Sunday 3 October 2010

The End is Nigh ...

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.

8 comments:

  1. I just love the way pumpkins offer hidden bonus fruits when harvest-time comes!

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  2. Don'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.

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  3. you just freeze them raw Carolyn ? no blanching or anything ?

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  4. We've given up blanching; they seem to freeze perfectly well without it and it's one less job!!

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  5. oooo fab ... top tip ! thanks W :)

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  6. So how much were the Crown Prince in Waitrose? If you start comparing prices with Waitrose it won't seem such an expensive hobby ;>)

    It'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?

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  7. We don't blanch anything either and haven't for years - haven't noticed a difference in taste.

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  8. Rob - £1.79 per kg ... need to get weighing :)

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