sue, ooh glad to hear your toms are ripening. I did thin out a couple of apples where they were really really overcrowded (6 in a cluster) but other than that, quite a lot dropped off themselves earlier. And it seems a shame to pick them off on purpose! (Even though I know I'd probably get bigger apples - I had quite a range in sizes of apples though, some very small, but that doesn't really bother me) . We saw on the local news that it's the first 'official' day of apple picking today, whatever that is!

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