Harvest season in the September garden

So, we are a little way into September now, and it seems to be a mild one.  Hopefully a chance to make up for the poor results I've had earlier in the year.

What I can report on is my butternut squash experiment. This year I grew two varieties, one from the Organic Garden catalogue (was Chase organics, now sold to Dobies) which was simply sold as "Butternut squash", and "Early butternut", I forget where from.  Both produced similar large fruits, but for now the Early Butternut is clearly in the lead for yield, with ~4 fruits per plant compared with ~2 each for the Organic Garden catalogue variety.  All are looking just about ready to be picked for storage.

Whilst Googling. I found that the RHS have a butternuit squash trial, results here.  My varieties don't feature though.

I've finished harvesting squash now. Disappointed with the yield, ending up with 8 squashes off 5 plants. Mostly Uchiki Kuri, but a couple of Winter Dumpling from the seed swap.

Runner beans coming good now in this cooler weather, along with autumn raspberries and everbearer strawberries. From the greenhouse, chillies, peppers and a few later tomatoes.

Some radishes it seems like I only just sowed are ready now. I'm having another go at Chinese cabbage, which I rather like, but so do the slugs. Maybe the dry summer might have reduced their numbers ?

I've finally managed to sort out the collapsed trellis with large blackberry plant attached - I've ditched the trellis (it will make good kindling but was useless as trellis!). In sorting it out and training the new blackberry growth for next year, I decided to dig up a gooseberry bush which was getting in the way and made it harder to pick the blackberries. I had been putting off removing it, as I brought it from our old house 16 years ago: it had grown from a cutting which had a bit of root attached when I took it, and has given us a lot of fruit over the years.However this year it all went to waste as it was in a position where I just couldn't bend down to pick the berries. So I will possibly plant another one next year in a more accessible place. Our freezer is a bit empty of fruit this year, as the rhubarb was affected by the heat, and was quite inedible.

I picked damsons today. My courgette plant hasn't slowed down at all - I get 3 - 5 off it every day. I'm using cabbages and beans from the garden. Strawberries are coming to an end now and tomatoes seem to be on a break from ripening.
Any suggestions for what to do with dozens of sweet red peppers?

Ploshkin wrote:
Any suggestions for what to do with dozens of sweet red peppers?

Madhur Jaffery's Chicken in a red pepper sauce - this particular recipe is already online to save me typing, and appears to be the same as the one in my BBC book.

Thank you for that one Chilli Head, it didn't come up on my search for red pepper recipes. Actually I have an old Madhur Jaffrey book and it is in there. It sounds like a good one for making up just the sauce to freeze too.

I have a lovely recipe for tomato relish. Don't be fooled by the name - it uses only 1lb tomatoes but 5 good-sized red peppers. Let me know if you are interested.

Yes please Freebird, if it's one that keeps. I find a lot of relish recipes are 'use within x weeks'

Actually, blackened, peeled and blended peppers make as good a base for a sauce as tomatoes, and certainly nice for a change. Mexican mole is another possibility; I make my chilli for taco filling using a pepper based sauce. And variations on mole.

Now I am puzzled as to why one of Ploshkin's posts above is appearing to me on a darker than normal green background ?

It looks very green to me too. Is it because Ploshkin's much greener than the rest of us???

It's green on my computer too. Oo-er

I harvested my first butternut squash today. I have no idea what it will be like but it's been squash-coloured for weeks so I thought it worth a punt.

Also pulled off two of the mini corn cobs which I will investigate shortly.

I hope your gardens are surviving the winds we've been having. I was woken in the night by the loud crash of a big terracotta pot smashing - fortunately it was one already frost damaged. I haven't braved going for a look at the allotment yet.

I'm hoping some wood chip will have arrived at the lotty from my local tree surgeon - it helps keep the paths a lot nicer to walk on over winter.

Winds here are unpleasant but not as extreme as many other parts of the country.
Still no rain.

The winds have been fierce here and we had torrential rain last night, but when driving to Hereford this morning we didn't see the debris we had expected. One or two branches down but nothing too dramatic