Tuesday 26 September 2017

Harvest Monday - summer veggies hanging on / Autumn veggies coming in

I haven't managed many trips to the plot this week, but on one occasion I took along a few module-grown seedlings of winter purslane and mizuna, to plant out where my main crop potatoes have been. This meant digging up a couple more potato plants to make space. I've been really impressed with the harvests from these (variety Cara), very clean, no scab (usually a problem with my sandy soil), and they make very tasty wedges. We haven't really used them for any other dishes so I'm not sure how they'll be boiled or mashed yet.
A couple were huge, this one as big as my hand. I still have quite a few plants to harvest from but need a day when I'm free, to coincide with a day when it's dry, to lift them, so they can 'cure' a bit in the open air before storing.
I was weeding around some beetroots (which I'd originally sown in modules, and planted out under my bean wigwams), and accidentally pulled a couple out, so thought I'd take a few more whilst I was at it. I've boiled these tonight, to slice in sandwiches. I've still got quite a few of these to harvest as well, but I'll leave them in place for a while longer.
In the lean-to at home, I'm still getting a few tomatoes, ripening a lot slower now. I took down most of the tom plants last week, and put all the fruits from them together in a tray, set on a bench for ripening. There are a few on the remaining plants too, from which I've removed pretty much all the leaves, to let in as much light as possible. Here are the ones in the tray, photo taken tonight just as it started to get dark. Oh look, you can see my toes too, ha ha.
The peppers are also continuing to ripen slowly, here's a two-tone one. Of course the idea isn't to have a two-tone pepper, which is due to uneven ripening, but I quite like it.
A season's first came along this week in the form of corn salad - self seeded in the leafmould around my blueberry plants on the allotment. I picked the whole plant, it was nice and healthy so must've liked the conditions there. An added bonus was that there wasn't any soil splash on the leaves, due to the leafmould covering the soil, hurrah. I have to keep my eyes peeled for the self seeded corn salad plants around the plot, and then also remember to harvest them. There should be quite a lot, and they grow better at this time of year, wheras earlier in the summer they tend to bolt. Today I also picked the first few rocket leaves, from modules I planted into the old tomato tubs this week - they seem to be settling in quite well.
I made a batch of spiced cauliflower fritters earlier in week, which produces enough to last us several meals, and which I usually heat back up in the oven (along with some of those yummy Cara potato wedges). NB cauliflower not homegrown! Anyway, with the last meal of fritters I decided to do something a bit different and chopped them up to cook along with a load of actual homegrown veggies. It turned out to be really tasty, and the fritters had a texture a bit like tofu (though obviously not vegan due to the eggs).
Oh I've also had a few last summer squashes and cucumbers from the plot....they're hanging on in as long as they can. I should be able to pop down tomorrow so will see if I can find any more.
I brought home another 'cream of the crop' winter squash. Unforfunately I accidentally broke the stem off this one whilst I was harvesting it, so we'll have to use it up sometime soon, because it won't store very well (more prone to rotting).
There've been some more hazels ready to pick from the allotment. This year has been brilliant for them (well, it looks like it has anyway - we won't know for sure until I crack them open, though I hope I've been quite good at wheedling out the empty ones. ). They still need a bit longer to properly ripen - I can't wait for toasted hazelnuts, mmm.
I fancied trying some of the blauhilde beans which I'd left to 'pod up' and was pleasantly surprised with them - the white bean (which doesn't show that well in the yellowy light at home) was a lovely contrast to the purple pods. There are loads to harvest from the plot - my mum's coming to visit this week for a few days so I might try and rope her in to helping, hehe. At the moment I haven't quite decided how to store them - either let them fully dry off, or cook them up to freeze for quicker meal prep later. What do you do with yours?

I keep forgetting to photograph my apple harvests. The eaters are huge and quite sweet. Anyway, I shall call that a night, I've been out on a gardening job today and am a tad sleepy zzz. So thanks for reading, and I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

 

4 comments:

  1. Those cucumbers are interesting. I want to use beans out of I our over ripe beans and was planning on freezing them as I am not confident at drying them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful potatoes - I'm due to dig up my patch this coming week. Like garlic and carrots, it's always a thrill to dig up the bed and finally get to see what's been hiding in the soil all this time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those are some great looking spuds! I wish I could grow them like that. I have some beans to shell out too and if I have enough I will blanch and then freeze them. I do think they could up quicker than dried ones.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am very envious of your hazelnuts.. the squirrels always eat the ones here before they are fully ripe so eating home grown nuts is just a dream. We dry our beans and store them in airtight jars,as it saves on freezer space. A soak overnight, starting with boiling water and then a fast boil for 10 minutes in the fresh water the next day and they are ready to go into casseroles or soups etc. We have a few different ones to choose from and they are very welcome in the colder weather

    ReplyDelete