Things are changing rapidly on my allotment. The broad beans were late to start cropping because of the cold spring and we have just eaten the last of them along with the peas, which were looking really good until the hot weather when three rows all came in at once! Despite our best efforts at watering, I couldn’t keep them wet enough. The mange tout have fared better and although they stopped flowering in the very hot weather, they have a second wind and the tasty pods make a good addition to stir fries or just steamed as an extra vegetable.
I have had the best runner bean crop for years and have been picking a carrier bag full every other day, so Mrs McGregor has made two batches of chutney, with another batch soon to follow! Needless to say most of our meals at the moment feature runner beans along with courgettes which are really starting to get going at last! One of my plants keeled over early on with mottled leaves that looked like a virus of some sort, so I dug it up and burnt it. One of my prized yellow courgettes got flipped by a strong gust of wind and broke off at the main stem, so now I am down to three plants and hoping they will produce enough fruits to make chutney – they are one of my favorite vegetables to eat very young, so the fruits do not get left on the plants long enough to grow to any size but I must leave a few to get bigger!
I have lifted my onions and they are drying on the ground with their roots in the air. I will leave them there with an eye on the weather and if it turns wet, I will bring them up to the house and finish drying them in the garage on wire racks.
This year I am trying to provide more vegetables for us through the winter months and so far I am on target despite the best efforts of the caterpillars on the brassicas and the pigeons earlier in the year on the swede seedlings! Leeks have been planted out and I also have Sprouts, Kale and Sprouting Broccoli growing well. All of these vegetables, along with parsnips should stay in the ground through the winter so that we can harvest them as we need them for the kitchen.
I have made a visit to our local Notcutt’s garden center and bought some more broad bean seeds to plant a couple of rows next month and some ‘Chinese cabbage’ (Mizuna) and Lamb’s Lettuce to try for autumn and winter salad leaves.
Mrs McGregor always does well in the local village show with her home produce but I have never entered anything. This year I was persuaded to enter some vegetables and to my surprise did quite well with them. The three hours it took to prepare the exhibits the previous day was worth the effort and I look at my vegetables in a different light now, scrutinising each one for size, shape and blemishes! My first priority will always be to grow for food and misshapen veg. taste as good as perfect ones, but my entries helped to keep the numbers up and it was fun. I hope to improve on my efforts next year!
