Tidying up for winter, goodbye Cookie

Regarding my previous post, I had a tray of various brassicas from August;  these I just planted out despite mostly being rejected for the first transplant as way too small.  They're not much bigger now!  But I have space at the allotment so I thought I might as well.  I also planted out this year's sowing of wallflowers, which had been waiting patiently in their pots since late spring;  I planted a few in the kitchen garden border and in my tiny front garden, near the newly planted daffodil bulbs.  Was that actually the last planting of 2026?  It better be...

It meant I could finally move the big table off my patio, back on to the lawn, and tidy it up a bit.  That big table has been holding seed trays since March, taking up half my patio.  Now I've swept up, brought the houseplants back indoors from their summer vacation, and even weeded a little around the edges.  The beds themselves need a good tidy, but at least the patio looks much nicer.

Lots of chilis at the front, aubergines at the back, October 2026

Still harvesting too many vegetables!  At the weekend we filled our sacks with more tomatoes, cucumbers, leeks, big black radishes (for cooking), fennel, Brussels sprouts and a cauliflower.  I think the toms and cucs might have had it now;  they both still have some fruits but may not be able to grow/ripen now.  Maybe the toms.  However, there are still a lot of the rest--and more:  still have a bit of cabbage, kohlrabi, pak choi, komatsuna, parsnips, beets, chilis.

Speaking of chilis, the husband took it on himself to make a batch of chili sauce with the toms, chilis, garlic and onions we grew.  I'd already made a recipe called Easy Hot Sauce from another website;  I think maybe I didn't use enough chilis as it isn't very hot.  More like a mild spiced vinegar.  Hopefully the husband's has more of a kick;  his recipe is from Joy of Cooking, substituting chilis for red bell peppers.

Little aubergine:  most didn't get much bigger than this, October 2026

In sad news, our ten year old Pekin bantam Cookie died last week.  She was an excellent broody hen and mother to many chicks, as well as being our favorite chicken all around.  She's been with us so long;  we'll really miss her. 

Bringing home the squash, harvesting and clearing away for winter, the last apples

It was time to pick all the squashes at the allotment:  13 in total, though possibly I missed one or two;  I picked two from the chicken yard which in addition to the squash vines, is overflowing with nettles so I didn't investigate very closely.  That big green one is certainly a monster!  The yellowy/creamy one is the next biggest in size, but doesn't feel as heavy as the third biggest one (orange).  I offered to lend my biggest one to my coworker for her Guess the Weight contest but she was already given one by someone else.  My largest is larger than that one! but smaller than The Big One in my estimation.

Too much to carry!  The son wheeled this very heavy burden home (four blocks away), September 2026

It's a little earlier than I usually pick squashes, but the leaves had mostly died back and I was worried they'd go moldy on the vines if I left them.  It's happened to me before.  They easily snapped off the vines without cutting, so I know they were ripe enough.  There are still two self-sown squashes growing in the kitchen garden with green leaves and vines--I'll pick them later on.  In the meantime, the allotment ones are on a mat in my living room to cure;  they'll either remain there for winter storage, or possibly move to the windowsill for display purposes.  I expect to eat them over the next six months.

After pulling the squash vines, I then cleared away almost all the zucs aka courgettes and have been forking over that large bed for grass and bindweed roots.  It was newly sheet mulched in the spring and I plan on getting some new garlic into half of it and remulching the whole thing with more wood chips.  After I've at least done one full pass with the garden fork for unwanted roots, that is--it's pretty grassy.  Can you see my compost heap at the middle right of the photo below?  It's in front of that gray shed and behind a white box (it looks like a big pile of vines);  I should try turning it to get it to break down quicker.

Cleared away the courgettes and squash;  still working on the grass, September 2026

Still so many cucumbers!  I've missed a couple too, now going orange;  these will be saved for seed.  Actually this variety, Marketmore, is still good when a little overripe, though it needs peeling and deseeding by that point.  I'm still picking a few at home (the earlier sown vines), and a few pickling cucumbers too.

The last of the apples came off my two trees at home:  Laxton Fortune and Sparta.  Only a few Sparta apples this year, and unfortunately quite a lot of fruit dropped off both trees.  Still, we got several large baskets worth and what is left will keep for a few weeks more.  I've made a couple of apple crumbles, the son made himself a jug of juice, and we've all been trying to eat our apple a day. 

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.

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.

Let's get it done before summer's over

My summer break off work at last (I work at a school), and maybe I'll have a little more time to devote to my food producing engine--I've got six weeks before the kids and I start back.  I've been racing just to keep up with everything these past couple weeks, particularly since the zucs started.  But it's not just them;  it's also lettuce, French beans, kohlrabi, cabbage, komatsuna (similar to pak choi, which I also have), Charlotte potatoes, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, beets.  I've also been desperately trying to keep a handle on the couch grass and bindweed in my wood chip mulch--I can't let them take it over.

Me at the allotment (zucs in the foreground), July 2026

I'm dehydrating zuc shreds daily, freezing snap peas, putting potatoes into paper sacks;  I've made komatsuna kimchi, made kohlrabi/beet sauerkraut, and I'm cooking up a storm.  We are a family of four:  we can eat a lot, right?  Preservation is a high priority:  I'm unofficially following the Vegetable Challenge (not buying any veg except onions--and even these only rarely) and I'll need vegetables in winter too.

The allotment spoils of the day (heavy!), July 2026

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As daytime temps dropped by about 5C (down from the high 20s), I took a chance and started my late season seeds in pots:  Chinese cabbage, spring cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce, fennel, pak choi, komatsuna.  Some of these are second or third sowings, but will probably be the last this year.  Most of these have already started popping up, to be pricked out sometime this week.

I'm also sowing my last half a packet of beet seeds in the potato bed now it's been cleared;  probably some winter radish and turnip seed too.  This bed was generously mulched with well composted manure in early spring when the potatoes went down;  I'll gently fork it over to remove any obvious couch grass runners (a constant battle on my allotment) before sowing, and will cover over with insect mesh to protect from birds/cats/slugs/caterpillars, my usual strategy.  I should be able to take the mesh off by around mid September, as the white butterflies diminish.

An excess of veg, but too hot for seeds

Last week's heatwave was hotter than the previous (though less humid at least).  Thus I've been in harvest mode only, though even that has been almost too much work: a lot to pick!  Still picking lots of zucs, lettuce (not all have bolted yet in the heat), purple French beans, cabbage and new potatoes; and a few artichokes, kohlrabi and purple snap peas (I still plan to save seed from the peas).  The raspberries are just about done with;  and I managed to pick a tub of blackcurrants--unusually for me--to make a small batch of ice cream in the same way as the gooseberries.

I can see little cucumbers forming on my plants at home;  I also have a lot of tomatoes at the allotment, none red but maybe turning a little lighter green?  They are all really bushy in their containers and I haven't done anything to tame them;  since they are growing in composted horse manure they are extravagantly lush.  What's more, it's about time to harvest the allotment pak choi for a batch of kimchi.  Maybe I can do that next week, when school summer holiday starts.

I did have a moment of "what have I done" with the zucs;  I've given a few away, we're eating a fresh/marinated zuc salad every day--and I've dragged the dehydrator out to dry them, shredded.  These go well in stew/chili/etc in the winter.  I made a jar of refrigerator pickles;  I also sliced some thinly to use instead of pasta sheets in lasagna, salted first to draw out water (I defrosted some of last summer's tomatoes to make the sauce too:  really tasty).  And I've been sneaking the fresh shreds into burgers, meatballs, curry, everything. 

The heat/dry has rather put a hold on my seed sowing however.  I still need to start a few autumn/winter plants but doubt they will survive in this weather:  Chinese cabbages, spring cabbages, winter radishes and turnips.  Also the last sowings of beets and lettuce.  I just need it to cool down a little before I start these--I hope it's not too late in the season by the time it does.  Because we are so far north, we lose a lot of light by autumn--if cool weather veg are started too late they won't have enough light to carry on growing, even if the temps are still mild.

Zucs, replacing peas with fennel, raspberries, losing chickens

In the last week or so--after the heatwave--I've done as much as I can at the allotment:  we're expecting even hotter temps later this week so I've been in a rush to get things done.  This includes planting out:  fennel, beets, the last couple of spring caulis;  also keeping up weed maintenance on my wood chip beds at the allotment, mainly bindweed now but also some couch grass.  I've also topped up a few of the beds where possible (some are very dense with veg growth now) and the pathways between.

It might be shaping up to be a zucchini summer!  It's been three years since I had an overload of zucs aka courgettes.  I have about a dozen or so plants, some in states of excessive growth.  The daughter (age six) said to me, "monsters aren't real, are they?" and I replied, "except monster courgettes!"  Which one of my plants is trying to produce (and I'm desperately trying not to let it).  I prefer to harvest mine at about the length of my hand, though I know some people at the allotments let them grow arm-sized.  Like shoulder to wrist arm-sized--way too big.  One way I like to process them is kimchi;  another is to slice and marinate for an hour or two with salt and pepper, plus a little vinegar and olive oil, plus fresh herbs/diced onion/fermented garlic.  I made it with fresh basil the other day and it was amazing.

I think the hot weather did for the mange tout peas as they've stopped flowering, though my newer batch of purple podded peas are still producing (only a small batch though);  I'm going to save seed from both of these, so no more picking.  I pulled up most of one row of the mange tout in order to follow on with fennel seedlings;  the soil underneath was a bit hard and dry.  As the other row of peas next to it grew larger and more productive, I can only assume the soil under them is a bit better.  I tipped on two more barrowfuls of wood chips before putting in the fennel and the husband has been drenching them every night when he goes to water.  Hopefully the soil will improve and the fennel will grow.

The gooseberries are finally finished but we are still in the midst of raspberries.  And I'm experimenting with more no-sugar ice cream (rasp and dark chocolate anyone?).  I have a food mill with a very fine plate which works well for sieving out rasp seeds (gooseberry too, though they aren't quite as seedy).  I get a lot of use out of my food mill as it's handy for both pureeing and straining simultaneously.  Squash puree, applesauce, berries, etc.  No need to peel and core before cooking, as the food mill catches all the fibrous material.

We've lost several chickens in the past couple of months, down to six now.  Our last lost one really is lost:  she disappeared completely.  I'd let the flock free range in the evening and forgot to shut them back in after they went to bed;  when I went to put them back in the morning, one Birthday chicken didn't come running.  We've searched everywhere for a body (we have a lot of undergrowth, not all of it easily accessible by people) even though she was fit and healthy the day before.  Either she's dead in a hard to reach spot or she really flew the coop--also hard to believe as our fencing is pretty impenetrable;  not only that, to even attempt it she would need a very compelling reason to leave all her friends and the amenities of our garden (everything a chicken could want: grass, weeds, bugs, dust baths, a nice safe coop with unlimited food).  If it was a fox surely it would have left at least a pile of feathers or other evidence (we've never had a fox thankfully, not being close enough to the fields).  We're mystified.  

Harvest time, planting time, getting a handle on the grass, delicious gooseberries

All systems go!  I've gone from picking a little here and there, to all things at once:  lettuce, cabbage, mange tout peas, broad beans and onions (just harvested all of these), beets, new potatoes, gooseberries, raspberries, currants, cherries.

In addition to harvesting all of the above (mostly at the allotment), I'm still in the last stages of planting out.  I've finally put in all the last cucumbers, split between home and the allotment;  same deal with the pak choi.  My patio table, full of trays since spring (I kept transplanting out and then refilling the trays) at last has empty spaces.  I'm not quite done sowing seeds:  I'll do a batch of Chinese cabbage and at least one more of lettuce and maybe beets;  and a little later on hopefully some spring cabbages and possibly onions to overwinter.  I'm also planning on direct sowing some radishes and turnips later in the season too.

The whole family helped clear away the broad beans in order to replant the bed with leeks, all three trays waiting patiently since March.  Though it was a hot morning, we got it done (mostly me actually--the husband's leg isn't quite better, the daughter's only six, and the son was dragging his heels):  we pulled all the plants, stripped the pods off, forked the bed lightly to remove any weeds and grass roots, then mulched heavily with wood chips.  My composters are full to bursting. 

Actually, this bed has had two more crops since I grew potatoes there last summer:  Chinese cabbage in autumn/winter and broad beans this spring.  So this is the third time I've sifted out grass roots and actually there were a lot fewer this time--it was teeming with them after the potatoes came out last July.  There were some clumps of grass growing amongst the broad beans, but it wasn't completely swamped and the soil was fairly soft under its light mulch of wood chips--I last topped it up when I sowed the broad beans in February.  I spread a much thicker mulch on top this time.

I'm still doing weed maintenance on my wood chip mulch, little by little:  just loosening roots out with a fork (almost exclusively bindweed and couch grass, no other weeds).  However the newest sheet mulched bed is sprouting grass and it's not yet soft enough underneath to simply loosen it out.  Instead I've been topping up with more wood chips, but until it really composts down below, it may have to stay grassy.  Unlike the broad bean bed, which had no existing growth when I deeply mulched with wood chips, here I'd laid down cardboard sheets over some very vigorous grass/weeds and mulched on top of this.  

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What do I do with gooseberries?  One year I made jam--then gave it away as we are a mostly no-sugar family.  This year I experimented with making sugarless gooseberry fool using sweetener (we prefer a stevia/erythritol blend), only I may have gone a little overboard with the whipped cream.  As I sampled it after folding it all together, it reminded me of ice cream, so of course I immediately popped the whole tub in the freezer.  It turned out great!  A little sour, well balanced by the creaminess.  It was literally just gooseberry puree (cooked, cooled, then put through a food mill), a spoonful of sweetener, and a lot of whipped cream.  Delightful.

The Vegetable Challenge in winter

Our Thanksgiving meal was lovely and included lots of homegrown ingredients, including vegetables, eggs and herbs.  We had a nice dinner with friends;  now we're looking forward to Christmas dinner, though just with our four selves.

I'm still picking a few fresh things from the garden and allotment; this last week I've picked lettuce, cauliflower (I thought I'd already got them all), turnips and Chinese cabbage.  I still have fresh leeks in the fridge and squash in my living room, plus various bags in the freezer--and quite a lot of jars in my fridge and pantry:  dried, fermented, pickled.  The Vegetable Challenge has another seven or so weeks to run, and I'm fairly confident about achieving it this time.  I'm even confident about extending it beyond its finish date of 21st January.

Because of my garden and allotment plan this year, there's been plenty of variety and meals haven't got monotonous, at least not yet.  Eating with the season has been interesting and tasty I think.  I liked eating salads every day in summer and I've appreciated starting on the preserved veg at the start of winter:  pickled cucumbers and beets recently.  I've been trying to get through jars to make room in my fridge!  To that end, the last of the early summer sauerkraut has been cooked into most of my stews, and I'm alternating my breakfast kimchi with mixed veg salsa (which also pairs very well with eggs, regardless of having a very different flavor).

And after looking forward to it all year long, it's nice to start finally eating the first parsnips.  I don't have a lot this time, but next spring I'll try to get a full bed instead of just a few rows.  A nice treat in winter.  And I still have a small bed of pak choi awaiting me:  the anticipation is almost better than the eating.

First frost and jobs before Thanksgiving

First snow from the patio door, Nov 2025

Like last November, we got both our first frost and snow this past week, though the snow thankfully didn't last long (a few hours).  A few days later I went out and dug up my two dahlias and trimmed off their frost-blackened stems;  the same day I also went to get the runner bean tubers (seen to the left next to the wooden fence in the photo above) but as I approached with a shovel, my two ducks refused to leave their "tent."  Every day they've been sleeping under these leaves, in the shelter of the bamboo canes supporting the vines.  I could have booted them out but they looked so happy under there I didn't have the heart to disturb them:  I'll try again soon.

It's been a mix of frost and rain since, and not good weather for gardening.  I made it to the allotment one more time, this time to pick a couple of bolting Chinese cabbages.  We've been enjoying it like pak choi, which it resembles in taste and texture (I still don't know if this variety is meant to form heads or just a bunch of loose leaves like it is now).  I made a small jar of kimchi with it too.

In addition, I had to go out and pull all the remaining Lyon leeks from my kitchen garden, which had flopped over in the cold.  I was only going to pick my usual one a day, but when I touched it I realized it had gone a little mushy--I checked the others and most were in the same condition.  So I spent a cold muddy hour getting them all dug up and washed before going in to work;  the next morning I trimmed and froze most of the long green leaves, putting the white stalks in a few bags in my fridge.  I expect I'll still get a month's worth of meals of these stalks before moving on to my cold tolerant Musselbrugh leeks still growing at the allotment.  Recall that I have no more onions and per the terms of my Vegetable Challenge, while I'm allowed, I'm trying not to buy them;  leeks are my onion substitute for now.

It's Thanksgiving this week!  Our family is American as well as British and it's the favo(u)rite holiday of at least one of us.  As usual, the husband has the day off to do the bulk of the cooking;  we are having three additional guests (an adult and two big teenagers)--and we are in the midst of the Vegetable Challenge!  The pumpkin (squash) has been cooked and pureed for pie, the mashed new potatoes only need thawing and reheating (I strategically froze them back in summer, just for this meal), the other vegetable dish is to be confirmed but there is plenty of choice in the freezer, and still some standing veg in the garden and allotment too.

Another glut of vegetables

I thought I was back to a slow and steady harvest of vegetables at the allotment, but it turns out I was wrong.  Last week I noticed some of my fennel bulbs were starting to bolt, so I pulled most of the bed--around 35 bulbs.  I started a 1.8 L jar to ferment with some garlic and fresh dill heads, but as I've never tried it before I didn't want to go overboard in case it turns out bad (I've done some experimental ferments which have been awful!);  I crammed the rest into the fridge to cook from fresh.  Fennel is nice roasted or added to stews;  the leafy tops also make a tasty tea which I sometimes drink in the evenings (no caffeine).

Another emergency harvest:  my second sowing of kohlrabi.  The spring sowing of kohlrabi made way for the fennel transplants, back in early August;  some of this first harvest went into kimchi and we gradually ate the rest, mainly grated into slaws and salads (just finished the last bulb out of the fridge at the weekend).  There were far fewer plants from the second sowing and I wasn't too confident about them, considering how spindly they were when transplanted out.  Suprisingly, they'd filled out nicely;  rather than let the slugs eat them hollow (they'd made a start), I pulled the remaining ten.  

And speaking of slugs, after a very dry and slug-lite summer, they were happily munching on some of my autumn cauliflowers last week:  about half of these have come home with me, after luckily noticing the damage in time.  I froze the heads, and the nicest outer leaves were dehydrated for winter stews.  I will keep a very close watch on the rest of the heads and pick at the first sign of danger.

At the same time, I checked on my turnip and winter radish bed under its net and found three big purple topped turnips;  these came home for the same reason as the kohlrabi:  I want to eat them before the slugs do (the radishes however don't look promising).  These turnips and most of the kohlrabi got sliced into matchsticks on my mandoline to make sauerkraut;  I added some freshly cooked beetroot too, filling a 3.3 L jar with the whole concoction.  And we ate the turnip and beetroot greens for good measure:  delicious. 

I was positive I'd picked the last of the squashes, but found two more this last week:  one green, one orange.  I can understand missing a green one:  it's the same color as the leaves, but the orange?  That makes 17 squashes altogether, though most of them are medium/small sized;  there are three big orange ones, though none as big as last year's monster.  All mature squashes are on mats either on the floor or windowsill in my living room, for winter eating;  so far we have eaten two that were too immature for long term storage.

Still life with fruit and vegetables

 

All homegrown/allotment grown, September 2025

Still eating our apple a day (and salad a day with no end to the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers yet)--I'm currently experimenting with low carb apple desserts, such as an apple "pie" this weekend with a coconut shortbread top crust (no bottom crust).  We bought a low carb sweetener which is a blend of stevia and erythritol;  I've been using it every Sunday for a special fruit dessert, usually a fruit crumble using ground almonds instead of flour.  The plum crumble was especially good;  though the harvest was small and mostly out of reach, I was able to pick enough to make it on two consecutive Sundays.  No sweetener needed in the fruit, it tasted almost like cherry pie filling:  delicious.  

There are still some Sparta apples left on the tree but the Laxton Fortune is now completely cleared.  It's a surprisingly good harvest this year.  The apples pictured are the very last of the Laxton Fortune.

Not quite so successful for the runner beans though;  I decided to try them again after a hiatus and will probably put them on the back burner again.  Not productive enough:  lots of vines, fairly good flowering, but not enough turned into beans.  I think they need a cooler, wetter summer than we've been getting.  I have French bean seeds which hopefully aren't too old to germinate next year;  these have been much more reliable in a hot summer, and do well in a cool one too.

Although my harvest has been acceptable, it was not a zucchini summer again (though it was a cherry tomato summer!  The son has already made some excellent tomato sauce to go on his homemade pizza).  The above photo shows a massive marrow from someone else's allotment;  the giver said to me, "want a courgette?" and I said, "I never say no," and then he came out with this monstrosity!  I said, "are you sure that's a courgette?" (because in my book that is definitely a marrow).  It's still on my countertop, biding its time.  My own reasonably sized actual zucchinis (aka courgettes) came in at a modest one or two a week from each of about a dozen plants, most of which are now completely finished.  There's still a patty pan making little fruits but I'm going to pull it up anyway, as it's cold and rainy and nearly equinox.  I need a space to plant out my spring cabbages.

And I think we finally got to the end of the season's figs, two of which are pictured with the apples above.  A lot went into the dehydrator, and a lot got eaten.  I don't really know what to do with them otherwise;  I gave some away, but most people around here aren't familiar with figs--I had to teach the recipient how to peel them to eat (but they were well received after tasting). 

Pak choi, cabbage, onions and leeks

I thought I'd be planting out my Chinese cabbages* in the kitchen garden and sheet mulching over the failed beetroot bed;  I changed my mind and instead transplanted the cabbages into that bed at the allotment.  The son helped me re-weed the bed (recall it was matted with couch grass roots after I pulled the new potatoes), digging out grass once again and pulling some small weeds.  It looks like only about a dozen beets actually sprouted--probably old seed after all.

I managed to get a tray of pak choi in the kitchen garden along with six extra Chinese cabbages.  That bed held my very first early leeks which I pulled, washed and put into the fridge last week, and the long green leaves got chopped and frozen for later stews and stir fries.  I let my two ducks have several days of free range in the kitchen garden ("We're Going On a Slug Hunt");  and after planting out my tender little plants, not only did I net them (sorry lettuce, but you are now big and pak choi is small) but I very liberally covered the ground with crushed eggshells.  Here's hoping the slugs are a) not willing to cross, or b) not there at all.

It's about time to empty the pots of cherry tomatoes at the top of my allotment--I may move them back to the bottom (close to the water supply) over winter and replant with onions, now sprouting up in a pot at home.  I've tried growing onions over winter once before, without success--actually onions in generally have never been a winner for me, winter or summer.  Still, I want to be self reliant in all vegetables we eat and onions are a staple:  I'm not giving up just yet.  

Unlike my onions, leeks have always been a reliable crop for winter and spring harvest for me;  this is the first year I've grown an early variety (Lyon) in addition to my usual late one (Musselbrugh);  I started picking them last month.  I expect the earlies to last until winter before I move onto the lates.  I've been using them as an onion substitute with tasty results:  the long white stalks are very similar to onions in taste and the green leaves are mild like spring onion tops, though a different texture.  The only downside (and really only a slight one in my opinion):  they aren't as easy to clean as an onion, with sand and compost trapped in between the outer layers.  

*First it was going to be cauliflowers, then Chinese cabbage--now I'm aiming for spring cabbage!  Something will go there, I promise.

Cherry tomato summer

Many, many cherry tomatoes, August 2025

I've been growing and saving seed from this cherry tomato variety for many years now;  I think it's Garden Pearl.  In addition, I was given another few seedlings of some different cherry varieties though these were not as prolific as the Pearl above.  It's the kind that doesn't get the side shoots pinched out--I can't remember if that's determinate or indeterminate;  the gift plants are the other kind which I really should have staked and pinched--but didn't.  All cherry tomatoes are in planters at my allotment

I'm also growing a plum tomato variety, name unknown;  it's like a beefsteak tomato which is hard to ripen outdoors in this climate, so I'm pretty happy with it, despite it not being as wildly productive as my cherry tomatoes.  I've only been saving seed from it for a few years now, replacing my old salad variety which I grew for many years outdoors.  Half of my plum tomatoes are in the ground at the allotment;  the rest are in containers both there and on my patio at home.  It's also the kind that doesn't get its side shoots pinched out, though I did try to stake it, not very successfully.

I actually have a really tasty green tomato salsa recipe and I am always disappointed if I don't get to make it:  this looks to be one of those years.  Tomatoes are coming in thick and fast though I said to the son on Sunday (as we picked 5# between us, following on from 4# the previous day) I think we have reached peak tomato.  Finally.  I have bags and bags in the freezer, I'm putting them in the dehydrator (though they take more than a day and it's a small one), and we're eating fresh tomatoes in sauce/salads/salsa/etc every day.

The fact is, most of these tomatoes are cherry tomatoes;  and thankfully they are slightly raised up off the ground in their containers, because they are tedious enough to pick as it is!  Next year I'm going to grow many more plum toms and many less cherries;  I had actually planned that for this year, but I didn't have enough plum seed so I made up for it with cherry.  This time I'm saving extra extra plum seed for next year

So much food! Can we eat it?

 

My allotment, early August 2025

It's kind of hard to distinguish what's growing in the photo above (except maybe that purple artichoke flower):  closest under the nets are Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, fennel and kohlrabi (just newly transplanted), and the one at the back right is newly sown turnip and radish seed though none have emerged yet (waiting for rain).  This does show a good 3/4 of my plot, but to the right (not shown) are my artichokes and plum tomatoes, newly sown beetroot bed--also not up yet--and small shed and compost bins.  Also at the very back behind the squash-filled chicken yard are most of my cherry tomatoes in planters, raspberry canes and a good amount of random pallet wood and other detritus.

The allotment has really done well for me this year so far.  I've kept on top of things for the most part, although the vegetables are still rolling in almost faster than I can keep up with them.  I've enlisted the son to pick tomatoes several times--reminding him of all the pizzas he can make!  He's also helped mulch and water;  it's school summer break so he, the daughter and I are all off until next month.  And this does mean I've got a little more time to deal with all the food.

Right now I'm pickling beetroot, pickling cucumbers, freezing and dehydrating tomatoes, freezing runner beans, dehydrating zucchini, dehydrating figs--and eating eating eating.  Apples, Asian pears, plums.  Lettuce, spring onions, tiny hot chilies, early leeks, self-sown chard.  And that's not counting everything in my fridge, freezer and cupboards already--and fermenting on the counters too.

Will we eat it all?  Can we?  The Vegetable Challenge is on, and I've got to make sure we have enough for the winter until the Challenge ends (and beyond, hopefully).  Keep pickling, freezing, drying, fermenting, storing and eating!

Full speed ahead!

Three pounds, seven ounces! June 2025

I thought my first cauliflower was massive, but the one above was a full pound more;  I went on a cauliflower marathon over the weekend where I picked and processed them all (eight in total):  most went into the freezer, heads and greens.  I also made almost 3 L* of sauerkraut with the stems:  I shredded these in my food processor, making quick work of them.  The son also cooked most of one head into cauliflower cheese for dinner:  delicious.

In fact I have so much veg all of a sudden, it feels like I'm in autumn harvest already and it's not even summer solstice yet!  I'm desperately trying to keep up with the lettuces (I'm passing them out at work, even) and the snap peas are suddenly covered, as are the artichokes.  The broad beans too, though these aren't cut and come again like the peas and artichokes--once they're gone, they're gone.

It's also raspberry, strawberry and gooseberry time!  I've started a freezer bag of the gooseberries as we have quite a lot, but the kids are eating up the other two as they pick them.  Also got some redcurrants and blackcurrants;  the daughter (age 5) is taking care of the reds but it's up to me to pick the blacks, something I haven't gotten around to for a couple years in a row:  I need to be on the ball this year.

Right now we're eating what can't be preserved--mainly lettuce and artichokes--and I'm freezing, fermenting and drying what I can:  cauliflower/leaves of course, broad beans, snap peas, some herbs (for winter use), gooseberries.  I'm going to have a chat with the husband about starting the Vegetable Challenge, though I may slightly update the rules (this is my own challenge and I get to set the rules after all).  The only veg he's been buying recently are onions.  I think it may be time. 

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Besides harvesting, I'm actually still sowing some seed for late summer/autumn planting:  spring onions, cauliflower, cabbage.  Although the big push is in spring, I don't stop the seeds until around August/September.  Just planted out my third batch of spring onions (been eating the first, still waiting on the second to grow a bit bigger), and I've pricked out my third batch of lettuce too.  I'll be planting all these out as other crops finish later on in summer.

*Both metric and imperial?  I'd prefer 100% metric but my old-fashioned kitchen scales have imperial weights, whereas all my containers are measured in metric.  Work with what you have, right?

On the menu, June 2025

I'm overflowing with lettuce in my kitchen garden!  Three out of four people in our household like it (and the fourth still eats it) so not a bad situation to be in.  I'm trying to pick a lettuce a day, but as they are getting bigger and bigger (!) I'm having to split some over two days.  Unlike many veg, there's really no way to preserve lettuce:  just keep eating it.  The daughter in particular likes making lettuce wraps at dinner;  the son made us some Mexican style minced beef the other day and after she ate all her lettuce she even pilfered the rest of mine to keep wrapping.

Speaking of bigger, my second cauliflower was just as big as the first;  we're eating the greens as well:  two meals from the head, at least three from the greens, maybe even four.  I may have to put some to freeze, as they are all about ready now (nine huge ones).  Though after a fun trip to the pick-your-own strawberry farm at the weekend, we don't have a lot of freezer space!  I'm sure they'd be good fermented too, the heads at least.

I decided to bring the chickens back home from the allotment;  I wanted to plant their yard with a few more squash plants.  I sowed these seeds back in April and had all but given up on them, but suddenly I have five now emerging in the last week.  I did about two dozen pots at the same time;  when only two or three came up, I sowed some more seed (from a different squash, but of the same lineage) which all came up promptly.  These are the ones already growing at the allotment:  transplanted into what were the broccoli and garlic beds (and I gave another eight away to colleagues).  I'm out of room everywhere else but there is prime growing space in the chicken yard:  let's get it planted.

And it's the start of the broad beans;  these are always a special treat:  they are one of the first veg of substance (aka not a leaf!) and have such a short harvest period.  I used to pick the young pods to eat whole, but these days I'm picking them in the more traditional manner: mature, shelled for the large beans.  

Another one just coming ready are my artichokes;  these will keep producing all summer as long as I keep picking them.  Actually I'm planning on digging them out (in winter) to transplant to the very back of the allotment;  they are near the front, but take up a lot of room;  I want that valuable real estate for other things next year.  The very back of my allotment isn't cultivated, nor has it been since I took in on--it's got a lot of nettles, brambles and some pallets and other detritus.  Not good for annual vegetables, but the artichokes won't mind.  I've mentioned before that we like eating them, they're a reliable constant harvest, they're no maintenance, but: they take up so much room for such a tiny harvest.  Really, they would be the perfect vegetable but for that one drawback.

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A colleague asked me a few weeks ago what I was cooking for dinner (there are four of us in our team, all married women, all looking after husbands/families).  I said we were having lettuce and broccoli with pork chops, which she thought a strange combination.  "I've never hear of lettuce with broccoli!"  But when you grow your own you eat whatever's ready, whether it pairs together or not.  Though I personally like lettuce and broccoli together, I mean don't you?

The end of the hungry gap, June 2025

My first cauliflower of the year, May 2025

I picked this beautiful 2.5# cauliflower at the weekend from my kitchen garden;  I have ten plants still growing, hopefully to get just as big (the plants are all huge).  They overwintered in one of the beds nearest the house;  it's about time to start seed for next spring's cauliflowers.  I also want to replant the bed as soon as possible with either leeks (ready to transplant now) or beets (from seed).  I need to get my leeks in as soon as I can, and I have three beds near harvest now:  cauliflowers, broad beans and new potatoes;  the first to finish gets the leeks and everywhere else gets the beets.

I got my garlic at the allotment harvested a few days ago: 112 bulbs.  All but two are a good size and some are absolutely massive.  I washed them, trimmed off the stems and put the bulbs in trays to dry on my patio.  The biggest 12 bulbs will be broken up and the cloves replanted in September or October;  I've been saving and replanting my own garlic for many years now, fully self sufficient in it.  I even still have a small amount of frozen chopped garlic from last June's harvest:  it lasted me all year long.  With this small bed cleared, I mulched and replanted immediately with another five squash.

In addition to the curing the garlic bulbs, I decided to ferment the stems too:  I trimmed away the outer leaves, chopped the tender part of the stems and filled two big jars with them.  1.8 L of just a plain brine (salt and water); and 3.3 L of a water kimchi brine with salt, ginger, fish sauce and gochugaru (Korean chili flakes).  Both jars are bubbling happily on my countertop, waiting for a space in the fridge.

What's more, I'm picking lettuce pretty much every day now:  red and green oakleaf as cut and come again, and butterheads one by one.   Also picking my first spring onions as chives (that is, cutting off the tops to let them regrow);  these are tasty with the lettuce, and also on my scrambled eggs in the morning.

It's so nice to have something fresh, and the anticipation of more very soon.  Hungry gap over? 

Harvesting and sowing, March 2025

Dinner for four, February 2025

I'm clearing away the winter veg now, some of it starting to go to seed including a couple Savoy cabbages;  I have two more left out in the kitchen garden which may or may not do the same (they don't have a formed head yet).  Though they didn't form heads, the greens are still tender and tasty.  And no slugs to speak of;  the leaves are in almost perfect condition.  Cold winter?  Duck patrol?  Usually my cabbages are full of slugs.

I'm harvesting the allotment swede and turnip greens with their puny roots;  I put the last bunch of roots into the slow cooker and rubbed the skins off after they were soft--each root was one bite.  The greens were much more substantial, even after cooking.  Also picking greens from komatsuna, self sown mizuna and lambs lettuce;  these will probably be over by the end of the month.  

In other news, I received my 2.5 kg of Charlotte seed potatoes which are in a tray in my kitchen to chit before planting out.  I plan on putting these in the big containers at the allotment, maybe at the end of the month;  a few are starting to poke tiny little sprouts.  

And my seed starting mission is carrying on, though there's been a change in the weather for the worse;  now I've held off direct sowing my beets and parsnips at the allotment.  If I want them to grow I need it to be a little warmer again--for about two weeks we've had warm, dry, sunny weather but it's gone from 16 C at the weekend to a forecast high of 7 C today.  Better to wait a week or three if it means they actually come up.

Whittling down the stored squashes, February 2025

I thought there were only two left, but I have photographic evidence:  there are three squashes on my windowsill;  I've been having trouble keeping track of this batch ever since I grew them in 2024!  Before we cooked the Big One, which was far too big for the windowsill, they were all on the living room floor on their own two mats;  one of the remaining squashes, at the left of the photo, does overhang the windowsill by a little bit--it's about half the size the Big One was (it's also the furthest left in the photo in the second linked post).

Three squashes left, February 2025

Something I noticed last year;  while these squashes started out green, and were fully ripe when picked, they have gradually been turning yellow/light orange while in storage.  The photo above doesn't really pick up the color, but the one below does, cooking in the slow cooker.

Cooking it up for puree, February 2025

The flavor and texture has been excellent again this year;  the Big One mostly got cooked into puree, as it was just too big for the fridge after cutting it open.  I had both my slow cookers running for a couple of days to get through it all, and the cut open squash stayed on my kitchen table until I got through it all.  When I make puree, most of it gets packed into my silicone muffin pans to freeze in small portion sizes (about 3/4 of a cup) and then these "muffins" get packed into freezer bags, really handy for taking out what I need.  

What do I make with frozen squash puree?  I like to put a couple into a stew or curry to thicken it (with a dash of vinegar it's very similar in taste/texture to a tomato-thickened stew);  I've found a low carb muffin recipe we like (link opens to another website);  as a vegetable side dish on its own (add extra butter);  or maybe a pumpkin pie or two.

And I definitely saved seed from my Big One;  I've been saving and growing from my own seed for many years now.  Some of my colleagues at work requested some, and I suggested we have a growing contest for the biggest squash between us--I hope they'll all get a huge one, and we can bring them in to work to show off!