Picked this week - 28th September 2014

Well, it's been another warm, dry week though not necessarily sunny, and despite a little rain one evening I'm beginning to wish for a good downpour!  
There's certainly no let up in the tomatoes and I'm beginning to wonder what I can do with them all! The freezer is full and I'm running out of space for jars of passata. Still, it's a nice problem to have

Even more surprising is the continued glut of both courgettes and cucumbers.

The larger green ones had grown undisturbed beneath foliage and are rather thick skinned and unappealing.

Another surprise - autumnal peas

runner beans still cropping though not so many - mainly I think due to the dry weather

odd bits of spinach and land cress as wanted for lunch

my own homegrown peppers - very pleased to at last have a red one

another couple of small cabbages - again victims of the weather








the end of the rhubarb

but raspberries are still going strong with occasional strawberries and blackberries

Autumn Equinox

Pottering about and taking for photos for this equinox post, I was struck by the dominant colours in the garden right now - purples/reds of fuchsias, michaelmas daisies, kaffir lilies, dianthus and late sweet peas - and yellow/orange of sunflowers, marigolds, nasturtiums and rudbeckias.
It isn't a planned colour scheme - I'm never that organised but it certainly looks bright and cheerful.

Picked this week - 21st September 2014

Another busy week, warm with a little rain but still needing to water at times - astounding for September.

Lots of offerings for salad lunches - cabbage for coleslaw


a mixed batch of radish







beetroot

spinach

possibly too many tomatoes

and weird cucumbers

Decide to take off these two smallish butternut squashes and hope the others on the plants will grow more

more of the disgusting-looking mildewed peas

French beans - for the green bits and the seed.

Also a bag of runner beans which must have run away from the camera(!)

Apples and pears



raspberries, strawberries and blackberries

and the only surviving grape. Something, probably a mouse, has eaten the rest!

Picked this week - 14th September

It's been a dry, warm and mainly sunny week, but we seem to have had little time for anything other than pick produce and freeze/pickle/store it.

We've certainly hit the point where we feel there might be too many tomatoes....the loose ones are from the greenhouse at home, and would be enough for salads and some spare,but then there are bags full from the allotment greenhouses!

I'm also starting to feel there could be too many runner beans too.....

Not so many French beans though..







Some late peas - fine on the inside despite their looks - and at last two pods from the blue-flowered peas.












I think we've now reached the end of good full corn cobs but I'm starting to collect the undeveloped ones for use as baby corn in stir-fries

 a single beetroot - so far just lifting them as we want them to eat

 some more onions and a few carrots

 LOTS of squash and pumpkins - I wish it has all been ours. The three larger ones on the right are ours but the others were given to us by an allotment neighbour who had too many.







Lots of cucumbers and courgettes too

with pepper and chillies

more radishes for lunch

not a lot of blackberries now but raspberries are still going strong with the occasional strawberry