God I love growing our own

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We've already used some to make a veggie lasagne.

are you going to freeze that before throwing it out?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sorry if I took the wrong implication.

It’s ok. I wasn’t clear myself

 

[Goran]

Today we had salad of black radish and sour cabbage for lunch.. Signs of autumn.. Soon will have to take out pumpkins from our " pumpkin hill".. Hokkaido pumpkins almost all are already eaten ( roasted).. Now onto grey ones ( my favorite ).

 

[enrico]

Pak Choi seedlings have been eaten by mice :

Given up with them, they ALWAYS bolt.

 

[pargyle]

Oh gawd, me too. If it wasn't courgettes (inundated and freezer almost swollen with them) I'm now overwhelmed with beans and they are a variety called The Tsar and are monsters (but delicious!)

I'm still picking climbing french beans (Cobra) and runners (Scarlet Emperor). I thought they had finished and I was going to dig them up then 2 weeks ago - flowers started reappearing and I'm picking almost daily - running out of freezer space now. My Butternut squash are starting to brown off - considering that I grew them from the seeds I harvested and the late start I'm pleased with what we've got to harvest. The chillies in the greenhouse are just starting to show some signs of turning red - another week or 10 days of this warm spell should see them ripe I hope.

 

[Ely]

Given up with them, they ALWAYS bolt.

Even when sown in early September?

 

[enrico]

I'm still picking climbing french beans (Cobra) and runners (Scarlet Emperor). I thought they had finished and I was going to dig them up then 2 weeks ago - flowers started reappearing and I'm picking almost daily - running out of freezer space now. My Butternut squash are starting to brown off - considering that I grew them from the seeds I harvested and the late start I'm pleased with what we've got to harvest. The chillies in the greenhouse are just starting to show some signs of turning red - another week or 10 days of this warm spell should see them ripe I hope.

Even when sown in early September?

To be honest never tried. Might give it a go

 

[JamezF]

I've just discovered that "perry" made from Conference/Concorde/Doyenne du Comice with 20% Bramley apple is a thing. Perhaps not a nice thing, but a thing nonetheless. I feel another experiment coming on...

James

 

[JamezF]

Picked the last of my aubergines and courgettes today. Well, perhaps not quite the last of the courgettes. We'll see. There are still quite a few fruit on one plant, but they're smaller than my little finger. If the weather isn't too bad over the next week or two perhaps they'll be worth picking. The other plants went into the compost though.

Also going into the compost were the "rejects" from my wife's clear-out of the freezer. You know... all the stuff that disappears down some wormhole or other and turns up five years later covered in ice when everyone has forgotten about it. We ate the chocolate cake (I have no idea why we even had one) that was "Best Before May 2021", but anything older than that got heaved out. Oh, apart from a fake Magnum. I ate that too

This evening I have been finishing off making the red onions pickled in red wine vinegar. I'm using a recipe for the pickling that has worked fine for shallots in the past, but I'm not convinced that it really works for onions even though those are what it's actually supposed to be for. They seem a bit on the soft side after the brining to my way of thinking. Next year I might have to look for a different recipe.

James

 

[BitterleyBee]

Just made my elderberry syrup.
1.5 kg elderberries, 0.5kg blackberries, half a ground nutmeg, cinnamon 4 teaspoons, ginger 2 teaspoons, 4 star anise, 8 cloves, lots of honey added after the simmering of the mix for 30 mins. Then some vitamin c powder, 2 tablespoons. Should kills all known germs.

 

[JamezF]

I spent a fair bit of today turning compost.

I know it's not strictly necessary, but I think we get a better result if I turn it once rather than just leave it to sit. The contents of the leftmost bay were moved from the centre one, then the centre was re-filled from the one on the right (which in turn had a load of today's grass clippings added to start refilling it). The latter turn was like working in a sauna. I measured the temperature of that heap this morning at 72°C! Whilst moving stuff around I've also been splashing a bit of creosote about on the timbers.

The dividers between the bays are removable from the left-hand side which makes turning in that direction somewhat easier, but I am still absolutely shattered this evening to the point where standing up and walking are actually a bit of a challenge, especially having sat down for dinner and given my muscles time to "set". I'd guess there's in the region of four tonnes of compost in those two bays, possibly a little more.

The lever arch files resting on the hurdle balanced over the leftmost bay contain my son's GCSE and A Level notes. He's decided they're of no use any more so we're feeding them into the compost too. Mixed with grass clippings the paper "disappears" astonishingly quickly, but at least stops the grass turning into stinky black mush.

James

 

[Amari]

A new venture by SWMBO: Sweet potatoes harvested from our allotment today.

 

[Erichalfbee]

A new venture by SWMBO: Sweet potatoes harvested from our allotment today.

Well done Giles. Mine have been an abject failure two seasons in a row… so abandoned.

 

[JamezF]

A new venture by SWMBO: Sweet potatoes harvested from our allotment today.

They look really pretty good. A few nibbles here and there, but nothing worth complaining about. Did you buy a specific variety to grow, and how many plants did you have?

James

 

[Amari]

They look really pretty good. A few nibbles here and there, but nothing worth complaining about. Did you buy a specific variety to grow, and how many plants did you have?

James

I've had to go upstairs to ask SWMBO who has retired early to watch a film........

She says an orange-flesh variety from DT Brown supplied as five 'slips' (?not 'plants') planted in April. Not sure if this is what is described below
https://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/Potatoes-1/Sweet-Potato-Plants-DTB/

 

[JamezF]

Thank you. I had the impression that they didn't do very well in the UK, but it looks like they can. Not sure they'd do well in my bit of it, but if it looks like I'll have space perhaps I'll give them a go next year.

James

 

[pargyle]

Thank you. I had the impression that they didn't do very well in the UK, but it looks like they can. Not sure they'd do well in my bit of it, but if it looks like I'll have space perhaps I'll give them a go next year.

James

I've grown them ... from my own slips - from sweet potato stock intended for colder climates.

But they still really need heat .. I usually get a few bigger ones and a lot that are hardly worth the effort. They really need heat - lots of heat - and the plants are thugs - loads of foliage - and they are greedy as well. In the states they tend to grow them in deep beds on top of manure or compost and principally in the Southern States. I think the same would work here but I reckon a tent of some sort over them would help and the earliest you can get the slips started the better and pray for a long hot spring and summer. Not the most productive crop I'm afraid.

 

[enrico]

Ate our first ones last night. We grow rooted cuttings from the year before in pots. Love the little ones, keep the skins on and roast in the oven. They looked I like fingers but taste sublime. Grown them for the last few years and as they cost nothing happy with any crop we get. Not a bad crop this year from the first pot but taking ages to die back because of the hot weather

 

[Goran]

 

[Amari]

Apples (one each of Spartan and Ashmead's Kernel): Normally we get 50-60 Spartan and c.30 AK but this year the set was very poor on both and the 10 or so apples on each rotted on the branch = no apples this year. We cannot remember that there was a frost at the crucial time.
Concorde pear: good crop of c. 40 pears. Picked three weeks ago as they were being nibbled by wasps. Now ready to eat but, unusually, several had rotted in the store.
Quinces: Big crop (pic shows half the crop with tree behind). Again more rot than usual. Half made into jelly, half outside 'Please help yourself'.