We didn’t visit the allotment as many times last week. This was partly due to having a couple of days out and partly due to the weather having turned more unsettled. We have had some showery rain but not enough to make any real changes to our soil.
We have managed to complete one or two jobs. I have finished pruning the red currant bushes. Hopefully I haven’t been so severe that they refuse to produce berries next season but the tangle of branches really did need serious attention.
We have also been busy clearing beds of spent crops.
We also managed to prepare a bed and sow hardy annual seeds. I guess it will depend on the type of winter we have as to whether we will have an early flower display or not. Rather than buy new seeds, I settled for using seed leftover from summer. I sowed cornflowers, godetia, clarkia, nigella, poppies and calendula which I hope will germinate before winter descends on us.
We continued to pick plums from Marjorie's seedling and the tomatoes are still producing. The ones planted outdoors have done really well this year with no outbreak of blight to bringing cropping to an end.
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| 3 September |
We had to cut all the cauliflowers that had produced heads. They looked as though they would hang on and then we had one warm sunny day in the midst of a cooler period. It was enough to trigger some of the heads into blowing. They were still usable, just looked like white sprouting broccoli. We picked the other heads before they went the same way.
The apple trees have produced lots of fruit although many of the individual fruits are very small. The best fruits have been added to our fruit bowls and the rest stewed and frozen. For those of you familiar with Masterchef, our kitchen looked like the part where the contestants are sent to a location where they have to do mass catering. We spent what seemed like hours washing, coring and chopping apples.
Some of the stewed apple was popped in the freezer and some added to the blackberries, picked on the same day, and made into crumbles.
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| 7 September |
The sweetcorn was stripped of cobs. I've been giving the plants plenty of water but they were still rather disappointing, having produced smaller cobs than usual.
I'm still picking the last few blueberries. Incredibly I am picking from one bush whilst the leaves of the bush that produced the first fruit are taking on autumnal tints.
The courgettes are still managing to produce a few fruits although some of the plants are beginning to look tired.
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| 9 September |
We have a couple of tubs of cranberries growing either side of the door to our plot greenhouse. They used to be planted in the bed under the blueberries but they sprawled around close to the ground and produced a tangled mess and so I decided to grow them in tubs instead. They were just labelled cranberry when we bought them so I presume both are the same variety, however one always produces more fruit than the other. This year the good 'fruiter' is loaded with berries. On Friday I noticed that some berries had started to drop off the bush and so I picked off the berries that looked ripe.
The giant spinach has now decided to grow and so we pick off a leaf as we need it. If we can prepare a bed, I am hoping to sow some more spinach seeds to grow over winter.
We have clumps of beetroot growing in several location. I dug the first batch as it was the only crop remaining in a bed that we wanted to clear. The roots were various sizes but all of good quality and there was far less nibble damage than usual
The carrots like the beetroot are less nibbled at the moment but I daresay that the slugs will become more active at any time soon. We don't thin carrots so they also come in various sizes.
Along with the fruit and vegetables we are still cutting a few flowers to bring home for vases.
The sweet peas are just managing to eke out a small posy of short stemmed flowers even though I expect that each cutting will be my last.
I was busy on Monday and so this post is a day late but I hope Dave won't mind me sneaking it into his Harvest Monday over at Our Happy Acres.
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It's amazing the leaves are already changing in your area. It's a lot of work processing all those apples, but at least you got them all done in one go. Your late season tomatoes and corn look great, as do your beets and carrots. I've always had such trouble when it comes to root crops so it always makes me smile when I see yours.
ReplyDeleteThere are more apples left yet, Phuong and a load of quinces. The trees are turning too around here. Root crops are always a bit of a lottery as you never know how they have done until you dig them up. The tops can be great but have nothing underneath.
DeleteThe crumble looks good! Do you freeze your sweetcorn? I'm wondering what to do with mine as we are going on holiday soon. My sweet peas are still producing I will probably cut them down before we go away
ReplyDeleteWe do freeze the corn, Margaret. We strip the kernels and freeze as we would peas. It takes less space this way.
DeleteI'm not familiar with Masterchef but I do have a mental image of the apple processing operation! Ours is full of peppers at the moment, fresh ones, dried ones, fermenting ones, etc. Your pruning activities remind me I need to prune our gooseberries. I dread that job because of the thorns, and it's too hot currently to wear long sleeves to protect my arms.
ReplyDeleteGooseberries certainly do fight back, Dave
DeleteThat spinach is a giant, it looks like chard in the photo. I'm also amazed at the cauliflower, I would not think it would be so good looking considering the heat and drought it has had to go through. And those cranberries are impressive also.
ReplyDeleteThe cauliflowers seemed to do OK, Michelle. The thing that seemed to spoil cauliflowers was a sudden hot day after a cool period.
DeleteYour harvests this week look splendid, Sue and I can imagine how busy it keeps you dealing with them all. Those little cauliflowers shoots were a bit of a bonus... we had some from a calabrese but have never had this from caulis. Maybe I take them out too soon?
ReplyDeleteThe shoots from the cauliflowers weren’t really wanted, Kathy but it meant that the caulis were actually still edible. I’d stick wth harvesting whilst the curds are tight.
DeleteOh my goodness that spinach is huge! Such beautiful stuff coming out of your garden. And the beds are looking great too. I love a fresh start!
ReplyDeleteGardening is certainly full of new starts, Shawn Ann. We always hope that the next year will be better don’t we?
DeleteYellow courgettes!! Not one to be seen growing on our allotment site. The green ones did alright though - aside from the Defender germination crisis.
ReplyDeleteWe have had more yellow than green, Mal. We asking had some yellow with green stripes which I think was the result of some cross pollination. Squash are a bit promiscuous.
DeleteGosh, what a harvest, it looks incredible Sue. You grow so much, I'm rather in awe.
ReplyDeleteThat giant spinach really is rather giant. Is it an annual or perennial spinach?
It’s an annual variety called Giant Winter, Julieanne
DeleteAnother wonderful harvest. I do like the look of those crumbles and cranberries, my cranberry bushes never flower for some reason.xxx
ReplyDeleteIt’s strange how one of ours is more prolific that the other, Dina. They don’t take turns like other fruit bushes/trees do. It’s always the same one that fruits,
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