The ups and downs of growing your own dinner 2016...

Fruittea

Yes Money - it's just the green one's the yellow and brown will be bitter. Are you brinning them River Cottage have a recipe somewhere. Let us know what you think of them.

zafiro1984

Feeling a bit chilly this morning.

Took a deep breath and took down half of the runner bean plants as I needed the space for my Spring cabbages. The other half is still producing plus I've plenty of beans frozen to last me about six months so I should be ok.

The cucumbers under cover are coming to an end so they are coming out tomorrow all except the one which appears to be the healthiest. I shall untie it and lay it flat, cover the stem with soil so hopefully it will send up new shoots so I can get a few more cucs in a few weeks time.

Onions are out and kale is planted for the spring. That leaves me with finding a space for the sprouting broccoli.
Looks like the tomatoes have started with blight, they are looking a bit under the weather, gave them a feed just in case but I think it may be a bit forlorn. If they don't pick up I shall take them out and use the green ones in chutney. (green tomatoes, courgette and onion chutney).

We had an almost totally home produced meal tonight for six. Turkey (grown last year and frozen) potatoes, beans, carrots, sweetcorn, sage onion stuffing, followed by strawberry, raspberry, blackberry meringues. All I needed (and didn't grow) was some bread, sugar and cream.:)

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
Seems a little quiet on here. I've been away on a family trip to Essex - so pleased to be home.
I'm officially overwhelmed with courgettes now. I have five enormous ones that have over grown whilst I've been away. Well I do love those courgette fritters!
I had to buy a bit of veg for family meals over the weekend as I was away - didn't like that. I'll do a tot up of the supermarket shop later. I noticed some of the tomatoes have a bit of blight to and the pumpkins are doing very well at the mo. All the hedgerows are full of blackberries now - so I'll have to get picking. Plenty of apples around and the cider vinegar I started seems to be doing well - it costs a fortune in the shops so I'm doing extra to keep me going through the year.
All the best to everyone.

zafiro1984

September always felt like a watershed for me, new school year, new teachers etc, nights are starting to draw in, cooler, moisture on the car in the morning - thank goodness I've retired and the children have flown the nest

However it still feels like a transitional period, summer crops are coming to an end and I'm making sure I have enough in the ground and freezer to take me through the lean times next Feb-May.

This last week I've taken out most of the tomatoes that were in the tunnel - just left some cherry ones, used the space to try and get a quick crop of, salad leaves, kohl rabi, dwarf beans, fennel, lettuce and turnips but it does depend on the weather and how warm it is outside.

zafiro1984

Hi Everyone,
It's been very quiet on her these last few days. How's everyone doing, I expect you are all overwhelmed with the amount of produce that is coming through.

My observations on this month
Giant courgettes- the one that escaped detection?
Tough runner beans that won't go through the shredder?
Sweetcorn that is no longer sweet - very difficult to tell when it's just ready?
Lettuce that the slugs ate the night before you wanted it !!
Cucumber that looks more like a truncheon - certainly not like the slim ones on the supermarket shelves.
Beetroot that wouldn't disgrace being used as a 'shotput'
French climbing beans that are so high I can't reach them.
Not to mention the blackberries that were so carefully picked to avoid being scratched by the thorns, left on the kitchen worktop for a couple of hours, to have turned mainly to juice and attracted the only wasp in the district - binned

Yes autumn is well on its way.

Just updated my vegetable savings - really pleased and surprised

Fruittea

Hi Everyone
Off the Frampton show later today - so I thought I'd catch up quickly. Still haven't managed to get through the courgette glut. I was only away for a week and everything went mad. Whilst away I had to spend about £7 in the supermarket on salad stuff I just couldn't take it all with me. Produce for that week was around £30. This week I've added apple juice to the list - the one I buy is about £2 a carton - so a saving of £4 a week. Produce for this week comes to £38.50. I'll update the totals. Zafiro your total is amazing - it just shows you doesn't it.
I bought quite a few seeds in the sales for £10 and a neighbour brought me over 3 packets as a thank you for runner beans. So I don't really need to buy more for next year.
Things are looking tired though and you can see it's late in the season. I can't believe I'm thinking of what garlic to go for this year.
All the best everyone.

Dizzy_Ditzy

My last couple of weeks have gone like this -

Blackberries from allotment - coming home with 1-2kg of those every few days. They are now bramble jelly, apple and blackberry jam and wine. There are tons more on the bushes that are destined for unknown futures :rotfl:

Tomatoes - copious amounts of tomato and garlic sauce. I still have a kilo of them in the kitchen that are headed for the tomato and chilli jam. The chillies are my own that I dried and flaked last year

Chillies - haven't touched this years yet - there are loads of them

Curly kale - gets split between us and the chickens, with some going to friends and family too

Sweetcorn - three huge bags, all de-kernelled and in the freezer

Grapes - coming off the vine thick and fast. Picked, washed and frozen so that when they are all ready, they will be going in the brewing bucket

Rhubarb - 18 bottles of wine bottled up last week. Plant recently stripped right back to the crown so no more this year

Gooseberries - the last of them currently fizzing away in the demijohn

Spaghetti squash - one being cooked up tonight with said tomato sauce, onions and garlic. Tonight's dinner will be entirely homegrown

Spinach - growing faster than I can cut it! I give it a number two cut and the next day it's ready for harvest again

Parsnips - looking like they may need thinning out of the barrel but I don't want to do that until we get the frosts

Apples - my cooking apples are just coming in now so will be sauce at some point soon

Beetroot - as Zafiro says above, wouldn't look out of place in shot put competition :rotfl: I've been making cake with it. It's amazing

Runner beans - they are having a second wind and are producing again, although hopefully not as prolifically as the last month or so :rotfl:





I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of for now! It's seriously like having a second full time job. No time for anything else and if I do, my mind is always thinking of what I should be doing allotment wise :rotfl: :rotfl:

zafiro1984

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of for now! It's seriously like having a second full time job. No time for anything else and if I do, my mind is always thinking of what I should be doing allotment wise :rotfl: :rotfl:

Queen of Cheap I know exactly what you mean about a second job. I'm always planning the plot and tunnels plus 2017 seed catalogues have just started to arrive!!!! I'm supposed to be retired but with quite a few chickens, turkeys arriving this week, and loads of equines I'm not sure what one job is like. At least it makes us get up in the morning.

Have you time to post the beetroot and chocolate recipe, I really must try it as it sounds too good to miss.

Fruittea: have you got chickens, if so, they will make short work of any spare courgettes/marrows. They love them, mine come running to the gate and some actually get off the ground and fly, it's so funny to watch (and time wasting) I'm actually thinking of opening up a trench - like a bean trench - and growing lots of plants next year just for them.

Fruittea

Morning Everyone
Well I've got my garlic - bought from The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight who were at the Frampton Show yesterday - so I be growing Red Czech, Provence and 5 cloves of Elephant Garlic. I paid £10 for it. So I've already invested £20 in next years produce.

If anyone is interested The Garlic Farm were giving away a voucher code yesterday for £5 off a £25 spend on the website: http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk
IMETROB5
It might be useful for someone.
Zafiro I have 6 chickens and yes they like the courgettes I think I might treat them and hang a couple up. They always get tasty scraps but they tend to be leftovers. But I might just sacrifice a couple of the bigger ones and see what the reaction is - I have two new girls who are buff orpington types - they usually don't move very fast - let's wait and see.
All the best everyone.

Dizzy_Ditzy

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Queen of Cheap I know exactly what you mean about a second job. I'm always planning the plot and tunnels plus 2017 seed catalogues have just started to arrive!!!! I'm supposed to be retired but with quite a few chickens, turkeys arriving this week, and loads of equines I'm not sure what one job is like. At least it makes us get up in the morning.

Have you time to post the beetroot and chocolate recipe, I really must try it as it sounds too good to miss.

Fruittea: have you got chickens, if so, they will make short work of any spare courgettes/marrows. They love them, mine come running to the gate and some actually get off the ground and fly, it's so funny to watch (and time wasting) I'm actually thinking of opening up a trench - like a bean trench - and growing lots of plants next year just for them.

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/beetroot-and-chocolate-cake.html

Is the recipe I use. Doesn't matter what colour beetroot you use - I've used golden and red and it tastes just as good with either it's more like 1 hour cooking time though. Well, in my oven anyway :rotfl: