Harvest Monday - autumn or summer?

What a week! The weather has been (mainly) lovely (except for my non-working day, when it was rainy and I didn't feel so good, so I spent the day on the sofa reading instead). I had to work again on Saturday which meant that Sunday was my only chance to get down the plot - luckily it was another glorious day here in Norwich, whereas much of the country and coast had bad fog (which has reached us today too)

 

It really felt like the middle of summer yesterday, it was that warm, and the plot was full of honey bees on all the self-seeded borage plants that are still hanging in there. I've even seen a red admiral butterfly and a dragonfly the last few days, out in Norfolk.

The plot itself looks a right state and needs a few good days work (and a few more). But I don't want to tidy it too much yet as there's still so much insect life around. So today I focussed on weeding the area that I'm going to sow autumn broad beans (I forgot to take the beans down with me though), it takes quite a while because the couch grass gets all entangled in the beds and you have to tease the roots out, trying not to break them, as otherwise they'll just grow again. It's my least favourite plant on the plot!

 

I also did a bit of weeding around the self-sown lambs lettuces to get as much light in to the plants as possible.

 

Here's what I brought back from the plot, not a bad little harvest for the first of November. I've now pulled out all the summer and winter squashes and lifted my first beetroot. I don't have that many but this looked like a big 'un on top though ended up being a bit 'squat'. Oh I forgot to include a big bag of lambs lettuce too.

On Friday I picked a couple of peppers from the lean-to. One I roasted with some potato wedge- type things (my potatoes, simply cooked in the oven with oil), so tasty. And the other we had chopped raw with a salad, also tasty.

I used the tomatoes up tonight, in a chickpea dish with some butternut squash I roasted yesterday, very yummy

I made a winter salad with the rest of the roasted squash, which we took for lunch today with toasted pumpkin seeds and some of the lambs lettuce, thinly sliced cheese with a splash of cider vinegar and drizzle of walnut oil.....when I was munching into it in the office, I thought, oooh it looks very pretty but as I'd been rushing this morning I didn't get a picture. I think I'll make it again though, it was very good.

 

Here's the apple cider vinegar that we're having a go at making ourselves - apple cores, peel, spoonful of local honey plus water, then cover with a paper towel.

It's been about two weeks now and I think we have to move onto the next stage, so I'd better check that out. I did already pick off a couple of bits of apple from the top which looked a bit funny though. It hasn't really fermented that much that I can see?

Okay, that's it for the week, I'm early today as I've got to head out shortly, so bye for now.

Linking in to Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

Posted with Blogsy