Vegetable Bonanza

Our broad beans have been a disaster this year. In spring when the plants were just right for planting, the weather was awful, consequently having to wait for some improvement in the weather, the plants became really leggy. When they were finally planted out, the plants had to contend with gales, very dry conditions and fluctuating temperatures. They didn't like it and just refused to grow. Had the plants been stronger when they went out maybe they would have coped .

Martyn was browsing seed suppliers, as you do, and noticed some broad bean plants for sale that should crop in autumn so we decided to give them a go. In the event they didn't arrive as early as they should have. The supplier rejected the first lot from the grower. The plants arrived last week and were planted out on the same day. To be honest they don't look any better than the ones that we planted originally. On top of that we had gales the day after planting. We are not hopeful.

Other than this planting, our jobs on the allotment have been confined to tidying, clearing beds of spent crops and harvesting.

The blueberry net has been removed as the bushes have just about finished fruiting.

Another bed that has been cleared was a bed housing onions and shallots. The photo below makes the onions look far better that they were. Most of the onions were very much undersized and the shallots were tiny. For some reason, the onions in this bed just haven't grown, unlike the onions in another bed that have thrived.

Sungold and Apricot Dream tomatoes are now ripening. Unlike Sweet and Neat, Apricot Dream is an indeterminate variety. The sweet tasting fruits are small and plum shaped. Both Sungold and Apricot Dream produce much better flavoured tomatoes than Sweet and Neat. Incidentally when I was looking up Apricot Dream, I stumbled across the symbolic interpretation of the name. I quote: 'Dreaming of apricots represent the feelings of joy you have for someone or something that has not been easy to achieve.' Seems appropriate for many aspects of gardening.

Mini Munch is still producing and we pick lettuce as needed to add to our salads.

We've hit the peak of our vegetable harvesting period now and our collections are becoming more varied. 

18 August

Another bed that we cleared was our trial potato bed in which we planted four tubers each of six varieties. Two varieties, Ulster Prince and Pentland Javelin had been lifted earlier and produced good crops. Two of the remaining varieties, Sarpo Una and Mayan Rose produced disappointing crops. Mayan Rise in particular produced a very small harvest. The only positive was that the tubers were pretty as the taste wasn't anything special. The other two varieties, Gemson and Maris Piper performed better with Maris Piper being the best. Gemson like Mayan Rose didn't impress in the taste test. The other two varieties haven't been sampled yet.

We were worried that the first carrots that we lifted would turn our to be a fluke but we are continue to pull pleasing roots. So far we have only lifted one variety - Romance.

We now have lots of All Gold raspberries. So far the fruits have stood up well to the poor weather as in the past  rain and wind has spoiled the berries. We don't need to net these as the yellow fruits don't seem to attract the birds

Our second brassica bed is nearly ready for clearing. We picked the last of the broccoli and  the last cauliflower so only a few cabbages remain. The cauliflower went into a Vegetable Jalfrezi and the broccoli and more cauliflower went into a pasta bake both of which I failed to photograph.

20 August

Courgettes are in full production so the fruits are finding their way in as an extra ingredient in many meals such as curries, pasta dishes, stir fries and coleslaw and sometimes even taking centre stage as in a Summer Courgette Risotto.

I adapted the recipe slightly. I used a mix of yellow and green courgettes. I used less rice and more courgettes. I also added a little turmeric.

The blackberries have now overcome the earlier drupelet problem and providing a steady supply of fruits that need picking on each plot visit. Picking wild blackberries is a memory I have of walks with my granddad. Those blackberries needed soaking to flush out the grubs hidden inside. Our cultivated blackberries don't seem to be affected but I always check the fruits as I pick them. If the core is clean and intact it is grubless.

I'm now pulling from the second sowing of peas which although the pods are smaller, despite being the same variety,  they are in a much better condition that the earlier pickings.

Although we only so far have a dribble of runner beans, our climbing French beans are now cropping with the green Cobra producing more beans than the yellow Sunshine.

Apples are now falling and so we have started picking what we think are Discovery apples growing on our apple hedge. I thinned the fruits this year but at the moment I can't honestly say that the apples are any bigger than when I left nature to its own devices.

You may remember that the first lot of Victoria plums to ripen were badly infested with plum moth maggots. Happily we now appear to have clean fruits. Fruits that ripen prematurely are often occupied. Often our earliest variety Oullins Gage is the most badly affected but I'm wondering whether the poor weather early on in spring delayed plum moth activity and cause them to go for the later variety. 

The plums above went into a compote which is popped in the freezer to enjoy during our fruitless months.

NB: Links are to either appropriate videos that we have posted on our vlog or online recipes.

Stay safe and healthy

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

PS: It's not just our gardens that suffer from blight. Martyn and I are currently suffering from an influx of blog blight. It seems that it is the season of the spammer. One in particular is persistently targeting our and what appears to be lots of other people's blogs. Most are sent to the spam or moderation folders as we moderate comments on posts over five days old. These spam comments are deleted and never see the light of day but unfortunately some do sneak through. I apologise for any that sneak through and end up being emailed to those who subscribe to comments, Please do not click on any links in spam comments which gives these nuisances satisfaction and encouragement. They can track where click throughs originate from and will target a blog even more if they think that this is causing more people to visit their site.

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