Only a few plums, keep on harvesting and preserving veg

After all that hoping and waiting, I just didn't have the physical (or mental, let's be honest) capacity to process our plums.  I gave a sackful to a neighbor and made a batch of unsweetened puree for crumbles (I was able to squeeze most of it into the freezer):  I estimate about 8-10# in total.  I didn't weigh it.  The daughter managed to eat a couple dozen too.  But the rest has gone to the birds/wasps/worms:  maybe about 20-30#.  

I had 2.8 L of kilner jar space to make some cucumber refrigerator pickle slices last week, but I'm really down to the wire for jars now.  A couple small ones, like 250 mL each, and one more 1 L kilner jar.  I mainly use the kilner jars for fermented veg, or fridge pickles.  And did I mention how full my fridge is of pickles and fermented veg?  There isn't a big tradition of canning/bottling in this country so jars and lids aren't easily obtainable.  I have to make do with what I have.  

I managed to clear my kohlrabi bed at the allotment, pulling all the usable kohlrabi and digging lots of grass runners--I have a monster compost pile at the front of my allotment now, next to my five full compost bins.  I've left the bed unmulched for now, as I plan on making one more pass with the garden fork first;  maybe I'll win against the grass one of these years.  After trimming off all the leaves and roots I stacked the kohlrabi in a box (on my kitchen floor!  I have no space!);  I'm trying to use one every day or so:  I like to shred them (peeled first) and marinate for salad.

Still picking toms, cucs, zucs, French beans, onions.  Soon:  lots of squashes, komatsuna (regrowth after flea beetle damage), beets, early leeks.  Maybe in the future (not very close):  carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, winter radish, cauliflower.  Looking good for a spring harvest:  hardy leeks, purple sprouting broccoli.  

Feed the soil

I was talking to a fellow allotmenter, just two plots away from mine, who complained it had not been a good growing summer for her.  I certainly tried to not to show it, but I had a rather self satisfied feeling at that.  True, it's been far too much work, but at least I've earned a fleeting moment of superiority about my yields this year.  I gave her a cucumber.

Why has mine in particular been so productive?  Here's what I think:  

• The inordinate amount of sheet mulching I've done over the last eight years, involving copious amounts of straw and horse manure
• Additionally, the very thick mulch of wood chips covering nearly every bed this year

The annual (or even twice annual) addition of all that organic material when sheet mulching has made my soil incredibly rich and moisture retentive.  Even though I've been fighting (and not winning) against couch grass this whole time, my beds have been gradually getting more and more productive, as documented on this blog.  I've been using sheet mulch as a strategy against the grass:  to knock it back long enough for my transplants to get a foothold.  Then do it all over again at the end of the season when the grass takes back over.

Wood chips have been a game changer;  until last year I would cover my bare soil with straw from the horse manure pile on site.  It served its purpose of keeping in the moisture but also had some drawbacks:  enhanced slug habitat, quick to decompose (needing regular top ups), and full of weed and grass seeds.  When we began getting free wood chips dumped at the site last summer, many people spread them on their paths;  I went a step further and started deep mulching my beds, starting with just a couple as an experiment.  Truly, it's been pivotal.  It keeps in the moisture like the straw mulch did, but has no seeds.  It also lasts much longer before needing a top up, and slugs don't hide in it as well.  Maybe the woodlice hide in it, but I had woodlice when I used straw mulch too.  

I suspect if I had access to wood chips and not horse manure/straw at the beginning of my allotment journey in 2018, my soil might not be as excellent as it is now (I still have access to both).  I'm also a more experienced allotmenter than I was then, even though I had already been gardening for years by that point.  Growing veg in a couple small beds is far different from keeping a full allotment ticking over year round, and I've learned how to do this little by little.  My overarching goal has been full self reliance in vegetables:  I've never been so close to achieving this, and as well as my hard work and experience, the vast improvement in my soil has been a key factor, in my opinion.

The son was very impressed when I went up to show him (it's a single bunch!), August 2026

Defeated by fruit, but at least it rained

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar, munching my grape leaves, seen from my kitchen window ("Wow, what is that??"), Aug 2026

My lettuce experiment at the allotment didn't fare quite as well as the pak choi earlier in the season.  The slugs/bugs have pretty much mown them all down, though at least the Chinese cabbages in the same bed are still hanging on, just:  they have some bad flea beetle damage.  In my previously sown beetroot/radish/turnip bed (luckily these look ok, though there were gaps), I've transplanted what remained of my pak choi and spring cabbages, also sad from flea beetles.  Both beds are under insect mesh, but obviously the mesh isn't keeping everything out.

I've had to admit defeat on my figs and grapes:  the birds can have what they want.  I can't preserve them (no jars, no freezer space) and they don't store.  The daughter is eating some every day, but not as many as the tree and vine are producing.  I'm all figged (and graped) out.  And of the apples:  the son picked two large baskets and I keep reminding everyone to eat their apple a day.  But.  It's just too many apples, despite only being two small, espalier-ish trees;  at least these will keep for a couple weeks.  Then there are the plums...

Still bringing in too many tomatoes and cucumbers.  I was wrong about the zucs before, but maybe this time these really are slowing down.  Maybe.  I've made the executive decision to stop picking purple snap peas and save the rest for seed.  These did better than I initially judged:  they started out slow but ended up completely surprising me--I'll definitely want to grow them next year.  

On a more positive note, it rained!  Actually it's still pretty dry, but grass is slightly greener, and some self sown mizuna have spontaneously germinated in my kitchen garden.  My water butts both refilled too, and all my plants look a lot happier having had several good long showers.

I managed to clear away most of the harvested Savoy cabbage plants at the allotment;  they had enormous root systems and were starting to resprout.  I snapped off the new growth for fresh eating/dehydrating and put the huge old outer leaves and stalks to compost;  these had to go in a new pile since all five of my plastic composters are still full to the brim.  I was trying to remember what I filled them with, and I think it was mostly grass (was it really)?  I'm not known for digging grass, but that's certainly the only stuff I can see.  I guess it must have some other weeds and of course the potato tops, but did I really dig up so much grass?  

This pace is brutal!

I told my son to get my leg in the shot for scale comparison (not quite knee high), Aug 2026

Still "enjoying" the heat and dry this summer--and the bounty that comes with it (it did rain a little bit the other day).  Honestly, I promised myself I would scale it back a bit this year and not make it so hard on myself like last year but this has not worked out quite like I planned.  I'm working just as hard while much of what I'm harvesting at the moment is a glut:  tomatoes, cucumbers, figs, apples, even zucs still.  

And though I'm getting a more reasonable/moderate harvest of aubergines, onions, snap peas, French beans, komatsuna;  these in addition to the excess of the previous means I'm simply overflowing.  I'm barely coping.  Maybe I'm not quite even coping:  my counters and fridge are all full, not to mention my freezer and cupboards.  

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My fermented crushed tomatoes finally finished actively bubbling;  I skimmed off the solids into a jar in the fridge for winter use (still pretty liquidy) and have been using the remaining liquid to cook with now--it's salty and delicious.  I have about 2 L in the fridge and could maybe squeeze in one more jar of the same size (fridge is pretty full!).  The husband has put some tomato slices to dehydrate, and I also bottled a batch of tomato/chili sauce using some of the jars I liberated last week.

My newest batches of ice cream are fig/strawberry and fig/blackberry, both using berries we picked and froze last summer plus fresh figs.  I made just plain fig ice cream too but found it uninspiring, though the kids didn't complain.  

At the allotment I started picking salad cucumbers, variety Marketmore (from my own saved seed).  Recall the pickling cucs there all succumbed to slugs, though I still have both those and Marketmore also growing at home (and have been picking them for several weeks now).  I've attempted to grow them vertically but with limited success.  The cucs at the allotment have a bamboo cane teepee but are not growing up it much--it's a tangle of vines and hard to see any fruits amongst the lush leaves.  The cucs at home are more in a cluster of bamboo canes.  This also makes it hard to find them--especially the pickling cucs--before they get too big.  I still want to grow them up canes but I'll try rows next year, for ease of picking.

Lastly, the son and I have managed to replant the mange tout bed at the allotment with lettuce and Chinese cabbage seedlings, and the remainder of the potato bed with fennel;  we spent some time forking out grass runners and deep mulching with wood chips first.  I need to the same to the cabbage beds next, now that I've harvested them;  while it's late in the season there are a few things that can still start now, such as overwintering onions, spring cabbage and pak choi/komatsuna.  And I'll need a clear bed to plant garlic in early October too.

Still harvesting and preserving, still sowing and planting

I think my allotment has passed peak zuc.  Going from around 5# per day to 1# seems like a downturn, right?  I can handle 1# per day.  I've left one to grow into a marrow to save for seed;  this is one I grew from seed saved last year.  The fruit I saved from was a typical dark green zuc but had obviously crossed with a different variety as its offspring grew fat striped tasty zucs this year.  Since it's been growing amongst several different varieties again I expect it will be something even more fun next year.

In the face of an overload of tomatoes, I decided to try fermenting a large jar, crushed into sauce.  To be on the safe side, I generally go kind of heavy on the salt when I ferment veg, usually 2 T of salt per L;  the tomatoes haven't really gone very active, at least not yet--probably because of that extra salt.  I've made fermented salsa in the past using both red and green tomatoes, so I'm somewhat confident;  I've just never done it with just straight tomatoes.  I have a 1.8 L jar on the go and two more empty jars to try:  one the same size and a 3.3 L.  

I went through the back of my kitchen cupboards and found some jars I'd forgotten about:  a cucumber relish I'd made back in 2021, and a couple jars of dehydrated garlic stems which had no flavor.  Also two jars of caramel and rhubarb jam which were still good but we are a low- to no-sugar family--I decided to make a clean break and compost them (just one little taste!).  Any fruit preserves I make from now on will have no sugar added.  While this liberated a few jars for me, it's not enough to deal with the tomato influx!  Instead they will do for dehydrated veg, and I have a little more room for now.

The son and I have been renovating a couple beds which have just been cleared at the allotment:  the Charlotte potato bed (finally) and the mange tout pea bed.  We've spent a couple hours forking out grass runners and spreading new wood chips on top;  I'm hoping to transplant some quick brassicas and fennel there, but the brassica seedlings have been attacked by flea beetle and look very sorry indeed.  I don't know how the flea beetles got to them so high up on my patio table, draped with insect mesh;  I'm not sure if they'll pull through actually.  At least the fennel and lettuce seedlings (all sown on the same day) look healthy, though small still.  Maybe I'll risk the lettuce at the allotment too, usually a no go because of slugs;  I risked the pak choi earlier this summer and it paid off--the lettuce might pay off too.

Still picking purple snap peas, small aubergines, salad and pickling cucumbers, French beans, a little cabbage, and a beet or two.  Thinking about a couple onions, kohlrabi, komatsuna and fennel.  The last batch of lettuce bolted in the hot/dry, but my newly sown seeds of beets and radishes are sprouting up.

An allotment helper, still too many vegetables, making kimchi and ice cream

 

A helper at the allotment, July 2026

That little amphibian pictured above also has a friend, slightly smaller.  A female and a male maybe?  We don't have a pond at the allotment but instead an old pond liner smothering weeds;  it has a dip in the middle that has a continual puddle from watering--our little frog puddle.  This one had been lurking in the zuc patch that day and quickly made its way back to the puddle and the safety of the tomato overgrowth nearby.

Speaking of tomatoes, we (well, the husband mostly) have been picking a reliable 2# every other day this past week.  So far I've been making tomato heavy meals, but supply is starting to outpace demand.  I really want to bottle some--but have very few jars left.  The freezer is seriously full now, and the dehydrator is constantly packed with shredded zuc (we're going to be eating this for the rest of the decade I think).  What to do?

I had another kimchi marathon, making about 9 L over the course of three or four days.  I've got an additional 1.8 L of pak choi kimchi and another 1 L of komatsuma too.  And have been slicing up zuc for fresh/unfermented kimchi as needed.  To me it tastes less spicy when fresh, maybe because it doesn't have the sourness.  The zuc softens down so fast I think it would turn to mush if fermented;  I like the fresh texture, and it has a slight sweetness too.  The Savoy cabbage I used for the majority of the kimchi is much more robust;  I probably won't get to it till autumn or even winter--when the zuc gives up!  I've read that kimchi can last a year or more, although I doubt mine will--I'll eat it long before a year's over.  Unlike with the tomatoes, I don't have to have hermetically sealed jars for kimchi or other fermented vegetables;  the salt and acidity prevents spoilage, so long as the jars are kept tight shut.

The daughter and I are waiting for the figs to ripen, although I also have some trepidation:  it's loaded!  It's been such a hot dry summer, our dessert of choice has been homemade fruit ice cream--no doubt fig will be a delicious flavor.  She and I have gone out on our bikes to the local country park to pick wild blackberries, to tide us over.  They're big and juicy this year;  some years they're small and seedy.  

To make ice cream, I cooked them slightly in a pan with a tiny bit of water, just to soften--they really released a lot of juice.  After cooling down a little, I put the entire contents through my food mill with the smallest plate size to catch all the seeds.  Then refrigerated until cold, sweetened to taste, and gently folded with whipped cream.  I froze this mixture in a variety of containers (some silicone muffin cups and a plastic takeaway tub) and we enjoyed it the next day after dinner.

Whose idea was this, anyway?

Help, I'm drowning in vegetables!  The son cried off his potato digging duties at the weekend (only one row left of Charlottes to come up), so the rest of us went to the allotment on Sunday to bring back five Savoy cabbages, about a dozen zucs, two fennel and a handful of purple snap peas;  this completely filled my two bags, one an extra large canvas bag.  The husband declined to pick any tomatoes, saying there was no room for them and he'd get them in the evening when he went back to water--after I got home with my heavy heavy bags (the husband took the daughter to the park), I was so glad he'd refused!  I spent about two hours dealing with what I had:  soaking/washing, blanching, freezing, drying and kimchi-ing.  

The majority of the potato bed has been resown now, with beets, carrots, turnips, swede, and two kinds of winter radish.  Some of the seed was old so I really oversowed the bed, just in case.  The beets, turnips and pink radishes ought to be ok.  But if there are big gaps in the bed, I have some winter/spring brassica seedlings to transplant in about a month's time, too.  

Still hoping for some rain, though thankfully it wasn't blazing hot again last week (it's forecast for this week instead).  Our washing machine was out of commission for almost a month, so there's been very little graywater for my kitchen garden until this week (finally!).  I save the water from washing/cooking vegetables, but that just about covers the planters, not the beds.  I've had to drag the hose out a couple of times for my cucumbers and French beans.  

Actually my allotment has much better water retention than my kitchen garden, most likely due to the annual sheet mulch (cardboard and straw/manure over plants and weeds)--my kitchen garden gets a top up of chicken manure once a year, but usually just one bed per year.  I should give it a thick layer all over this coming winter.  Unlike at the allotment which is mostly deep mulched with wood chips, I've had to leave the weeds in the soil in the kitchen garden, just to keep the soil shaded. 

Speaking of hot and dry, I picked my very first aubergines/eggplants last week--I can't believe they've actually grown and ripened on my patio.  They're all in large pots in a sheltered place right next to the house;  the pots are filled with composted chicken manure and a light topping of commercial potting compost.  I made ratatouille with the first batch, and steamed the second batch and seasoned with soy sauce/vinegar/sesame oil--this was even more delicious than the ratatouille, and some of it went onto homemade pizza.  I've got my eye on the next batch, just about ready to pick again.  What's more, I have cucumbers after all that drama:  I've started a jar of gherkins in the fridge, and the daughter and I have been munching the first salad cucumbers.