After several weeks absence we managed a visit to the plot on Sunday with a certain amount of trepidation. Would the gales have swept the greenhouse and shed away? We were fairly confident that we wouldn't have any serious damage as a plot neighbour, concerned over our absence, rang us after the worst of the winds and he would have certainly let us know of any real problem.
Less certain was whether we would have anything left to harvest. Unfortunately we had missed our cauliflowers and the chrysanthemums had just about finished flowering but we did come away with some goodies.
The harvest collection isn't as photogenic as usual as we decided to take most of the vegetables home almost as they came out of the ground. We have found that root vegetables seem to keep for longer this way.
One disadvantage is that the condition of the roots isn't as obvious and so we harvested a bucketful of carrots. We have more carrots left in the ground but thanks to slugs nothing like as many as usual. You may remember that our first two sowings were munched into oblivion and the third sowing was relatively late.
The parsnips growing alongside the disappearing carrots fared better - slugs obviously don't like them as much. We still have quite a few in the ground but you can't count your parsnips until they are out of the ground can you?
It was very dry when the leeks should have been planted out and so they went into the ground late and are much smaller than usual. I don't expect that they will grow any more now so we will just have to use more at each serving.
Did you spot the cabbage in the harvest group photo? It's just peeping out from under carrot foliage and chrysanthemums - an oversight of whoever arranged them but I do have an excuse at the moment being visually challenged. I'm using the same excuse for the photo below. The cabbage has ended up looking like a vase here.
Disappointingly our red cabbages didn't fare well. They also were late being planted and consequently the plants became leggy and struggled once in the ground. I am hoping that we have some of last year's braised red cabbage left in the freezer.
We do have sprouts that fortunately hadn't blown. They may look a little ragged but then again our homegrown ones always do and will be fine once the outer leaves have been removed.
Finally although the yellow and the pale pink chrysanthemums were over, I managed to pick some red and dark pink flowers. I've cut back the other two plants in the overly optimist hope that they may produce more flowers but don't realistically think this will happen.
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That's a pretty good harvest for this time of year. I haven't seen my plot for a while either. I must pop down and get some leeks, which are the only thing I have there at the moment. I'm envying you your sprouts, mine just didn't go in early enough this year.
ReplyDeleteLots of things suffered the fate of your sprouts, CJ. The weather just wasn't right when it was planting time for many things was it?
DeleteSo glad you got to your plot. The flowers and harvests are still very nice and I'm very envious of your Brussels sprouts.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about your eye issues.
Best to you and Happy Holidays (or Merry Christmas, if your old-fashioned like me!)
:)
Thank you, Sue? I am a Happy Christmas Merry Christmas girl too.
DeleteThe Brussels sprouts aren't likely to win any beauty contests but I'm sure that they will taste good :-)
A very nice harvest. I dug all my carrots up and I've frozen them, some just sliced but others cut more chunkily to pop in to casseroles and stews.
ReplyDeleteWe do sometimes freeze our carrots, Jo but we are a little short of freezer space at the moment.
DeleteI'm so glad that you were able to get quite a good harvest from the plot, especially with all the wacky weather you guys have been having.
ReplyDeleteEverywhere what's quite soggy, Margaret but we were happy that we had some vegetables to bring home.
DeleteYour Parsnips are about 99% better than mine! Your harvest is a good demonstration of the merits of diversification. If one crop is not so good, something else almost certainly will be. The cabbage looks like a nice tight specimen.
ReplyDeleteThe parsnips probably still wouldn't make supermarket standards, Mark. The cabbage is certainly deceptive it's apprising how many helpings come oout of one that size.
DeleteThat's a lovely head of cabbage, and apparently it wants to be in all your photos! The mums are beautiful too. I lost many carrots this spring due to slugs and rot, so I know how frustrating that can be.
ReplyDeleteThe cabbage is the right shape for photo bombing though isn't it, Dave?
DeleteSeveral weeks away from the plot! My garden tends to become a disaster area after such an absence. Those are very good harvests for this time of year, especially considering the challenges you had with planting this autumn.
ReplyDeleteAt least absences at this time of year don't have as her renders horrendous an effect as an absence in spring Michelle.
DeleteIt certainly has been challenging to say the least :-)
I loved that cabbage vase! Well, you certainly have plenty there to grace your table on Christmas day!!! Bet they all taste delicious too!xxx
ReplyDeleteTotally accidental juxtaposition, Dina :-)
DeleteGreat to hear you got down the plot and had a good harvest too. Ha ha, I like the idea of a photobombing cabbage, and that's very true about not counting your parsnips...I have yet to lift any of mine yet, who knows what's under there
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for your parsnips, Lou
DeleteOh it looks as if you have plenty of festive greens to munch your way through Sue. Those chrysanths are a most vibrant colour.
ReplyDeleteWe will survive, Anna.
DeleteYou harvest looks pretty good. I harvested carrots last week too, much later than usual (because the unusually warm weather this fall has kept them growing.) Still tasty.
ReplyDeleteRay
We always leave our carrots in the ground until we need to use them, Ray so we still have some to uproot. This year they are not the prettiest of specimens but no doubt they will taste much better than they look.
DeleteI like your chrysanthemums, so beautiful! No harvest from brassica's plots this season, too wet and lots of caterpillars.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a shame that we missed many of the chrysanthemum flowers, Endsh. Our brassicas would be devastated by caterpillars to if we didn't cover them with netting.
DeleteThat's good harvest of carrots! The cabbage look like vase for Chrysanthemums! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I have created a new vase design, Malar :-)
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