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.