What are you harvesting today?

Still getting fantastic raspberries - the dryish weather has helped as this time last year they were rotting on the canes. Still some courgettes, though my raised bed is cleared now with a good thick mulch of well-rotted sheep manure from the allotment.

It's been a really difficult year for beans for me. Poor germination of my runners - we eventually had 3 or 4 meals of those in September. The Mr Fearns are definitely to be repeated, though not fantastic crops. I think that is largely down to deciding I wasn't keeping the allotment just before they needing putting in the soil. I had to find space in the garden, and despite a couple of bags of manure hastily dumped on the patch they were in, I think it just wasn't fertile enough for a good harvest.

I think overall, although veg space will be severely restricted in the garden, it will be better concentrating my efforts on just that. Any compost and manure can also be applied much more iiberally over the smaller area.

Oh, yes, the autumn raspberries are fab. My runner beans are doing really well too. I always start them off quite late so that I don't end up with all the bean types at once. It's vert rare here that we get early autumn frosts here and I can be picking right into November. Brassicas have been ok too. The earlier cabbages have usually rotted or been slug eaten by now but they're still good with only a very small amount of slug damage. Winter cabbages are looking reasonable as are the sprouts.
My courgette in the tunnel is producing as many or more than the peak of the season ( the plant is now about 10' long) though the leaves are getting mould now so it's nearing its end.

Oh, maybe I planted the Mr Fearns at the end of July- I can't remember, but it was quite quick. If you like I can send you some seeds when I've dried some CH (or I have some of last years seed)

Oh yes please DL

Do you growers of Mr Fearns beans grow them in a polytunnel, or outside ? I saw an article suggesting they did best in a cool greenhouse / tunnel. I probably can't afford them that luxury, the greenhouse is reserved for chillies and tomatoes.

Mine were outside, CH. With this mild autumn weather, I'm still picking a few. I might try some in a greenhouse container next season. I thought I had this year, but they turned out to be dwarf beans.

Mine went completely out of control in the tunnel. I have grown them very successfully outdoors. I might just put s couple of later seeds in the tunnel next year.

I did grow some in a pot in a cool greenhouse one autumn, but that was the only time. Usually they are outside. The plants grown from seed planted in late July are still producing pods, although the plants have suffered badly from a blackfly attack. I suppose this is the downside of a very mild autumn - the pests are still active!

Well here we are in November, and I'm still picking tomatoes out the greenhouse, along with chillies and a surprise, and final cucumber. A few raspberries still coming and the only crop left to harvest on the allotment is parsnips.

Oh there's a few sprouts on the plot; don't think the beetroot will be any good but might be; there's the purple spouting stuff for next spring.

I grew cylindrical beetroot this year, but thanks to having no kitchen I didn't dig them when they were small. I now have two beet which have grown together - they're about a foot long, and they've twined round each other like a pair of legs. Good for comedy value - I don't think for a moment they will be tender enough to eat!

It seems incredibly late, but I'm harvesting the last few apples from my Spartan. The tree was overloaded with fruit, but disappointingly the fruit hasn't been very nice - crisp and juicy, but with a bitterness to it. Keeping the fruit didn't improve it (I think they're best eaten straight off the tree anyway.) But the last few apples which I've picked this last week have been delicious. Very strange, considering they shouldn't still be on the tree!

We had a few tomatoes today - almost the end. This was a quick evening meal because we ate out at lunchtime with C-H Jnr up at Warwick. Which involved lots of napkin physics/mathematics between courses !

Otherwise harvesting is kale, red cabbages and rocket. Everything else is done now. But next year is begun ! The broad beans are up

I picked my first Brussels sprouts today. They're about the size of marbles! I think I need to give my soil a bit of tlc. I haven't had really good brassicas for a few years now though to be fair I just planted them out and ignored them.

I'm still picking Cavolo Nero: I haven't grown it before, and it's taken a bit of learning/trial and error to pick the best leaves (i.e. not the old ones, not the newest, but the nearest to the newest!) And I've realised that I need to cut out the stalk - Mr D finds swallowing a bit tricky after two ops on his throat, and he wasn't coping with kale stalks.
Also still picking cooking apples from the Winter Greening: until yesterday they were actually still on the tree, but I decided that I'd better pick them in case we have any more storms. They survived Arwen, and most were still firmly attached to the tree before I removed them. There are a few windfalls, which have been a treat for the blackbirds.

Gosh, you've done well with your apples Dandelion. It must havd been a good apple year in Herefordshire. I had several bagfuls from a small disused orchard near Almley where Mr P rents a shed to store straw bales.
I've had big disappointment with my butternut squashes. Out of 13 six were starting to rot round the stem so I used those / gave them away. I've now found that all of the rest are also rotting at the top. I'll have to cut up the good bits and put them in the freezer. It will do for soup at least - I've never frozen squash.
As far as I can see the Uchiki Kuris are ok at the moment.

I had only a few butternuts this year, very poor yield. And the erratic rainfall made them crack, which I thought would mean they didn't keep. But the cracks callused over, and the one we used on Boxing day was fine despite being tge worst affected.

I dug some rather puny leeks yesterday to go in a pie with the last of the turkey. They are not a variety I've grown before. Indeed without looking they aren't a variety who's name I remember, but aside from the size they have no rust (almost always a problem) and no sign of leek moth or allium leaf miner, and they have decent flavour. I'll try the variety again (I still have the packet) because the year that was was a terrible growing year in general, so they deserve a second chance.

I then spent the evening hunting for the lotty shed key which I mislaid - eventually found it had fallen from the front of my workbench into an open drawer below !

Chilli-head wrote:
I then spent the evening hunting for the lotty shed key which I mislaid - eventually found it had fallen from the front of my workbench into an open drawer below !

I'm glad you found it - I hate losing things

Funnily enough I've just used my last butternut squash in some roasted vegetables for tea. When I say 'last', it was half the entire crop, but with no kitchen for the last summer and autumn, it didn't get cooked (but has been looking quite arty in a turned wooden bowl in the sitting room!) It was a bit spongy inside but tasted perfectly fine. I've had no success at all with butternuts, ever - so two whole squashes (from three plants) is an improvement!

We've just eaten the very last of the June sown carrots from the polytunnel. Very nice with home grown lamb.

Did you leave them in the soil in the polytunnel Ploshkin, or dig them and store them?

When I'm part way through harvesting Dandelion, I just stop watering and they store nicely in the dry compost. The very last ones I've just harvested were just beginning to sprout a few fine, hairy roots.

First rhubarb of the season. Winter salad leaves still going strong, apart from the rocket which, err, rocketed, so it's now on the compost heap.

Ooh, that looks nice Freebird. Do you cover it? I, should be able to pull a few stalks soon. It's been under a mound of straw and I can see leaves starting to poke through the top.

No, it hasn't been covered or forced.

That's done really well then. Actually, I've just looked at mine and it's taller than I thought. Enough for a crumble I think. The main reason I covered it was to make the spot visible because we had a machine working on the yard / garden boundary putting up new fencing and I asked the driver to avoid it if possible - some got squashed but most survived.