Colours

Hmm, well, I’m not happy seeing the orange tint to the pumpkins already though I’m not too surprised, there’s been a definite Autumnal feel to the weather of late - obviously we’re all talking about it.

We have two New England Pie pumpkin plants; both planted on top of a big hole filled with manure. One has produced more than 6 football-sized fruits with more on the way. The other has only produced 3 and two of those have only just started developing. Either way, we’re going to have a pumpkin feast for Halloween (hope I’ve had my 3rd jab by then and can actually socialise a bit more!).

In between some serious showers this weekend we have managed some lovely harvests. Those are 2 Rocky cucumbers, the two plants are producing masses of fruits. We even resorted to blending those two with a bit of lemon juice and drinking it - we’ll, you’ve got to try these things….if only once! 

The two courgette plants have been causing trouble too - how can we keep up with this silliness - these were all marrow-sized? Luckily a couple were a bit yellow on one side so I didn’t feel guilty about composting them! 

The biggest one has been made into soup with the carrots and celeriac; it’s very tasty with a bit of turmeric and sweet paprika and has a lovely creamy texture. I took the celeriac stems out part way through cooking, but they’ve added a really nice celery flavour. Those celeriac stems were from two plants that were starting to go to seed, so I doubt they’ll bulb up very well.

I’m pleased that runner beans and carrots are on the menu now, they’re always a nice colourful addition to a meal. Like this dish, which I hadn’t made before. These fritters are beetroot, onion, flour and carrot using this recipe. I have to admit that the flavour was mostly of onion but the beetroot came through a bit and they’re a nice colour.

Two were filling enough for me, so I have the other two with roasted patty pan tonight. They’ve lost their crispiness since being in the fridge, so I’ll find out soon if I should have just kept the uncooked mixture which was even more colourful!

I had this salad for several lunches last week with patty pans, beetroot and dried Gigantes beans; my dried stock from last year is running low but the wigwam of plants has plenty of flowers and tiny beans now.

We’ve been assisting the sweetcorn with pollination now that the male flowers and female tassels have grown. Better pollination means more tasty kernels on the cob.

Something that doesn’t need any help with pollination is the tromboncino squash (I know Mal, you did warn me!) Look at that lot just making there way over the framework. At least they can be eaten as a Winter squash as well as a Summer one…. Apparently.

As already mentioned, the weather hasn’t felt like Summer and the damp weather has brought blight to the site. We’ve cleared our infected potato haulms and desperately hoping that tomatoes in the polytunnel will escape infection…  But if plot visits are timed right it’s been rather pleasant and I do like dark clouds like the ones looming as we returned home today.

I’ve been moaning (a bit) that we’ve had so many days of sunshine and showers but hadn’t seen a rainbow. But on Friday one appeared outside our window - perfect and they’re such a pleasure to see, aren’t they?

So the song title for this colourful post is provided by The Avalanches. Enjoy.