The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

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

Just picked another bag of blackcurrants and the bushes are still full. Any tips on removing the little rough bit of the currants without having to do one at a time? I want to use them in Jam and crumbles so they are going in the freezer for now.

Have your tried drawing the stems through the tines of a fork?

Today's pickings from our tiny raspberry patch

@Lovemusic82 freeze as they are, the ends rub off more easily when the berries are frozen and you can be rougher with them.

I think I might have my first courgette by the end of the week!

More raspberries picked this evening. At home, the first tomatoes have set and my beans are now flowering.

I had my 1st 6 courgettes this weekend - of 2 plants! anyone else finding the size of berries small this year, blackcurrants are tiny.

We had our first courgettes at the end of last week. Some potatoes too, and plenty more raspberries

My blackcurrants are smaller this year but there’s a lot more than last year. I don’t think I even bothered picking them last year, this year I have 2 bags in the freezer and have made 5 jars of jam.

First year with a productive allotment, and am loving not having to do any vegetable shopping! Getting lots of potatoes, peas, broad beans, cavolo nero, beetroot and blackcurrants at the moment. And the occasional carrot! We pulled our onions a few weeks ago, so using them up too. They are delicious!

Hoping for a steady stream of courgettes for the rest of the summer now.

I have a robin! I haven't seen a robin for years, she must have learned that a garden fork = worms because now she keeps my company when I go out and dig a bit in the evening. I dig her up some worms from my cold compost heap before I start, the ground is too dry to turn any up.

Sweet

Just getting started on the French Beans now and picked a load of pink currants yesterday.

Really need to do a lot of weeding but whenever we have the free time it's scorchio and need to walk the dogs in the cooler hours.

Beetroot coming along nicely, no fruit set on any of my squash yet but lots of male flowers, first tassels appearing on the sweetcorn. Mange tout don't seem to be doing much.

Had a good harvest of both broad beans and French beans this week. Been going up at 9pm to water, weed and pick, the weeds are going crazy. My raspberries started but have stopped again (they are an autumn fruiting variety and this is early for them).

Ooh I'm.very envious of your bean harvest! I was late getting mine in and they are still only about 10 inches tall with flowers on.

We have berries and cucumbers galore though. Just need the tomatoes to hurry up!

I'm behind on cucumbers, they were slow to get started in the greenhouse and the last thing to be planted out but the first fruits have now set. Tomatoes were slow to get going (I'm keeping them in the greenhouse because of blight) but are starting to flower now. My first broad beans were heavily infested with blackfly but have managed to pod, but some later, dwarf ones aren't looking promising at all very stunted. The French beans have done really well though.

I have 10 cucumber plants and if I get a crop like I did a few years ago (approx 12 cucumbers per plant but only 6 plants that year, they don't normally all survive planting out but have this year) I'm not sure what I'll do with them all, I ended up pickling a lot and giving away a lot that time.

@EventuallyDecluttered we eat a lot of tzatziki when the cucumber harvest is good. Also make enough pickles for the year’s burgers and sandwiches.

Yes, tzatziki here too. Fortunately I have a DC who will happily munch her way through whole cucumbers too.

Do you pickle the cucumbers whole when they are small or do you slice fully grown ones? (bread and butter pickles I think they are called) I'm never sure what to do. I tend to concentrate on pickling our vast amounts of chillies.

Smoke some of your chillies on a barbeque before you pickle them, they taste amazing and it works for red peppers as well.
I have one cherry tomato. My Maris Pipers are just setting flowers.

I do mostly pickle slices and spears (lengthwise into sixths when they get to about 15 inches long).

Bread and butter pickles are about the flavoured brine, not the slicing. They have turmeric, mustard and sugar in their brine mix so are sweeter and a bit yellowy. Often (by convention) cut with a wavy chip slice.

I like dill pickles better - no sugar, tablespoon of dill seeds or fronds of fresh dill, usally a couple of garlic cloves and maybe a chilli. More tart and zingy.

I also do quick pickles which use salt to draw then liquid out of the cucumbers and are ready within a day.THe recipe insists on super-thin slices, I just slice normally and use whatever type of cucumber I happen to be growing.

I do both bread and butter and dill
pickles. Usually slice into rounds. rounds. We also do slices of cucumber and onion in vinegar (plain malt for eating with roast beef or wine vinegar with a bit of sugar, chilli and coriander for Asian meals).

A few years ago in a burger place in Bristol I had a portion of lengthways sliced bread and butter pickles deep fried in a light batter, they were amazing.

Fried pickles are called Frickles. Cute
Frickles I Georgie Eats https://share.google/dRBCvelkEtVl1pxfR

Mmmm. Inhave just found this cucumber recipe which sounds good too