In my last post, I mentioned that we picked our first sweet corn cob to check on ripeness. As it was ready, we decided that we ought to harvest the rest of the crop.
Thinking back to when we planted the young plants it amazed us that they produced any harvest at all. The plants suffered badly from a wind battering and were clinging onto life by a thread but they rallied and surprised us.
In the end, last week we harvested a satisfactory haul. The cobs were taken home, the kernels stripped off and frozen as quickly as we could. A video has been posted here. The sweet corn was just part of Monday's harvest.
 |
| 13 September - Mixed Dahlias & Cosmos, Climbing French Beans - Cobra, Dwarf French Beans - Safari, Beetroot - Boltardy, Raspberries - All Gold & Joan J, Carrots - Romance & Sweet Candle, Cauliflower - Zaragosa, Plums - Marjorie's Seedling, Sweetcorn - Earlibird and Sweet Peas |
Safari dwarf French beans usually provide us with a late harvest of tender young beans but we are not expecting much from them this year. Events meant that they have been neglected and, in the bone dry ground, they have been struggling and are only just hanging on to life.
 |
18 September - Peas - Terrain, Blackberries - Loch Ness, Broad Beans - Luz de Otono, Carrots - Amsterdam Forcing, Flakee, Sweet Candle & Romance (not in photograph), Cauliflower Zaragosa, Raspberries - All Gold & Joan J, Tomatoes - Crimson Crush, Crimson Plum, Shirley & Sungold and Mixed Dahlias
Martyn posted a video about our late sowing of broad beans here.
As well as harvesting all the sweet corn we decided to lift all the carrots. In the past we have left our carrots in the ground and dug them up as we have needed them. The problem is that, usually, slugs move in before we finish using them. We have tried various methods of storing lifted carrots in the past but with little success. |
This year our carrots are probably the best crop that we have had in all the years that we have been allotmenting.
Some are really huge and we have fewer strange shaped individuals than usual.
We want to make the best of the harvest so we are trying another method of storage. This year we are reburying the carrots in containers filled with compost.
These have been placed just inside the garden greenhouse and will be kept just damp enough to stop the carrots from drying out. Fingers crossed that this method works.
We have continued to harvest tomatoes from both the allotment and the garden. Last week I made a large batch of tomato sauce which has been frozen and will be used with pasta.
On Sunday, our cauliflower, onion, garlic, tomato, peas and carrots were used to make a vegetable biryani. In other news, the four young swans - I'm not sure when they cease to be cygnets - continue to thrive. I wonder how much longer the parent birds will tolerate their presence. It's been great watching them grow over the weeks.
Although, at Nostell, the trees are still fully clothed with green leaves, there are signs that autumn is moving in.
In the garden the insects are making the most of the flowers whilst they can.
The asters were particularly popular. I thought one flower had a bit of dried leaf stuck to the centre. Then the 'leaf' moved.
.
Closer inspection revealed it to be the tiniest moth that I had ever seem
Can anyone identify it?
That's all for this week so, as always. wherever you are stay safe and well.
This week I am once again joining in with Dave’s Harvest Monday collection of posts over at Our Happy Acres. 
Posts
What a wonderful harvest of corn on the cob. Just goes to show, never give up.
ReplyDeleteQuite right, Deborah
DeleteIt is amazing how plants can sometime recover, like your corn did. I have no idea what kind of moth that is, but you did a great job getting an image of it!
ReplyDeleteIt is, Dave and it’s not the first time seemingly hopeless plants have come good.
DeleteOh my that is late season corn. Hope you enjoyed a few ears with butter. Interesting method to store carrots. Do you think they'll develop roots?
ReplyDeleteIt’s our usual harvesting time, Sue. The carrots may start to grow in spring but they will probably hAve bees eaten by then.
DeleteWe planted sweet corn at school super late. I didn't think we would get a harvest, but lo and behold we did. It was worth it to watch the students pick, shuck (while listening to corny county music), and later eat their harvest. I take the joy gardening for granted until I have a day like that.
ReplyDeleteIt’s always worth having a go, Bonnie. Late plantings often surprise.
DeleteI store my carrots for consumption in April that way. We find that if we leave them in the ground until then, they go to seed, but with the tops removed and in compost they are fine. I grow Touchon for late autumn and early winter and Eskimo for winter and early spring, but I pop a cover over them when the weather turns, and cut the tops off them in November, the dry habitat without the rotting tops means we don't have slug issues : All the best - Steve
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that it works for you, Steve.our soil becomes really laggy most winters whereas at the moment it is dry and hard in spite if having been cultivated for over 30 years.
DeleteI'm missing sweet corn this year. I used to grow a dozen or so plants at the allotment and loved to pick and eat them on the same day. I wonder why it was such a good year for carrots Sue? I've not heard of carrot varieties with such pleasant sounding names - not that had anything to do with their success!
ReplyDeleteWe used Growmore rather than fish blood and bone on this year’s carrots, Anna so I don’t know whether that made a difference.
DeleteSuch big carrots, Sue. You probably fertilized them a lot? Very beautiful and long beans, I did not think that they can grow so long.
ReplyDeleteWhite swans always look beautiful and graceful. Young birds feel confident.
They didn’t get lots of fertiliser, Nadezda but we did use a different fertiliser this year.
DeleteI believe that’s a metalmark moth.
ReplyDeleteI hope that works for your carrots, they look really good!
Thanks for the ID Belinda
DeleteWhat a fab carrot harvest! Loving your little moth and those dishes.xxx
ReplyDelete