Mmm, sweetcorn

Picked our first two sweetcorn today. As you can see, one was far better than the other (sorry Jamie!). They were deliciously sweet and worth the wait. We've watered the rest in the hope that there's more time for plenty of kernels to develop - but may be a bit late in the season.

Still picking courgettes to stop them turning marrow-sized - and have got away with it so far this year, though we have given a lot away!

A bit of clearing

Spent a bit of time clearing up some of the plot today. Pulled the patty pan plant - there were just a few small squashes but others that were just going mouldy.

Pulled out a lot of the calendula - we've collected seeds but pretty sure the whole plot will be covered in them next year, given the number of seeds that we're finding everywhere!
Nice to see the rhubarb chard out in the open and glowing in the sunshine again.

Extreme rain!

We decided to walk up the allotment yesterday afternoon to pick a cabbage and some carrots. We badly mis-timed it! We had to shelter under a railway bridge for about 10 mins because there was a torrential downpour. We got to the site just as the skies opened again and ran for cover in the container - the sound of the rain on the metal roof was amazing!

The sun came out soon afterwards and the site looked beautiful, so we quickly picked our veg and went home! Sploshing through the huge puddle that is Marsh Lane after a rain storm :-)

Manure

We're a bit concerned with the broad bean we planted as a test in the horse manure. The leaves are really curled like reported with Aminopyralid contamination. Jamie's doing another test with 4 more broad beans. We haven't got too much manure and haven't spread it across the plots yet so it won't be catastrophic if it is contaminated, but obviously we don't want this additional problem!!

Still growing

We pulled our second purple spud and got a whole trugful. Also pulled the biggest turnip and ate that raw as a snack. It's one of the Oasis ones that are meant to taste like melon - not sure about that, but it was lovely and sweet. Also picked some sage to add to a baked potato. All the herbs have gone a bit mad and generally won't survive the winter so I'll use what I can before they're chopped right back or before the frosts come!

There are a couple of little peppers on our pepper plants. I can't think that they'll go red but hopefully they'll still be edible sometime soon.

Definitely Autumn

It's been cold the last couple of mornings but the days have been pretty warm. The leaves are all turning and quite a few leaves are down because of the recent windy weather. The hedgerow alongside our plot is covered in berries - hawthorn, rosehips, blackberries and sloes.
Jane picked some of our remaining raspberries and is going to make some raspberry jam with them so I'm glad they're not going to waste - the birds and anyone walking by is welcome to them!

Our courgette plant is still in flower but the courgettes seem to be appearing one at a time now.

I added today's small one to the carrot and parsley soup that I made. I made it with more carrots and only half a stock cube - it was really tasty so will remember that for future batches - and as we still have lots of carrots there will definitely be more batches!

Giant Patty Pans

Picked a giant patty pan to have stuffed for my dinner and picked one for my friend at work - they weigh about 1kg each! I'm having mine stuffed with tomatoes, spring onions, mushroom, cheese and sage

The plant is looking a bit sad though there are still lots of little squashes left on it. Some of the leaves have wilted and some of the tiny squashes are going mouldy on the plant. Hopefully I'll still get a few more little ones to eat.

It's been quite windy over the last couple of days but our runner beans are still standing! There are a few round site that are leaning badly but maybe they've had their fill of beans anyway :-)

Purple Cottage Pie

Had lovely veggie cottage pie for dinner. Instead of browning on top it went a deeper purple - really beautiful!

Green Tomato Chutney

We made the chutney using this recipe:
http://www.pickleandpreserve.co.uk/index.php/rapid-recipes/green-tomato-chutney
We only used half the amounts specified as we kept lots of the tomatoes for salads. Looked good enough to eat as soon as the apple, tomato, onion and sultanas went in the pan!

About 21/2 hours later it was finally reduced enough for packing into the jar. Looks delish!

Purple mashed potato

We had our first ever purple mash - looked amazing, maybe some would find it a little off-putting, but I like purple!!