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...