Marrow surprise, Hooligan harvest & Bilberry bonanza

I'm a week behind on this post. Bad Steph! Ok, so last Thursday I went to lottie to check it out and harvest the goodies. What a nice view from the car (above)!

It was raining a little so I tried to clear some of the weeds from around my sweet william, red lettuce, dwarf & broad bean seedlings. Then the rain got heavy so I gave up on trying to do that and grabbed the harvest I could before getting super-soaked! You can see at the top of the photo the area I weeded and the mass of weeds at the bottom of the pic :(

My vegetable spaghetti is looking good. Looking forward to trying this. I have waited a whole year as last time it didn't work.

I have LOADS of tomatoes on my 2 plants, but all of them are green and not looking like they'll turn. So I picked a whole bunch to make into various soups, jams and whatnot. They're in the fridge right now. Just need some time to make them - bit busy with 'Handmade Heaven : Funky Fused Glass' at the mo, re-photographing things and making new goodies.

I harvested some tasty goodies - beetroots, green & yellow courgettes another MAHOOSIVE marrow which I didn't even spot growing and was lurking beneath the leaves - it was a bit of a surprise I can tell you!, runner beans...

...patty pans, hooligan pumpkins (both upside down, drying here) and a couple of banana peppers. Alas the peppers were all soft and tasted horrid so they went to compost heaven.

I went to visit my folks and took the MAHOOSIVE marrow with me. I weighed it on my mum's kitchen scales and this made me laugh - 'ERROR' - I think the scales were saying "too heavy! get it off, get it OFF!" :)

So I took it to the bathroom scales. I think it was about 8.5lbs! A monster. 

Look how proud I am of my 'marrow bowtie' ;)

My folks and I went out to harvest some wild goodies. Free food - who wouldn't!? I picked my first ever bilberries. Absolutely delicious! A few may, or may not, have fallen into my face... ;) Hehehe! They're very stainy and quite time-consuming to pick as they only grow in ones or twos, hidden in the leaves of the bilberry bushes.

My mum said they were quite expensive to buy and I now understand why. The three of us were picking for around two hours and got this 700g-ish haul. I looked how much this would cost to buy and calculated it was around £32! Nice :)

We also picked 1500g of rowanberries. Lovely!

I'm at my big bro's place in Kent this w/e. We're about to go for a walk so I'm going armed with plastic bags in case we come across any blackberries or other fruity goodies. He has a plum tree in his garden so I am taking some of those. Just have to shin up a ladder! I've already added some plum jam & chutney recipes to the recipe list. Hope you're making the most of all the fruit & veg ready at this time of year. I really need to get in the kitchen and preserve all my goodies.

MAHOOSIVE marrow and other miscellaneous veg

Well, up to the allotment I went last night. I've not had much time for it lately. I was gadding about on Saturday at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire at the Battle Proms. Very nice it was too. An excellent way to spend a Saturday night. The spitfire fly-by put a tear or two in my eye. I'm a plane fan and everyone cheering and being uber patriotic tugged at the heart strings ;) What a sap!

Sunday I was working on glassy goodies - listing things for sale in my folksy shop, as well as putting together some commissions.

So, last night I had a poke about, seeing what was new. Did a bit of weeding/hoeing/dead heading and all that jazz. I found my first hooligan pumpkin hiding under a leaf. Looking forward to these. They're pretty cool smallish striped numbers - well, they looked it on the packet! I await the stripes...

The two tomato plants my aunt gave me back in spring are doing so well! Last year the tomatoes in the ground died off. I am guessing from all the rain we had. This year it has been much drier and the tomatoes should be ripening any time soon. They are so laden and heavy with fruit I have had to support them with some cane hoops. Hopefully this will give a bit of support in the wind, keep the fruit off the ground and make watering a little easier to do. I may put down some straw mulch to hopefully stop the low tommies sitting directly on the soil.

I planted a whole bunch of stuff too (I was the last up there in the dark with a torch by the end!): hollyhocks, 2 rows of sweet williams, red cos lettuce, dwarf beans - 'purple queen' and 'stanley', as well as some 'the sutton' broad beans, again. I did most of the sowing post-digging up the last of the charlotte spuds in the big 'road end' bed. Potatoes are great for soil being easy to turn!

It was a bit of a bumper harvest. Loads of the charlotte spuds, some beetroot, courgettes, a couple of yellow courgettes and a MAHOOSIVE marrow :) My first ever marrow. I am like a proud parent!

Check it out! Pretty big. I thought it best to harvest it at this size, rather than leave it too long and lose it. My mum has a great marrow recipe so I'll be using that for this bad boy :)

This batch of spuds were a pretty impressive harvest, especially as I didn't plant any of this variety this year! These are leftovers from last year's laziness ;) Five and a half pounds of tastiness. I have saved some to chit for next year.

I grabbed a few beetroot too. These will be peeled then I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with them. I don't want to pickle them in vinegar, so maybe I'll find a recipe where you can appreciate their fab taste and great colour :)

And the courgettes just keep coming! I only have 4 plants and they are keeping me well in stock. I spoke to my friend at work and she has FIFTEEN plants at her allotment! Blimey!! She says her veggie friends are loving her though :) I really like this photo of them in the sink being washed, with the sink edges forming a frame. Maybe it is just me...!

And this arty arrangement is me drying them off before they go into the fridge. I am definitely going to make chutney, but I don't want it to be dominated by tomatoes or apples as a lot of the recipes are. I also will be making some into a chocolate cake! Watch this space :)

Oh, and what do you think of the new blog template? I kinda like it. Seems fresher to me and gives me more space on the page. Need to re-size my header but can't for the life of me find the file to do so! Ho hum.

First pumpkins & a catch up

I've been bad and haven't had much time for the allotment. I've been down to harvest but not done much but mow the grass and plan really. I've only had the plot for a few months but already I am thinking of changing my plans. Firstly, I need to get rid of the grass as I am wasting time mowing it when I could be doing something productive. I am thinking more flowers for next year as the ones I have have really brightened up my flat. I need to get some bulbs in now I think so am mulling next year's plan over. I won't bother with brassicas again I think - too much effort and liability! Def want to have lots more peas - a full row or two. Runner beans about the same (about 6 plants) but try some more exciting varieties, maybe a purple one? More pumpkins and squashes - something like 'petit pan' for def and certainly more sweetcorn. I must plant more onions and some garlic for next year and maybe try some fruit trees. Long list but it does sound like a plan doesn't it?!

So, already harvested my very first pumpkins. I don't know what variety they are unfortunately. They are such a gorgeous colour and shape it seems terrible to cut them up! I gave one to a friend of mine who was with me when I bought the tiny weedy looking plants. She was touched I think and blogged about it here. :) The other I gave to my older brother as he's into growing veg but didn't plant pumpkins this year. I have one on the plot almost ready for me to try which I am looking forward to :) The 4 plants I got are going great guns and I have to keep twisting the plant back into the bed, off the path! Think I will get a great crop of them.

Finally, my tomatoes in the shed have started to ripen. I thought they'd stay green forever! I am not doing the whole tomatoes-in-the-shed malarkey again next year. They needed far too much attention. It was like having kids! ha! It also meant I didn't have much workspace in there. My excuse for not sowing as many seeds as I had planned. I am also pleased the chilli plant I bought is producing fruit too. I picked some teeny red ones and some bigger green ones. There are still plenty on the one plant so that was a bit of a good buy. They are now cleaned up and in the freezer for when I need to use them. The sweet peppers are producing too but not quite ready for picking. The tomatoes I had in the plot have all rotted with all the excess rain we've had which is a shame. The cherry toms especially were going great guns. Hey ho. At least they were only cheap reduced-price plants. You win some...

My aubergines were doing well but have been eaten by slugs. There are more coming on so hopefully they won't get so eaten. The 5 plants I have are still flowering so I'm pleased with their progress :) I am still being inundated with courgettes and runner, french and dwarf beans. The sweetcorn is fattening up and I can't wait for that to be ready.

I had planned to spend some time at the allotment this week, clearing out the brassicas and digging up the spuds. However, I have been a social butterfly instead! I am going to go do some work on today. I need to dig! I hope things are going well for you :)

Don't panic!

I am still alive. Not had much allotment-time lately. It has been torrential rain most days. My poor outdoor tomatoes are more or less rotten. :( Too wet. Some things are thriving - namely weeds and grass paths - and sweetcorn and leeks. I have pulled up my red onions and need to harvest all manner of things like beans and courgettes which are prolific! Also need to get round to digging up all the spuds I have left. I did do some weeding in the pouring rain last week and got soaked. Next week is the week for getting my allotment back into some sort of order.

Comedy courgette and big ol' blueberries

I've still not had much time to do any proper work down the allotment. I did manage to weed around 2 beds though so at least part of the plot is looking tidy. At this time of the year with the sun and rain the weeds are a proper battle. You dig them up, turn around and they are back again! I also got started on tidying up my 'burning bed'. My plan is to bag up all the crap there and get it down the tip. Once that is done I can plant out another 5x5m bed. Not sure what with yet!

I am pleased to be harvesting my first courgettes. It doesn't seem like that long ago when I planted 4 little weedy plants. They are now monsters and are producing the first veg. I have been down checking the progress of the plot every other day. I saw that they were nearly ready to pick so I have been waiting for them to get a little bigger. How the hell this one missed the checks I don't know! It is a whopper! It made me laugh when I spotted it. Almost looks like a marrow! It was very tasty :)

These two little beauties are much more reasonable size-wise. Look at the difference in size! These are waiting to be eaten. I expect they will taste better than the giant.

The checking also revealed some ripe blueberries off the plant I put it a little while ago. The fruits were really quite big compared with those you get in shops and they didn't have that soapy taste. I had them with some vanilla icecream and a smashed up crunchie. Yum!

More beans picked too. Looks like I will be eating a lot of beans as there are loads of flowers and forming beans on the plants. Luckily I love beans! I'm really pleased the blackfly seems to have been dealt with by nature too. Hooray!

Baking

Not done too much but harvest down the allotment. Too much rain! Have done some watering of the tommies in the shed but that is about it. I have been busy with my raspberry glut. I found some recipes I wanted to try and got down to business on Saturday. I baked a cake - raspberry and lime drizzle cake - and some bars - raspberry and hazelnut (an adaptation of the pinenut recipe). Both got taken into work and were very, very well received! So many compliments on the cake. It was the first time I've made it and it was very moist with a yummy tang. Easy peasy to make too :) My rasos were a bit gooey by the time they got used but both sweet treats turned out well.

Cake uncooked
Cake cooked

Bars uncooked
Bars cooked

I also picked some flowers from the lottie. I think these are 'goldstrum' daisies/'black eyed susan'/rudbeckia goldstrum. They're lovely :)


Also picked my first beans. Not too many yet so will hold off on photos!

What's going on down't lottie?

So, as promised, here is a photo-heavy post about all the plants that are making progress in my plot...

the 'road end' bed. row nearest us: dwarf beans, hopefully on road to recover after they got a bit too much water, runner beans looking ok but got blackfly i need to attend to, 4 remaining pea plants looking a bit sad now. sweet peas in the background going great guns!

runner bean flower, plagued by bloomin' blackfly

sweet peas are always covered in flowers, even if i pick most of them the day before. my flat smells wonderful from all the posies i am picking :)

broccoli ready to burst! must re-net this asap. L-R: charlotte spuds, red baron red onions, broccoli (don't know the type), morning glory cauliflower

charlotte potatoes in full flower. might dig some of these up to see how they are doing. can't wait to eat these, especially mixing them with my homegrown mint from the 'shed end' of the allotment.

red baron red onions fattening up and starting to burst through the soil. can't wait to eat these :) this one is about 3 or 4cm across i'd say. yes, i need to get in and hand weed around these.

pumpkin flowers starting to form. there were some little pumpkins on these, like marbles, but they've dropped off. i think it is my fault from ham-fisted watering. i am now watering these very carefully. i'm still learning! very blurry photo!!

midnight courgettes flowering and another coming through on this plant. i bought these from the market and they've not been in long. they are already about 3 times as big as when i bought them!

chilli peppers seem to going really well so far. lots of flowers and quite a few fruits at the mo.

sweet peppers look like they are going to start flowering soon :)

was a bit worried about these 'sale' buy cherry tomatoes but they must be reasonably happy as they are starting to flower. phew!

sweetcorn (left back) and baby corn (right front). i usually weed mostly by hoeing but can't around the sweetcorn as they have shallow horizontal roots. will have to hand weed this soon.

this is the bed down the allotment from the 'road end' bed. it had parsnips and onions in it. i need to clear this and make another strip-shaped bed next to it to the right. it's on my 'to do' list. maybe this weekend?

ok, end of part one. part two to follow later! :)