Was listening to the radio on Friday and the guest speaker was a professional pumpkin grower. He was asked when pumpkins should be harvested and he said they were in the process of completing their harvest, so yesterday I decided to harvest my Queensland Blues. I knew I had 4, but discovered a fifth when I was pulling up the vine. They are very heavy - looking forward to trying them :)
Noticed the Crown Princes in Waitrose today are not as big as mine, or as beautiful looking :) :)
Pulled up my butternut squash vine. It had about 20 babies on it - oh why oh why did it leave it so late to get going :( My baby squash that I've been nuturing managed to get to hand size - it's a similar size to the supermarket.
The courgettes are still producing, so I've left them in the ground for now - their leaves are looking past their best so I guess it won't be long before they also go the compost heap - which is exploding it's so big.
It must be hard work being a bean ... standing around all day doing nothing. Obviously my borlotties had had enough and had decided to have a little recline on the ground. It was impossible to get them upright again, so annoyingly I've had to harvest them all. Quite a lot are still green / immature. Sigh. I shall be trawling the net now for recipes - I think spicy beanburgers will be featuring on our menu next week ... yum !
I finally got around to using some more of the tomatoes - I've made a batch of tomato sauce and some soup. Still got 3-4 kilos to process ... am thinking tomato, mozarella & basil tart for tea :)
One of my other jobs that I was hoping to do was to start digging over some of the beds, but we've had a torrential downpour for most of the day, so there goes that plan LOL. I don't feel as dedicated as I once was - maybe I'm suffering allotment lethargy ! My lovely yellow wellies are getting plenty of use though.
My Allotment Association are applying for some funding via the You Choose programme - so if anyone from my site reads this blog, please please please support us by turning up to vote next Saturday (details on the poster on the gates). We're planning a display with pumpkins, newsletters, photos, scarecrows and lots of other 'allotmenty' bits.
I just love the way pumpkins offer hidden bonus fruits when harvest-time comes!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about your borlotti beans being green - the lovely coloured ones lose their colour when cooked anyway. I just pod them then stick them into a bag and pop into the freezer. When I want to use them, I just boil them up from frozen.
ReplyDeleteyou just freeze them raw Carolyn ? no blanching or anything ?
ReplyDeleteWe've given up blanching; they seem to freeze perfectly well without it and it's one less job!!
ReplyDeleteoooo fab ... top tip ! thanks W :)
ReplyDeleteSo how much were the Crown Prince in Waitrose? If you start comparing prices with Waitrose it won't seem such an expensive hobby ;>)
ReplyDeleteIt's great when you find an unexpected squash lurking in the 'undergrowth' isn't it, wondering how it managed to get so big without being noticed?
We don't blanch anything either and haven't for years - haven't noticed a difference in taste.
ReplyDeleteRob - £1.79 per kg ... need to get weighing :)
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