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