Today's harvest

Some bits from today's visit to the allotment.

Main crop potatoes

I've took up two rows of 1st early potatoes and still have 2 rows left,but today decided to take up my main crop potatoes and store them. Non of my spuds are not going to get any bigger with all the foliage had died down,so I took up my main crop spuds which are Desiree. I will leave them to dry a bit and will sort out the bad ones and store the good ones,think I have more good ones that bad ones.I didn't get a lot of spuds out of about 30 tubers I planted,I got just over about 50ish spuds well maybe 55ish.

It's been a strange year for growing spuds but my main seem better than last year, i will grow them again next year to see how they compare to this year. The rest of the spuds i will take up during the week and use as needed,i
Will try store some of them to make them last longer. I don't go with the flow with potatoes i use them all as one kind, if I want mash I will use any spuds I know it's wrong but it's the way I roll.

Onions

Half my onions are flat on the floor so I decided to pull them up and store them,most of them wouldn't of grown any more may of just gone rotten. Most of them are half the size of last years, I did have a good year with onions some of them nearly weighed nearly 2pound. This year I might be lucky for a quarter of the weights from last year,the red onions look better than last year from what I've seen but I've been wrong before.

Tomatoes

My beef tomatoes are getting bigger but just need to go red, the rest of the tomatoes are going green-orange-red. I love picking them and taking them home to eat and freeze,durning the week I must of taking home nearly 4 pound weigh. 2 pound of that was in one day so I froze most of them,I freeze just over 450grams at a time the same as the weight of tin tomatoes.

Then when I make a curry I can use fresh toms instead of tin ones,it's a pain squashing them all my blender has broken so have to do them by hand. I could do with a new blender and freezer to store it all, can't beat fresh veg what you have grown.

Nothing done.

Nothing done today apart from picking some veg up,been busy at work so couldn't get into working on the allotment.

Rasp bed

I gave the raspberry bed a good weeding and to sort the raspberries out, I bought 4 plants beginning of the year and planted them. Each plant had 5 twigs in each pot, so I planted them as I got them. But a few people have said I should of separated each one and planted them,but I never took any notice until yesterday when I finally did something about it.

I dug them all up and soaked them do I didn't damage any roots,once soaked i replanted them all down both sides of the bed. I did notice that 4 of the twigs have gone missing or 4 plants,don't known of the birds have took them or just vanished.

Just a little more done

Just had a quick visit to the allotment straight from work well about 2hours,I must of spent over half that chatting. I managed to get he bed weeded were the strawberries are, some of them had runners on them so I potted them up so we can get some more plants. While I was weeding and removing some rubbish, I must of seen about 4 little frogs jumping around.

The top end of the allotment is looking better now with it being weeded and tidy,just have to get the rest sorted out.

Another path.

I weeded another path yesterday in between the raspberries and strawberries,then covered it with some plastic sheeting and put some bark down. It has made it look a lot better so i now need to sort strawberries out and raspberries,then that part is sorted and more manageable. I also trimmed the cover on the other section which the pond is,just have to get a few more stones and that's sorted.

Pumpkin

This is one of the pumpkins we have grown this year,well this one is Keith's and is about 3 time bigger than mine. Keith put his straight Into the compost and I put mine into the soil,will take a picture of mine when I go back this week. Oh we found a little caterpillar chewing it's way through some weeds for a change,better on weeds than our veg.

Broad beans

My last batch of beans which I've podded and froze,will be doing them again next year.

Beetroot

My beetroot I was cooking today and it nearly took 2 hours to cook,I filled 2 jars up with some nice beets.

Birds in my manure

As I was putting some waste into my compost heap i heard some noise coming from my pile of manure,so i checked it out and found some birds laying in catching bugs.

Good few hours.

Had a good few hours at the allotment yesterday and a couple today,when I look back on what I did it seems like I've done bugger all. I took all my broad beans seeing that a lot of them had turned black,also I've taken quite a lot home and froze them. Half my onions have fallen over so i took a few up and removed all the dead skin,then left in the shed to dry out before I bring them home.

I took up some beetroot which was getting quite big, I told myself last year to take them home when they are about a tennis ball size not football. Other bits I took home are some tomatoes-sweet peppers-potaoes- cucumbers-marrows -carrots-onions so quite a of fresh veg,can't beat a bit of fresh veg to eat.

I took up two rows of potatoes one row of firsts and a row of baking / boiling spuds called Vanessa,the Vanessa are not big enough for baking but real nice as mash. I will grow them again next year seeing that it's been a strange year for growing,haven't tried my seconds or late's as of yet but will do soon.

Just a few bits taken home.

Just a quick visit tonight to pick up a little veg,I managed to pick some cucumber/ tomatoes/ chillies/ sweetpeppers / potatoes / cabbages. The cabbages had started to bolt so decided to take up early before we lost them,I think we have some more that have nearly bolted so will have to take them home.

Not a lot done.

Had a few days at the allotment over the last few days well few hours done,didn't do much while at the plot apart from doing a little watering and working on the pond. We are just waiting for some rain to come because we are so dry and cracked,once we get a little then we can crack on with some digging.

I've taking few bits home over the last few days but also given a lot of it away,Well only the veg we wont get to eat oh and I did a swap also 3 marrows for a lettuce. A lot of my onions have fallen over due to someone weeding them and squashing them,the onions are half the size as last years well we had a good year last year. The cabbages are starting to fill out a lot better than I expected, I have lot cabbages planted but far to much for us to eat so a lot will be given away.

Update on the pond

I've been a few time this week to the allotment and managed to get a bit more done on the pond,still have the left side to finish along the strawberry bed.

Few bits taken home

Few bits I've take home to eat.