July and August are exciting months in the allotment holder's year. Here's some of the food we have harvested since the last post.
1. A load of Red Duke of York potatoes. Delicious and very good for mashing.
2. A broccoli and a cabbage. Andrew made the cabbage into coleslaw. I haven't had a chance to taste it yet but he says it was delicious. The broccoli was amazing. We shared it with Murphy: he supplied a steak and ale pie, we supplied the vegetables. We have lots of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflowers almost ready to go.
3. Beans. Lots and lots and lots of them. Dwarf French and runner, grown from the seeds Jill gave us. They are so delicious, and it's very exciting hunting for them and picking them. You think you've found them all and then you discover loads more. We shared some of the french beans with Murphy and I cooked some of the runner beans for Emma when she came round for dinner.
4. A courgette. Here's a picture of it on the plant (with another one growing in front of it). I picked it today, so I can't tell you how it tastes yet. We bought this courgette plant from the plant stall at my school summer fair. That's why there's only one of them. We'll try to grow more next year. I'm quite excited about the concept of a courgette glut.
Things we have learnt over the last few weeks:
1. Beans are easy to grow, fun to pick, delicious to eat, and therefore generally the perfect allotment crop. We'll be growing lots more beans next year.
2. Strawberries don't do very well if you don't water them.
3. Brassicas are very attractive to all sorts of pests, particularly slugs and white cabbage fly. They require an awful lot of work. And then, in the case of cabbage and cauliflower, you remember that you don't really like them anyway.
I don't know how to hack your blog to post a 'whilst they were off on holiday' update. But what has happened since the 7th is:
ReplyDeleteI picked about a kilo of beans. I am eating little else.
We pulled up 8 onions (they are tasty).
We pulled up two cauliflowers, one of which was bigger than Jon's head. It was over a foot wide. It made delicious cauliflower cheese.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time for the broccoli, which has bolted, but it is attracting lots of bees to its very pretty flowers (who'da thunk it? when you eat broccoli, you're depriving a florist of a raw material par excellence).
We cut a couple of runners of the strawbs, wondered at what looked a bit like beetroot, laughed at the biggest cabbage in Finchley, and remembered we couldn't remember what potato leaves look like, and whether there were any there...
A very successful pillaging mission. We shall return the favour and give you one of our 13 tomatoes when they turn red...
Thanks Charls!! You did a stirling job!
ReplyDeleteYes, the stuff that looks like beetroot is beetroot. We put it in a bit late but we should get some little beets. There'll be some for you if you want it. There were no potatoes, they're all stored away in a sack under the stairs.
You have to like beans if you have an allotment.
wow, i might have to "look after" your allotment next time you go away, fantastic!
ReplyDelete