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...

I mentioned the quiche and here it is...

First onions of 2012

This evening we lifted a couple of the onions that we planted as sets last September. They seem to have done very well. They are a good size and free of disease and pest damage. Well, the couple we lifted anyway... The variety is Radar and they are marketed as being especially useful for autumn planting. I'll lift and dry the rest in a week or so. They'll keep us going until the spring plante ones are ready.

I have made a cheese and onion quiche with them since bringing them home. I expect to be stuffing some of the rest at some point.

We checked over the rest of the plot while we were there. The tomatoes are growing very fast and we had to tie them once more. There was some black bean aphid infestation on the broad beans but we are dealing with that. The crop will be good we think (hope).

Beetroot and a row of carrots

Tomatoes

Potatoes and vinaigrette

I didn't say how I cooked the potatoes. They were quite large and so I halved them before steaming for about 15 minutes. Cooked they are a firm and very white potato with almost no skin at all. Their flavour was very good.


I used our first green garlic to make a vinaigrette for the salad and potatoes. It was a little early to lift garlic but I wanted to reassure myself that the rust that has been affecting it hadn't destroyed the bulbs altogether. Once I had removed the outside leaves I could see that that although small they were fine. 

An early July evening

It's early July and for a couple of weeks we have been eating food that we have grown on our allotment. The 'we' I refer to here is me and my wife, Alison.


We have eaten most of green salad which we are using as cut and come again leaves. I am not very sure that all of the lettuce we are eating is properly suitable for that purpose but that is what we have done with it and it seems to be lasting quite well. If it doesn't bolt we'll be eating it for a while yet. I have developed a liking for a variety called Salad Bowl and have sown quite a bit more or it for later in the year. I have some cos type coming along as well.


We brought quite  back from the plot this evening. We went down to check on our potatoes. I was worried about blight. We have had some trouble with black leg rot already this year but I had seen a neighbour's row of potatoes flattened by something that looks very like blight and wanted to check it out. We cut off quite a bit of foliage but there were black spots everywhere I looked so we gave up and dug some for the table instead.

This was our haul for the evening. Not too bad and the potato tubers were unaffected by blight. They are a variety called Foremost by the way.