Ha ha, well not that I'm complaining about having lots of veggies, but...we have lots of veggies! Because it's hard to know what the year will bring (weather / pests etc) it's handy to grow spares / just in cases. Also, if you can preserve goodies in some way for enjoying throughout the whole year, the extras come into their own too. Plus it's nice to give extras away to friends and family.
On the harvest front this week, I've had plenty of cucumbers, courgettes and beans. These were from one picking in the back garden earlier in the week. Most of the garden is quite shaded, so the plants tend to be a bit more slow-growing / smaller than at the allotment. It's still amazing to see what can be grown in a small space. The two veggie beds are 'no dig', I just add last year's used tomato compost from the lean-to on top of the beds. There's hardly any weeds and the soil structure doesn't get disturbed, easy. Every year I say to myself not to bother growing courgette there because it's too shady but always stick one in anyway...and this year it had a very slow start but has actually been growing towards the lighter area (and is now blocking the little path through the bed) and I can't avoid treading on it when I pick the beans growing up the fence, but still, I'll leave it in a bit longer as it seems fairly happy and the fruits are not bad. (eeep, a big house spider just ran across the floor..I don't mind spiders too much but those ones are really fast and I don't want it running onto me when I do my stretches on the floor....must get the spider-catcher implement at the ready)
In the lean-to at home, the first sweet peppers have ripened this week. This one is 'lipstick'.
And tonight I've picked a couple of small 'quadrato'. I meant to top-up the pots with fresh compost but didn't get round to it. What with that and the spider-mite issue I don't think the fruits will get too big but there are quite a lot of them, so should get a reasonable crop. I've removed the worst affected mite plant and have started spraying the others with a water / chilli oil concoction (not sure if this is the best thing to use but I had some chilli oil as a gift so thought I may as well try it...if you Internet search spider mites there are lots of different suggestions for natural sprays).
At the allotment, I hadn't been for a few days and on Saturday found this rather large courgette....
...along with lots of other things! I laid them out back at home to get a few pics.
The purple blauhilde beans have been particularly prolific. I could've picked loads of chard and more kale too but thought I probably wouldn't get round to dealing with them, and they'd be better harvested another time.
The courgettes are interesting as they're from two different plants. The bigger plant produces very shiny fruits whereas the smaller plant is more matt. I haven't done a taste comparison yet!
Yesterday I picked a few more bits. I've tried to be more organised this year and actually have some wintery things to plant out (winter purslane etc) so to make some planting space I dug up some potatoes - these are from just two plants, so looks like it could be a good crop.
Minxie was trying to get in on the photo action as well.
Aaaw (those are my runner beans in the background).
The two corns picked Saturday and yesterday were interesting
I've never seen a cob completely full of kernels. This is one of the cobs that I helped pollinate by hand, sprinkling the tassels from the top of the nearby stalks into the top of the cob silks. Seems to have been effective! I'll try and be more thorough amongst all the plants next time
We've been eating the corn straight front the cob plus cut off some kernels to add to dishes like this pasta concoction, including all homegrown veggies of course. Ooh and last night I picked a load of kernels from a cooked cob and popped them in the freezer (I don't have enough freezer space to add the whole cobs).
Tonight Jan made a delicious omelette, using the peppers, some courgette and beans.
Our sandwiches this week have been tasty too, lots of basily, cucumbery, tomatoey mixtures.
And we've made a start on the fermented cucumbers, yum, which I've now moved from the kitchen worktop into the fridge.
Out at Eves Hill Veg Co where I volunteer, the toms in the big polytunnel are heavy with fruit, lovely.
And I spotted one of the trays of seedlings I sowed a couple of weeks back. I think this was one of my trays anyway. Although now I'm not sure!
So, that's me for this week, thanks for reading. I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. Head over there to see what other people have been up to.
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What a great haul you are getting lately! And I know what you mean ... if I only grow one plant, it's bound to die on me, but if I grow three "just to be safe", they all end up being crazy productive.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susie. Yep it's difficult to predict how well things will grow isn't it!
DeleteWe have a cucumber glut too! Like you we freeze corn after stripping the kernels off the cob. When do you sow your chard? Ours has gone the seed.
ReplyDeleteHi sue, I don't show chard anymore, it just seeds itself. But the plants growing big lush leaves at the moment are ones that have germinated since I harvested the maincrop onions (harvesting the onions disturbed the soil a bit and prompted the new chard plants). I think that was July sometime?
DeleteGorgeous purple beans. I love purple veggies, it's too bad most of them turn green when cooked. Nice haul of veggies this week. Minxie is a cutie.
ReplyDeleteHi Michelle, yes it is a shame they turn green on cooking, I'm going to try fermenting some purple beans so it will be interesting to see what happens to their colour.
DeleteMinxie is a little old lady now, turning 17 this month....still behaves like a kitten sometimes!
Your corn looks excellent, the added pollination from your shaking the plants has done a power of good!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathy, I've since seen a tip for improving sweetcorn pollination where you actually cut the tops off the ripe plants and place them onto the cobs (I haven't explained that very well)
DeleteIt's always tough to decide how much to plant, but like you say I think it's better to have too much than not enough. We can always find a home for extras! It looks like you have a great variety of veggies coming in now. And ditto what Michelle said - Minxie is a real cutie!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave, yes there's always some way of using up the extras and it's nice to give some away
DeleteAw, little minxie. She's a bit scared of going in the back garden by herself recently because of another cat, so we usually go out with her, which actually is a good excuse to have a look at what's happening with the veggies.
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ReplyDeleteNow, the lovely Birgit from Norfolk Organic Group has been having issues posting comments on here (they're not showing up and we can't work out why), so here's what she posted this week, some handy tips! -
ReplyDelete"I never grow more than one courgette plant. With the August glut as it is, I'd rather have too few than too many. I do grow two or three 'Little Gem' though, which are part of the courgette family. However, they keep forever in a cool place without you having to do anything to them, and to cook them I just cut off a 'lid', take out the seeds, stuff in a few herbs and a nob of butter and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It all turns into soup which you can eat straight out of the squash. Minimal effort, very little washing up! Perfect! Birgit x"
Great idea Birgit, and anything to reduce washing up is always good in my book!