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.

Eggs, flowers, frost, squash and kimchi

 

Dahlias blown over the veg patch, September 2024

I'm rather shocked that we're still getting three or even four eggs a day from our faithful hens.  Two of the eight are no longer laying, and two more are four and five years old respectively (but still laying once or twice a week).  At this time of year, as the days are much shorter, I'm actually surprised to get any eggs at all.  All the hens are at their small yard in the allotment;  Girl Duck and Boy Duck are currently at home, free ranging on and off (off when the grass gets too poo-y).  No duck eggs for at least a month;  she doesn't have a dedicated nest so I don't always find them but I don't think she's laying this time of year anyway.

My big sunflower finally blew over, but as it wasn't uprooted, I just went out and tied it up to the tree it was growing next to (a medium-sized pyracanthus).  Hopefully its seeds have enough time to mature for next year's plants.  My beautiful red dahlia also got too top heavy and fell over, but again I was able to prop it up;  it's up to my shoulder:  pretty tall.  Its pink and white neighbor is just as tall but still standing unassisted thankfully.  All three of these are still flowering beautifully in my veg patch at home. 

There was a touch of frost at our local country park at the weekend, though it didn't touch the garden and the allotment looks all right too.  I went out for my run at 7.15 in the morning and while I didn't see any frost on any cars or lawns I passed, I did see it on an open section of grass at the park.  To be on the safe side, when I saw the forecast, the son and I went and picked all the squashes from the allotment the day before.  I took my chances with the remaining beans and tomatoes.

Speaking of squashes, I lent my biggest one to my work (a school) and we're having a "guess the weight" contest.  My squash is famous!  And huge!  Seriously, I won't publish the actual weight until the contest is over (later this week) but I will say that it is at least twice the size of my biggest one last year--and I thought that one was a giant.  In total there are eight squashes this year, plus two small immature ones that might not be worth eating (picked them anyway).  The big one is coming back home with me after the contest, for lots of pumpkin pie.

What else?  More kimchi of course!  Of the twenty or so pak choi from my first sowing, I was able to make a liter of kimchi at the weekend, now fermenting for a few days on my counter.  I still have a 1.8L jar of kohlrabi kkakdugi and half of a 3.3L jar of kohlrabi dongchimi in my fridge.  So not lacking in kimchi just yet--though I do go through it pretty quickly.  I have a small tub of the leftover kimchi paste in my fridge at the moment and am considering giving beet greens/stems the kimchi treatment with it, I mean why not?