What are you harvesting today?

Ah ha, I think the memory (or lack of it in this case) is at play here. Why did I think I would remember which end of the row were Kew Blue and which end were Mr Fearn's? The other end of the row does have green pods coming. (My Mr F seeds were ones I saved from last year) I did the same with my Tut peas and sugar snaps and had to wait until the pods were there before I could tell which was which.

Write out 100 times - I must use labels, I must use labels, I must use labels ........

Ploshkin wrote:
Write out 100 times - I must use labels, I must use labels, I must use labels ........

Even when I remember to take some labels with me to the lotty, the birds wait till I've gone home to pull them up and scatter them around so I still don/t know which is which !

Thanks for reminding me - I filled up a space in the garden with the last of a packet of rocket seeds, meaning to put a label in before I think to myself "That's a nice empty space - I'll sow some seeds in it" and sow a second lot over the top (I've done that before...) By the way, can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I discovered wooden tongue depressors very cheap on Amazon (£1 for about 100) - if you're short sighted, and insist on gardening without your glasses on (like me) it's very handy to have big plant labels. A sharpie will do a fairly long lasting label, and then when they get a bit weather-beaten I dry the labels off and use them for kindling.

Grapes !  Got to them before the blackbirds this year.



These are winemaking grapes, I think scheurebe and sylvaner, and have a few too many seeds for easy eating, but are very sweet, especially the right one.  Not enough to make wine, but I got the press out and made about a litre of juice, enough for a few breakfasts.

Also harvesting carrots, beetroot, the Italian climbing beans Stortino di Trento, more tomatilloes.

And ... finally I have some ripe chillies Jamaican yellow and Aji lemon drop.  Both seeds saved from chillies sent to be by a Kitchen Garden magazine forum member.  Some of the Mulato mght be turning too.

They look magnificent, CH.
Is your press a big jobbie that can do hard fruit like apples and pears as well? I have to compost such a lot at this time of year, it would be nice to make juice from some of the produce.

Not sure which thread mentioned wrapping up cucumbers (or was it courgettes) in cling film to keep them. Didn't work for me, they have gone mouldy. Probably couldn't keep them cool enough. More for the compost bin

It's worked better for courgettes than cucumbers this year for me.  I used 3 big courgettes (wannabe narrows) yesterday for pickle. They had been wrapped and left in the kitchen, which is always warm, for the best part of a month and were perfect.
I think cucumbers, generally, seem to be a bit challenged this year.  I don't know anyone who hasn't struggled with them.

Luckily they weren't the tastiest cucumbers I've ever grown. I hope the compost worms and beasties enjoy them!

Those are good looking grapes CH, very impressive.
I've been using the first of my red peppers and some green ones too and chillies.  They're a good size.
I've had all the sweetcorn cobs now, about 20 from 11 plants and only a couple partially pollinated.  I've been pleased with how long they stay sweet for (Swift - a super sweet variety).
I've had the last melon.  The later ones have been a bit disappointing because we've had no sun since the beginning of August and they weren't as sweet as the earlier ones.  I had 10 and one other that went rotten.
Still picking pounds of tomatoes and I've finally had a handful of peas from the garden.

FloBear wrote:
Is your press a big jobbie that can do hard fruit like apples and pears as well?

Not really. I have a homemade contraption (of course !). Originally my dad made it; it has a heavy, square stainless steel tray with a welded in spout, and a basket made from perforated stainless sheet rolled and spot welded into a cylinder. The basket is about the size of a demijohn. I have worn it out once and reworked it to an "improved "design.

I have pressed apples in it, it's a bit harder than grapes, but the key is crushing them well first. For that you need a scratter, or some improvisation. My forester friend has a garden shredder reserved for this purpose, but how you clean it afterwards I don't know. I've seen homemade wooden ones with a hopper which feeds the apples onti a hand-cranked drum with lots of countersunk stainless screw heads sticking out of it to chew away at he apples. When cider making, we settled for a much simpler method - put the apples in one of those a plastic garden trugs, and bash them with a "plosher" made from untreated 4x4 with a pair of handles attached. Worked quite efficiently really, and pretty easy to clean. When doing a lot of cider, we have used a friend's Vigo press.

Of course, silly me! I should have really it was a 'Homemade' contraption!

My first year of growing sweetcorn has been good. I grew Swift (as Ploshkin did), and had about six good sized cobs from five plants. I think it would have been even better if we had had more rain - I did water them but I don't think they had as much as they would have liked! Will definitely grow again next year - has anyone tried any other varieties successfully?

I have grown Indian summer, which was fun for its multicoloured novelty value, but have settled on lark, another early and supersweet variety. The flavour is excellent. In a good year I get 2 cobs of reasonable size per plant.

Thanks for the recommendation CH!

Not sure if this counts as harvesting - I've done the first of my Ross Cobs today.  It weighed in at 7lbs 14oz dressed.  As it was such a big one I've jointed it.  Each breast was 13oz.
Guess what we'll be having for dinner tonight.

Surmising that's 'Chicken Tonite'. Though not out of a jar, I'm sure!

From the greenhouse, tomatoes, chillies, a pepper and strawberries. From outside, courgettes, runner beans, raspberries and apples. I have a dozen butternut squash ripening - if the weather holds it will be a good harvest.

Gosh, freebird, that sounds a good haul.
I'm surprised about strawberries, I thought they were well done and dusted.

Perhaps not as good as it sounds, FloBear. Not large quantities of anything. The strawberries are ever bearers, as suggested by Ploshkin. I have half a dozen plants in the greenhouse, and they have produced fruit in dribs and drabs right through the season. Also the bonus of pink flowers, making them quite decorative.

I went to the allotment at the weekend to try and prop my bean wigwam back up.  Managed eventually by putting in an old fence post and lashing the wigwam to it to keep it upright.  Surprisingly little damage it the beans, so I was able to pick off another bagfull of Stortino di Trento beans.

I took off all the drying beans that had dried out, so as to lighten the overloaded canes, and came upon a bit of a surprise.   I saved seed from last year's Greek Gigandes beans, because they can be hard to find.  All the seed I sowed looked like regular Gigandes, which are a sort of runner bean with large white beans like a butter bean,  the nearest commonly available substitute is Czar.  But one plant had red flowers, when usually they are white - and look at the beans it produced:

They look like rather pretty kidney beans, but are almost the size of Greek giant beans, a good inch long.  I think they must have crossed with my neighbour's runners. I hope they are good eating !

On the subject of giant things, I brought back beetroot of unusual size:

Good bit of borcht to be made from that, I reckon.

Your beans have very similar markings to my runner beans, Enorma.

On the subjedt of runner beans - I have a work colleague who is a gentle soul but quite dippy. She grew some runner beans last year but didn't realise that you eat the green bit (!), so she grew them on until the pods were quite large, threw the pods away and cooked the pink beans inside. She said that they were delicious, and had never had any like them. Has anyone else eaten runner beans like this? Are we missing out on a treat by being conventional?

I haven't tried runners like that Dandelion but I have so many beans this year that I'm not getting round to picking them all so I could give it a try.

I'm really pleased with my sweet peppers this year.  I've grown Kaibi and Lipstick which have both done really well and for the first time ever don't have something boring into them near the stalk.  They are a good size and are ripening quickly even without much sun.   One thing I did differently is to grow them in bottomless pots.  They seem to like it.

At last !


Aji Lemon Drop, and Jamaican Yellow. Both seem to have come true, despite being from seeds saved from chillies sent to me by an internet friend, which were grown alongside other varieties.

They look good CH very innocuous but I expect they would blow my head off.
I'm only growing Cayenne which are supposed to be mild but I find them very hot. There are hundreds of the blighters but I find I don't need to use more than a quarter of one at a time (stop laughing Chilli Head) so they will last me for eons. I've got a pile in the freezer and have dried some too.

Maybe just grow them in Olympic years Ploshkin. Sounds as if they will last you that long!

I can’t do really hot, but did find the Cayenne chillies I have grown before to be barely hot enough. I like the Apache chillies of the last two years.

Managed to harvest a few more runner beans today and a nice crop of autumn raspberries - though I scoffed the lot before they made it back to the house!