Autumn 2014: A Thankful Harvest

I realize I haven't updated the blog since June. How time flies. My mind has been on other things this year as we hurtled towards increasing the number of tiny humans in the household by 100% at the beginning of November. I am vaguely aware that the plot is still there and it was fairly tidy when I last saw it but it no doubt needs attention now.

I'm waiting on delivery of my overwintering onion sets and garlic bulbs. This year I have opted to buy some new garlic, the harvest of my own recycled bulbs was disappointing. Having spoken to a few others I don't think the cloves I planted were at fault, but I do think the weather of 2013/14 produced smaller garlic than in previous years. In any case I am starting afresh, when they arrive, with some 'Carcassonne Wight', to remind me of the lovely holiday we spent in the south of France last year. It is a purple hardneck variety which are my favourite sort.

Squash 'Festival' and a courgette, I forget which variety but they were organic seeds and grew like mad once they got going

The harvest this year was excellent despite my half-arsed attempts at gardening, and I mainly have friends, family and colleagues to thank for that. Cucumbers, provided by my Dad (Wise Mike) were prolific again this year and Tiny Human #1 is addicted to them. I also benefited from several gifts from fellow allotmenteer Derek, namely squashes, sweetcorn and chilli plants which all did quite well. Finally I grew courgettes and spinach from seeds gifted by another colleague, Roberta, so without the generosity of all three I might have had a more barren year on the plot. Dwarf French beans did very well and onions produced a very good harvest, but the King Edward potatoes died off fairly early in August and failed to achieve anywhere near the sort of size tubers that I would have hoped.  My poor raspberry canes are still producing fruit but I decided to brutally ignore them this year, as my free time becomes more and more limited I am looking at lower-maintenance crops for the future.

I didn't grow pumpkins this year so this is a supermarket job but Tiny Human drew the face this year for me to carve.

Beets, roots and leaves

I have found beetroot fairly easy to grow. Particularly nice is that you can use the young leaves in a salad or instead of spinach. They seem pretty immune to pests, which is another good attribute. They're a bit bland on the dinner table, but Moog's favourite recipe is for me to pan-fry them in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and serve with crumbled Roquefort cheese.

I have just spent an hour or so pickling the last of my crop. I am left with astonishing purple fingernails as a result. I also have four jars of pickled beetroot. Looking at them, I realised that this probably represents more pickled beetroot than I have ever eaten in my life to date. So, another vegetable creeps onto the 'not going to grow that next year' list.