It was also the first time Ruby had come across birds bigger than wood pigeons. She studied swans, geese and various other water birds from a safe distance but was more interested in the intriguing scents.
We felt strange being out and about again although it was very different to previous visits. Lunch was sandwiches in the back of the car rather than the cafe, and people were dangerous and needed to be kept at distance.
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10 August
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Although we have done some tidying and rearranging on the plot, mostly our visits have been to harvest. We have moved on from Oullins Gage plums to Victorias but, disappointingly, these are more affected by plum moth larvae meaning more than half have been thrown away. The plum moths usually affect the earliest fruits which leads me to wonder if the weather conditions delayed things.
Last week I reported that our blackberries had ripened unevenly and questioned whether this could be a pollination issue. After researching it appears that this could be the case. The fruits of a blackberry, like sweet corn, are made up of clusters of individual fruits. In the case of cane fruit these are called drupelets. The blackberry in fact isn't a berry at all but a drupe. Blackberry flowers have up to 125 female pistils of which 75 - 85 percent must be pollinated to produce an evenly shaped blackberry. If it is cool, cloudy and wet when the flowers are ripe for pollination this cuts down bee activity and successful pollination.
I am, however, wondering if we have another problem, called red cell regression. This is a reaction to a sudden change of temperature which causes black drupelets to reverts to a paler colour. Apparently this can happen if you pick blackberries on hot day and pop them straight into the fridge. As our weather has been very up and down this is a possibility. In such cases the fruits are still edible.
Our blackberries seem to have grown out of the problem which leads me to believe that it was weather related and I am thinking, maybe our berries were suffering from both problems.
We decided to cut our first kohlrabi which was probably somewhere between a tennis ball and a snooker ball in size. This was grated and used in a batch of coleslaw.
Lots of the other ingredients also came for the allotment namely, onion, carrot, courgette and cabbage. I had to use shop bought celery, as this is something that we can't grow, and apples as ours are not quite ready.
At the beginning of the week we had some cauliflower and broccoli left over from the previous week so these, along with the French beans picked on Monday and some of our potatoes went into a Quinoa Vegetable Biryani The summer raspberries are just about finished and ready to be pruned but we are not without raspberries as that autumn fruiters are now taking over. These are mainly the yellow All Gold with a sprinkling of the red Joan J. As far as tomatoes go we were still only picking from the Sweet and Neat plants. Likewise we are harvesting Mini Munch cucumbers as we still haven't had any fruits from the larger Burpless Tasty Green.
Cobra French beans as usual are the first of our climbing beans to give us a harvest.
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15 August
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Courgettes are now kicking into glut mode so will be finding their way as an additional ingredient in several recipes including Veggie Shepherds Pie - not really an appropriate name. The topping is a little different being a mixture of potato, sweet potato and cauliflower. 
Posts
a really entertaining blog Sue and Martyn although there are for obvious reasons a dearth of steam trains, glad to see Ruby is getting on and not chasing the geese
ReplyDeleteThanks, David. Ruby tends to only chase balls.
DeleteGlad you made the most of your day out, and most interested in your analysis of raspberry problem. Our first Victoria plums are just ripening and our Joan J should be starting soon if yours are, but might just refuse to given the cold wet weather currently.
ReplyDeleteDon’t forget to cut the plums in half before eating, Mal🤢
DeleteSo happy for you that you managed a day out at the home of the Clumber Spaniel. Lovely looking rainbow harvest, and I am off now to click on your recipe links. Always looking for something fresh and different to try.
ReplyDeleteI use the BBC Good Food site a lot, Deborah. I collect the recipes that I like and copy them to a darabase on my iPad.
DeleteOur blackberries are often colored like that with tan spots, but I always put it down to the heat or to sunburn. We haven't been on any real outings here in months, except for a trip to the orchard last week to get some already picked peaches.
ReplyDeleteYes, Dave I did read that blackberries can suffer from sunburn but it said this happened when the temperature was 32C or 90F and above and the berries were in sun. Apparently only the side of the fruit facing the sun is scalded. We don’t usually get such high temperatures here. We had a couple of days above that this year but it didn’t coincide with the blackberry problem and also affected fruits facing away from the sun,
DeleteActually the problem you're having with blackberries is sunscald. Very often when temperatures are over 28°C blackberries start turning white on the parts where the sun hits them. After they turn white if left drupelets start drying and look exactly as the ones in your photo. You can actually see on the berry in the bottom left corner how it's white from the sunscald. The solution is to harvest them more often. You've probably seen that I harvest my blackberries every 2 days, when the temperatures are over 35°C even every day. The reason is precisely this, if I leave them more than 24h I'll find a bunch of blackberries with white stains or even dried bits.
ReplyDeleteAll three problems look similar Ana but when the problem first occurred we had low temperatures and dull weather. It certainly wasn’t hot enough for sunscald. Also the berries on what would be the shady side if it had been sunny were most affected. We have had warmer weather recently and the blackberries that we are picking now are unaffected.
DeleteYour outing sounds wonderful, how delightful it must have been to have a break in the routine. I've been on only one outing in the past 5 months and am feeling a bit cooped up. Now we're in the middle of a heat wave and it's unbearable to be outside for more than a few minutes so I'm feeling even more caged in.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite strange to be out, Michelle as there were so many protocols in place but it made a change. We had a mini heatwave that lasted a cou-le of days.
DeleteI am sure your outing was good for all of you. Ruby looks quite excited at seeing the ducks. Having an outing like that makes home seem even more like a haven than a jail. Your harvest looks fabulous and the casserole looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteRuby is permanently excited, Lisa. At least we have been getting out to go to the allotment.
DeleteDelighted to hear your outing went well for you all, Sue. I can imagine your apprehension, I would have been the same. Sounds like you certainly make the most of your produce. Do you both cook? Thinking its a creative kitchen. Your mini munch cucumber got the thumbs up for taste by one of the presenters on this week's Beechgrove Garden tv programme (not sure you can see that anymore).
ReplyDeleteWe do both cook, Shirley. When we were working, Martyn did just about all the cooking whilst I did my marking and lesson prep, now we both take a turn. We tend to have at least three vegetable based meals a week. We gave up on red meat about three years ago. We do still watch Beechgrove but have a couple of weeks to catch up on.
DeleteThank you for the information about the blackberries. I wonder if this could be a contributing factor for our problems with marionberries.
ReplyDeleteIt seems similar problem affect all the drupe family Sue
DeleteLast year's new Cobra seed produced weak plants and few beans,whereas this year I pre-sprouted the "old" seed and have strong plants and a mass of beans! Usually the Blackbirds devour my Summer rasberries and leave the Autumn ones for me,but this year it seems to be the other way round.
ReplyDeleteCobras done well for us in the two or three years that we have grown it, David. I don;t think the yellow autumn raspberries attract our birds, They must prefer red,
DeleteLovely post, great to hear you had a fab, safe day out and Ruby got to see pastures new, it's good she's ok in the car, Annie was sick for years! Interesting reading the follow up re the blackberries. I just loved that biryani and shepherds pie, I'll be giving those a go, I usually put vegan mince in my shepherds pie, even hubs likes that. Wonderful harvests as always.xxx
ReplyDeleteRuby loves riding in the car she can't get in quickly enough, Dina. It's amusing watching her reactions to new things. I use green lentils in my veggie shepherd pie. I was a bit nervous using the quinoa in the biryani but it worked. We're not really vegetarian, although we don't eat any red or processed meat and have at least three veggie meals each week.
DeleteOh that sounds a good trip out Sue. You must be pleased that Ruby travels well. As you say people avoiding is a priority now 😢 We've only had two excursions out since the lockdown as lifted. We took sandwiches and a drink with us on the first but had a cake and coffee on the second in an outdoor area adjoining a cafe. We were the only people sitting there under the shelter of a big parasol whilst the rain fell. Everyone else was indoors in the cafe but we were more relaxed being outdoors. Your shepherd's pie with alternative topping looks most yummy.
ReplyDeleteThe problem seems to be when some people start to let their guard down, Anna. It's easy to momentarily forget and edge closer to people. Strangely we haven't ever had a dog that doesn't like car travel or trains for that matter. Maybe poodles are good travelers.
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