fruit
It's time for the Southern Agricultural Show again. I have no chutney (we appear to have eaten it all) so I probably won't win any prizes this year. I've entered Plum & Mulled Wine Jam and Blackcurrant & Sloe Gin Jam in the jam class, and Apple Lemon & Lime Marmalade in the marmalade class. The other entries looked beautiful and sparkling and perfect. Mine looked a bit crap, to be honest. Never mind. It's important to support the competition, really. If no-one entered, there'd be nothing to look at.
I shall make six different kinds of chutney this autumn. Indeed, I'll have to, because it looks like the allotment's going to produce far too much food this year.
We spent a few hours up there last Sunday, watering and harvesting. We were supposed to be weeding the cabbage patch, but the harvesting took too long!
Look what we got:
Things coming to an end:
Broad beans -- I stripped the plants and threw the remnants on the compost heap, and we enjoyed the beans a few times this week in glorious salads with lettuce, mint, feta cheese and bacon.
Swiss chard -- but there are new plants that will be harvestable by September.
Onions -- whether big or small, they'll need to be pulled up and dried next week.
Strawberries -- actually, the newest plants are still flowering, so we'll have a small amount of fruit for a few more weeks yet. But the oldest plants have all finished. I'll have to chuck them out this winter, I think, and replace with fresh stock. Clearly all the fruit-growing books are right when they say strawberry plants are only worth keeping for three years.
Red lettuce -- but happily there are new seedlings that will be ready in a couple of months.
Gooseberries -- the birds got most of the them, but I picked a pound for Matt.
Blackcurrants -- we had so many ripe blackcurrants on the bush that the branches were drooping down onto the ground with the weight of them. You have to cut blackcurrants down every few years, because the fruit mostly grows on wood that's a year old. The bush was too big to squeeze past on the way to the water butt, so I decided to combine harvesting with pruning. I sawed all the branches off, then we took them round to Matt's parents' house and spent several hours carefully picking off the currants. Matt's parents said we could use of one of their freezers for our fruit, which was too good an offer to refuse.
Anyway, the end result is that we picked nearly a stone of blackcurrants! I used 3 pounds in the jam (which I made last night at midnight in a kind of drunken haze), and 2 pounds in an intensely-flavoured sorbet (sitting in the freezer, waiting for a really hot day). The other 8-9 pounds are bagged up and frozen, waiting to fulfil their destinies as crumbles and pies and puddings and maybe even cassis, if I can be bothered.
Things in joyful production mode:
Courgettes -- one plant is producing 3 courgettes each week! We've had curried courgette and lentil soup already, and I have plans for fritters...
New potatoes -- we dug up the first couple of plants, feeling a bit anxious because once you've dug them up they stop producing, and in previous years the digging has revealed only a small cluster of potatoes no bigger than marbles. This year, however, we have lovely plump salad potatoes, which it turns out also work really well as roasted wedges. Hurah!
Radishes -- lots and lots but I forgot to harvest any. Oops. I'll have to pull up a handful tomorrow.
Raspberries -- we have three different varieties, which are all ripening at different times. The oldest canes are the earliest. We've already picked 5 pounds of fruit, and there's loads more to come. I've made raspberry & yoghurt "ice-cream", and raspberry crumble (with pine nuts in the topping -- they really do work well together), and raspberry, orange and banana smoothie. I predict more bags for the freezer!
Tayberries -- so far all I've done with these is make a fruity sauce for pouring over natural yoghurt (a favourite, quick, cheap pudding). We've had a pound so far, and I think there's probably another 4 pounds that'll be ready to harvest in the next week or so.
Blackberries -- the cultivated variety ripens much earlier than the wild, which generally means I'm sick of them by the autumn when most people are out scavenging in the hedgerows. Oh well. These are all going in the freezer straightaway, because I know I'd rather have them in the autumn/winter, and they don't keep well at all in the fridge.
Herbs -- mint, lovage, summer savory, lemon balm, chives, rosemary, parsley, lavender, sorrel, marjoram, thyme and borage. The herb bed has done almost too well! I am a little overwhelmed by it. They're also competing with the sweet peas and poached egg plants and sunflowers, and a lot of pretty, frondy things that might (I'm hoping) turn out to be cornflowers.
Things just starting to look promising:
Tomatoes -- we've had the first half dozen. Some of the vines have huge fruit trusses -- I counted more than 40 tomatoes dangling off one of the most inaccessible ones. It's exciting!
Chili peppers -- mum gave me six varieties, and we had Cayenne already. The Hot Wax one has already produced two little fruit, gradually turning from green to yellow at the moment. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all. I'm not a huge fan of spice-heat. Maybe I could string them all together for a Christmas decoration or something.
Aubergines -- two tiny fruit on one of the plants. They may grow, possibly. I've never had success with aubergines before, but this could be the year.
Cucumbers -- the outdoor one looks pathetic, but the two in the greenhouse are flowering and trailing everywhere. I hope they work. Little, juicy, spiny, home-grown cucumbers are wonderful things.
Grapes -- several bulging bunches hiding at the back of the greenhouse. Autumn sweetness!
Cabbages -- the first batch are almost ready for harvesting. I am weirdly looking forward to bowls and bowls of coleslaw.
Peas -- we have pods, but they aren't fat enough for harvesting yet.
Sweet peas -- just starting to blossom. The annoying/ace thing about sweet peas is that, as long as you keep cutting off the blossoms, they'll keep on producing new flowers.
There are more things growing there (all the brassicas, more beans, pumpkins, etc) but they won't be ready to harvest for a while yet. They're in the blossoming/leafing stage, as opposed to the fruiting/swelling stage.
This is going to be an amazing year for the allotment, I think. :)
I shall make six different kinds of chutney this autumn. Indeed, I'll have to, because it looks like the allotment's going to produce far too much food this year.
We spent a few hours up there last Sunday, watering and harvesting. We were supposed to be weeding the cabbage patch, but the harvesting took too long!
Look what we got:
Things coming to an end:
Broad beans -- I stripped the plants and threw the remnants on the compost heap, and we enjoyed the beans a few times this week in glorious salads with lettuce, mint, feta cheese and bacon.
Swiss chard -- but there are new plants that will be harvestable by September.
Onions -- whether big or small, they'll need to be pulled up and dried next week.
Strawberries -- actually, the newest plants are still flowering, so we'll have a small amount of fruit for a few more weeks yet. But the oldest plants have all finished. I'll have to chuck them out this winter, I think, and replace with fresh stock. Clearly all the fruit-growing books are right when they say strawberry plants are only worth keeping for three years.
Red lettuce -- but happily there are new seedlings that will be ready in a couple of months.
Gooseberries -- the birds got most of the them, but I picked a pound for Matt.
Blackcurrants -- we had so many ripe blackcurrants on the bush that the branches were drooping down onto the ground with the weight of them. You have to cut blackcurrants down every few years, because the fruit mostly grows on wood that's a year old. The bush was too big to squeeze past on the way to the water butt, so I decided to combine harvesting with pruning. I sawed all the branches off, then we took them round to Matt's parents' house and spent several hours carefully picking off the currants. Matt's parents said we could use of one of their freezers for our fruit, which was too good an offer to refuse.
Anyway, the end result is that we picked nearly a stone of blackcurrants! I used 3 pounds in the jam (which I made last night at midnight in a kind of drunken haze), and 2 pounds in an intensely-flavoured sorbet (sitting in the freezer, waiting for a really hot day). The other 8-9 pounds are bagged up and frozen, waiting to fulfil their destinies as crumbles and pies and puddings and maybe even cassis, if I can be bothered.
Things in joyful production mode:
Courgettes -- one plant is producing 3 courgettes each week! We've had curried courgette and lentil soup already, and I have plans for fritters...
New potatoes -- we dug up the first couple of plants, feeling a bit anxious because once you've dug them up they stop producing, and in previous years the digging has revealed only a small cluster of potatoes no bigger than marbles. This year, however, we have lovely plump salad potatoes, which it turns out also work really well as roasted wedges. Hurah!
Radishes -- lots and lots but I forgot to harvest any. Oops. I'll have to pull up a handful tomorrow.
Raspberries -- we have three different varieties, which are all ripening at different times. The oldest canes are the earliest. We've already picked 5 pounds of fruit, and there's loads more to come. I've made raspberry & yoghurt "ice-cream", and raspberry crumble (with pine nuts in the topping -- they really do work well together), and raspberry, orange and banana smoothie. I predict more bags for the freezer!
Tayberries -- so far all I've done with these is make a fruity sauce for pouring over natural yoghurt (a favourite, quick, cheap pudding). We've had a pound so far, and I think there's probably another 4 pounds that'll be ready to harvest in the next week or so.
Blackberries -- the cultivated variety ripens much earlier than the wild, which generally means I'm sick of them by the autumn when most people are out scavenging in the hedgerows. Oh well. These are all going in the freezer straightaway, because I know I'd rather have them in the autumn/winter, and they don't keep well at all in the fridge.
Herbs -- mint, lovage, summer savory, lemon balm, chives, rosemary, parsley, lavender, sorrel, marjoram, thyme and borage. The herb bed has done almost too well! I am a little overwhelmed by it. They're also competing with the sweet peas and poached egg plants and sunflowers, and a lot of pretty, frondy things that might (I'm hoping) turn out to be cornflowers.
Things just starting to look promising:
Tomatoes -- we've had the first half dozen. Some of the vines have huge fruit trusses -- I counted more than 40 tomatoes dangling off one of the most inaccessible ones. It's exciting!
Chili peppers -- mum gave me six varieties, and we had Cayenne already. The Hot Wax one has already produced two little fruit, gradually turning from green to yellow at the moment. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all. I'm not a huge fan of spice-heat. Maybe I could string them all together for a Christmas decoration or something.
Aubergines -- two tiny fruit on one of the plants. They may grow, possibly. I've never had success with aubergines before, but this could be the year.
Cucumbers -- the outdoor one looks pathetic, but the two in the greenhouse are flowering and trailing everywhere. I hope they work. Little, juicy, spiny, home-grown cucumbers are wonderful things.
Grapes -- several bulging bunches hiding at the back of the greenhouse. Autumn sweetness!
Cabbages -- the first batch are almost ready for harvesting. I am weirdly looking forward to bowls and bowls of coleslaw.
Peas -- we have pods, but they aren't fat enough for harvesting yet.
Sweet peas -- just starting to blossom. The annoying/ace thing about sweet peas is that, as long as you keep cutting off the blossoms, they'll keep on producing new flowers.
There are more things growing there (all the brassicas, more beans, pumpkins, etc) but they won't be ready to harvest for a while yet. They're in the blossoming/leafing stage, as opposed to the fruiting/swelling stage.
This is going to be an amazing year for the allotment, I think. :)