Just about it for this season

I find you have to take your moments when you can, so off I went this morning, in the freezing rain to the lottie. Not surprisingly I appeared to be the only sole daft enough to venture out on such an unpromising day.

It was just a quick visit this time, and I was pleased to see the lottie looks quite in order. I was, however, disappointed not to see any signs of the garlic or broadbeans. Patience !!!! I have a little cartoon on my wall at work, I really must post it on here sometime, it sums me up completely.

One of the jobs I wanted to do today was take the remaining tomatoes home. I did think I was perhaps being a little hopeful taking a trug with me, but it was all I had to hand and amazingly I actually filled it to the brim with ripe fruit. I've got a bowl full of unripe fruit too, that I'm hoping will ripen at home.



How wonderful to be picking tomatoes in the middle of November ... actually, it wasn't wonderful at all, it was bl**dy freezing. This is the last of the tomatoes now until next May / June. We've got used to having fresh tomato sauce every week, so its quite sad that they have now come to an end.



My greenhouse lodger is really appreciating the peace and quiet of late, it has dug the most amazing maze of tunnels. I keep coming across little larders - a few seeds here, a few munched tomatoes there. I wonder if I'll come across him, when I have time to start digging the greenhouse borders over.

Finally the Tasty Red Grill peppers have ripened in the brick greenhouse, its taken 8 months from seed to fruit. I'm thinking of setting up one of those plastic greenhouses inside the brick greenhouse next year, to see if it speeds the process up a bit.



Eight months is ridiculous and even now, one of them is still green.



They do look good though and are a great size, I hope they taste as good as they look. I shall definitely grow these next year, along with Gypsy. I'm not going to bother with Redskin - they weren't a patch on Gypsy.



I had a quick look at the sweet potatoes. The foliage looks quite happy, so I've left them in situ for a bit longer. I'll be disappointed if there is nothing to show for my efforts - the outdoor ones were not as good as last year, so I won't hold my breath.

Here are my Ying Yang beans, which I harvested last month. They have been drying at home ready for storage. I have no idea what they taste like, or indeed how to cook them (suggestions welcomed), but will probably grow them next year, purely for their appearance. I've enjoyed growing beans so much this year, I've gone overboard and got loads of varieties for next season - I'm going to have to be very strict and just grow, say 10 of each variety. The problem is I can't bring myself to put the spares onto the compost heap, so expect I'll be overun with beans.



Here is my amazing crop of pumpkins - the table is groaning under the weight ... NOT, ah well, there's always next season.

I thought I'd get them all out before we start to eat them, they look so beautiful. I'm not sure which are which, but I planted Butternut Squash (nil point), Sunshine Squash (the very orange ones I think), winter festival (I think the applely looking ones), Baby Bear (pretty certain he died), Jack be Little, Turk's Turbans and Dill's Atlantic Giant. I have no idea what the biggest one is.



This could be winter festival ?


In the foreground, I think this may be a very young Dill's Atlantic Mini pumpkin. Then to the right is a turks turban.



I think this one could be Sunshine Squash. OH roasted it with some olive oil and then made risotto. I preferred it to butternut squash, it seemed sweeter and stickier, the risotto was delicious. I'll almost certainly try them again next year, if I still have some seed.



I'm looking forward to trying them all.