Turning colder

One at a time, Oct 2018

I don't know if my remaining peppers will now turn red, considering the change in the weather.  Though I've been wearing my jacket in the mornings on the way to the allotment this past month, I've only needed a cardigan when walking the son home from school in the afternoons.  Just over the past few days daytime temps have dropped by about 8-10 Celsius:  definitely cardigan + jacket (+ hat + scarf + gloves)...

Though the Misc bed had mostly stopped producing by the start of October, I still haven't cleared away the old plants.  The pepper plants are all in containers on the patio next to the house--more sheltered than the rest of those summer Misc veg like squash and sweetcorn.  I know it's time to tidy, but I want to stay in out of the cold!  Unfortunately I put all the pepper plants into my largest containers which can't really come inside to finish ripening in the warmth--though the larger containers undoubtedly contributed to bigger plants and more fruit.

I've frozen a few ripe peppers--for making salsa soon--and have started a little jar of salted/fermented hot sauce on my countertop;  I'll probably mince the remaining green ones into the same jar;  what little I have is tasty and not quite as hot as the fresh pepper:  though the husband prefers hot hot hot, it's plenty hot for me.

October salad bar

Lettuce patch, Oct 2018

I have a few last lettuces growing in planters (after harvesting all the carrots).  They're only putting out new growth slowly, but we're still having a salad once a week.  Part of that is adding other salad greens to the mix;  most of my winter salad is self-sown:  bonus!

I've got a resident crop of lambs and miners lettuces which self seed every year;  they only germinate around now, as the temperatures drop, and they are mostly confined to my containers and cold frame.  I wouldn't mind if they spread themselves around the garden too, as not a lot is happening out there now.

Also in the mix are young chard and sorrel leaves, still putting out a little bit of growth.  The chard will stand over winter, though the sorrel dies back once too cold--it's quick to grow back in early spring, though--when most things are finished.  I've got young chard plants only just coming up now, plus some older ones started in spring;  all will produce a little over winter, plus a good amount of growth in the spring before going to seed.

There are a couple arugula volunteers popping up now;  the husband and I like these, along with the mizuna, but the son finds them a little too spicy.  Same with the nasturtium flowers and leaves;  I use the leaves as a pungent flavoring more for stew than salad, as cooking mellows the spiciness.

Besides greens, I still have a few spring onions and achocha, and just a couple of tomatoes left.  I also have some fermented salsa fresca in the fridge for a nice salad garnish (no chilis added, so it's a bit more like gazpacho).  I anticipate we'll be able to eat fresh salad up to the end of my No-Buy Veg challenge--27 Nov--and beyond.

An unexpected fruit

Back in spring, I sowed several melon seeds, saved from a supermarket specimen the year before.  One managed to grow enough to be planted out in a container on my patio.  There it grew--slowly--gently trained up a stick I'd put in to support it.  I nipped off the growing tip once it reached the top of the stick (approximately as tall as me). 

Here it is, Sep 2018

It proceeded to flower in late summer (very small flowers), and a few fruits formed--only to fall off.  Just one fruit stayed, and this one formed maybe late August.  By mid-September, the vine was wilting, much like the cucumber plants did.  That one fruit however, only the size of a lemon, still remained.

A week ago we had strong winds.  After three days, it calmed down and I realized the melon had fallen off its vine.  It had slug damage and a bit of mold on part of it.  But looking closely past the slug bites, I could see the inside was green and shiny--it looked ripe!

I cut off the damaged part;  I salvaged two tiny seeds to try next year.  The husband, son and I shared the fruit:  it was perfectly sweet and juicy.  I actually grew a melon!

About four bites, Oct 2018

Crowing...

We have three cockerels:  one Australorp/Orpington, about six months old;  and two Leghorns about 12 weeks old.  The A/O isn't crowing yet, but the Leghorns are:  it's time to eat them.

Pushmi-pullyu in the hen house, Oct 2018

Unlike our big black A/O cockerel, we have no intention of breeding from these little guys; I should be able to get another batch of eggs from the same source next spring if I so wish.

These little guys really are little:  they won't be much of a meal, unfortunately.  Even fully grown they won't have much meat on them, and once they start crowing they also start getting tougher and stringier--not meatier.  The A/Os were great in this respect:  fast growers and really big--but slow to sexually mature so even at 18 weeks they were still tender.  We'll cook and eat both Leghorns for the same meal;  I anticipate we'll get one meal of meat plus one of soup/stock altogether.

The husband has promised to kill these two, as I killed all three of the A/Os this summer:  it's his turn.  We're waiting till the weekend so we can devote time to it;  it took me and the son more than an hour to kill, pluck, and clean one of those big A/Os (the kill part was the quickest, and the pluck part the longest).  All three of us can pluck, hopefully making it go faster this time.

(Edited to add photo)

Dipping into my stores

To keep up our daily veg intake, and in order not to break my No-Buy Veg Challenge, we've been eating a little more from the pantry and freezer this month.  While it continues to be fairly mild temperature-wise, there is a definite lack of sunlight hours now we're in the middle of October.  Harvest is slowing down.  I'm slowing down too, getting ready for a bit of a rest over winter;  I've put in plenty of work this growing season!

I'm glad I've got a bag and a half of cabbage in the freezer, and several jars of sauerkraut--not to mention all the dried chard (and their stems, still frozen).  I've been throwing them into stews and other slow cooker meals.  And all the while, I'm still drying greens:  just last week I hung up a string of nasturtium leaves to dry (the plants have put out a surge of new growth after being mauled by caterpillars this summer).

We've baked a squash or two, saving them for our Sunday roast dinner;  the slow trickle of runner beans still coming from the garden get served on Sunday too, where I like to have at least three different vegetables--or more.

And we even cracked open a jar of zuccini relish:  first served with hot dogs, then added as a salad garnish and even padded out a stew (when I made it, I cubed rather than grated the zuccini which retained a nice crunch).

Just to clarify:  no vegetables may be bought during the Challenge, but all fruits are allowed, including "salad" fruits;  however, as such I've only been buying cucumber for the son to put in his lunch.  And we are allowed to eat veg obtained for free:  gifts, trades, etc.  I never turn down free veg, and have been actively ingratiating myself to any fellow allotmenters I happen to meet up there: "Hi!  I'm new;  my name is _____.  Wow, your _____ looks amazing!"

Peppers, 2018

So many! Sep 2018

I took a chance this year, and raised some peppers from seed.  I bought a pack of seeds in a £1 sale at the end of (a warm-ish dry-ish) summer last year.  I thought I'd grow them in planters in my warm micro-climate on the patio near the house, though realistically their prospects were doubtful in our usually cool summers.  Little did I guess what kind of summer we'd have this year--I took a chance and got incredibly lucky!

I harvested the very first red pepper this week.  I was initially unsure if it was sweet or hot, as I raised two varieties and there was a slight labelling mix-up.  I had a good look at the packet descriptions and decided it was assuredly a sweet pepper, and therefore picked it along with some tomatoes, lettuce and achocha for a salad. 

When slicing it up, I took a tiny sliver to taste, just to be absolutely sure;  the son isn't good with hot things, and I'm not a huge fan either.  Well, it turns out my diagnosis was incorrect:  my lips burned for the rest of the day!

Even though I don't really like hot/picante food, I'd rather have hot peppers than sweet ones as the husband does;  I want to make him some hot sauce, tabasco style.  There are a couple dozen peppers out there, most of them green (a few turning colors), but still very suitable. 

That one red pepper got chopped finely and chucked in the freezer to wait with the tomatoes until Red Salsa Day (when my No-Buy Veg Challenge ends 27 November and I can buy onions).  Though I did put a couple small slivers on the husband's salad.

Achocha and Aztec broccoli review

I grew two types of vegetable new to me this year:  achocha and Aztec broccoli (Huauzontle).  How did they do?

Little achocha, Jul 2018

Achocha

I sowed seed for this in mid spring, in a tray on my kitchen windowsill.  I think I ended up with about seven plants, which I transplanted out in May, about six inches apart.  They were initially very slow to get over transplant shock and start growing, but after a few weeks, they were ready for some sticks to climb up.  After another month, the vines were starting to take over their neighbors (sweetcorn, tomatillos and tomatoes);  by this time I still hadn't picked any achochas.  It wasn't till about July that I started to harvest, long after I'd been nipping back over-zealous vines.

The fruits are small and green with soft spikes.  They were described by the seller as tasting like green peppers, but to us they taste more like green beans, with a hint of cucumber (which they are related to).  It's a pleasant enough taste and texture, though nothing spectacular.  I prefer to pick them when the seeds are fully mature, as the fruits are a little more sweet, with less raw bean flavor.

However, the extra luxurious vine growth far outpaces its modest fruit yield.  They eventually overtook the sweetcorn completely (I had to search for those sweetcorn plants at harvest time), and mostly swamped the tomatoes and tomatillos slightly further away.  By September I'd given up keeping them in check with daily light pruning, and vines were exploring the morello cherry tree on the east side, reaching the lawn at the south, and going for the plum tree to the west (the north side is the patio which I refused to relinquish).

Will I grow this again?  

Yes.  With more care about placement and spacing.  And supports.  I used the fruits in salsa, in stir fries, in salads.  I like it enough to try and tame it next year;  I've saved seed and look forward to another go.

Aztec broccoli head, Sep 2018

Aztec broccoli, aka Huauzontle

This is not a true broccoli;  it's a chenopodium rather than brassica.  I direct seeded this one in a corner of the Misc bed (where it ended up being embraced by achocha, of course).  About 20 sprouted, and as they grew, I thinned them out gradually, ending up with about 4 plants.  Like the achocha, they were slow growing at first, and slow to produce.  By late summer, they finally began producing small flower heads.

This plant produces flower buds which I harvested along with an inch or two of stem and leaves.  I was able to pick a good handful at a time about twice a week, and although I initially started picking them quite small they are actually better when the flowerheads are nearly ready to flower.  Unlike true broccoli, the second and subsequent pickings weren't really any smaller than the first one:  the later flowerheads were similar in size to the early ones.

These don't taste like broccoli either, but they have a mild flavor somewhat like spinach, and to my taste a little like potato.  They are supposed to retain a little bite after cooking, but I cooked them mainly in stews in the slow cooker and they went very soft.  We liked them anyway.

Once the plants started producing, they maintained a consistent harvest all through summer and early autumn.  They grew to be about as tall as me, which made harvesting easy (less bending down).

Will I grow these again?

Yes.  These nicely behaved (unlike the achocha, for instance!), good tasting, and took care of themselves, really.  Plus they had an easy, constant harvest.  I hope to collect seed from them, but would certainly buy seed again;  in fact, they are supposed to self seed readily, so hopefully I can get them to naturalize, like chard and mizuna have already.

September 2018 garden notes

Laxton Fortune, Sep 2018

Roots

Harvested the last of the carrots in planters (transplanted lettuce seedlings after them).

Beets and celery still in the ground.  Leeks still growing slowly;  old season leeks putting out new growth and newest little plants (from this summer's bulbils) small but growing.

Peas and beans

Harvesting about a handful of French beans once per week in September and even fewer runner beans.

One volunteer broad bean plant up and growing.

Cleared away the mange tout vines and collected a handful of seed.

Brassicas

Took insect mesh off all remaining brassicas at the beginning of September;  no real damage from caterpillars this month, though a few butterflies around.

Planted out two Savoy cabbage cuttings (very small).  Savoys (from seed) at the allotment are a bit bigger and well established now.

Brussels sprouts very big and falling over--need staking!  Same with curly kale;  harvested a little of this but not sprouts yet.

The young cauliflowers which were overwhelmed by squash vines have mostly disappeared--only a couple left.  One larger, last season plant still determined to form a head, but only slowly.

Purple sprouting broccoli plants growing well;  two have been staked, though the rest need it also.  None harvested.

One kohlrabi has a nice little bulb, the other has only a very slight swelling.  None harvested.

Miscellaneous

All but about three lettuces gone to seed by the middle of September;  new seedlings have been transplanted out in planters and in the ground (keep disappearing in the ground though).  Still harvesting a few spring onions this month, also from planters.

Harvested five sweetcorn cobs, but disappointing flavor;  picked too late, I guess--they were completely hidden by achocha vines.  Still harvesting modest amounts of achocha all this month.

Still harvesting ripe tomatoes regularly all through this month;  cherry tomatoes pretty much finished by the end of September, but still more regular tomatoes on the plants.  A couple more tomatillos formed this month, but none harvested.

Picked five lovely green squashes, and one small pumpkin in September.  Still at least one green squash growing.

Picked a few small patty pan squashes, but no zuccinis.  Melon plant formed one small melon and then wilted, just like the cucumber plants did in July.

Harvested several bunches of Aztec broccoli all through the month, and good amount of chard too.  Cleared away chard left for seed;  put down the plants (with seed heads still on) in several locations around the garden, including the perennials section.

Little peppers still growing this month, with a couple starting to turn colors;  a couple more tiny chilis formed.  None of these harvested.

Fruit

Finished harvesting the figs (a couple per week) by the middle of the month.  Harvested the plums and  Laxton Fortune apples over a period of a few weeks.  Started picking almonds and Sparta apples by the end of September.

Picked the one remaining nectarine after it, like its compatriot, split from a hard rain and started to go moldy.  Although it wasn't fully ripe, it was either eat it or throw it away--and after waiting four years I wasn't prepared to chuck it!  Not particularly impressed, though.

Picked all the unripe pears off Williams (only three decent sized) after the tree trunk completely snapped from high winds;  that's it for Williams, I think.

Yellow raspberries dried up without fully ripening--been a very dry summer, and hard on all the raspberries;  a couple more flowers formed this month, however.

Transplanted two strawberry plants to the allotment.

Perennials and herbs

Still picking small amounts of chives, parsley, basil, and mint.

Artichokes still standing but not producing.  At least one asparagus plant has been spotted (no bigger than it was this time last year though).  Sorrel regrowing after hard chicken pressure over the summer, and one small rhubarb shoot spotted.

September 2018 Food Totals

Sparta apple, Sep 2018

Vegetables:

290 oz tomatoes!!
8 oz French beans
4.5 oz lettuce
16.5 oz patty pan squash
13 oz Aztec broccoli
17.5 cherry tomatoes
17.5 oz chard
20.5 oz carrots
12 oz runner beans
12 oz curly kale
19 oz achocha
6 oz sweetcorn
1 oz spring onion
18 oz Savoy cabbage
9 oz potatoes
4 oz salad greens (lettuce, baby chard, lambs lettuce)

Total: 468 oz or 29 lb 4 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.  Does not include 5 green squashes and 1 small pumpkin which were harvested but not weighed.

Fruit: 

1 nectarine
60 Laxton Fortune apples (incomplete)
5 figs
49 plums (incomplete)
17 Sparta apples (incomplete)
12 almonds
3 pears (and 1 immature pear)

Eggs:

Total: 44 eggs from 5 hens
Total feed bought: 1 bag layers pellets (20 kg), 1 bag mixed corn (20 kg)

Preserves:

1 medium jar plums (water bath method)
1/4 medium jar salted runner beans
1 large jar fermented salsa fresca

Homebrew:  

8 L elderberry/blackberry wine started
750 mL fizzy elderberry/blackberry wine started

Cider still fermenting

Cider vinegar still fermenting