Harvest Monday - pesto

I had a load of basil that needed picking this week so decided to make a pesto.

Pesto usually has cheese in it but I tend to just use basil (or rocket) plus toasted walnuts (instead of pine nuts) plus garlic and olive oil

Because of the mixture of green and purple basil leaves the pesto ended up being a delightful brown colour....it tasted good though and goes well in sandwiches, here with a gooey goats cheese on sourdough

I also harvested the first small courgettes this week, yippee

Plus a whole load of broad beans and some marjoram

So I made a broad bean and egg stew, based on Shaheen's recipe but using marjoram instead of dill. Last year I made this so many times, it's quick and easy. Adding sweet just-picked courgettes gives it an extra dimension too (though it's delicious without the courgettes anyway.)

A few days later there were some more small courgettes ready for picking, plus I lifted a couple of onions to cook with too, here using up one to make another broad bean stew because I ended up harvesting the rest of my broad beans aswell (not pictured).... I was going away for a few days and it had been quite dry, the plants were dying off, so i worried the beans might get past their best by the time I'm back. Jan and I spent a busy evening podding them all and then blanching/freezing a few bagfuls to eat another time.

We enjoyed the stew with some more early potatoes. When harvesting, I've found that for some of the plants the seed potatoes still had a bit of oomph left in them, so I tried not to disturb the plants too much whilst rooting around for tubers, with the idea that they might continue to grow a bit more / produce more potatoes. This has worked in the past but the tops don't look too healthy so it might not be that successful this year. Soon I'll be clearing the area to plant-out leeks anyway.

The raspberries and other soft fruits have come along this week though.....yuuuum. My strawberries are nearly over so it's good to get some others to take their place. Bottom-left are saskatoons which are a bit like blueberries but the plants are less fussy about soil

Raspberries are my favourite though. They seem to be really good this year - I think the rain has helped them (I don't tend to water things on the allotment very much so they sometimes dry out a bit)

I'm still away but have left Jan in charge of watering the tomatoes in the lean-to and picking more fruit. I hear she had a good raspberry harvest yesterday, thanks Jan. I'm looking forward to seeing how things have grown-on when I get back tomorrow - it's amazing how much changes in just a few days at this time of year.

 

Thanks for reading this week. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

 

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Harvest Monday - courgette (just)

It's been a bit of a funny old week, we were meant to be on our hols but as Jan's still unwell we couldn't go away. So I decided to take a couple of extra days off work anyway and take us out on the bus, (we've borrowed a wheelchair from the British Red Cross as she gets v tired easily and can't walk v far...stupid thyroid gland). We went to the excellent Time and Tide museum in Yarmouth and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts up at the university, plus we've got a cool dragon Sculpture trail around the city at the moment ( I might do a separate post on this ). The weather's been confusing again, freezing one day, scorching the next.

Anyway, on to the harvests,

More rocket and basil, here's a bit of the basil with some tasty goats cheese sarnies,

I've been using up the broad beans still, and thought I should really do something other than the new fave broad bean stew, as we've had it 5 or more times in the last couple of weeks! So I made a simple noodle soup with some greens from the allotment and garlic too

The last of the bean plants on the plot were looking a bit yellowy and sad so I picked off the remaining pods, and cut the plants just above the soil, to leave the roots in place and add nutrients as they decompose. I was going to use the cut bits as mulch but there were lots of black fly on them, so I just added them to the compost instead. Has anyone noticed a lack of ladybirds? I've on,y seen one recently, though have spotted (ho ho) a couple of ladybird larvae this week...they are cool looking mini beasts. Hopefully they'll get to munching the black fly soon. I've had a go at my spring broad bean plants with soapy water spray but there's still loads of flies.

Anyway, Tonight I made an alternative turmeric broad bean stew, adding in odds n ends including leftover cooked potatoes, garlic and greens

The strawbs are still cropping, this was the best picking in one go and since then they've started slowing down, in fact tonight there was only just over one tub ( I usually pick them every other day ). A nice total so far of 17kg!

Of course we had to have warm strawb on toast with cheese again,

Yum yum yum! This time with museli bread (from Norwich Providore on the market. Yes I did get us squashage rolls again too, that we had with rocket one day. They are too good)

Tonight I picked a bit of rhubarb because the huge leaves were in the way. Not sure what to do with it yet.

More potatoes harvested by rooting around in the soil rather than pulling up the plant. The soil was bone dry under the grass mulch though, so I gave them a good water to encourage more potatoes to form and swell.

And here's the first courgettes of the year! There's two here chopped up, very tiny but I didn't want to risk them rotting off, as some had already done ( and seems to happen with the first fruit each plant produces, for me anyway). Here with some onion tops from the garden.

That went with scrambled egg, another quick and easy dish (there's a bit of a theme in my cooking!). Abit of mint garnish too from the front yard.

 

So, nothing majorly exciting this week, I've spent quite a bit of time taking us out and about for a change of scenery. I'll be getting bigger arm muscles after all this wheelchair pushing that'll be handy working the plot though!

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - a nice surprise

We've been away on hols and I haven't been to the plot for over a week....until today when I popped across from work during my lunch break to see what was happening.....

......lots of weeds and old plants needing to be cleared, plus (drum roll) MORE COURGETTES! It seems crazy, the plants aren't protected and look very worse for wear but as we haven't had a frost yet they're just hanging in. Overall it's been really mild too. Ok, these really must be the last ones. I also brought a few onions back from the shed.

I picked a chilli from the lean to on Sunday, to add to a huge pumpkin soup. Jan's work had several massive pumpkins for a Halloween event, so we brought a couple home (they'd have just been chucked away otherwise).

There was three times this amount of pumpkin, I cubed and froze some of it. In the soup I added my own onion and potatoes, plus some garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger (plus the chilli) and salt and pepper, plus a tin of chick peas.

A bit of yogurt to finish it off.

Today jan brought another one home! Blimey, so I'm currently roasting it in batches, with garlic and cumin seeds for the first two and garlic with rosemary ( from the front yard) in the second. I was surprised the pumpkin lasted since Friday (obv I cut off the skin and inner layer that had been scooped against). The flesh was so thick that there was still a good amount left after cutting off the exposed surfaces.

Linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne's dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - happy Halloween!

So this is a bit early but we're away at the moment and wanted to do this while I remembered. Here's a little cartoon I drew a few years ago....poor Bob.

And on to the veggies and fruit....haven't been able to get to the plot for a few days, so not too much to report:

Still picking basil and ripening tomatoes (in a paper bag in the kitchen).

Some sweet and chilli peppers in the lean to at home

A courgette! I've left the plants in case they decide to squeeze a couple more out. The plants themselves look rather sickly but we're still getting warm days sometimes and not had any frosts yet so may as well leave them

I actually found some climbing beans too, in the back garden, nice and tender, amazing! Glad I've not had chance to tidy everything up yet, it keeps growing!

I was given two big bags of apples this week from different people. The first lot were a bit rough, so I processed them straight away into stewed fruit (I added some frozen fruit too - mainly raspberries - and a jar of old red currant jam as a sweetener).

And the other bag is in a lot better nick, so I'm keeping them til I'm ready to make elderberry jelly (I have the elderberries frozen). I'll give most of these away as Christmas presents.

Hope you all have fun hallowe'ens! Wooooh.

Linking in to harvest Monday at Daphne's dandelions.

 

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Harvest Monday - better than expected

Yep. Autumn is here now. Not much chance of getting on the plot after work anymore as its getting cold and dark sooner and we've got lots of busy weekends in a row (and for the past few weekends). It's all fun stuff but means the plot is a bit neglected (and the house is a tip). I did get nearly 3 hours on the plot yesterday and made a start at clearing the bed I'm going to sow broad beans. Of course I got side tracked many times and didn't seem to finish one job off. I had wanted to clear the bed for garlic too but didn't even make a start on that. Never mind!

And on to the pickings this week:

Thanks to the warm daytimes I've still got some courgettes limping along. The chard is doing ok too.

We were doing some baking for a hen weekend and there was some leftover melted chocolate, so I cracked open a few of my hazelnuts, toasted them and coated in the choc, yum!

Also toasted some flaked almonds and added some sultanas (not home grown!). Brandy snaps in the background made by Jan. I also made cheese and courgette muffins (using my courgette) but forgot to take a pic.

Toms ripening in a paper bag in the kitchen, basil from the lean-to and rocket from the garden.

A lonely pepper from the lean-to.

Headed down to the plot yesterday (Sunday) after coming back from the hen-do. These carrots were a nice surprise. And a couple more courgettes, one was a big 'un! Not sure how I missed this one before the weekend. A happy courgette-face too, although one of the little squashes was brown inside so it ended up in the compost

I had some neglected perpetual spinach that had got out of hand, so cut it right back and picked out the best leaves. Discovered a few missed potatoes when weeding the leeks (that I planted out where the pots had been). Brought back a few onions from the allot shed and cut a teeny bit of broccoli. Also found a small butternut squash and brought it home to ripen. I've now taken up all my winter squash plants as they were all looking very sorry for themselves. It's ironic that the courgettes have out-lived the winter squashes!

And finally, a few more toms ripening slowly in the kitchen. These went into a curry with the big courgette, a couple of carrots and the spinach. Very nice :) If I was being clever I'd have picked one of the chillis from the lean-to and added that as well. What can I say, I'm not clever!

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's dandelions. Also must apologise for not being very social on people's blogs at the moment, October and early November this year are v busy for me, which is quite unusual!

 

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Harvest Monday ......

So weather-wise we've had a bit of a mix again. This weekend has been really hot and sunny, a bit foggy and finally today we have had much-needed rain, though it's only really got going tonight.

Here's my round up for the week :

Some not v impressive peppers (I picked these first, there are some better ones). Anyone know what causes these brown bits? They were ok when these bits were cut out.

Contemplative crystal lemon cukes.

I brought a few onions back from the shed. I've grown Sturon from sets the last couple of years. I did autumn onions a few times but they never worked out that well so am sticking with spring planting.

Apples! A good crop this year. This doesn't include the ones we've eaten :) also I spotted a large gherkin peeking out. Unfortunately I wasted several gherkins as I found them at the back of the fridge all soft and mushy. Yuk. I'd run out of jars and forgotten about them. Oops.

Rubbish sweet corn from the back garden, tasted ok though. I only had three plants and they obviously didn't pollinate v well! The ones on the allot were better.

Last of the ripe toms from the lean to in the back garden plus a chilli. Got more chilis but still green so thout I'd take this one off to encourage the others to ripen.

The rest of me toms, removed to ripen-up. I've now taken out all the tom plants too, it really must be autumn.

A few more strawbs :) they were super-sweet, yummy. Last ridge cucumber.

These nuts are from an allotment friend's plot. His hazels are much bigger than mine! See previous post for a comparison. I helped him pick his and we shared the results.

Yesterday we decided to eat another one of the butter nut squashes.

It had a really tiny seed cavity like the last one! Not good if you want to save seeds but good for the tasty flesh. It's Sprinter

We roasted it and made some of Shaheen's quinoa and carrot meat balls / burgers, they were really tasty. We did change the recipe a bit (by accident). Jan got a bit carried away with the grating, and grated the carrot instead of steaming and mashing, so we added an egg to bind it all together. The photo doesnt do them justice :)

Tonight I dropped in to my allotment friends (Andrew) to give him half the nuts and he kindly gave me a bag of quinces and some of his apples. The apples are small but v sweet.

Tonight I also thought it'd better sort my potatoes out after they've been sat around for a while. I've tried to keep them out of the light as much as possible.

Minxie liked the cardboard box but not the potatoes.

And here's the mess! Top is the long term keepers, then clockwise....the mankiest (you can't see how bad they are, some even had living creatures inside, most will go in the compost), anyas (which have started sprouting), Colleen 2 bags (earlies. These have started sprouting too), and the medium term keepers.

This is one of my least favourite jobs, so I'm glad it's nearly over! I still have to put them in bags tonight though.

I didn't get any harvests today as I had to leave work late and it was dark by the time I got home (after I'd popped in to Andrew's) but think I might have some beans in the back garden ready to be picked...not too many left now though. I had wanted to check out my carrots on the plot but maybe I'll get time tomorow (and if it's not raining)

I went to a great open day at Norwich Farmshare on Saturday, which I'll report on soon...

Linking in to Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandleions

 

 

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