Harvest Monday - where'd the summer go?

So it seems autumn has decided to pay us a visit in the middle of summer, cold and wet. I'm pleased with the rain though, the allotment was so dry....but it's a tad strange having to wear a scarf, warm jumper and hoody!

The wet weather has brought out all the slugs n snails, so I've been sweeping through each time I've been down, and dealing with them before they do too much damage. I just cannot believe the size of some of these slugs though, absolutely massive. I shall not put you off your dinner with photos.

And on to the harvests...

The toms are still coming along but have slowed down since the gloomy weather started. This was earlier in the week before summer decided to go away

A day or so later these ripened together, he hee I thought they were cute

And a couple of stubby cukes from the allotment. Ah, I can feel funny faces coming along again soon

The courgettes went into scrambled egg. I think I added a couple of toms too (plus onion / garlic etc)

I like taking cukes as lunchtime snacks, here with the infamous squashage roll from the Norwich Providore market stall, mmmm. The lettuce wasn't mine unfortunately (I have absolutely no lettuce!) but there's a sneaky tomato or two in there as well.

I've picked a load more basil and rocket

Which Jan made into a Walnut pesto,

It's great in sarnies (She puts more cheese in than me!)

Friday was when the weather really started to get autumny so we needed comfort food. Queue fried egg with potato, courgette and chard. A home grown meal except the egg (no chickens yet, but one day...) There was enough to go with tea the next day too, an added bonus

There's been more berries to pick - here gooseberries and raspberries

This is one way I like to have them, on my breakfast, Mmm (it doesn't look quite so nice once you've added the yogurt and milk, especially as I leave them all to soak up for 10 or 20 mins into a big mush!)

Sunday was my best pick in one day. It wasn't raining when I first went down but then it started drizzling and settled in, but I thought, sod it and just stayed out. It's always easier to stay out once it's started rather than go out into the rain for some reason. I should've changed into my wellies though, as I ended up with soggy two-tone jeans from the ground upwards. Very fashionable I gather.

Some more comfort food yesterday - grated courgette soup with potato, Garlic, chard, basil and blue cheese. We both demolished two bowlfuls! You cook the potato then add into the same pan the grated courgette and any other vegetables to cook for a bit longer. I loosely based it on a recipe from The Readers Digest Allotment Gardeners Cookbook. It's nice and easy and uses one pan.Ooh, apart from the cheese this was all homegrown too. I'm a bit of a way off making my own cheese but another thing to aspire to.

And tonight, some more warming food was needed

I made a not-to-spicy curry with quinoa, using my usual onion, garlic, curry powder, tinned toms, coconut block plus veggies. And yes, leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, hurrah.

After tea, it was a bit drizzly but we fancied a little walk so wandered down to the plot (jan's been feeling a bit better the last few days and managing to walk more). And, lo! After dealing with a hoard of slugs and snails intent on eating my veggies, I spied another courgette that needed picking and a cucumber that I'm sure was nowhere to be seen yesterday...it must've been hiding.

I wanted to end on something nice but I've run out of photos, so instead here's a slightly damp shot of the back garden from the weekend, I've tidied it up a little bit. Looking forward to the red flowers turning into beans, that's if there's any left on after all the winds! Facebook showed me a photo from this time last year when I'd picked two big tubs of blackberries plus loads of dwarf beans from the allotment. No chance this year, it'll be a while longer yet.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

Oh hey if anyone's on Instagram, let me know - jan's set me up on it though not sure how much I'll use it yet.

 

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Harvest Monday - an eclipse?

A mixed week here in Norwich.....for the solar eclipse we were meant to have a clear time but instead it was really cloudy. It got very cold because of the eclipse and on my way in to work that day I could see my breath, brrr. I work flexi-time and was heading in 'after' the eclipse but something caught my eye - The cloud had cleared a bit and I accidentally saw it as the moon was moving off. So that was pretty cool, I thought I wouldn't see it at all (I did look away very quickly to avoid eye damage, though!). No pics of it I'm afraid. Of course, later that morning Norwich was bathing in beautiful sunshine with not a cloud in the sky, hey ho!

And on to the veggies.....

I lifted four more leeks this week, This pic is from two of them. I like the mix of dark and light. The darker parts tend to be a bit tougher so I cook them a bit first before adding the light parts.

And this is some Nero kale side shoots that have grown after picking all the big leaves and nipping off the top of the plants.

My tomatoes have been growing a bit too quickly so I decided to pot them on (I.e. Choose the healthiest looking ones and pot them into something bigger, ditching the rest.

These didn't cut the mustard and ended up in the compost. They were either too small, too tall or too wiggly.

Here's the toms in their new homes for the next few weeks. I still have too many but will probably lose some due to neglect!

I've taken a bit of a gamble and put them out in the lean-to, because I think they would get too leggy if I kept them inside any longer, stretching to get to the light. Being colder outside it should slow them a bit aswell. I'll keep an eye on the overnight temps and if it's looking too cold I'll bring them in. I've surrounded them with bubble wrap around the trays as a bit of extra protection and put some bubble wrap against the window as the glass gets cold. Last night it was meant to be 4 degrees but this morning I saw frost in the cars out the front (North facing). The toms were fine, phew.

 

I've seen a few bees around but no more butterflies. I spotted one bee going into a soil bank that I've left on purpose for them, so it was good to see it being used, bzzzz. A blackbird keeps singing out the back at home at 4am. Such a beautiful song but the ear-plugs need to go in at that time of the morning!

 

Sunday I decided to use up my last squash, as I'd noticed a couple of spots forming.they didn't go very deep fortunately. It was rock hard and difficult to cut through but worth the effort...a really good flavour. But a bit sad there'll be no more for quite a long time.

I made a chickpea and squash curry, enough to last us two days

And picked a few bits of perpetual spinach and chard to add in too

That's me for the week. Oh I put in my early potatoes yesterday (variety Colleen, that always makes me think of Dolly Parton's Jolene). I'll try and get my mains in next weekend.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

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