The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Come and share your triumphs and failures in your vegetable plot or allotment.

Squash haul so far

Super impressed!!!

Wow @DougAndTheSlugs ! What are your plans for them?

I know from experience the Uchiki Kuris and others are excellent eating. Some I grew for the first time and have not tried yet but I look forward. First they will seasonally decorate the local pub!

I have squash that have not yet been harvested (so not photographed) that were planned for the DGC to use at Hallowe'en (Zombie), while my Crown Prince are just very good keepers and delicious. We ate our last 2023 Crown Prince in May this year.

DH says if I grow it he will cook it. We are going to have a squashy kind of winter. Imagine roasting, butter, cheese. Or curries, stews. Or deep fried.

Can't wait.

@DougAndTheSlugs ... sounds delicious!

We have had a good squash harvest too, Turks turban, uchiki kuris and butternut squash, I love growing squash but tbh I’m not that keen in eating them, I did have soup for lunch.

I turn them into dried grated shreds and flour with my dehydrator, and use them as vegetable flour in baking & drop scones.

They are good eating, trust me

I'm debating whether to bring my squash in. worried they are going to rot with all this rain. what do people think? the vine hadnt died off when i looked last week

I'm bringing them in if the vines are starting to yellow. You can leave them for a few weeks and they don't get any bigger but they do seem to mature a bit more, and they are still edible.

If the vine is still growing, rain should not rot them. If the vine is on the way out, eg yellowing leaves, then pick the squashes because they won’t be getting any benefit from the vine

I only pick them when the vine has died back. This one's vine grew up a tree and seems to have flopped down with the heavy rains. I guess the poor old squash was so big it plopped off-- we were away for the weekend and I found it on the ground yesterday.

I am still getting a handful of tomatoes every 2nd day. And the plants have suddenly decided to put on more side shoots and flowers - which I am ignoring despite knowing they're unlikely to give any fruit...but if they stay alive long enough, who knows!

My tomatoes are going strong but the cucumbers have packed up

For the squash growers. Jamie O did a squash pasta recipe on What to Eat this week

I have one courgette still outside in a sunny corner.
Did not do squash this year.
Leeks, carrots, tower beans, kale, chard, celery, fennel spuds and rocket all ongoing

Planted into the outside pots about a dozen unspecified beets. I shall no doubt find out what they are in due course. Then used the pots to pot up chard seedlings.

yesterday I picked the last cucumber.

Doug helped me net the winter onions.

He’s a handsome beast, isn’t he?

What a good Doug!

Percy has been protecting the rhubarb from string fierce enemies.

Percy does look single minded, that's quite a stare

Thank you for that.

DH has just made the most amazing squash curry with a Red Warty Thing that had to be eaten (a small compromised bit on the skin meant it would not store). It's for Friday but I had a taste, OMG delicious.

He says if I grow it he'll cook it and he has not failed me yet.

Black cats are the best! (Whispered, because of the tabby on my lap)

Enjoying your cats! The cats that visit the allotment cheer up my day- including this majestic white one.
Badger is now digging up my potatoes 😟

Visited the allotment for the first time in a couple of weeks after a holiday. Top of my courgette has been caught by the frost but there's new growth and even a flower lower down. Sadly all of my trombone squash have rotted. Still a few raspberries about, also picked apples, a couple of pears and some rhubarb.

Onions are pathetic, but leeks and beetroot still doing ok.

Jerusalem artichokes providing a nice bit of colour still.