Autumn Arrived

Summer turned to Autumn last week - now the nights are going to be longer than the days, although the signs have been appearing for a few weeks now.

 Some of the plants have shown a recent spurt of new growth as it's been a reasonably warm September.

We're still eating plenty from the plot and I'm not yet bored of roast vegetables but Jamie has been for a while now. Sadly, for him, the courgettes and Patty Pans just keep on producing :-) He's happy that it's Hungerford Food Festival at the weekend because he's got the excuse of saving veg for the HAHA stand - not all the veg though!  

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https://hungerfordfoodfestival.com

This little trayful includes our first Kohl Rabi of the year - it was very tasty just roasted along with the other vegetables and those are some Silverskin onions which failed to produce enough for a jar of pickled onions because of the sluggy start to the year.

We had an allotment holders skittles night at the weekend - it was really good fun. Not so many people turned out as they did in January, but there were plenty of us to have a good entertaining competition.

HAHA versus the Royal British Legion and HAHA won :-) And not just because I was recording the scores - with a little help from my friends!!

Thanks for the photo, Kerry

In the Mood

I cooked again yesterday! Two days in a row doesn't happen very often. I had a vegetable omelet/frittata for dinner. With chard (stems and leaves), tomatoes, onion and courgette with cheddar cheese on top - so tasty.

The frittata could have contained potatoes as we emptied the last potato bag yesterday - one Orla produced a lot of large potatoes and they are in good condition. I hope they are suitable for baking.

A couple of the carrots had sprouted extra legs and they joined the onion and some spices to make my lunch soup that I'm eating as I type.

In fact, it was so tasty that I've had to heat up a second mugful - well, it's a small mug (honest!)

We had a nice couple of hours on the plot. Jamie spent time weeding the brassicas (Brussels Sprouts and Kohl Rabi) and I weeded and deadheaded all over the place.

The plants look much happier now that they aren't competing with weeds and they have a higher net so they aren't feeling restricted. We had to get the new net on quickly as there were a lot of white butterflies trying to lay eggs everywhere!

The loofah is getting longer each time we visit, but no sign of the foliage dying back yet so we'll leave it on the vine for now. I'm a little concerned it may fall off and break - that will be very disappointing as it's the one and only!

Hmmm, leek moth and lifecycles

Well, I clearly should have looked closer when I photographed the leeks yesterday! We have got some leek moth damage (not too much) and today we found several leek moth cocoons, which we disposed of, away from our leeks - hopefully our little robin will gobble them down! It would appear that the leek moth caterpillars had sneaked under our leek netting cage.



Leek moth cocoon

If these do develop into moths they'll be the parents that start the cycle to trash our alliums next Spring :-(
Talking of which, we visited the local Wyevale Garden Centre to buy a fork - they didn't have any!! - but I did buy a Solent White garlic bulb. So, we dug over the area by the leeks and hoed some chicken pellets in - we'll plant the garlic next weekend. I think there should be about 10 cloves.



Hoe hoe hoe (sorry!)

There are still quite a few butterflies about. Though it was cold enough for a frost last night it's lovely and warm in the sunshine. This small tortoiseshell butterfly was warming itself on the stones and there were a lot of cabbage whites about too. From the patterns on the outside of the wings I think it's a male. According to UK Butterflies, tortoiseshells stay in the UK and hibernate in outbuildings or hollow trees.

When we picked one of the cabbages early last month we took a tip from Liz and Ken on the allotment - they're long-term veg gardeners and know loads of tips. If you cut a cross into the remaining stem you can get extra cabbages to grow - well, this is the result. Not quite cabbages but certainly brassica leaves that can be eaten. We'll try them at some point if we get a chance while they still look edible.

The weeds continue to grow, we have a lot more weeding and clearing to do, especially with the rain and warm sunny days we keep seeing...

We picked two of the biggest celeriac and the last of the kohl rabi and sweetcorn. We rushed home to eat the sweetcorn within 20 minutes to ensure they retained as much sweetness as possible - it worked they were delish!!

First Sprouts and Kohl Rabi

We had a few hours on the plot this afternoon - mostly socialising and a bit of HAHA chat but also did what we intended to do. We took the fleece off the squash. The temperature had got down to 3.5° so the squash are fine but the Leonaris has succombed a bit and the asters are flat to the ground :-(

We pulled the sprout plant which had the mouldy section. I tried to pull it in one go but it snapped so not sure it would have stayed intact much longer anyway! We got quite a few sprouts from it which will go into bubble and squeak tomorrow.

We also pulled a few of the kohl rabi - I forgot to sow the next lot of succession but as the slugs are starting to eat them it's not a bad thing! We grew some in 2009 and 2010 but they have always got ravaged before we can eat them - that's why they're under mesh this year.We should have another harvest and then that area can be cleared - it should be where I'm putting fruit trees in next year..

I also pulled the last good carrots - two are really good; the other two would have been perfect for the funniest veg competition in September!!
All our onions are gone so my carrot and coriander soup is being made with spring and silverskin onions - I'm not sure they'll add much flavour, but waste not want not...! I'm using coriander seeds which I picked and dried yesterday.
The last thing in the trug is two Atlantic turnips (thanks Malcolm!) - we swapped a kohl rabi for them. That's another great thing about the allotment - swapping and freebies!