A Quiet Sunday - perhaps...

After a gap of more than a week, we spent yesterday 'morning' at the allotment - and came home about 4 o'clock laden down with runner beans, tomatoes, courgettes, borlotto/cannellini/kidney beans, apples, pears, rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries, half a dozen plums, peppers, chillies, tiny cabbages and cauliflowers, potatoes, broccoli, radishes, blackberries, raspberries......

 Now I just have to work out some menus for the week to eat it all up!

Picked this week - 19th October

This almost turned into one those 'cupboard is bare' weeks as I didn't get down to the allotment till Saturday - but when I did, I found lots to pick.

probably the last of the lemon cucumbers but it IS October.

spinach

a huge bunch of radishes

tiny cabbages - not much bigger than a tennis ball

raspberries, a few blackberries and a single strawberry

the last large pumpkin/squash - the green one at the top. Both of these should have made round pumpkins but I accidentally broke the bottom one off early and the top one which grew afterwards hasn't has time to grow big and round.

courgettes again - down to one cropping plant now

peas

french and borlotto beans. No more runners though

and a bag of mixed, ripe and unripe, tomatoes

Picked this week - 20th October 2013

 A couple of nice surprises at the allotment this week - far more autumn raspberries than I expected. I thought the damp weather would have slowed them down but they seem to have continued growing and ripening despite it.

 and while starting to clear out the sweetcorn, I discovered some undeveloped cobs which will do nicely for stir fry

 And the 'usual suspects' - tomatoes

radishes and the first spring onions from the September sowing

 spinach











 small peppers, crystal lemon cucumber and a courgette

 a whole heap of beans - runners, broad, french, borlotto  - and somewhere in there a few peapods

dirty crops - beetroot, turnips and purple radish

teeny cauliflower and very late spring cabbage

Picked this week - 6th October 2013

autumn fruits - blackberries, grapes, raspberries and, amazingly, strawberries










 and, of course, apples - quite a lot, all of a good size but marked by bugs

lots and lots of cucumbers

some green peppers

and some red

 continuing to clear outdoor tomatoes as soon as they're big enough to pick

though indoor cherry tomatoes are still ripening

I've cleared most of the remaining cobs of corn this week and also collected some smaller ones to add to stir fries

 a solitary courgette

 out first squash of this year - not very large and not really the right shape for a butternut variety














french and borlotto beans to dry









runner beans to freeze

 ..and more..

and a few more late-cropping broad beans













spinach - self-set amongst the cabbage but cropping really well

and last but not least, a cabbage

Picked this week - 8th September 2013

The weather's stayed dry and at times hot this week and some of the fruit and veg are suffering for it - blackberries are small and seedy, the runner beans aren't growing as quickly and some of the cabbages are splitting. Still there's been plenty to fill the baskets this week and thankfully Friday was a day filled with rain.

cucumbers - in all sorts of shapes and sizes

peas..

and beans

and peas and (french) beans - and spinach, broccoli, courgettes and our second pepper

and some slug-eaten borlotti beans from the garden

...and more beans, with broad beans from the regrowth after earlier crops

...and more beans - a mix of French and borlotti to dry out and shell

tomatoes - having to pick some early as the plants are bending too much

under the weight, again possibly due to lack of water

not so many blackberries as some aren't fit to eat but it's lovely to have 

late cropping strawberries

 and sacks of potatoes hiding under the stairs!