... on Bank Holiday Monday I decided to tidy up the overgrown, caterpillar infested brassica beds. Most of the remaining "above the ground" veg was discarded, but I was hoping that the "below the ground" i.e. swede would be okay... not so.
They were too close together and had either been stunted, split or eaten by critters. Swede were supposed to be part of my masterplan to provide fresh veg during winter. I did manage to save one though.
I've read some comments that swede isn't very nice if it's harvested too early and before the frosts have got to it; this one tasted lovely steamed and mashed with some of my rooster potatoes. I just wish I had a few more to grow on.
Next year I must take more care to thin them out and be more vigilant where cabbage whites are concerned!
One thing that did surprise me about the previously mentioned pumpkin was the number of seeds it contained... there were millions of the things!
Well maybe not millions, but it seemed like a lot to me; although I have never been up close and personal with a pumpkin before so that might be quite normal.
Doing what I usually do, I searched on the internet to see if there is anything special you have to do to them in order to save them for future sowings... and there isn't, just rinse and leave to dry before packing them away. So that's what I've done.
I have also been saving pepper seeds for the past few weeks, so have apache, shake (don't know what the variety is so have to stick with that name) and bellboy seeds ready to sow next year.
The majority of my posts are about veg because that's what I grow the most.
However, I thought I would spend a whole post talking about fruit... berries to be precise.
My first autumn raspberries ripened on Tuesday.
Yesterday morning I picked another handful.
And today I did the same, along with some blackberries.
I love being able to wander out to the garden each morning and pick a few sweet berries to add to my breafast bowl. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say :-)
... I had red and orange sweet peppers all over my california wonder plants. This season has been so different; Tuesday marked the harvesting of the first red pepper... it was a bellboy, still a bit green on one side but I wanted to use it so picked it.
I had to pick a couple of green ones and one that was on the turn yesterday because the stems had broken under the weight of them.
French beans had come to an end by now and it looks as if this season's are finishing too. I picked about a handful yesterday, but I think I will leave the remaining ones on the plants to dry and provide seeds for next year's sowing.
Courgettes had finished too, in my notes I mentioned pulling up the last of the plants. This year I still have one all green bush producing regularly and the remaining gold rush has about 5 little courgettes on it... maybe they won't come to anything, will just have to wait and see.
I didn't manage to produce any aubergine last year; this year I had two, but had to pick the second one, which was still quite small yesterday because the colour had started to fade which by all accounts is a sign that it has passed it's best. Luckily it still tasted okay roasted with some other veg.
I had also picked all of the ripe tomatoes by now and harvested the green ones for making chutney. This year they are still ripening pretty consistently; this was yesterday's batch.
I didn't grow pumpkins at all last year, and this year's results have been mixed. From three surviving plants I had three pumpkins growing fairly well I thought, although one of them was a bit elongated. The largest of the three started to turn orange a few weeks ago, which I thought was too early but couldn't do anything about it, and the main stem started to shrivel up. The third one got attacked by something, not sure what but it had a big gash in the side of it then it rapidly went soft and rotted.
Yesterday I noticed that the largest one (now fully orange) had a similar looking mark on it to the one that rotted, although a bit smaller so I harvested it.
I had high hopes for that pumpkin, even though it looks the part colour wise, it is a lot smaller than I expected or wanted it to be... smaller than a football and it peaked way too early. Anyway, click here to see what I did with it.
