Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters busy into summer ! and loving James Wong

[bookbook]

Last thread has filled up so quickly! Thought I had better get one up and running before I get off to the plot.
Busy, busy people, just waiting for the harvests to start, fighting the bugs, slugs and weather :)
Last thread here
THREAD 9

Oh and when I say glass I don't mean a little bit.

We filled a bath tub, a mini skip, and 4 large rubber trugs of the stuff .

That was some greenhouse, once upon a time, then Frouby.

Thanks Elephant, do you just put whole tomatoes - skins, seeds and all?

3 of the buggers we reckon elephant. Sigh.

Apparently there was a small one on the plot when the last plot holder took it on. He brought a big one on but never assembled it and there was one dumped on it.

We still haven't completely cleared the bottom corner either and there are a few more frames down there. Hoping that it's just frames and not more glass.

And I reckon we will be pulling bits out for the next 10 years or so. But doing it a bed at a time seems a bit more manageable than it all at once.

I quarter them and take out any thick stem bit, but yes skin and all. I blitz them because Ds dislikes the skins if it is left chunky. I would prefer a bit more texture personally but if it gets the Dcs to eat it, then so be it. They are getting a bit more independent now so I reckon they will be able to get the sauce of of the freezer and put it over pasta, if I am late at work or something.

Great harvests everyone (apart from the glass Frouby!) and well done Book.

Beds are starting to empty now. All the early potatoes are up and bagged. Maincrop next. Onions all harvested and in the drying rack.

Made some bread this week from last week's wheat harvest. I was hovering over the oven like an expectant parent!

Plums are starting to get ready. Rather too many wriggly things so will need to look at better prevention methods for next year.

that bread looks lovely.

just back from visiting relatives in northern germany. they had awful weather all summer.
and didn't get any honey this year (too wet for the bees to fly enough)

on the plus side everything was looking very green

Morning all
pamela - I'm with elephant - I make loads of sauces with tomato and courgette ( and small chopped beans , peppers etc. ) I roast the cherry tomatoes , skin and all with garlic, shallots, herbs and olive oil , bag up and use. I tend to use the bigger ones cooked in a pan and skinned , when I have courgettes and other stuff to put in. Also - new to me this year - courgette lemon drizzle cake is good.
Alternative - courgettes are weird this year- ( Is the Trompe D'Albgena a squash or courgette?) I planted 4 , and they started , and I was thinking glut, but first one, then two ,and now what looks like number three have succumbed to mosaic virus. I've not had it before, they were sown and grown by me , so not totally sure how I picked it up, So no glut here , just enough really .
Runner beans are only just starting - I had to resow mine , but purple beans have been amazing, and the green ones have now got going after the rabbit grazed on them..
Gnome - that bread looks amazing !

Yellow - no honey? - just shows you we are all having poor summer weather. It's still August, but it already feels like autumn - the central heating clicked on again yesterday morning - min temp setting .
Well, I have one more busy day today , then have DGS tomorrow , so Wednesday afternoon I can get the machete out and get back to the plot. Having minor palpitations about the amount of weeding that needs doing .

Gnome I am very impressed with the breadmaking. I'm reading an interesting book at the moment called 'The Third Plate' by Dan Barber (an American chef) and I've learned so much about wheat that I really want to try and grow my own. Just lacking the space....

I bought a few packs of seeds to sow for autumn/winter yesterday (chicory, spring onions, swedes) so need to find time to do that this week. Probably too late for some of it but will give it a go. I'm also a bit disappointed in my successional planting this year. I feel I've neglected the veg garden this year but there's just been loads of other urgent things needing doing (including fixing a floorboard in our living room that caved in on Friday!!!!! Eeek!).

Argh, I'm so behind with posts again. It's raining. Will we ever finish harvest?

Congrats on the cauli prize book and great news about chickens cath! Lovely bread Gnome. Hope your wheat is better than ours.

I seem to have given myself a courgette allergy, I think. I can't eat it now without coming out in a rash/getting a croaky, sore throat/dicky tummy. Typical - the one thing we've got masses of. I managed to find someone on Facebook who runs a sort of fresh food bank in a nearby town, so I've given her lots of courgettes. Am wondering whether to just pull up the courgette plants now. That may just be because I'm grumpy about harvest/being ill and lacking patience!

The bread looks very impressive Gnome, let us know how it tastes. Here is today's harvest, minus my first 3 corn on the cobs, because we have eaten them already! Very yummy. I think the courgette and the cucumber got away.

Hi Gin total sympathy about the harvest. This weather is ridiculous isnt it. I keep checking my calendar to make sure it really is August. And the slugs are back!

The bread was good for flavour but I need to work on the texture. My flour wasnt as dry as Gin's would be and I added a bit too much water to the dough. Next time I will make it less wet. I have a few days off next week and inbetween family commitments and a university open day visits I will do a bit of experimenting.

Evening all

I really want to make a complete dish fro. Plotmenting. Am jealous of your bread.

Had a couple of hours at the plot this afternoon with the dcs. Harvested all the spinach as it was starting to bolt. Got a full carrier bag full which isn't bad for the half a 1.2m x 1.2m bed I planted. Am going to blanche and freeze it tomorrow.

Also lifted the first of the main crop potatoes. Did about 3 plants and got a small rubber trug full so pleased with them. Odd few wire worm holes but not aa bad as the earlies. Got another 4 bloody courgettes but think they are slowing down too. A half bag of runner and french beans and a cucumber and about 1lb of tomatoes.

Also got a bargain in aldi. Preserving starter kit with colander, funnel, jam thermometer, 30 labels and bands and paper lids, jar tongs and something else. Reducee from £15.99 to £3.99! Bargain.

Am condidering making some kind of chutney or picalili over the weekend. Never ever done it before so bit nervous!

Evening all
nothing to report other than harvesting lots of tomatoes and peppers from the greenhouse, along with a couple of aubergines.
Today we had thunder, lightning and monsoon rain late morning, and it drizzled on and off this afternoon - first day I had the chance to go to the plot.
Tomorrow afternoon now

No plotmenting as such to report as similar weather Book.

However. I have really enjoyes tbe fruits of our labour today.

Lunch was a bacon sarnie with a handful of plot grown cherry toms fried off with the bacon.

If I has had bacon left I would have had another one. Twas the best bacon butty I have ever had.

Tea was Shepherds Pie with plot spuds, spinich and leek in the pie along with carrots. And green and runner beans served with a drizzle of olive oil, parmesan cheese and loads of salt and black pepper.

Have a portion of pie left and hoping dp goes up soon as I am seriously considering eating it. The potatoes tasted like old school spuds. Ie of spud and not water.

Definetly investigating storing them for next year to keep some rather than what we have at the minute which is probably enough for a few weeks.

Can see me having a sort out of the shed at home as a bit of a pantry!

I have tomatos growing out of my ears.
have a shrub hibiscus mystery. it lost all foliage. feed or no feed?

Right. Combine broke yesterday so have some time on our hands. Have been in garden trying to sort it all. I've (don't kill me) pulled up two courgette plants, and left two in the ground. They were starting to spread and block light from my thyme which I really didn't want to lose, and there's no way I can keep up with the courgettes especially if I keep reacting to them!

I have frozen 250g batches of grated courgette for courgette cakes, and frozen cubes of courgettes to add to dishes. Picked tonnes of tomatoes, so going to make a few batches of tomato and courgette pasta sauce for freezer I think. Haven't got any space for any of this at home, so it's all being put into MIL's freezers. Will I remember they're there? Probably not

Now need to blanch and freeze the backlog of runners.....

Afternoon!
Frouby - I hope you enjoyed the food , knowing its all your own - (I know I do, and appreciate it more I think) Pantry is good - I love mine , but I keep the potatoes in the garage. I haven't managed to successfully grow enough to keep us going until Christmas even , but we do eat a lot of them .
Yellow - mmm hibiscus , the leaves on mine are going yellow, but I think its an early autumn- but it has done well for having a good feed and mulch last year - so worth a go I think. This year is just weird - in fact every year it seems to get more weird.
Gin now you know about courgettes! btw - I don't bother to blanch beans. I now cut and open freeze them - it works very well, and saves a lot of time.
Got to the plot after lunch - DH came and gallantly cut the grass - after the monsoon yesterday and a bit of rain at lunch he chewed his way through it. At least now my knees won't get wet. I picked everything I could , deadheaded flowers , picked beetroot , a courgette and a small cauli, and then it started to rain again , so no tidying or weeding done.
Two of the smaller crown prince squash have gone yellow - a sure sign they are starting to rot. The bigger ones look okay though, and they are still setting everywhere. But I can't see a butternut anywhere. And I forgot the calabrese ... .
Hopefully I can start to get on top of it again now I have the time!

Ah, great news about beans not needing to be blanched!

I went to see DM for a few days on the mainland. When we arrived she told me to leave the veg in the car as Auntie M was there and had brought loads too. We forgot to take the 'sensible' veg, apart from the beans. So DM ended up with the marrow and the giant cucumber. The cucumber was consumed by the extended family and so were the kilos of beans brought by myself and Auntie M. Dsis arrived with a carrier bag of apples as well! We managed to off load the marrow and the apples onto DM's army of cleaners though. Off to the plot tomorrow. Hopefully more sweetcorn ready and some potatoes to harvest, but I know there will be more cucumbers and courgettes!

Thanks for all the top tips about tomato sauce. I made some but stuck it in the blender first so no big bits of skin. Also made tomato and coriander salsa yesterday.

Hope you're all enjoying this fabulous weather. Sowed lots of winter veg this week - tatsoi, rocket, winter lettuce, chard plus got bargains on fruit bushes from Wyevale. A fig tree for £5, blackcurrant bushes for £4.

As Dd and I have had no luck selling any veg outside the house, to raise money for the scout jamboree, we did a car boot this morning. We had sold out of everything in an hour. I even sold some marigolds I ripped out of the garden last night and the rosemary I had put in the wheelbarrow for decoration. We made £13 pounds which wasn't bad for an hour and we didn't have to pay for the pitch as it was for charity. Result!

Afternoon!
Well, have finally got to the end of busy work elsewhere, si back to the plot.
Friday I flew in and picked stuff - 2 cauliflowers, sweetcorn , calabrese and broccoli. Yesterday was just starting hoeing and weeding, trying to get back in control.
Today - beautiful weather, so had another good go at hoeing and weeding. Sowed my green manure over the area where the potatoes came out, and then picked beans. Gave another cauliflower away, and got back a beautiful bunch of carrots.
Tomatoes are now staring to ripen , so cooking tomato and vegetable sauce this afternoon for the freezer - using my leaf celery for the first time in that .
pamela - I would love a fig tree, but not sure up here if I can get them to ripen sufficiently outdoors
elephant well done you and DD :) foot fall is everything i these instances !
I have managed to palm off a few cauliflowers, so I have a small breathing space now until more are ready - I have made soup today with the ones I kept .

Blight has well and truly set in. Think we managed to save the potatoes, cut the tops off and dug them up four days later. Had to chuck about two thirds of the tomatoes and have been busy processing the rest, a batch of chutney, a batch of curry base (outrageously spicy chutney), piccalilli, and have jelly on the hob at the moment.
The last two figs ripened today