A modest harvest last week.

For various reasons, we haven't done much work on the allotment this week and, more or less, only done the harvesting that we needed.

On Tuesday, Martyn dug up another bed of potatoes. This time they were McCain Royals. I mentioned in an earlier post that we were gifted some potatoes by Thompson & Morgan after a page from our site was featured on their blog. At the time, it was a bit late for ordering and many varieties were out of stock. As we wanted to grow a variety that we hadn't previously grown, the choice was limited and we chose McCain Royal The potatoes were really slow to start growing and we weren't hopeful of a crop. However, they seemed to suddenly burst into growth and eventually produced some really healthy foliage. They were still green when, Martyn lifted them. The resulting crop was really good weighing in at about 27 kg. Most of the potatoes were of a good size, some being huge. Martyn posted a film here.

We were concerned that, if it rained, the onions that were lifted the previous week would sit on wet soil. This wouldn't help them to dry off and so I moved them onto a grid, made up of the sides of an old bird cage supported on bricks. They were left spread out on this for few days so the foliage dried out a little. They were then transported home where they have been housed in our now empty cold frames. Here they will be under cover if it does rain but the tops of the frames can be lifted to allow air to circulate when the weather is dry.

If you don’t include the haul of potatoes, the harvests last week were modest as we only brought home what we needed or anything that was likely to spoil.

24 August - Carrots - Romance, Sweet Peas, Climbing French Beans - Cobra, Plums - Marjories Seedling & Victoria, Greengages - Mannings, Raspberries - All Gold and Tomatoes Crimson Plum,

The birds ignore the yellow fruits of All Gold but they taste exactly like the red varieties.

This year's plum harvest is very modest. It was cold during blossom time so the pollinators can't have been very active.

We froze the cobra beans. We like to have a supply of green beans to see us through winter.

28 - August - Mixed Dahlias, Cabbage - Mozart, Calabrese - Monclano

There was some damage on the surface of the cabbage, probably the work of slugs or snails. Once the outer leaves are stripped off, there is plenty of cabbage for us. The heads are really solid and it takes some effort to cut them in half.

We can never predict when the calabrese will be ready to pick. The heads soon burst into flower if they are not quickly cut and cooked once they are ready so a change of menu was required in order to use the two heads above.

I picked enough dahlias to share with my sister. The picture above is my share and my sister's share were in the bucket shown in the photo above.

We're picking tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden and garden greenhouse. The tomato pictured above is almost like a little red snowman.

Tomatoes - Tumbler.

The Crimson Plum tomatoes pictured below along with some of our carrots and onion went into a tomato sauce. This was served on some bought ravioli. I haven't ventured into the realms of homemade pasta yet.

Tomatoes - Crimson Plum

As well as harvesting there is plenty of dead heading required on the allotment. As well as the dahlias and the need to keep up with picking sweet peas, the annual flower bed needs attention.

Regular visitors may remember that, this year, we planted up a new border in our garden. Most of the plants were bought as collections of small plants that we grew on before planting out. Lupins were grown from seed sown last year and although the leaves are now mildewed the flowers have kept on coming for months. As I didn't expect the small perennials to bulk up as much as they did, I also popped some annual zinnias and cosmos in among the perennials. The whole thing has exceeded my expectations.

Last week, we used our vegetables in meals which included, a chicken stir fry with cabbage and pineapple. Into this went some of our cabbage and garlic.

One of our Boldenice courgettes went into a turkey and vegetable stroganoff based on this recipe.

Half of the calabrese and some of the McCain Royal potatoes were served as an accompaniment to a fillet of salmon and the other half, along with some of our tomatoes, garlic and onion went into a rice dish based on this recipe.

During our walk in the park at Nostell this week, autumn really did seem to be in the air. The scenery was very different as the flower meadows had been mown. At times it was difficult to find the pathways that had been cut through the meadows. 

Ruby is quite a poser when a camera is pointed in her direction. She is now starting to resemble a cuddly teddy bear.

Actually, she rarely sits still and loves a game running around after a ball.

As always wherever you are keep safe and well.

This week I   am once again joining in with Dave’s Harvest Monday collection of posts over at Our Happy Acres.

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