Still Time Left

I've been hoping to do my Butterfly Count for the last week but the weather just hasn't been right. It's been really windy over the last couple of days. It's stayed pretty warm and there's been no rain since the 20mm overnight earlier in the week, but I want to do the count on a bright (mostly) sunny day and we haven't really had one of those.

There are a lot of butterflies about - masses of whites and a few more interesting ones, but hopefully the weekend will prove to be the perfect day for counting...

That little tiddler is a loofah! There are 3 so far on the plant in the greenhouse... I wonder if they'll have enough time to grow big.
The black tomatoes Indigo Rose are getting blacker - very pretty and bigger fruits than I expected. We've only grown cherry-sized ones before.

And the red Aviditas tomatoes are going orange...well, one has so far and plenty of time for them to go red.

I put strings around the Speedy dwarf beans - it may support them once the beans start forming - although the pumpkin plants may swamp them and the sweetcorn before that happens.

The Radish Rats Tails (are they just normal radishes that have gone to seed?!) are very pretty and their pods are forming, so they'll be lovely in salad lunches when I'm back at work (ugh, don't mention it!) next week.

Our normal radishes were nice at the beginning of the season but, as they do every year, they went to seed ages ago. If they form pods I'll see if they taste exactly the same as the rats tails.

By the way, it's August now! And if you're reading this and are in Hungerford (or nearby) don't forget our Horticultural Show is on the 20th. We hope to see lots of exhibits and/or fellow growers in the evening for the prize-giving and the produce auction - always good fun!

Looking Up

The title refers to most of today's photographs, but we also sowed some pak choi and kohl rabi, as well as planting out our sad little Brussels Sprout plants and the leeks - so I guess things are generally looking up.

We are most grateful to fellow plotholder, David, who let us have some of his surplus leeks which are in great condition, particularly when compared to our little wisps of grass! We now have 27 leeks puddled in!

(this photo doesn't fit the theme!)

Through the sweetcorn, which is getting taller by the minute, no sign of corn yet...but I love these leaves.

And this is looking through the beetroot stalks in the raised bed. The beets are still tiny but have so far been pretty much pest free, unlike the ones planted into the ground.

This photo is from the middle of the runner bean canes on Plot3 - Scarlet Empire, our favoured variety. Plenty of beans and flowers.

This is the parsnips. They're growing well but not tall enough to get underneath! In the distance you can see one of the pumpkins. I couldn't do a photo from under the pumpkin leaves because it's just too spikey! Very painful to get near!! We've chopped back some of the trailing arms of this plant as it's got at least 5 pumpkins growing and there can't possibly be enough energy to get to all those new pumpkins!

This is one of the Rocky cucumbers. They are planted in a pot which is on top of another pot so it's growing about 1 metre off the ground; it's making its way down the side now which will hopefully keep the little cucumbers a bit cleaner (and maybe slug-damage free).

The yellow courgette is providing us with most of our courgettes, with the green one being slow but sure and the Disco summer squashes just being plain slow! Not one flower yet...

And so, back to the fennel plant - this isn't the florence fennel. It's herb fennel which has gone to seed - I don't mind, it's such a pretty plant and it's only there to look nice anyway!

Summer Vegetables

Ooh, I'm excited - look what's in the oven! Looks cool, huh?

I got the recipe from Pinterest, http://www.budgetbytes.com/2011/08/summer-vegetable-tian/

I got the ingredients from the allotment - 

Ah, apart from the onion, tomatoes and the cheese which will be added for the last 20 mins in the oven.

It's got fried onion and garlic under the thin slices of courgette, potato (Kestrel) and tomato.

I hope it keeps its shape/colour once cooked, I won't be photographing it. I'll be eating it :)

Ooh La La - Ail mariné

Or, marinated garlic, which is what I've been making this afternoon. There it is, it's got to wait in the fridge for a couple of weeks before I can have a taster. The authentic french version is apparently delicious...

I used three fresh garlic bulbs, which didn't go as far as you may think - these are only very little jars.

I added salt, one of the jars has this Smoked Cornish salt, and red wine vinegar.

I also picked for my dinner this evening: our first beetroot of the year, this one is in surpisingly good condition; fennel; first carrots of the year - these are thinnings so they're only little; a courgette that's getting a bit too big. I'm roasting the veggies (although I haven't got any garlic left at home - duh!). I'll shallow fry the courgette so it's a bit of a different texture, I'm removing some of the water from it first, using salt.

And raspberries for pud.

Mostly Green

But starting with a bit of colour as the raspberries are doing pretty well on Plot7 this year, obviously leaving them to do their own thing is the answer!

We're disappointed with our 3 grafted pepper plants. We expected them to produce a whole string of peppers... At the moment they're all green but they should colour-up when they're ripe.

Milena - the orange one

Perhaps the colder weather mid-growth stopped them in their tracks.

Britney - the red one

Or maybe it was just not warm enough with the greenhouse door open - but it gets stifling in there during the day if it's shut.

Chelsea - the yellow one

Well, hopefully these five peppers will grow big and tasty, even if they don't produce the 'abundance of tasty peppers' the plants are meant to.

At the end of the greenhouse the loofah is growing tall. It's rather straggly with just one flower and no fruits yet...

The pumpkins on Plot7 are spreading as intended - we want them to grow over and around the sweetcorn as the small pumpkins then hang and stay nice and clean.

The Minicole cabbages on Plot3 are looking more like cabbages now. We weeded most of the plot today and it's looking much happier - though the spuds still look awful!

This ringlet butterfly was in the greenhouse, reminding me that I need to do the Big Butterfly Count but want a nice sunny day to do it on - today wasn't sunny, but was warm. 

And for dinner we have our first runner beans - Benchmaster. They have a red line along the edge. I'd take a photo but they're in the cooking pot right now!