Monday, September 11

A surprising recovery.

We haven't visited the plot much this week so our harvest hasn't been as abundant.

On Monday we picked some of our Egremont Russet and Fiesta apples. Some were beginning to fall from the tree and so we guessed that the time was right.
4 September
We picked our first ripe sweet red pepper from the plot greenhouse.

The blueberries have just about been picked over now but they have done very well this year. Since the first week in July, there have been ripe berries to pick on every plot visit.

Having read up on the Rolet squash it sounded as though they were worth the effort of preparing and so we picked a couple more.



Another first was a sweetcorn cob. 


This was a tester for ripeness. It passed the test with flying colours


Earlier we had expected our sweetcorn would fail completely. As soon as the young plants had been planted, gale force winds battered them and laid them flat and in some cases broken.


Such is the wonder of nature and the will to survive that to our amazement and delight the plants rallied and grew into strong specimens.
The lavender bed that we planted up last year has been flowering since July and is still going strong.
I reckoned that the bees wouldn't begrudge me a small posy.

Last Wednesday, Martyn made a quick visit to the plot to make sure the greenhouse tomatoes were watered.
6 September
Whilst he was there he picked more fruit. 
This included more Marjories Seedling plums. The plum trees are still a wasp free zone but I'm not sure whether this is due to the waspinators or a general lack of wasps this year. Have you been troubled by wasps?
Martyn also brought home one of the boxes of onions which are stored in the shed. They started drying off under the greengage trees.  They had dried well despite being subjected to showers but when more persistent rain was forecast I decided to box them up and pop them into the shed. On each plot visit the boxes were taken out and placed in a sunny spot. Soon all the boxes will be brought home to be stored over winter in the summerhouse.
We have also harvested a few things from the garden. The pot grown fig has produced more fruit than usual although only small amounts have ripened at a a time.
Another first of the season, the Himrod grapes growing in the garden greenhouse are now ripe. These are small, seedless and very sweet.
The watercress growing in the pond is still going strong as are the Mini Munch cucumbers.

Each day fresh tomatoes are picked for our lunchtime sandwiches but they don't always pose for a photo.

Another first in last week's harvest was the Snackbite sweet pepper. The pepper isn't undersized as the plant is meant to produce sweet tasting baby peppers which are crispy and delicious eaten raw.

You may remember that we grew a small number of tubers from six potato varieties that we were testing this year. Martyn has put together a video of our initial findings after lifting the crop. The potatoes still have to undergo the taste test but some are possible contenders for next year's main list, whereas others? Well, you'll have to watch the video.

As usual I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on Dave's blog Our Happy Acres


22 comments:

  1. I love the irony of storing onions over the winter in the summerhouse!

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    1. We like to think of the summerhouse as multi-purpose, Mark 😀

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  2. Your first photo is just amazing, what a wonderful abundance of fruit and vegetables. The Rolet squash is very interesting. And that lavender is stunning.

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    1. We still haven't cooked a Rolet squash, Michelle so can't say whether it lives up to its press

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  3. Your harvests never cease to amaze! Fab sweetcorn and beautiful lavender

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    1. The sweet corn tasted good too, Belinda. Even more so as we thought we were going to be cornless.

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  4. That lavender is beautiful, and not easy to grow here. Yours is such a deep purple color. The bees do love our small planting. And you would never know that corn patch had ever been flattened!

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    1. The corn patch truly amazed us, Dave we nearly pulled it all out!

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  5. Those are some lovely harvests and so varied, which is really what we all aim to do. So fortunate about the sweet corn those figs look scrumptious!

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    1. I still can't believe that the sweet corn survived, Margaret

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  6. I gave up with the Rolet Squash when I grew it but I had read on the internet that it's easier to prepare if you prick the skin and microwave it for a couple of minutes. I have to admit that I never tried it but it might be worth a go.

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    1. Thanks for the tip about Rolet, Jo I'll try that.

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  7. lovely harvest, Sue. Your watercress looks unusual for me, I have never seen the brownish stalk like that. Interesting!

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    1. We've had some cold nights which may be responsible for the colouring, Endah.

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  8. Lovely to see it keep on giving. The sweetcorn looks great! A real survivor, so I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

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    1. I tasted just as good as it looked, Deborah

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  9. Oh I remember your concerns about the sweetcorn earlier this year Sue. Plants have an amazing will to survive. We were at the allotment this morning collecting apples before tonight's forecast gales and rain get to them.

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    1. We collected some of our apples, Anna but various circumstances have prevented us from a visit today and maybe will for the immediate future.

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  10. The harvest is abundant Sue! ;)
    Love to look at the sweet corn and grapes!

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  11. Great to hear the sweetcorn made such a comeback. Another wonderful, varied harvest, so colourful too. Lucky you having lavender blooming, mine have all gone over.xxx

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    1. We haven't managed to get to the plot for a week or so and are not sure when we will make it again so we are hoping our sweet corn hang on for a while.

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