Some almonds, some to come

Not every almond, Oct 2020

 My almond tree, like the grape vine climbing it, is getting away from me!  It's been producing 100-150 almonds a year for the last few years, and this year looks to be similar--only quite a few are now out of reach.  The husband and son went out and picked a sackful with a ladder;  the husband even climbed onto the garage roof.  

However, some almonds still remain.  We may still get some yet once they fall--if we find them, that is.  The tree is tucked away in a corner we don't visit very often this time of year, though the husband has made it slightly easier to access by putting down a little patio there, next to the newly enlarged duck pond.

New patio next to the duck pond (almond tree trunk at the very back), Sep 2020

Sowing and (hopefully) growing in autumn

Radicchio seedlings, Sep 2020

 I've since planted out some of my late summer seedlings, including radicchio, kale, pak choi and iceberg lettuce.  Some have gone in at the allotment, some at home.  To be honest, I'm not too confident about their chances--particularly at the allotment, with the slugs and pigeons there.  The ones here at home have been in long enough to have grown a little, so maybe they're established enough to withstand the slugs (no pigeon pressure here, thankfully).  I hope.

The husband has put in the new garlic crop, using the biggest heads saved from our harvest earlier this summer;  it's all at the allotment.  As the heads weren't very big or plentiful this year, he's on assignment to buy a few more from the shop for planting out, too.  I anticipate we will run out of our own garlic this winter unless we really ration it.

Still growing in seed trays:  spring cabbages.  Still to sow:  peas (got a few volunteer seedlings already), cauliflowers, broad beans. 

I picked grapes!

Trying one, Sep 2020

Not sure, Sep 2020

I asked the husband to take a photo of the basket of grapes and send it to me, but got these two photos instead.  Please take my word for it that there was a basketful--and that I didn't actually pick all the clusters because I couldn't reach them all;  I left about three or four for the birds.

Actually the birds alerted me the grapes were ready:  a family of sparrows were tweeting very happily in the almond tree, which is entwined with a grape vine.  I knew what that meant and I went storming over, to their great dismay.  They scattered and I quickly got a basket and secateurs to get as many bunches as I could.  Luckily only a few grapes had been vandalized and I weighed the remainder at 9 oz.  

Not a huge haul, true.  I ate most of them myself within a few days;  the son and daughter weren't too impressed, though the husband approved.  Variety Phoenix, and I bought the cuttings off ebay several years ago.  They have a nice sweet flavor but aren't seedless--somewhat of a drawback.  

 In the future I may make raisins if faced with a large enough harvest but if not, even a basketful of free grapes once a year is a nice treat, particularly since they are tucked away in the corner of the Perennials section and not actually taking up any ground space--or even casting any shade. 

I have another vine right up next to my house, which is supposed to grow up a specially made arbor in order to shade my kitchen window, but I claim late pregnancy and new baby as my excuses for not training it this spring (it had no fruit this year).  I'll definitely make that a priority next spring.

Eating and preserving runner beans

Runners, Sep 2020

 After a very slow start, my runner beans finally started producing enough to actually bother with.  I suspect it was the sunny/dry weather that stopped them setting any beans, despite flowering profusely.  It's a little cooler and wetter and there are lots of beans. 

But.  

It's the end of September.  Even though they are still flowering like mad, I know I only have a couple weeks left, if that.

From left: dried figs, bottled apples, dried runner beans, dried peas; Sep 2020

We love runner beans (and for the past few summers they have felt like a real treat, seeing as their season has been so short) and have been eating them every other day or so, but I'm still trying to skim off some of the harvest and put them in the dehydrator.  I chop them into big bite sized pieces, blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water, then dehydrated until brittle. 

Oh, and those baskets of apples from earlier this month?  I bottled apple halves as shown in the photo above, made applesauce (frozen), made a few jars of apple butter; and along with eating them fresh for several weeks, baked them unsweetened with just a little cinnamon and nutmeg and served with homemade custard:  a big hit.  Oh, and the peels and cores are fermenting into scrap vinegar on my counter too. We finally got to the end of them--now it's time to start scavenging some from further afield!

Eating and preserving figs

My Brown Turkey fig tree is only small but it's getting more productive every year.  I'll need to give it a little bit of pruning this winter after it dies back, as some of the branches are getting very long and floppy.

For the past month I've been picking a few figs every week to go into the dehydrator;  I cut them in quarters, slip off the skins (when very ripe, they just come right off) and then slice the fruit thinly.  They take about a day and a half in my dehydrator.

It's a very nice fig for eating fresh, and the son and I have plans for some homemade fig newtons, a type of cookie I haven't eaten for years.  I think I'll make some almond shortcrust pastry and fill it with some rehydrated fig paste.  They're already very sweet, so I won't add any sugar.  

I'm also planning them for the Christmas pudding, as my newest effort made in January had to be thrown out earlier this summer:  it was covered in mold.  Actually it looked like the white mold like on Brie and wasn't entirely unpleasant (I had a taste), but it wasn't the result I was aiming for.  I keep putting off making the new one, but now I've got some dried figs there's no excuse.

Eating and preserving apples

Laxton Fortune apple tree, 2020

Both our small apple trees are laden this year, unlike last year when we got none from either.  I've been picking four or five from Laxton Fortune every few days for two weeks now, and yesterday I sent the son out with a big basket with an injunction to fill it, preferrably with all the remaining apples.  He filled it all right, but didn't get all of them.

They make for excellent eating fresh:  juicy and a good balance between tart and sweet, and very thin skin.  I thinned them (and the other tree, Sparta) earlier this summer trying to reduce the fruit clusters down to one or two only, but it's obvious that I missed some--several are too small to bother with. 

Besides eating fresh, which I have been doing with vigor, I am now in the position of having a large basket of apples to preserve.  What to make?  I'm not making cider this year, the usual contender.  Apple butter, applesauce, dried apples?  I better decide soon!

The other tree, Sparta, is just about ready for picking now;  we've eaten a few and will no doubt soon be emptying the tree.  While Laxton Fortune is supposed to be a good cooker as well as eater, Sparta is really more of an eater (aka dessert apple).  Maybe I'll dry some when faced with a big basket of these.  Wish me luck!

Eating and preserving cabbage

Cabbage and poppies, July 2020

 I have two kinds of cabbage in my garden this summer:  a pointed red one and a ball-headed green one.  Both are mostly ready to harvest now, amounting to a dozen or so medium-sized heads.  

The reds have been the first for the chop;  I've been blanching and dehydrating the tougher green-purple outer leaves and making sauerkraut with the tender red inner leaves.  Those inner leaves have also been made into coleslaw and the outer have been cooked for several dinners too.  It's a great tasting cabbage and has not been too badly affected by caterpillars and slugs this summer (though the ducks may have helped on that score as they eat both).  I don't remember the variety though!  I just remember it's an F1, which I don't normally buy--but it was the only red cabbage in the £1 sale.

It will be on to the green cabbages next, again an F1 of unknown variety.  They have been a little more nibbled than the reds--I think the butterflies prefer the green brassica leaves to the red ones for laying eggs, or at least it seems so in my garden.  These green cabbage leaves are also more tender than the red variety I have.  Still, I will be dehydrating and hope to have a few big jars of sauerkraut by the end of the harvest.

I really need to get a packet of spring cabbage seeds;  for several years I've grown Pixie variety over winter and it has always withstood frost and chicken attacks to form good heads in spring/early summer.  I didn't get new seed last year and missed out on them this spring.  I better get it on the to-do list.