Allotment /Veg patch thread 4 "Lettuce and Peppers and Pears OH MY!"

[agoodbook]

as per Cupcakes :)
come and join in the harvest !

previous thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2386388-The-2015-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-Part-3-already?msgid=55842529

Spotted, I planted out some strawberries this week and will plant out some more next week. I am also planning on transplanting some of my runners from the everbearing strawberries I inherited with this allotment.

I am planning on splitting my raspberries in October. They are autumn fruiting so need to die back. I have chosen to do this in autumn rather than spring as this year in Feb the soil was so wet it was unworkable, and we quite aren't at that stage yet.....

Evening!
so a rather bitter wind, and cold today at work. It was 8º this morning brrrr.
Spotted- did my eyes deceive me - you have lots of courgettes? .
My go-to courgette recipes are courgette brownies and multi veg and cheese muffins. For tomatoes/courgettes and beans - minestrone soup.
Jam no -one wants to eat - (mm - doesn't really happen much here) baked sponge pudding- put dollops of jam at the bottom , cover with the sponge mixture, cook and then cover with custard :) Nobody minds the jam......
I made some nice damson and apple jam last year - could that use up the not so sweet apples?
I would say to plant out the fruit bushes - the ground is still warm, and I tend to think the frost/cold gets to them more in a pot.- I will be moving strawberries this next week, fingers crossed.

Yes booky - courgettes Every else at the site seems to be pulling theirs out, and mine have suddenly taken off. Odd. Courgette brownies, hey? You don't have a link to the recipe, do you?

Right, i will plant out my potted blackcurrant and rasps asap, and actually plan and leave a gap for the one that I well move to same area, in a couple of months. Lots (all?) of my blackcurrant cuttings that I took when I got that binbag of fruit seem to have taken, so I a going to hopefully have lots and lots of fruit in 2017. And hopefully lots in 2016! I've even been eyeing up possible homes in my front garden for blackcurrants. That's in addition to the back garden, and the plot of course. Thanks both for advice.

I got a few hours in at the plot this arvo - cripes it was cold! I did what monty said to do, and took leaves off my toms - loads and loads of leaves. Picked some more beans, some kale, more courgettes, tomatoes, cucumber... Corn still not ready, alas.

Tomorrow, operation strawberry - pulling out all the old plants, improving the soil a bit, and planting the runners in pots. Then in the soil - the garden raspberries! Plus I need to cook up lots of produce. The jam mistake is that the blackcurrant jam was soooooo good, that no one wants any other. And my mum told the dc that plum jam was all she got post-war as it was the cheapest, so as an adult she won't eat it. So now the dc think it's a rubbish jam!

here you go Spotted - more cake then brownie, but hey! i do it as a tray bake mostly, easier to freeze in portions. But I do it as buns as well. Lovely with some berry compote and cream for more grown up pudding as well :)
www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/chocolate-courgette-cake
my DGS loves these as well -! use more cheese !broccoliandricecakes.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/vegetarian-recipes-multi-veg-muffins/

pah!
broccoliandricecakes.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/vegetarian-recipes-multi-veg-muffins/

Ooh lovely, thank you so much! I might do the brownies tomorrow as I have all the ingredients and I like cake. I could do a damson compote thing to go with?

Those muffins look good too.

I really want a chest freezer for produce and cooked things. I have been looking at them on ao but I don't really have a space.

I've not done a damson compote - sounds delicious. I was gifted about 4lb of victoria plums today, so I too will be spending tomorrow afternoon in the kitchen, also doing roasted tomatoes/garlic/pepper/shallots stuff and pickled beetroot - a really simple recipe that I tried went down a storm last week.
I changed my upright for a very big chest freezer 2 years ago, and it is stuffed . Two people I know down at the plot have overflow freezers in their garage. I am considering ......

we have a proper tomato glut, but I love it.
courgette is still going nicely.

it's great to go out in the garden and eat fresh isn't it.

anyone have a nice recipe for beetroot? preferably not messy :)
I don't like them pickled very much.

Well, I picked a lot of smaller beetroot yesterday, and I usually just boil and eat hot ( and cold) - am going to roast them in tin foil tomorrow.
Red Velvet cake ? you can see I like my cakes - not done one of those mind you, but my DD loves it, and its her b'day next week....
I have just been reading about making my own tomato ketchup, and wondering about that - it will go in jarss, not the freezer :)

I've given up on growing beetroot, no matter how I cook it none of us like it, including several types of cake.

of tomato gluts, I didn't get a single on and now all my plants have gone mildewy and dead, not sure if it's blight, same happened to my spuds. I read in the paper today that you should cut down your potato plants then leave the spuds in the ground for another three weeks so they don't pick up blight spores so that's what I'm going to do.

My courgettes are still going strong though and no one else likes those either, just me.

Zebra - same here, I would love a chest freezer but nowhere to put one.

Tomorrow I am going to pot up my strawberry runners and get my plants out of the garden to move to the allotment. Then I am going to browse magazines etc for ideas for what to do next.

I think you had a warm and wet time while you were away AsTime - probably did for them.
They won't know courgette is in the cake if you don't tell :)

Evening!
Hope everyone has had a good a day as I have
An utterly glorious couple of hours this morning at the plot, so lovely , not a cloud in the sky and warm ( though it was 6º first thing!) I had to take a photo -just so I can remind myself in winter :)
This evening I have just made my first ever kale crisps- waiting for them to come out of the oven to try.
I have been gifted so many Victoria plums, - another 4-6 lb worth on top of what I was given yesterday, will really have to decide what to do with them !

Ooh, they wouldn't go to waste here Book, we've been munching Victoria plums all weekend (sadly had to pay for them!). We are lucky to have an excellent greengrocer here, far nicer produce than the supermarkets.

I didn't do much today, agree that the weather was glorious though. Potted up my strawberry runners and bought some seeds, that was it. Lots of time outdoors though.

Oh and kale chips sound good. I made potato crisps for the first time a few weeks ago, yummy!

Did I mention I'd harvested my first head if celery the other day? Stalks are a bit thin, but very tasty, got about 10 more left. They look great in the ground, very vibrant and leafy.

We enjoy Oatie Plums - its basically plums wirh a flapjack topping.

I like the idea that you grew beetroot Time even though none of you like eating it at all! We had bakwd beetroot with balsamic vinegar and herbs recently, that was good.

Lovely day yesterday - managed to move my loganberry plants to grow up the fence at the side of my plot. And planted winter manure - vetch and rye mux. No idea how it will do.

We also ate our first sweetcorn - something has been nibbling the tops - birds, mice, rats? So we knew it must be ready. We chopped off the tops and ate the rest and it was very good.

Apologies for spelling!

Hi guys! It am back after the hacking and kept my username. Have been away so haven't been very good at updating here!
I have been overrun with tomatoes, I have 9 plants of two varieties and they have all done well and they have produced loads. My courgettes have finally calmed down and stopped producing a million fruits a day! My aubergines have produced some lovely fruits! I have three plants and one has 6 fruits on right now and I have already had a few off it.
My cucamelons produced like crazy, but I am not so keen on them but dd loves them, so that is good as it was she who wanted them!

Sounds like everyone is doing really well. My allotment is coming on well too. I spent four solid hours pulling up one metre high nettles and thistles and other ig brambles and weeds and I have cleared another big patch at the bottom , just need to dig it over now and get it covered with that black plastic weed membrane stuff.

I wonder if there is anything I can start planting and growing now at this time of year now it is clear? Can anyone advise?

On the down side, something has dug up some potatoes and has started opening my sweetcorn that I have been waiting for and has nibbled all the kernels off! So cross! My dad said he saw a squirrel so maybe him....damn him!

book - your plot looks lovely.

I am knee deep in runner beans and cabbages and courgettes and spinach and broad beans and peas. I have given away box after box of stuff and it keeps coming! It is a good problem to have, though I realise that I need to get to grips with sauce, jam and chutney making, pronto. I have only a tiny, tiny kitchen at the moment, which makes storing anything or batch cooking a problem.

Lifted the last of my spuds this weekend - I know it's quite early, but the leaves were definitely over (an effect of cold?) and they were starting to get slugged. Pink fir harvest was a bit on the small side (half a sack) and they are not as tasty as I'd hoped. Picassos were huge croppers this year - I have nearly a sackful of ginormous spuds and they aren't bad tasting either. Next year I think I will do more Winston and Charlotte as those were both lovely earlier and really did knock the socks off anything you can buy in the supermarket. I might try some Sarpo blight resistant ones too, as that's been a worry all summer.

Zebra - interesting what you say about courgettes taking off. I put plants in late last year and they fruited well, but quite a bit later than others. My suspicion is that you can extend the courgette season most years by some weeks if you plant some out earlier and some later. So this year, I did two early and two later plants, and it is working - the early producers are now just starting to go over and a further two are just hitting their stride. If this makes a difference of a few weeks up here in the cold, I think the effect might be even more dramatic further south.

I love the idea of ketchup for tomato gluts. I think that could be really, really special. I have two tomatoes that are nearly ripe now! Wooo! If they taste horrible, I will cry.

Evening!
dont know where today has gone....
welcome back Pirates - there is a bit of overwintering to plant out. I am taking shoves recommendation for peas - 'Meteor" also doing broad beans 'The Sutton" /shallots 'Jermor'/spring greens 'Greensleeves/spring cabbages 'Winter Jewel' - and you may still beable to get hold of plug plants of purple sprouting broccoli and kale. Maybe something there you fancy :)
AsTime -that celery looks lovely - I am the only one who eats it, so not grown here- its hard enough to grow stuff, without not liking it!
Cedar - may well give that a go. At the moment while sat here, I am cooking apple and plum chutney , waiting for it to thicken. I have some lnice kilner jars, so if it tastes good, that is a few presents for Xmas
thank you shove - its not pretty, far too many wonky cages and such ,but it is productive! And yes to having so much stuff. (The one good bit of advice I had when reading an allotment diary was not to feel guilty about composting stuff thats gone over - trying to use that up and letting fresh stuff wait was a big problem for me.)
I am sure your tomatoes will be worth waiting for :)

bookbook - There is a group near me called SheffieldAbundance and I can take them any gluts I have and they redistribute it to the community on a non-profit basis - so soup kitchens, food banks, that kind of thing! I just found out about it, and it seems like such a great idea. There is a whole network but sadly I can't see one in your part of the world (I wonder if there are food banks running the scheme more locally?) www.abundancenetwork.org.uk/

AHEM, so hypothetically speaking, if you were to pick up a copy of Gardeners' World Magazine this month (not that I would, of course, I'm way too cool for that) or even if you happened to be a secret subscriber pretending that they weren't one because it might spoil your street cred (or something), then you might find a handy chart of overwintering veg in there. And it might suggest the following for overwintering. (The variety list is not exhaustive - just a guide):

Broad beans: Aquadulce, Aquadulce Claudia, The Sutton
Sow: Late Oct/Mid Nov
Harvest: May-Jul

Lamb's lettuce: Cavallo, d'Orlanda, Vit
Sow: up to mid Sept
Harvest: Oct-April

Lettuce: Green Oak Leaf, Valdor, Winter Density
Sow: up to mid Sept
Harvest: Apr-Jun

Mustard/oriental leaves: Green in the Snow, Red Frills, Red Giant
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Oct-Dec, Mar-May

Pak choi: Green F1, Joi Choi F1, Red Lady F1
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Nov-Apr

Peas: Early Onward, Feltham First, Meteor
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Nov-Apr

Spinach: Bordeaux, Early Prickly, Medania
Sow: Oct-Nov
Harvest: May-Jun

Spring greens: Excel F1, Greyhound, Wheeler's Imperial
Sow: up to mid Sept
Harvest: Mar-May

Swiss chard: Bright lights, Lucullus, Rainbow
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Nov-Apr

Salad rocket: Apollo, Dragon's Tongue, Voyager
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Nov-Apr

Garlic: Extra Purple Wight, Extra Early Wight, Iberian Wight
Plant: Sep-Nov
Harvest: May-Aug

Salad onions: North Holland Blood, Red Redmate, Ramrod, White Lisbon
Sow: up to mid Sept
Harvest: Apr-June

Onion: Electric, Element, Shakespeare
Plant: Sept to early Oct
Harvest: May-Jul

Shallots: Echalote Grise, Jermor, Pikant, Yellow Moon
Plant: Sept-Oct
Harvest: June-Jul

Broccoli: Claret, Red ARrow, Stromboli
Plant: Sept
Harvest: Mar-May

Brussel Sprouts (ew): Bosworth, Revenge, Welllington
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Mar/Apr

Cabbage: January King, Kilaton, Ormskirk
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Mar-Apr

Cauliflower: Aalsmeer, Galleon, Patriot
Sow: up to mid Sept
Harveset: Mar-Apr

Kale: Hungry Gap, Nero di Toscana, Winterbor
Sow: Sept
Harvest: Oct-Apr

Leek: Musselburgh, King Richard, Northern Lights
Sow: up to mid Sept
Harveset: Mar-May

Note: I think some of the 'sow' for the brassicas may actually mean 'put in small plants'??

Evening!
work today, so no plot
thanks shove - I donate to a local food bank, and did ask about it, but they don't take fresh stuff.. ( I think as ours are collected to send to York and Hull). I don't feel too bad, I do manage to 'rehome' virtually all of my spare vegetables :)

I got my first seed catalogue through the post today - I know what I will be reading tonight....

book your plot looks lovely! So jealous. I've spent today weeding weeding weeding. My plot looks much better now though. I planted some lettuce and dug up some onions. They are small because of my crappy soil, but they will be ideal for dicing and freezing as well as chutneys. My freezer is crammed with frozen raspberry and blackberry, so I feel a big cooking session is due. Dh and ds made a rare appearance and strimmed the bottom of the plot ready for pre shed preparation. So nearly there. My plot neighbour gifted me some beetroot and broad beans. I was very grateful and instantly forgave him for mocking my holey cabbages and laughing like a drain.

No gardening for me as I am workingtoday. I wish we had somewhere to put a chest freezer but we don't. So my freezer is full of beans now. Bags of the things! Which will come in very handy during the winter.

First seed catalogues! That reminds me that I want to grow garlic again and need to get on and buy some soon. Our bulbs did OK this year.

I've grown sarpo mira main crop potatoes and they've done OK but not outstanding with some slug/worm damage. However this is the first year for our allotment and so don't have another maincrop to compare with. I feel like our earlies did better though. I haven't eaten any yet so have no comments about the taste.

Thanks shovetheholly and others...really helpful!