Red and green bounty from the plot

Leaving the plot laden with produce is always good for the soul, and often good for the kitchen too. As I said yesterday I wasn't sure what I'd find on the plot, but going there before heading to the local shops was the best plan. It wasn't until I got home and unpacked our produce that I realised nature had colour coordinated my home grown fruit and veg.

There was another good handful of runner beans. They really do taste best fresh and home grown, and while we do freeze them fresh is definitely best. The frozen ones though have the most amazing smell, bringing back summer in an instant when it is long since forgotten.

And then there were the borlotti beans.  As you can see there were quite a few and equally as many left on the plants for another helping soon.  As I piled the borlotti beans on top of the runner beans I was amazed how many there were and how quickly they covered the runner beans.

But I wasn't done yet. There were apples too, the small apple tree was straining at the weight of the fruit so I picked a few to help it out. A pear from the fruit bowl added a touch of gree again.

And on top of the fruit, there was more rhubarb.  

There wasn't much space left on my chopping board, and I'd never thought of rhubarb as being the same colour as borlotti beans before, or apples and pears, but they are. 

And we've already made good progress on eating these. A rhubarb crumble is half-eaten in the fridge, there's plans for apple and pear compote. We've eaten the borlotti beans with some pork loin from the butchers, and the runner beans will no doubt feature on our plates during the week too.

I cooked the borlotti beans covered in water with a sprig of sage, three squashed garlic cloves and three squashed cherry tomatoes. When they were soft I added some salt to the water and left them to stand for ten minutes or so before draining them, forgetting to save some of the cooking water as I planned! Then added some olive oil and lemon juice and mashed some of the beans. They tasted great and I'd cook them again this way. They lose their pink and white speckled colour when they're cooked, which is a shame, but for this harvest alone they're alwasy going to be on my growing list.

EVEN THE SAGE AND THE CHILLIES FROM THE GARDEN MATCHED THE RED AND GREEN THEME

It's clearly a red and green time of year, and long may it continue!

My plot during National Allotment Week

It wasn't until we were back from the plot yesterday and catching up with Monty on Gardener's World that I realised it was National Allotment Week, I'd read about it a while back but the dates hadn't registered. We'd popped over there to check on the weeks, to see how the squashes were doing (still not great) and to take some of my ever improving tomato plants over to plant out.

I know they're late and unlike Monty my tomatoes aren't ripening as quick as I can eat them, but there is a tomato surprise further in this post so all is not lost.

Our beans are currently doing well; there's plenty more borlotti beans since our last visit - there is a benefit to all that rain, it seems - and MOH was once again all for picking them. It's an annual thing, and this year I've managed to persuade him not to. At least that means we stand a chance to harvest them at all once this year, assuming he buys into it that is. 

The late-planted potatoes (have you spotted a theme yet?) are doing well and are now flowering. We're done earthing them up, mainly because we don't have enough earth to do this with. Now we're waiting for them to grow and I know I'm looking forward to digging them up. The advantage of them being later, is that we'll be more likely to be eating more potatoes by the time we harvest them.

My sunflower is out too - and it's a beauty. 

It also has the sturdiest of stems. There's a few more to come yet too, but not as many flowers as the redder sort I grew last year. Maybe next year there'll be some of each.

Up until today I'd only had four tomato plants on the plot. They were from dad and he said they were a giant variety. They'd bushed out greatly and I'd missed the opportunity to do the traditional pinching out. This weekend though I was determined to sort them out, and thin them a bit too. And that's when I made my tomato discovery.

Some actual tomatoes.

Green of course, but actual tomatoes.  This year, that's a very welcome sight.

My runner beans have also started.. Nothing last week and this week a handful or two picked for dinner one night this week. Even for our temperamental supplies, it's always worth a visit to the plot before we head to the shops. Although to be fair runner beans are something we never buy, why would you when you can pop over to the plot and pick some like this:

The other thing I've no need to buy is rhubarb, I cut more stems today and that emergency crumble I made last week is all but gone.

So not a bad visit, add to that another trug full  of weeds and another of tomato plant leaves, the compost wasn't doing too badly either.

But I shouldn't rest of my laurels, there's still plenty more to do and plenty more to be sown too, and even more plants to go out. But before we get to that I'm just hoping the foxes don't take a liking to the new tomato plants I put out this weekend.  Because I won't be happy!

More soon...

Catching up with things on the plot

After a busy few weekends in Norfolk, Suffolk and West Sussex there hadn't been much allotment time recently, so it's been good news that we've had some (a lot of) rain in that respect. On Sunday though we took our hoe, the late developing courgette plant from the greenhouse and headed over to the plot to find out how it'd coped.

The short answer is relatively well; there were some successes and some disappointments, and of course there were plenty more weeds, many of which are now on the compost heap.  

I've had mixed success with my sunflowers this year, but some are huge with stems easily two inches round. No flowers yet, but I'm hopeful and I can't wait to see how it turns out.   

The giant tomatoes from dad have benefited from the rain, and as well as bushing out through lack of pinching out, finally have flowers. I'm not that hopeful for ripened fruits, but it would be nice to see some - maybe if we have a good autumn I'll be lucky...

Actually I'd be happy if it was a green tomato chutney kind of year. At least that would mean some fruits! 

Our tiny apple tree has got the right idea though, and is back on track for a plentiful harvest now that it's settled into its new spot. We've also done really well on raspberries this year too, picking more than we could eat and freezing about five takeaway tubs full. 

The rhubarb is having a resurgence, and I'm not complaining. 

The strawberries, which had fruited well a month or so ago are also doing well in their new spot, with plenty of visible runners. I've moved these alongside the edge of the new path which cuts across the end section of our plot. The plan is to have both sides of the path edged with strawberry plants, and as you can see it's off to a good start.

The borlotti beans are starting to redden, and if I'm honest I'd hoped to see more of them by now. 

There's plenty of runner bean flowers too:

The globe artichokes in the crab apple tree were looking scruffy so I took my knife to the leaves - and the compost heap benefitted. 

The rosemary bush which I grew from a cutting from my old and knackered bush in the garden is looking very healthy, and I'm hoping to propagate more free plants this way too.   

The crab apple tree is laden with fruit, so it looks as if there'll be plenty to pick and make jelly from.  

As I was photographing these final few shots I became increasingly aware of the colour of the sky - ominous looking isn't it? 

But I wanted to check on my lichen before we left, that was doing well too.

So mostly positive; the disappointments included losing my final cucumber plant, so no home-grown for me this year, and losing a couple of our squash plants too. The onions continue to be a disappointment, or rather that should be the foxes that have interfered with my onions, continue to do so and I've been left with very few onions, with most smaller than a ping pong ball. Maybe I'll give them a rest next year?

We also hatched a new plan to reward our raspberries, which currently grow amongst long grass, and plan to move them as we cut the canes down into a new spot in order to help us tame that part of the plot without damaging the raspberries long term. It's also a plan for more digging, so it's now a case of finding time to do that...

It's definitely still all go on the plot. Let me know your successes and disappointments this year, as I'm curious to know if they're similar to mine or not.