Pulled Out of the Bag

I've been trying to think of a way to mention the Olympics in this post and today we pulled our Athlete potatoes - see what I did there?! A topical potato if ever there was one! That's a good haul from two tubers planted in a potato bag.

The 31st modern games started in Rio de Janeiro on Friday night with an excellent opening ceremony (I have to admit that is my favourite part of the games!). Rio does look amazing from the images they're showing on TV - I love the enormous Christ the Saviour statue, but this new art installation is pretty impressive too!

We picked lots of other veg today, mostly because I'm back at work tomorrow (eurgh, my lovely break is almost over!) so need some salad bits for lunch. I'm intending to grate or thinly slice some fennel, which has gone over but should still taste nice) into the salad but it'll mostly be lettuce, chard and beetroot. I've also got some of the radish rats tails pods to give it a bit of a peppery flavour.

Dinner is just cooking - obviously it contains our staples of the moment: potato, courgette, garlic, beetroot and halloumi - mmm, we love fried halloumi! The potatoes look interesting now they've been tainted by the beetroot. It looks a bit like a peachy dessert!

Now That's August!

Aah, two lovely hot days. That photo was taken on Saturday when it really was blue sky and dazzling sunshine all day - how lovely it is! 

Sunflowers growing tall, but no flowers yet

Friday was hot, but not quite so blue. Jamie and I had a long lazy afternoon picnic on the plot with wine, olives, sandwiches and fruit. Such a perfect way to while away a few hours. Jamie couldn't help himself and mowed the grass, but I mostly sat, photographed (see Wildlife blog) and did a bit of watering.

I decided to do a butterfly count on Saturday, but the numbers are very poor. I guess that's what the Butterfly Conservation are interested in seeing though...

• 4 Small Whites
• 1 Brimstone
• 2 Meadow Browns

I may try again today, but it's rather grey, though warm, at the moment

Meadow Brown

Brimstone

This is evidence that the birds do eat the giant slugs. But he spent more than 10 minutes rubbing and scraping it in the dirt - presumably to remove the slime. Most unappetising!! (Of course, I'm vegetarian, maybe to you meat-eaters... :-D)

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 :)