Before the frost

I saw that we were due for a cold snap, our first real frost of the season;  though I've seen a little frost on cars and at the park, none of it had touched the allotment or garden yet.  So with this news in mind, I've been gathering in the last of the autumn harvest over the weekend.

At home the only thing left (the only thing I'm not confident about, that is) was the lettuce;  accordingly, on Saturday I picked every large-ish leaf I could find, soaked them and put them in a container in the fridge, loosely covered.  We ate these within a few days.  The plants still remain in situ;  maybe they'll survive the frost to grow a few more salads.

On Sunday the son and I trekked up to the allotment with two big bags and filled them:  the last of the cherry tomatoes, green and red;  all but the smallest achochas;  every ear of corn (all baby corn, the kind you might find in a stir fry);  and the last few artichokes.  

We also came home with some more beets, radishes (black and white) and three huge purple topped turnips.  I'm proud of those turnips, never having grown any larger than a golf ball.  I have quite a lot of all of these still growing, but I'm not too worried about them as they are somewhat frost hardy.  I considered bringing home a leek or two but thought I'd wait till next week as they actually improve after a frost.

And I cleared away all the climbing bean vines, purple- and green-podded, and stashed them in our little allotment shed for drying;  these will hopefully be seed for next year, so long as the rats don't eat them--they did once when I left some pea vines to dry in our garage.

I can rest safely now, knowing I got everything in on time, and that I have plenty of standing veg to come.

Tidying up

On Sunday our family walked up to the allotment with some sheet mulch materials, quickly dropped them off and walked back across the street to the war memorial to attend the Remembrance Service there for half an hour.  Afterward, the daughter and husband had a quick tea and biscuit at the village hall before joining the son and I already at work.

The son and I started by pulling out all the plum tomato plants and their supports;  we collected the last couple of pounds, mainly green but a few orange and red;  these I later blended up with onion, garlic, chili flakes and salt to make 2 L of fermented salsa.  Once cleared away, we laid down some saved waste wool sheets (from the insulated boxes our monthly milk delivery arrives in) and on top of these some cardboard and thick paper feed sacks. 

Once we used up all our cardboard--though it wasn't enough to fully cover the bed--the son and daughter walked up to the stables on site to collect some manure and straw to mulch over the top;  they both have their own wheelbarrows, a big and a small, and they made three trips.  

Meanwhile the husband was busy clearing the old pallets and bits of board at the very back of the plot, sorting out the rubbish from the keepers (mostly rubbish I think).  And I tidied up the paths all the way up one side of the plot and halfway up the other.  I pulled up the old carpet and rubber/plastic sheeting from the paths and put it back down, laying it over the edge of the beds, on top where the grass and weeds were creeping over (I flipped over each piece of carpet too, to smother any weeds growing in it);  I try to do this once a year, as the grass from the beds tries to take over the paths, which the carpet and rubber are there to prevent!  The son and husband had to help with one particularly big piece which we relocated to the back where the husband had cleared away a very grassy space;  which we will leave covered probably a full year at least before trying to grow there again.

We left with a big sack of tomatoes, some more nice big radishes, beets and achocha*.  Later at home, after making and bottling the salsa, I also chopped and cooked all the radish and beet greens (separately);  I've read that radish greens can be made into kimchi too!  But this week we're eating them boiled, cooled/drained/(well squeezed) and seasoned with oil, vinegar and soy sauce.  

*And to my complete surprise, I found two more squashes:  I originally had eight, then ten, and now twelve! 

Cooking and preserving radishes

Last week the kids and I were off school/work (I work at a school) for half term, and we did some harvesting at the allotment.  The tomatoes are still going, though slowing, and we also brought home some beets and a few more achocha (just when I thought they'd finished);  but the main event was a big bag of cooking radishes. 

I know, I know, no photos;  I'm a pathetic blogger.  If I was trying to make money off this blog I might try harder!  But that's not me;  I'm not in it for the clicks.  You'll have to believe me when I say we brought home about 8# of radishes (and 2# of toms and another 3# of beets--the son heroically carried home those heavy bags)!

Most were black Spanish radishes, the smallest of which were only slightly smaller than a tennis ball (bigger than a golf ball) and the biggest about softball size (huge!);  I couldn't believe the size of them actually, considering I only put the seed down in August.  I pulled just two of the so-called "mini" daikon radishes as my bag was full by this point, but both were like extra-large white carrots.  Normal daikon radishes can be several feet long so the mini description is accurate in comparison, but they came in at about 1# each including the tops--hardly mini in my book.

All but the three smallest black roots (these will be for cooking in stew) went into a new batch of dongchimi, a type of water kimchi.  I peeled the black ones--white on the inside--but didn't bother with the daikons and then sliced them all thinly with my mandolin;  together they filled my spare 1.8 L jar and are fermenting happily on my kitchen counter.  I still have about a quarter left of my kohlrabi dongchimi from August;  I love it so much I've been making it last but now I have a new batch I can go to town on it. 

The lush and full radish tops I cooked and seasoned similarly to my beet tops and we ate them with dinner for several days running;  these were about half of the total radish weight.  While tasty, they were a bit more fibrous than the beet tops;  in the future I will remember to cook a bit longer to ensure tenderness.

The radish bed is still pretty full and is next to a bed of turnips destined for the same treatment.  It's shaping up to be a kimchi-filled winter.

Year round fresh veg?

 

I finally took the net off my cabbages, October 2024

I went up to the allotment after work on a rainy day last week and was not expecting to see my allotment neighbor (or anyone in fact);  we exchanged hellos and I expressed my surprise.  He remarked that he's there every afternoon (I'd been going in the morning) and hardly ever sees anyone now it's the end of October.

Where is everybody?  We can grow year round in our climate, and I certainly do.  It's true I'm not visiting the allotment every day any more, maybe twice a week, but I notice that many people have few or no winter crops growing.  Not like me!  At my allotment I have a bed each of turnips and radishes, two beds of beets, one of leeks, and one of purple sprouting broccoli (for spring harvest).  I also have a bed of garlic newly planted and not yet sprouted (for a summer harvest).

And at home I have Savoy cabbage, pak choi, radishes, komatsuna (another brassica), fennel, lettuce, and cauliflower (for spring harvest).

(Also at the allotment I'm still harvesting cherry and plum tomatoes;  I won't clear these away until a) they're done, or b) we have a frost.  If they go before mid-November I might get broad beans sown in their place.)

It takes planning to grow over winter however so I should really cut my fellow growers some slack.  Because I wrote out a plan for both garden and allotment early in spring, this is probably the most I've ever gotten in on time before;  seeds had to be sown in summer or even spring for some varieties.  It's not something I did much of when I only gardened at home (not enough space, also not enough experience), and I'm not growing to my full potential at the allotment either.  However, I'm learning and hopefully improving every year.  Along with my preserved summer harvest, I look forward to eating some fresh winter veg.

At the allotment, October 2024

As we get deeper into autumn, my allotment visits are growing further apart;  now the chickens are back in their yard at home, the son has again taken over their daily care and I'm only going to the allotment a couple times a week instead of every day.

Last week the daughter and I went up twice before school (on Monday and then on Friday) to pick tomatoes and beets;  I've been enjoying the beet greens even more than the beet roots themselves.  I learned a new way to cook them:  separate the stems from the leaves and cut them into bite sized pieces.  These will be cooked in boiling water until tender, then cooled in cold water for a few minutes.  The leaves are treated the same, but won't take as long to cook.  Once cooled, drain the stems, and drain the leaves and squeeze out all the extra water.  I combine them in a bowl and season with soy sauce, a little vinegar, sesame oil and sesame seeds.  Serve room temperature or chilled.

At the weekend, the whole family (self, husband, son and daughter) walked up in the wind and rain to plant out the garlic harvest.  We cleared away most of the squash vines, and in the process discovered two more squashes (one fairly big--how did I miss them?);  then lightly dug rows in the bed for about 120 garlic cloves.  I'd saved the largest heads from my garlic harvest in the summer, and there is still plenty in the pantry to last me (hopefully) till next summer.  The daughter and I planted them and the son collected a couple of wheelbarrows of manure-y straw (from the on-site stables) to mulch over the top, in the hopes of preventing weeds germinating.

While we were there, the husband also picked another pound and a half of tomatoes, and the son found a couple of artichokes to go with the handful of green beans and two squashes I picked.  Still lots of veg!

The Big One

The giant and siblings, September 2024

I had eight good sized squashes (and two small but still edible) this year.  One was damaged on the vine so got cooked right away;  the others are still curing in my living room.  We actually ate our last 2023 squash in July of 2024!  I saved seed from that one to plant in 2025, but I'm also planning on saving seed from that big orange squash too--which also came from my own saved seed of course.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my big squash had its two minutes of fame:  it went to my work (a school) for a "guess the weight" contest.  It's 15.2 kg!  The farthest left squash in the photo above is the next biggest (but unweighed as of yet) and a similar size to my biggest squashes last year.  All these grew from the seed of one squash I'd saved, and I got those three colors:  orange, dark green, light green.  I grow them at my allotment where the bees are free to pollinate with everyone else's squashes, and I suspect that last year I got some pollen from someone else's Atlantic Giant variety to get that prize orange one.

A colleague organized the contest on a whim, though she'd asked me initially to bring it in for her harvest display (I also brought in some beets with greens and purple podded French beans).  We had the weighing scales out for something else and I suddenly thought we could weigh my squash.  We were both amazed by its weight;  then she said, we should hold a contest!  She printed the slips of paper for all the kids (and adults) to write down their guesses and a box to put them in, and afterward we went through the box to find the three closest.  Those three got a toffee apple each, which my colleague kindly bought, and the head teacher announced and presented at an assembly.

Below is the daughter giving it a hug;  when I brought it home safely from school (I had several moments of trepidation during its week at school), I gave it a big hug too. 

Squash love, October 2024

Bringing in the harvest

My tomatoes are still rolling in a few at a time, though the husband warned it might frost later this week.  I hope it doesn't--not yet--our usual first frost is November or later.  If my tomatoes do bite the dust I'll make some green tomato pickle or salsa with the remainder.  Or both, depending on how many I have left.  Most of the red ones have gone into the freezer for future sauce;  the cherry toms have gone on lots of salads and also into lots of soups and curries.

I've stopped picking purple podded French beans in the hopes for some seeds, though I'm still picking a few of the green podded beans--still got a lot of these but I'll want seeds off them too.  Also pulling up beets as and when they are needed;  most are a good size by now.  The cucumbers are done, having picked the last pickling ones a few weeks ago and the salad ones this week;  I'll be transplanting my cauliflowers, komatsuna and winter lettuce into the salad cuc bed as soon as I can.  I also picked the last zuc at the weekend.

All the squashes are in, and my famous big one is also safely back at home, having survived all 200+ children and adults at my work (a school) for a "guess the weight" contest.  And the weight is:  15.2 kg!  My own old fashioned kitchen scales are in pounds and ounces;  the conversion is 33 lb 7 oz!  Last year my biggest one was about 17 lb, and I thought that one was enormous.

My batch of lettuce from late summer is producing nicely now, hopefully for a few more weeks, but the achocha has mostly finished;  I'll probably let it develop and drop seed.  My leeks look good despite the grassy sward they are growing in, and the radishes and turnips (sown in August) look lush and leafy, though not ready to pull.  I have about half a dozen cabbage heads forming, but also not quite there yet.  I plan on eating lots of fresh veg over winter, as well as eating from the freezer, pantry and fridge.