Mid October and still harvesting -pumpkins/squashes, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, potatoes and peas

Mid October and still harvesting

There are all sorts of jobs to be done at this time of year – usually!

·         Preparing for winter – cutting back artichokes and covering with straw in preparation for the winter frosts;

·         Pruning fruit bushes and canes – well, I have started pruning my red-currant and blackcurrant bushes though, this is difficult as the weather continues mild and wet and many of the bushes are slow to go into hibernation though, I do see that my year-old rooted red-currant cuttings have lost all their leaves and could now be potted-on. The raspberry canes are still producing fruit, albeit only a little;

·         Harvesting pumpkins and squashes – I’ve had to harvest some of these too early as slugs and snails were demolishing some varieties. Now, however, most of the plants are dying back and I can harvest a few at a time and take them home for drying. I am setting them out on my patio until they have hardened off. I would really like to use some of the seed again. While I acknowledge that these plants are very promiscuous, I would like to use some of the seed from my Baby Bears. My preference is for smallish fruit which will keep well over winter and next spring I will be exploring different seed suppliers for varieties which will, I hope give me a greater variety.

Do try some of these sites for interesting varieties:

www.nickys-nursery.co.uk

www.vegetableseeds.net

www.realseeds.co.uk

·         Digging potatoes – any other year I would have put ‘digging and storing’ potatoes. However, while I am still harvesting my poor crop, I am only digging up what I need from the sodden ground and many of the tubers have been decimated by slugs. My last variety for harvesting – Sarpo Mira – while it might be resistant to all sorts of pests and potato blight, it has, nonetheless, succumbed to an immense army of slugs and snails. Those potatoes which I am able to rescue are excellent but I can understand that, even in years where blight was not a problem, poor weather conditions would have threatened those communities, in the past, that depended on the potato crop for their winter food – And I am not living in the poor conditions of the West of Ireland.

·         Peas and Beans – I can see that a few of our plot holders are still harvesting a few runner and French beans for eating fresh [mine have long finished]. This has been a late year though, beans for drying have been quite good, especially the pole or climbing varieties. I did plant a late crop of peas in mid July, after I had harvested and frozen all my other crops. I had been advised that late sowing of peas were more inclined to be attacked by pea moths and be full of maggots. However, I am now harvesting and, while I don’t have a crop heavy enough to justify freezing, I can enjoy eating fresh peas every other day [and no maggots!]. This is good as I didn’t eat too many fresh with the earlier crops. It is almost time to start sowing broad beans again. I will sow now..ish! and again in the spring. For the last couple of years I have chitted the bean seed then planted in pots in my poly-tunnel to be transplanted in November. [this method has worked well for me, giving me an early crop which has had little problem from black fly]. But, my poly-tunnel is not yet cleared, nor even close. So, I have decided I will sow directly into the ground this autumn. I had stopped doing this because of poor germination [ or perhaps predators were eating my seeds], this year I will sow directly, cover with a coarse net and lay slug pellets. I will report back in the spring about the success or failure of this method.

·         Well! tomatoes, peppers and chillies – while the ripening and harvesting has slowed down, the ripening process has not yet stopped. I had expected to be looking at recipes for green tomatoes and green peppers and I am certainly working on that. However, these vegetables are still ripening.

·         I still have too many tomatoes to eat but, not enough to consider making another round of roasted pepper and tomato relish or another lot of tomato ketchup – each of these takes quite a lot of tomatoes and many of my ‘now ripening’ tomatoes are the small salad varieties [I guess I could just manage a final tomato ketchup!]. The chillies, three plants are Joe’s Long, are, as always very prolific and are ripening nicely, despite the lack of sunshine. I have one plant, given to me by my daughter, I have not identified – pale green through the ripening stage and now turning orange then red – was hot even at the green stage. It has been quite prolific so, I might give most of the fruits back to my daughter. The other chilli plant she gave to me has been slow to flower and fruit but the growth type, she tells me, is likely to be Bird’s Eye – she realises now that she had given me her only plant!. I think Bird’s Eye will be much too hot for me – even at the green stage – so I will allow them to ripen as far as possible and give them back to her [I’m really not into pain when I’m eating!]. I have harvested bags full of not-quite-ripe peppers. The plants have been so heavily laden that the fruits are sitting on the ground and are prone to attack by all sorts. I have grown Capsicum F1 Denver sown in March in my propagator and Corno di Toro Rosso, sown in April in my propagator [both lots of seeds from Dobies]. The germination rate was excellent and the young plants grew on well. Although I gave lots of them away, I still planted far too many in my poly tunnel, planting 3 x 6 across an area  1.5 x 3 metres. Yes, I know I planted them too close for them to ripen properly but, each plant has produced abundantly and, although I have given many away and I will still harvest a few which will ripen, I am still left with several pounds/kilos of peppers which will never reach the fully red stage. [ but, they might have in a hot sunny year] In a few weeks I will blog on suitable recipes for using green peppers and green tomatoes.

·         Of course, now is the time for autumn digging. Always, if you can, dig during the autumn. I have found that spring dug ground just does not break up so well until late into the season, after lots of rain. A few weeds may well grow over the area again but, don’t worry about that. Come springtime, this ground will be easily tilled. A few weeks ago, I fell and broke a rib [or two] and was not able to water my poly-tunnel. As this was a job which much needed to be done, I paid someone to do it for me for a couple of weeks. As this man was there for an agreed time, I also asked him to dig over my cleared ground. What a luxury! What would have taken me a couple of weeks, took this man a couple of days. I do still have an area to dig but I just might be able to do that on my own! Yippee!

Late May - developments on the allotment

Okay then, it’s been a week or more since I last Blogged. Our weather had been particularly wet – the wettest April on record, which has been followed by unrelenting sunshine with easterly winds. Not that I want to complain or anything but, a bit of nice, kind, southwesterly weather with lots of heat and sun with the odd shower, would have been good.

As always, in spite of the difficult seasonal conditions, I’ve made my share of mistakes – or maybe, more than my share. And really, it is good to see the sun - constant rain can be quite depressing.

My squashes, pumpkins, didn’t germinate in my propagator – what have I done wrong. Too hot, too cold, too moist, too dry? I don’t know. I was so desperate, I went online and bought a few, and I pleaded with my daughter who gave me a couple of her pots which had two viable seedlings in each – Baby Bear [my favourites – prolific , small fruits which are tasty and store well]. Today, I planted them out – four in a raised bed [lots of manure and watering – they are gross feeders and require lots of nutrients and water]. Perhaps I’ve put too many in this bed but I hope to direct the growing stems down the paths between the raised beds if necessary. This might not work but I will get back on this strategy later. I still have so many plants over. I find I’m approaching neighbours who, I know, will appreciate the plants, to find homes for many of my squash and pumpkin plants. And I’ve been looking around my plot for corners where they might be acceptable and grow on well.

There is an area which I had planned for a further transplanting of brassicas – that might take four or five with a couple of loads of manure.

I will harvest my early potatoes shortly – this will provide another area for, perhaps four plants. Perhaps I could find a couple of spots among my perennial/ flower/ herb area. But, you get the picture!

Magically, and there is always a magically - today one of my plot neighbours who keeps bees, invited me to join him on his checking of the hives.

There was a couple of swarm hives from recently recaptured swarms – amazing! I didn’t count the number of established colonies in hives but, this is a real bee city. And, all of these bees are pollinating our very needy plants, which would not exist without the support of our bees. I have suggested to my beekeeper friend that he might like to have a few squash/pumpkin plants when he has some ground ready. He readily agreed.

On the potato front – slugs had eaten the top growth of all of my Mayan Gold seed potatoes. I’ve never known this to happen before and have been somewhat upset that it has happened like this. I have now re-planted.

As always, the insect life will create their own habitats, left to their own devices. When I entered my poly-tunnel this morning I was instantly aware of a tomato plant looking sickly. The droopy plant and the ‘fine’ compost on the surface of the plot immediately alerted me to the presence of a red ant nest – yet again! As before, I have sprayed with Py liquid compound. As I have said in previous Blogs, this is an organically approved, contact spray but, the little bu**ers are still with me. And I am still on their case.

My broad beans should be ready for harvesting in a couple of weeks. In spite of the dry conditions they are growing on well.

Other beans are not looking so good. Eventually the young plants are appearing above ground and I am trying to give them some water occasionally, although, I know, that the ground where they are sprouting is still quite moist. Their appearance is so slow that slugs are ‘picking them off’ so I’m obliged to put out slug pellets along with my new [beer fed] slug traps. I’m still not convinced about the effectiveness of this method of slug control.

Although it is suggested that sweet-corn is planted outside in June, I decided that my earlier sowing of sweetcorn [Dobies F1 Earlibird] – already potted on twice, should be planted out. It is just beginning to root into the compost of my poly-tunnel. I had to soak the ground thoroughly before planting, in spite of having being dug a month or so ago, as it is so dry. This year I’ve planted them much closer together as I’ve had problems in the past with pollination – yes, I know they should be planted fairly close and in squares as they are wind pollinated but, I’ve still failed, in the past, to have my sweetcorn properly pollinated. This year, I’m planting the young plants 20cms [ 8in apart]. I hope this will work better than my previously generous planting space of the past.

More later!

Autumn harvesting

I have just returned from a reasonably long holiday in Andalucia (southern Spain) well! It was long for me anyway, I’m not usually away for more than a couple of days. I returned in the middle of the night to a cat in tears as he had been mauled by (apparently) another cat and was desperately in need of a vet. Although not injured, my other cats were equally upset. They so put the guilt trip on me! Really I hadn’t left them unattended. My cat carer is very competent and kind, just not the person they wanted.

It is autumn. When I visited my plot I was dismayed by how overgrown it was. Grass paths are rampant, weeds have taken over, caulis have overgrown, cucumbers are overripe, runner beans are too mature, tomatoes are too, too many.

I have collected several buckets full of several varieties of tomatoes and have found homes for most of them, not least, several more tubs of frozen tomato pulp for use in the winter. I’ve noticed that the runner-bean poles on the plots of many of my neighbours have fallen over. Mine would have too if I hadn’t propped them up but, in any case, the beans are not worth harvesting – too mature, too stringy, too hard. No worries, I will dismantle the canes and compost the rest of the crop. I have already harvested and dried my Borlotto beans. They are good, though I think I will look for a climbing variety next year – so much easier to dry for winter use. I see that my Yinyang (Orca) beans are almost ready. I worry that the weather might be too damp for successful drying. I have not seen climbing varieties of these beans but, when they lie on the ground in damp weather they are more likely to go mouldy.

There is a load of stuff to deal with now. I have harvested most of my squashes and pumpkins. Really I’m not interested in the huge varieties for competitions, nor the large pretty ones for Hallowe’en lanterns. I am looking for the small fruits which will store easily for use as a winter vegetable. My favourites are butternut squashes. This year the germination rate was not good and from a couple of plants I have ended up with only 4 squashes. If you do have a good crop you mean to store, make sure they are dry and store in a frost free environment out of direct sunlight. Check them regularly for rot and don’t store in direct sunlight, on a wooden or on a carpeted surface. If they do break down they will destroy those surfaces. I intend to store mine in a dark attic room on top of cardboard. I do hope they will last for the winter as they are staple vegetable for winter.

Talking about staples for winter, I have now lifted all my potatoes including my Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona which are both late maincrops. When lifting them, separate the damaged ones – slug damaged or by digging implement - and use these immediately as they will not keep and will damage your stored potatoes. Make sure they are dry before you store them in hessian or paper sacks and store in cool, dark frost free conditions. Mine are going into my attic room. Gosh, it is going to be packed when I have finished. Hopefully they will keep well into the new year, unless I have eaten them all first.

For the first time, this year, I have enough carrots to store. Goodness, this has never happened to me before. I do have some damage from carrot root-fly but, I have been harvesting Purple Haze from my raised carrot bed with little damage. Although not huge roots, they have excellent texture and flavour. My Resistafly and Flyaway have been good, although, obviously I hadn’t prepared the bed well enough as the carrots, although excellent flavour and strong roots are really very forked.

My carrots – Creme de Lite (F1 from Dobies) planted straight into a well prepared bed on the flat ground have been excellent. There has been some carrot root fly damage but the carrots have been huge, flavoursome and tender. I do recommend them. I will leave them in the ground as long as I can manage. I’m not yet sure how I will store them. If the winter is going to be as bad as has been predicted then I don’t think that a sand-pit or my shed will suffice. They might also have to go in bags in my attic room.