Picked this week - 4th October

The lovely sunny weather continued for another week - though by the time I'm writing this up, Autumn is really here with rain every day.

Lots of fruit to be picked again - in fact more raspberries this week than from any summer week!




The last couple of smallish pears






More dodgy-looking peas

Squashes cleared after Saturday's ground frost. The smaller ones have now been covered with fleece and netting in the hope that they'll still grow.







First leeks of the year

Tomatoes and chillies from the garden greenhouse


and lots of tomatoes again from the allotment greenhouses

Early in the week, I picked these two peppers, then on Sunday (worried by the frost) I cleared all the reasonably sized ones - and some cayenne peppers and jalapenos.

I also cleared cucumbers and courgettes - still surprised to have either cropping in October

Tiny cabbages





Some more seasonable crops - though sadly this is all of our carrots

but just the start of the parsnips

Both french and runner beans - though with colder nights I don't think they crop for much longer

Keeping warm

 I suppose it was about time for it, but the first frost always comes as a shock - especially after such lovely weather. Saturday night though had a ground frost, not anything really worrying but it made me pick a lot of delicate crops such as peppers and squashes. The outdoor squash plants are difficult to protect but we're trying to - with fleece, glass and debris netting.

I can't think of anything to do for these French beans though - and they've just come in to flower

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