Monday 8 September 2014

My Latest Harvest

Not a bad haul, spuds, tomatoes, three varieties of beans, squash  and courgettes. I missed off the yellow raspberries which also came home from the plot.


I've grown potatoes both in containers and at the allotment this year. The ones here are from the plot, they're much dirtier when dug up than container grown ones. I stopped growing potatoes in the ground when we had our last plot as they attracted so much slug damage, but the one's I've grown this year on the new plot have been brilliant, I've only found one damaged potato so far. It means that I can cut down on the number of containers I plant up with potatoes as I'll be able to grow them in the ground from now on, though I'll still continue to plant a few in pots.

This is Custard White patty pan squash. There's absolutely loads growing on a monster plant so I think there'll be lots more to harvest on our next visit. These will be served with our roast chicken dinner tonight.


The courgettes are still producing a good amount. Stuffed courgette is a regular on the menu at the moment.


I picked this colander of tomatoes yesterday. I've now cut all the leaves off the tomato plants to allow the remaining green tomatoes to ripen.


Purple Cascade and Cobra climbing French beans and St George runner beans. I made a late sowing of beans as well as the ones which I planted out earlier in the season. These are still from the first sowing so I'm hoping that the weather stays fine for a good few weeks yet as there's absolutely loads still to come. My freezer is being well stocked up. Some of these beans will make it on to our plate tonight too.


The season isn't even nearly over yet, we're still bringing plenty of things home with us from the plot.

Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Thursday the 11th of September 2014 to do so. Just leave a comment on my Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden Journal post.

34 comments:

  1. What a haul, love the little white squash, I can see loads of yummy meals using your fresh produce. Do you freeze any of it? Enjoy xcx

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    1. We do freeze what we don't eat, it's lovely having a taste of summer in the depths of winter. I've got loads of beans frozen this year, we've had a bumper crop.

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  2. You're doing well, especially with tomatoes and beans. I may have mentioned it before but if you grow second early potatoes like Charlotte and Kestrel, rather than maincrop ones, neither seem to suffer much slug damage. Flighty xx

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    1. I'm pleased that my tomatoes have come good in the end, and it's been a great year for beans. It's great to dig up potatoes without slug damage, I definitely tried Charlotte, and I think I tried Kestrel, at the old plot and they both still had damage, but it looks as though I've solved the problem on my new plot.

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  3. What a gorgeous harvest! Enjoy all that healthy and beautiful eating!

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    1. It's such a treat to have so much home grown food to eat. Knowing how it's been grown and that it's travelled less than a mile to reach my plate is a very good feeling.

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  4. Lots of lovely goodies, makes my mouth water! Can you eat the white patty pans raw like you can the yellow ones? Xxx

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    1. I would imagine you can use the white patty pans exactly as you would the yellow ones, though I've never tried them raw, I'll have to give it a go.

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  5. Great harvest! I must remember to do a late sowing of beans too next year as mine petered out a while ago now.

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    1. Most of my green French beans got eaten by slugs, but I've managed a small harvest from the ones they left behind. My runners have been the star of the show this year, there's no sign of them stopping yet.

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  6. Great haul Jo and nice to have clean potatoes. It's been a really good year so far with loads of produce to come.

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    1. I'm thrilled with my potatoes so far, I'd just about given up hope of growing them in the ground but they've done so well on the new plot.

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  7. Rich pickings Jo :) I'm wishing that I had sown a second lot of 'Cobra' beans as mine have now ground to a halt. Have never tried patty pan squash. Must give them a go. Silly question or two - are they thick skinned and how do you cook them? I imagine that they are similar to courgettes but I'm not sure.

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    1. Most of my Cobra plants, and Blue Lake too, got eaten by slugs, but I've still managed a small harvest from the ones which survived. I'm hoping that the weather stays fine so that my later sowing will go on producing for a while yet. Patty Pan squash is thin skinned, it can be cooked in a number of ways, but I just roast it, it's delicious. I don't peel them, just chop them up in to cubes, about the size of an Oxo and drizzle with oil. They take about half an hour or a little longer, but you have to keep checking on them as they can quickly burn. They can be stuffed too, I haven't tried it but I bet that's delicious.

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  8. Fantastic haul Jo. I'm so envious of you being able to grow potatoes in the ground. I have found the bags a lot of trouble to water and they still got blight. But it looks like I will get some Pink Fir Apple out of them, albeit small.

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    1. It will be a bit of a relief next year not having to use containers for my potatoes, they do take a lot of watering. Such a shame that yours still got blight but it's good that you've managed to salvage some. I've grown Pink Fir Apple for the first time this year so I'm looking forward to trying them. A plant got dug up by mistake earlier on in the season but there wasn't very many potatoes there to try.

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  9. Wow, brilliant! All the hard work is worth it in the end :)

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    1. It definitely is. It's been a good year all told.

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  10. Nice harvest Jo.
    Our Cobra climbing French beans have sort of ground to a halt now but the runners are still producing. I think we've given up on our courgettes rather than them giving up on us!

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    1. It's been a great year for runner beans, and for courgettes too. We've been supplying friends and family with both and we're still left with more than we know what to do with.

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  11. That's an great harvest, Jo, congratulations! It seems you're having a much better summer than the south UK, more even temperatures I assume. I've still to un-pot my potatoes, it's a question of storage really so I'll empty one pot and see what I've got. I was given a load of runner beans by my neighbour which I've pickled to have with cold meats. I haven't heard of Cobra beans, I must look them up. I also like the look of those little squash, something I didn't grow this year - are they tasty?

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    1. Most things have done well this year, even though I had my doubts they were going to at the start of the season, what with dodgy compost and slug damage. I've still got some potato containers to empty and lots of spuds in the allotment to dig up yet too. I love any type of squash and I find these patty pans really tasty. Mick likes these best of all, though I know some people find them rather bland, not I though.

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  12. your new plot is obviously a big improvement on the old one! It must be a relief to have to worry a bit less about slug damage, particularly on the potatoes. Slugs cause us so much damage that they tend to dominate the gardening scene far too much. Your bean crop looks fantastic. The sort of thing we all aspire to!

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    1. Lots of things about our new plot are better than the old one, we really fell on our feet here. The spuds are doing ok slug wise, but they did manage to take most of my climbing French beans out, can't win the all I don't suppose. On the whole, my bean harvest has been very good this year, especially the runners, I'm impressed with this variety.

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  13. I have never had a pan squash what are they like. Wow, what a wonderful haul

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    1. It's very hard to describe a taste, I'd just say try it, I think it's delicious. I've had some great harvests this year, I'm very pleased with how the year's gone.

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  14. Great harvest, Jo! The beans make me so jealous! And the squashes too. So beautiful and interesting. Love to see them!

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    1. It's been a good year for both beans and squash, I should have plenty to see me through well in to winter.

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  15. It does seem some varieties of potatoes suffer from slug damage more than others.

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    1. It didn't seem to make any difference on my old plot, whatever variety I tried got muched so I'm hoping I've turned the corner on the new site.

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  16. You have done well, a great harvest! I haven't had much luck this year with my container spuds but have had the best year ever for veggie patch ones. I've grown patty pans for the first time this year, do you peel your big ones? The skins seem rather thick on them. When do you harvest yours?xxx

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    1. It's been my best year for spuds grown in the ground too, I'm really pleased with them. I don't peel the patty pans at all unless they have any damage to the skins. I try not to let them grow too big but they do need to be a reasonable size.

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  17. Just catching up with everyone's blogs after a hectic few weeks. That is such an impressive haul. It's been a good growing year, although it has been so dry recently and I've neglected the watering a bit too much. Thankfully we had a storm last so finally some rain. :)

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    1. I think most things came good in the end this year, even though some things got off to a shaky start. I have to say that I've neglected the watering a bit lately too, I usually do at this late stage in the year.

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