Monday 14 September 2015

Harvest Monday - cut, cut, cut

I had a good three hours on the plot Wednesday morning, starting to cut the paths which were really really overgrown ( I use shears which takes ages but I like it because it's quiet and you get down low and notice things you wouldn't normally see. It also means you can be quite careful about what you do or don't cut - Like slugs (do) and frogs (don't).
 
I did see lots of massive slugs, urgh, but also a very jumpy froggy, who I really enjoyed watching. One of my robin friends came to say hello too and I saw a red admiral butterfly. When I went down the far end of my plot a whole gang of house sparrows flew into the spot I'd just been and lined themselves up on chard plants which have gone to seed, pecking away on the seeds (chard plants produce loads of big corky seeds). The sparrows must be really light because there were so many of them on the plants but the stems only gently bent over, bobbing away.
 
With all the rain we've been having, my winter squash plants have gone crazy, which is great as several had been sulking and not doing much (it had been very cool and dry early in the year), but now the risk is that the fruits will split with all the extra water.....
 
I always plant one in a compost bay I'm not using. This is a butternut.
It's taking over!
Some nice looking fruits coming along
Hello under there - on a bit of glass to keep it off the soil
And on to the harvests...
I was surprised to find so many more blackberries one day, I hadn't even taken a tub down to the allotment
In the lean- to at home I picked some of the sweet peppers, they've actually started to ripen, yay. I have two plants on the top shelf.
Lovely colours
The beans in the garden are still growing ok
And a good haul from the plot (on Wednesday I think)
Here's a vegetable Ood for any Doctor Who fans out there. Or perhaps a Zoidberg.
Quite a lot of toms still ripening in the lean-to, and a couple of hot peppers
Some more yesterday
And yesterday I decided to pick a few of the borlotti beans from the allotment, the colours are amazing. There were more dwarf beans as well, I have them growing under my corn
Lovely. Does anyone know why some aren't marbled? Are they just not as mature?
They were really yummy in a dish with all my own veggies (And quinoa)
Earlier in the week I made a dish to use up lots of the toms and someofthe greens and herbs
We're trying to eat more eggs for Jan to get vitamin D, so we're making various concoctions with veggies, here scrambled eggs on sourdough bread
One of my friends on Facebook is always 'liking' Jamie Oliver dishes and I noticed he's been putting eggs on top of his dishes...must've been reading my blog ;)
And tonight a quick meal with quorn sausages as well....a bit of a treat

I've been doing some more path cutting on the plot this weekend and have started cutting out the old summer raspberries....and am hoping that someday soon those squashes will ripen! And I still haven't picked any mint!

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

20 comments:

  1. Some really delicious things there, you do eat well. You've had fantastic harvests, especially all of those tomatoes. I think you're right, the plain borlotti beans are younger. I tend to pick all of mine at once, so I have a mixture of the red splashed ones and the green. Enjoy the rest of the week. CJ xx

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    1. Haha, thanks CJ, we don't always eat like that - last night was take-away chips, it had been one of those days, which was ironic as I'd brought lots of veggies back from the allotment.
      Yes the toms have done really well this year, I was lucky to get some really well-rotted horse manure that might have helped.
      I saw your borlotti beans, they looked really good :)

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  2. A very good haul, indeed! All week it seems! I don't think those borlotti are mature enough to stay dry on their own (i.e. in the cupboard) but obviously well enough to eat. If they don't fully dry on the vine, I leave the pods to dry on a rack/newspaper - the pods should be dried out and when shelled, the beans will be a much darker cranberry marble colour although it certainly varies.

    That butternut plant is crazy big!!

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    1. Thanks Susie. Aside from lots of berries over the summer I haven't really had any massive gluts, things seem to have been kind of slow and steady, probably due to the cool and dry weather we had earlier. Things seem to be catching up now so are coming later than usual, hopefully before the weather turns more autumny.
      Ah thanks, I grew a few borlotti beans once before but just ate them fresh like this week. I was hoping on growing loads this year and drying some (thanks for the advice), but because a lot of my plants on the allotment got eaten when small (even the re-sowings) I'll probably just end up eating them all fresh.

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  3. Wonderful harvests! And OMG, that is definitely a squash gone wild - maybe one day I'll be so lucky as to have a renegade squash plant.

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    1. Thanks Margaret, yep the squashes are hooge (as they say in Norfolk). But without the late rain they wouldn't have done half as well. I just hope there's time for the later ones to ripen. One day you'll have a renegade squash!

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  4. I love that squash taking over. I'm not sure why, I'm not too fond of my squash that won't behave. Lovely harvests.

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    1. Thanks Daphne, I don't mind them rambling all over the place at the allotment but do try and guide them in particular directions. They are in the way a bit though, I have to be careful not to tread on them, in fact yesterday I did tread on one, oops. I've seen amazing photos of squashes trailing up huge arches and the fruits just hanging down for easy picking....one day, one day.

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  5. Your tomatoes and winter squash are looking amazing. And the borlotti beans are so beautiful. You're still getting lots of summery vegetables.

    While ordering garlic, I went ahead and ordered some borlotti beans. Hopefully they'll do well in our climate next year and give lots of shelly beans.

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    1. Thanks phoung, our summer got a late start this year so the veggies are cropping over a longer period than normal I think (although if I was clever with staggered planting and different varieties the same effect could probably be achieved anyway)
      Ooh, great, yes I'm becoming a real fan of borlottis - I hope yours work out. Hmm garlic, that's something I should think about now too, I need to work out where everything will go this autumn / next year.

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  6. Well, you have some great squashes there! I wish I had as much space as you have, to grow squash. They do take up lots of room! I can't answer your question about the non-marbled beans, but I think it must be because they are not mature yet.

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    1. Thanks Mark, yep I'm lucky at the allot,met things can just go wherever they like within reason! Yes I think you're right, the beans are different ages (but are fine to eat either way)

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    1. Thanks Susie, haha, it was good to see an ood in the new Dr who episode this week,

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  8. Like Mark I'm a bit envious of your squash. I'm short on space too, but I guess I could grow smaller ones like butternut trained up a wigwam. Have you ever tried growing them like that?

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    1. Thanks Matt, a couple of the plants are a bit late to get going so I just hope the fruit matures in time. Yep, ive grown them up a wigwam before, in fact I have a small one this year but didn't take a photo. I find they do still trail around a bit though. At home I've grown one up and along a fence a couple of times which is good for space saving. I've seen them grown around a kind of box shape structure before as well, and over arches. You could look for varieties that have been bred to keep smaller (for example my butternut squash plants are Sprinter, and have taken up quite a bit of space (which is fine if you have it).though if it wasn't for the rain they wouldn't have got so big, I'm sure.

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    2. PS the green one is muscade de Provence and has produced nice big fruit without as much leafy growth (though each of my muscades only has one fruit whereas the butternuts have up to 3 per plant)

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    3. Thanks Lou, I'll have a look at some different varieties and eye up a suitable space in the garden.

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    4. Hi again Matt, I spotted a variety in a catalogue called butter bush which might be good for you

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    5. I just looked it up – it seems perfect. Thank you.

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