The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

unrecordings

unrecordings wrote: »

I once made what I called xmas salsa - just all those little tomatoes of varying shades, even the pea sized ones, quartered & put in a gereric salsa recipe - obviously you don't get much, but it looks nice. I've still got the recipe somewhere.

Xmas Tree Salsa
red, green, yellow miniature tomatoes quartered
small green chilli thinly sliced
lemon rind
juice of half a lemon
olive oil
chives chopped approx 1/2" lengths
clove of garlic very thinly sliced
salt & pepper

Suffolk_lass

My butternut squash have set more fruit - a bit bigger than a table-tennis ball so far but it vindicates the decision not to dig them out and compost them yet. Around a dozen courgettes still growing furiously but more slowly, and loads of tiny yellow cucumbers (a bit smaller than a tennis ball). Lettuces might be soup-pot bound as they are trying to bolt now.

And we are still picking autumn fruiting raspberries (when we can brave the mozzies) and loads of runner beans with more in flower!

Carrots and potatoes in the ground and leeks are ready for winter. Apart from dairy and bowl fruit we could almost be self-sufficient for a month or 3!

twopenny

I've sucessfully grown San Marzano tomatoes and they're wonderful for salsa and chutney.
New garden this year and not time to grow them. The only ones I could get were Roma. Good but prefer the SM ones.
Just ripening nicely when the cold wet weather set in. They are robust stout little devils so hoping we get just enough sun back to ripen a few.
Still picking autumn fruiting raspberries from the new canes but the cherry tomatoes have gone pop and split. Long dry spells followed by 2 weeks of cold rain. Shame really, I like to make a hot chilly tomato chutney to go on a burger bun or steak sandwich.

Primrose

My tomato plants have all been pulled up and I would like to do the same with the climbing beans so I can get the garden prepped for winter but every time I look at the bean plants there seem to be a another handful of beans to pick so I'll leave them another week.

Don't know why I'm so tight with beans when I have a freezer full of them from a good crop this summer but I suppose I just don't like to pull up plants when they still appear to have a even a small chance of producing more.

Suffok Lass - your small butternut squash may actually be more convenient to use if they are able to ripen as you can use them in one go. My solitary plant produced just one fruit but it's a real jumbo one and once they're cut open they are liable to deteriorate unless you chop them up completely and freeze them. I try covering the open flesh with clingfilm and keeping it in a cool garage but there's still a risk of them starting to deteriorate or rot once cut open.

Suffolk_lass

Primrose wrote: »

My tomato plants have all been pulled up and I would like to do the same with the climbing beans so I can get the garden prepped for winter but every time I look at the bean plants there seem to be a another handful of beans to pick so I'll leave them another week.

Don't know why I'm so tight with beans when I have a freezer full of them from a good crop this summer but I suppose I just don't like to pull up plants when they still appear to have a even a small chance of producing more.

Suffok Lass - your small butternut squash may actually be more convenient to use if they are able to ripen as you can use them in one go. My solitary plant produced just one fruit but it's a real jumbo one and once they're cut open they are liable to deteriorate unless you chop them up completely and freeze them. I try covering the open flesh with clingfilm and keeping it in a cool garage but there's still a risk of them starting to deteriorate or rot once cut open.

Thank you - I do have some in the freezer but they become a regular soup ingredient once the courgettes are gone, so using them up is never normally an issue - (my favourite veg curry is onion, butternut squash and chick pea with a bit of spinach too.

Re your beans - I do chop mine down but I leave the roots in until spring as they continue to release nutrients that are a valuable part of the rotation sequence (with potatoes next)

unrecordings

According to the Waitrose 'newspaper' the weather this year was ideal for squash - should be a bumper crop all round.

In terms of stragglers I tend to be ruthless now rather than waiting for the last bean/pea/leaf to be ready - if it's still immature then it's perfectly good for ramen/curry/chilli/stew/whatever is on the hob

Got an MRI tomorrow, so today is still very much an insy doorsy day - I'm still figuring out my overwintering strategy for some of the exotics, the non-native stuff. Some can go back in the greenhouse, but some will need to come indoors, so there's going to have to be negotiations over windowsill space and the frictionless travel thereupon (aka the catstop)

Maybe I'll post that list later...

euronorris

Haven't had much time in the garden this weekend. Busy making tomato puree yesterday morning, tidying, shopping, lunch, made green tomato chutney (thanks unrecordings), then dinner. Had just enough time to get out and check on the brussel sprout plant. Evicted more caterpillars.

Today not looking likely either, as DD woke with croup at 2.30am, so we've been up since then.

Mnd

Not much going on up the plot at the moment. Very wet. Dug first parsnip at the weekend, looked brilliant but rotten in the middle. Pulled probably the last lettuce. Still got plenty of beetroot, and some carrots. Digging the first leeks now. Planted the overwintering onions yesterday.

In other news, we have heard back from the council regarding the judging of the allotments in the council area, approx 400 plots I believe.

We have been awarded Gold standard this year ( 3 out of 4 previous years we won Silver gilt so this is a step up) We were so pleased.Only 3 gold awards made this year.

We have to go to presentation night for the awards, where the top allotment out of those 3 gets announced. I'm trying not to build my hopes up!

The presentation is 22nd October so I will let you know how we get on

zafiro1984

Mnd congratulations, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

Too wet to do much, it's that horrible sort of rain - very fine drizzle all the time which soaks you to the skin and then the heavens open and you run for cover .... too late you're soaking wet.

Spent the afternoon cooking as many plums in the slow cooker as would fit. froze the rest in 1lb bags, just enough for a pie. Sorted and froze all the Bramley windfalls, not too many codling moths so got quite a good haul.

The extra large courgettes which thought they were marrows were sliced and together with the apple peelings and over ripe plums went to the turkeys, it filled two large sainsbury's bags - they enjoyed it and it kept them quiet whilst I put down a new bed for them - they usually try to help which is not fun.

unrecordings

Managed another hour out there. Cleared away the last of the greenhouse tomatoes. Next step is pull the canes out, retrieve & clean the wire ties ready for next year, let the growbags dry out then start to move the spent compo around the garden as/when the weather & energy allows. I also potted on two Cotoneaster seedlings which sprang up from berries in 2018