Overwintering onions

Al I finally got down to the plot today to sort out a few issues that other commitments and the weather had prevented us from tackling. 

I set about digging over the ground left vacant after I brought in the pumpkin and winter squash. The ground was very heavy after all the rain that has fallen in the last few weeks and it was difficult to work. I was keen to get with it because the plot was starting to look rather shabby. Docks and chickweed were the main culprits but I needed to clear away the sweet peas and rudbeckia that were now looking at death's door. I worked for about three hours but there is still a lot to do. I'll get it all done by Christmas.

Meanwhile, Al worked on the onions. We had 100 each of Troy and Red Cross, too many for us, and so Al put in about 40 Troy and around 65 Red Cross. She covered them with fleece to dissuade the birds from pulling them up and throwing them about, an idea straight from Monty Don. Thanks Monty!

There is still a lot to take from the plot for cooking. I lifted some carrots, celeriac and a red cabbage. The celeriac and cabbage will go into a slightly unconventional bubble and squeak with some potato and the carrots will make a side dish with capers and parsley.The pic below is Al making sure that none was wasted the last time we ate it.

The squash we harvested a couple of weeks ago have been great cookers. 

This is a kind of butter bean and squash curry that I made with the Celebration and the Autumn Gold onions. We ate some, froze the rest. We finished it off for lunch today and it was fabulous.

Finally, one of our celeriac after it has been trimmed. These are wonderful things. The scent from them is excellent. We will be growing as many as we can next year. 

A little chillier...let's get the pumpkins

This week the weather has been colder and frost has been forecast. We had quite a few squash and one pumpkin still on the plot and I wondered if now was the right time to harvest them. I read around the question and the consensus was that frost is bad for them. Al and I went to the plot one lunchtime with a couple of tub-trugs to collect them up. 

It took us about 20 minutes to gather them. When we had finished I guessed we had about 30 - 40Kg of squash and pumpkin. I couldn't lift them all on my own. We'll roast and freeze some of it and the rest will make casseroles, curries and soup (with garlic, chillies and cumin of course).

Later the same day we watched Gardener's World. Monty Don started the programme by suggesting that now was a good time to gather in pumpkins and squash. My, did we feel smug but, in reality, we were just lucky.

One thing we need to remember is that our squash did very well this year but the courgettes failed. Last year, things were the other way about. The weather was different but my guess is that we did things differently too. The one thing that we can say for certain is that growing vegetables for food is frustrating and fun all at the same time.

Garlic, shallots, beetroot and squash

I had ordered garlic, shallots and over-wintering onions but by the time they arrived the weather had turned wet. Even so, Al and I decided that we needed to get down to the plot to prepare the ground and get some of them in.

We set to work yesterday and, at first at least, we thought that the ground wasn't too bad. But our plot has some parts that are heavier than others and by close of play we felt that we had expended quite a bit of energy as we finished the work with one of them. That said, the soil looked good and the work was nothing like as hard as it was the first autumn we started to work the ground. We probably dug over more twice as ground much as we could have then.

Overnight it rained again but we have little free time and needed to get more done while we could. The ground was very sticky but we pressed on, planting garlic (three bulbs each of Provence Wight and Bella Italiano), shallot Biztro and Eschallotte Grise in reasonably neat rows. We covered it all with fleece to deter birds from throwing the sets and cloves all round the plot as they have in the past.

We still have onions to get in the ground but I am a bit less concerned about those. I have a lot of sets but will give about half away if I can. The over-wintered (Japanese) varieties keep less well than main crop onions. This year we found that we couldn't use them all before they became soft.

We were muddy when we had finished but we were able to take home something from the plot for dinner although my plans to combine broccoli (Early Purple) and globe artichoke came to nothing (although we ate the
h broccoli with salmon and hollandaise sause the next day). Instead, I baked carrot, beetroot (Pablo and a stripy orange Italian variety) and squash (Celebration) with goat's cheese. We must get a goat... 

Mid October

We went off on holiday in early September. When we got back we found that much of lettuce had bolted and and the sweetcorn had gone over. It was dry for much of the time that we were away.

That was a minor disappointment and it was offset by good beetroot, rather lovely looking chard, more carrots (Chantenay Red Cored) than we can eat, red cabbage and large number of squash. The carrots are a particularly unexpected success given that I didn't thin or pay much attention to them at all. The first picture shows them not at all in neat rows and the second the rather uneven results obtained (I might thin a bit next time I grow them). I roasted some beetroot (Pablo) and carrot in oil and balsamic vinegar and topped them with some goat's cheese and the result was quite good.

The red cabbage (Red Rookie) looked ready to me also and I took one to make red cabbage with apple. This was a little disappointing because the cabbage wasn't either very dense nor particularly red. Even so, we proved that we can grow brassicas on our ground. We harvested some squash (Celebration) too.  We lifted the first of the celeriac (Monarch) today as well. The scent from it was really lovely, much nicer than ordinary celery, pungent and earthy, and it had grown to a decent size. We are delighted, not least because getting them to germinate and make plants big enough to put outside wasn't straightforward. I'll make celeriac remoulade (fancy coleslaw) and celeriac mash with it.

We did a little work on the ground but it was wet, sticky and too heavy to do much with it. Even so around half of the ground is clear of weeds and a large part of the rest will be when the glyphosate weed-killer has done its work. We have a lot of trouble with docks on the lot. They seem almost impossible to dig out without leaving any part of them in the ground and they can  grow back from the smallest pieces. I would like to grow without chemicals but we don't have enough free time to manage without a little weedkiller here and there.

There are some vegetables on the plot we haven't eaten yet. We haven't touched the butternut squash (Hunter) or Rhubarb Chard. There are globe and Jerusalem artichokes to try too, so I think we have done quite well in a rotten summer. Our rows aren't straight and I tolerate weeds too much but ours has been a productive plot and I think that we have eaten something from the plot every day since June and perhaps a little earlier. I am very happy with the results we have had.

The year will be turning soon in that we will be receiving our onion and shallot sets and garlic bulbs for over-wintering. That's what we started with two years ago and, as the days shorten quickly, that's where we are again.

Carrot Chantenay Red Cored

Carrots with beetroot Pablo

Rhubarb Chard

Roasted carrot and beetroot with balsamic vinegar and goat's cheese

Red cabbage, Red Rookie

Squash Celebration etc.

Celeriac Monarch

Harvest Part 1 of many

I feel sure that spring is a busier time for the vegetable grower than late summer. Even so, it does seem to have been quite an active time on the plot; there has been little of the 'sitting back and watching things grow' that some books and magazines promised.

A couple of weeks ago Al and I lifted the main crop Picasso potatoes. The foliage had died back and it was time to get on with the job we thought. With a little of the blight scare still in out minds we set to work. The yield seemed to be good but rather than blight being a problem for the tubers we found that eelworm and slugs had done quite a bit of damage. In fact, I think that there was never any blight affecting potatoes on the site at all. We were the victims of scaremongering by some folk with a bit of knowhow but a far from comprehensive understanding of potatoes and their problems. As my RHS guide says, 'potatoes are a crop that suffer from a great many problems'. It would be a very smart gardener that knew about them all.

We divided the potatoes into long term keepers, eat soon and no hope. I put them into sacks and they are now hanging up in the garage. I took some of the 'eat soon' and used them for a potatoes dauphinoise dish this evening. There were lots of holes, made by small and probably needy creatures, but they seemed otherwise rather good, as they were last year.

Since the potato harvest we found that our sweet corn was ready. We cooked some, boiling for 8 minutes, and the result with butter, salt and pepper was absolutely wonderful. It was sweet and crunchy and I loved it much more than any sweetcorn that I have ever eaten.

Cooked

Raw (apologies to Claude Levi-Strauss)

I also lifted some of our carrots, reasoning that I had better start on them soon before any nasty creature got to them before me. I cooked them with butter, garlic and cumin and we both thought that they were excellent. I think it is fair to say that they were what supermarkets call 'baby' carrots but they were none the worse for that.

The unwashed...

...and the washed (apologies for the rotten joke)

This evening I finished the lifting of our main crop onions, a variety called Autumn Gold. They look good and, at present, are drying on our garden table. I took a picture of them before bringing them home.

Our French beans have been a great success and we have eaten them with garlic on a number of occasions. They seem to go well with fish pie. They are getting a bit stringy now and we think we will allow both Prince and Borlotto varieties to make beans that we can pod and freeze. We tried one last night and it seemed almost ready; a job for autumn proper.

Other crops doing well are beetroot Pablo, lettuce Salad Bowl, squash Celebration and spring onions, Barletta and Apache.

Barletta/Apache (good with everything)

Salad Bowl (just super)

Pablo (good with vinaigrette and goat cheese)

Celebration (made a fabulous balti)

 Last and not least I add a photograph of rudbeckia Marmalade. Al's pride and joy and very lovely it is. We would not have grown it without having been given a plant by Mark, our colleague and fellow allotmenteer, last year. It is a great joy.

Bruschetta and a tiny carrot...

We tried out some of the frozen broad beans today. I made broad bean, mint and ricotta bruschetta and it turned out just fine. I boiled the beans for about a minute and they were cooked to just about the right point. I was very pleased with the result which we ate in the garden as the sun was setting.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of three of the Lady Christl potatoes that I am cooking for supper this evening.

...and finally. A very tiny carrot of which I am disproportionately pleased. I sowed them late but saw very good germination rates. I haven't thinned and I may well regret that but I couldn't bear to do it. It was crunchy and carroty and I look forward to eating the rest if they ever grow big enough...

Broad beans

Al harvested the broad beans yesterday. They were a combination of pot sown and direct sown plants. We had already taken some pods, mostly used to make a broad bean, lemon and mint bruschetta, but the main crop was ready. I got home to find Al with a shopping bag stuffed with pods from her work that morning. She shelled them and they were blanched and frozen. There were nearly two kilos of Jubilee Hysor beans, a much better result than our first year.  They'll provide a little bit of summer through the autumn and winter.

I made some potato salad using Lady Christl potatoes for lunch today. Vinaigrette with some tarragon from the garden and a little mayonnaise. Al thought it was very nice.

Taking a chance to tidy up

I went down to the plot today in the hope that I would get a chance to tidy things up. The weeds seemed to be the single most obvious growing things on the allotment and I feared that they would soon be too well established for me to deal with them.


I took a light azada as well as a hoe with me. My colleague and fellow allotmenteer, Mark, had shown me the azada he uses at his plot one lunchtime and I was taken with it enough to buy two. One is medium weight and seems to be good for turning over previously cultivated ground. On the experience of today the light one makes an excellent hoeing tool. I was able to work between rows much more effectively than using a push hoe. I was able to prepare ground for seed sowing using it too. All in all I was delighted with my purchase and I can see myself using it a lot. Thanks to Mark for the the tip.


After a couple of hours the plot was looking much better, despite enforced some pauses due to rain showers. Once the potatoes are lifted it will all look much tidier overall. Now that the foliage has been removed from them the potato rows are a happy place for weeds but I'll be able to remove them as I harvest the potatoes.


I took a fork and did some gentle exploratory lifting in a corner of the main crop Picasso potatoes. I was disappointed at first finding only very small tubers but I tried harder and was rewarded by the sight of a decent sized and reasonably numerous potatoes. I'll lift the whole lot in a week or so.


Elsewhere on the plot the sweetcorn is doing well as are the dwarf french beans, main crop onions, beetroot, lettuce and broad beans. Most improved crop has to be squash. They took a long time to get started but the squash Celebration is taking hold of the bottom left corner of the allotment. We have pumpkins (Invincible) and a butternut variety too (probably Hunter) but their effort has been half-hearted so far at least.

Pumpkin Invincible - just a flower so far

Squash Celebration - one of many...

Sweetcorn (of course)

Dwarf beans - Borlotto and ?

Spring onion Apache

 While I was down at the plot I decided to sow some more spring onions (Apache) and lettuce. Is is probably too late but I think it is worth a try at least - it at least possible we will get some Little Gem lettuce in October...

Catching up

This week, after long periods of cold and rain, the weather improved producing a hot spell of temperatures in the upper 20s Celsius. In fact, it has been uncomfortably hot but many plants seem to have benefited from the warmer spell. The courgettes and squash, in particular, are growing fast and many fruits are setting. In fact we could be in for the courgette glut that we experienced last year.

For now we have only a handful of courgettes. Tri colour has performed best but I think the Soleil plants will catch it up quickly. Examples from the few picked tonight in the picture below.

We started on our spring onions too. Barletta are the furthest advanced and picking them caused much Shedwards excitement.

I lifted the spring planted garlic too. The bulbs were small but they seem to have good flavour.

Solent Wight

I dug up almost the last of the Foremost potatoes. There has been much concern about blight on our allotment site, but although the foliage has looked a bit of a state the potatoes themselves show no sign of damage other than from scab, and that only on the Foremost. The Lady Christls seem fine. Even so I cut down the foliage on all the varieties including the main crop. It is early to be doing this but I think that if I leave them for three weeks and dig them up in late August I stand the best chance of getting a decent yield. Certainly it will give the slugs a reduced opportunity to eat them before we can.

Foremost

We lifted all of the shallots too, in what has been quite a busy period harvest-wise. They are small but both varieties, Yellow Moon and Eschalotte Grise produced large numbers. This is a marked improvement on performance in 2011 when they all rotted in the ground. We'll keep some and pickle the rest.

I used the shallots, garlic and courgettes to make a kind of stew with tomatoes to go with potatoes and salmon. All very successfully, according to Ali.

Rain, rain and nothing but rain...

It seems that rain is the one consistent feature of the summer so far. I went down to the plot this evening to get some potatoes and salad leaves but it was a sticky, muddy mess. The potato foliage looked very blighted to me and in places there was little left. I dig up some Lady Christl and they seemed OK insofar as the tubers were unaffected but I am not optimistic that this is a situation that can be maintained. I took some salad leaves too and as I did so I felt that I could do little to prevent the advance of ever stronger and more numerous slugs.


However, I did take some shallots and it does seem to me that the alliums thrive on our plot. I dug up some Yellow Moon and some Eschalotte Grise and both looked very good if a little small. We may need to pickle some of them and I rather look forward to that.


I lifted a beetroot last evening also. I made a kind of marinade with vinegar, coriander seed, white peppercorns lemon juice, bay leaves, garlic and olive oil to go with the beetroot and salmon. It was rather good I thought. 

Onions and lettuce

I went down to the plot this evening. It had been a few days since I had been there because I had a reasonably large project to complete and in just a few day the weeds had made themselves at home. Some brisk weeding weakened their grip I think.


I decided that that the autumn planted onions were ready and filled a tubtrug with forty or so. We won't need to buy any for a while I think. The smell of them was wonderful - I could feel my bronchial tubes clearing the more I lifted.


I lifted the garlic too. A disappointment here unfortunately. The rust had limited growth for most and had damaged some. There'll be some for the summer but  the crop was far from a success.


I lifted some first early potatoes too. Something blight-like has weakened the foliage but the tubers were fine and three plants produced more than we can eat in a couple of weeks.


The courgettes and squash were catching up after a slow start. There might be something to celebrate there after all!


There was a biblically heavy rainstorm as we left the plot (Al had joined me) and I was unable to take any photos down there but I have added a couple of photos of the onions in the place that they will dry out and a rather successful Little Gem lettuce Al harvested this evening.

In the garden at Wavendon

As promised I made potato salad with, as it turned out, some of our second early potatoes. These are Lady Christl and it seems that they are ideal for that purpose. Still warm from boiling they looked a little floury but when cool they were firm  but creamy at the same time. They drew praise from all those who ate them. It was a simple recipe, potatoes, vinaigrette and mayonnaise and I think all that was needed.


Al made a smashed up broad bean and pea puree with mint. It was excellent. She remarked, not for the first time, that from pod to pot broad beans deliver less than one expects. First the pod and the little case that covers the bean are discarded and one is left with less than one expected. Her response was that we need to grow more. I'll do that gladly if she makes more smashed up pea and broad bean puree...

Heavy rain and broad beans

It poured with rain today. I was at the office but Al was at home and had to move some plants under cover as it pounded down. She as able to clear some weeds at the allotment today and things look a bit tidier even if the ground is very sticky.


We are going out to a concert tomorrow in the gardens of The Stables in Wavendon. I'll make some potato salad for our but the main attraction will be broad bean and pea 'houmous'. Some of the raw materials are in the photographs.


We are expecting rain of course...