Monday, July 18

Winas and Losers

I decided to lift the garlic last week. The foliage was dead and no more growing would be forthcoming. I had a feeling that the harvest would be poor and I was 100% correct.
The bulbs were pathetic specimens. They have divided into cloves and are probably usable. We haven't really ever had a major success with garlic in the past and I am considering pulling the plug on our forays into garlic growing.
11 July
Despite loosing about a quarter of our raspberry canes we are collecting a steady supply of raspberries. 
We picked more Malwina strawberries which confirmed that the flavour is superb. Everything that I have read about this variety uses words like 'flavoursome' in the description.  It would have been a shame to add anything to the bowls of fruit that we enjoyed as a dessert.
Just add a spoon
A criticism is that the berries are a too dark red but we like the colour. Malwina is a late variety so the fruit is just coming on stream. For this reason and the flavour, I will try to root some runners to produce plants to replace the dead  or struggling Vibrant plants which are not living up to their name.
12 July
Fenella and Cupid continue to crop although the berries are smaller and coming to an end.

We are braving the thorns of the tayberry and picking a few fruits. The problem is that the new canes tend to cover the fruiting canes despite my best efforts to prevent this. Plucking fruit often requires the hand to be plunged into a tangle of vicious thorns.

The first two of what I hope will be a constant supply of Mini Munch cucumbers were ready for harvesting. I am refraining from photographing every fruit. We also have a regular supply of fresh salad leaves and herbs that never make it to our harvest photo call.
13 July
We found a head of cauliflower that both we and the slugs had missed. Many of the heads had been spoiled by slugs browsing the flower heads. We only just beat a slug to this one as I spotted one individual about to tuck in.
At the beginning of the week we picked our first courgette. The fruits seem much slower to develop at present. Usually the tiny fruits become monsters as soon as you turn your back.

Later in the week we picked more so maybe the glut is beginning - in anticipation I have added my list of courgette recipes to the blog sidebar. Strangely the yellow variety has lots of immature fruits that seem reluctant to swell although by the end of the week we did manage to harvest two yellow courgettes.

Our purple Glencoe raspberry has been added to our harvest of berries.


Our Glencoe produces plenty of tasty berries but these are always smaller than we imagine that they should be. Does anyone else grow Glencoe or the black raspberry- Jewel that I am thinking of adding to our collection?
16 July
We picked the first punnet of jostaberries.
We thought that the wood pigeons had stolen all the berries as they seem partial to them. Many of the branches of the bushes are broken under the weight of the wood pigeons fumbling about. The berries we harvest are in positions that the pigeons can't reach so at least we have a share.

We have also started picking red gooseberries.
We had the first small picking of mangetouts which is a bonus considering the state of the plants.
We dug one row of the Casablanca potatoes and made a late sowing of peas in the vacated spot. Last year our late sowing came to nothing but we had nothing to lose as the seeds would have gone to waste any way. At worst the plants will give the soil a nitrogen boost.
17 July
We stripped as many broad beans as were ready from the first lot of plants. These have been frozen.

Finally I picked the first of our sweet peas - not enough even to be called a posy but I am hoping that this is a sign that they are at last deciding to grow.


Today I am linking to Harvest Monday over at Dave's blog  Our Happy Acres


Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

36 comments:

  1. Wow! Your harvests are truly amazing! Very interesting to read about the Malwina strawberry and I think to complain about the colour, when the taste is delicious would be madness :-)

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    1. We like the colour better than thr orange red ones, Belinda. So how they look juicier.

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  2. I've stripped and frozen my broad beans as well and I need to take the plants out now. Good to hear the Malwinas are all tasting excellent, I think I might give them a try next year. I like Cambridge Favourite a lot, they never let me down, but the Honeoye have not done well - never really reddening, big fruits that seem to have a high water content and quickly turn to mush or attract fruit flies. I'm intending to take them out. I was going to just put more Cambridge Favourites, but it would be nice to try a different variety, especially one that fruits slightly later. I know what you mean about tayberries, they're vicious aren't they. I always find the yellow courgettes are slower to grow than the dark green ones. And occasionally only one end grows. But I do like the look of them, and when it comes to courgettes being slow growing isn't necessarily a bad thing! I found a Bianca (pale) one the other day that I'd missed that had sneakily turned into a marrow sized thing. The first few sweet peas here as well. I nearly didn't grow any, glad I did now though. My allotment garlic has been hopeless this year. It got rust early on and the bulbs are small, very unsatisfactory. I shall grow it at home next year from new bulbs. Rust seems to abound down at the allotment. Hope you enjoy your lovely harvest. It's fabulous at this time of year isn't it.

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    1. We seem to be travelling along the same track, CJ. Do you end up,with black fingernails like me after podding broad beans?

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  3. Sue-you've outdone yourself with this post! Wow WOW WOW!!! Gorgeous fruits. Impressive harvests. You must be absolutely in heaven right now.
    It's times like this I regret ripping out my strawberries, but in these parts, mold was ALWAYS a huge issue. I had more frustration that satisfaction from them.

    Have a wonderful week in the garden!

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    1. Considering the weather this summer we were expecting mouldy berries, Sue so have been pleasantly surprised.

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  4. Another bountiful harvest Sue. Your fruit crops are amazing. I think I have decided not to grow Strawberries any more. My harvest this year was pathetic, (a tiny fraction of yours!) and even if it had been good it would not have produced enough quantity to be worthwhile. I just don't have the space. Funnily enough, I feel ready to have another try at Garlic, just when you're going to be giving it up. Actually, I plan to do some onions first and see how they perform.

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    1. It's just a case of having the space to devote to them, Mark. We planted almost 80 plants. Will you grow onions from sets or seed?

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  5. As usual, what an amazing cornucopia! It is going to be a rather poor year hear mostly because of the raccoons. They dug up most of the cucumbers and courgettes. At least they leave black currants alone.

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    1. The more that I hear about your raccoons, Alain the happier I am that they don't live here.

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  6. Wonderful crop Sue. Raspberry is growing very slowly here, but strawberry is very tasty. I loved your variety Malwina, will try it here.

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    1. I hope Malwiina grows well,for you, Nadezda.

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  7. You have such a lovely assortment of fruits and veggies! I think the color of those Malwina berries is really striking. It is sometimes hard for me to decide when to lift my garlic, but I have decided with our typical wet summer weather early is better than later, since the skins start deteriorating if I leave them too long.

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    1. Our garlic was definitely not going to do any more growing, Dave. Having said that they didn't look as though they had really got started growing.

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  8. Wow, that is an amazing bounty. I love the color of the Malwina strawberry, I can't fathom why anyone would complain.

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  9. Very nice harvests! Our garlic was similar to yours and finally deemed it due to the variety we were planting. They seem to grow so-so here so I'm trying elephant ear this coming fall.

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    1. I have grown elephant garlic in the past wvhiker with varying degrees f success. I hope it works for you.

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  10. Beautiful harvests! Everything looks so delicious! I've never even heard of a jostaberry.

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    1. It's a cross between a gooseberry and a blackcurrant, Julie.

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  11. Nice harvest! Love to see your berries... looks so fresh and yummy...

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  12. Colourful harvest! Sweet and juicy looking berries! Hope you have a lot of harvest Sue with yellow courgette! ;)

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    1. No doubt once the yellow courgettes get started we won't be able to use them fast enough.

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  13. I've never heard of Malwina strawberries but I love the dark colour of them, they look so appetising. I think the strawberries are the thing I miss most about the allotment, we used to get such good harvests and they're always so much tastier than those in the supermarket.

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    1. We hadn't heard of them before we were deciding what to buy last year, Jo.

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  14. Sorry to read about your garlic crop or lack of it Sue. I've not grown any for the last couple of years now mainly because of problems with rust. Oh I will definitely have to be find out more about Malwina after reading your favourable impressions. I'll be taking runners off 'Cambridge Favourite' this year but would like to extend the season.

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    1. No rust on our garlic, Anna just poor growth.

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  15. Jostaberries, between a gooseberry and a blackcurrant you say ? Is that how they taste ? goosebery-ish /blackcurrantish ? I,ve never grown these , sounds interesting . It was you talking about your Purple raspberry that made me go off and get one ! : ) It is now doing very well ...maybe I should cover it with some mesh to keep the birdie friends off though .Do you cover yours ?

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    1. Martyn thins jostaberris es taste more like gooseberries and I think they taste more like blackcurrants, Debs. The bush grows quite large quickly too. We don't net our Glencoe but the birds seem to leave them alone. How large do your berries grow?

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  16. Your potatoes and broad beans look so good and that avalanche of berries is amazing. Your courgettes are really coming on strong already, I'm still only getting a few at a time.

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    1. We do have quite a few courgette plants Phuong - usually it turns out that we have too many but other years we lose a few plants and so need the safety margin.

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  17. I'm always in awe of your harvests! What a range of fruit and veg....how DARE the garlic fail, obviously doesn't know who it's dealing with. Those strawberries in the bowls look just perfect for a sunny day. Gosh, you two must be healthy with all this wonderful home grown food.xxx

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    1. The strawberries are good any day, Dina.

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  18. Thanks for the heads up on Malwina. Sounds like a variety I would like.

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    1. Malwiina berries have all had good flavour, Jayne.

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