Thursday 29 September 2011

More bountiful harvests

Late Summer / early Autumn is a time when lots of vegetables mature in my veg plot. I have been harvesting lots of lovely stuff. When I say "lots", I mean "lots by my standards". As most of you know, I never grow a huge amount of anything, and we are certainly not self-sufficient. Nevertheless, it is so satisfying to harvest from time to time vegetables that I have grown myself. Home-grown vegetables have a huge amount more flavour than anything you can buy in the shops.
In view of the blight that has hit my tomato plants, I decided to pick all the fruits that were anywhere near ready, for indoor ripening. We now have a house full of tomatoes, and I have been making more tomato sauce for freezing, and Jane has made a big batch of apple and tomato chutney. Most of the ones in this first photo are of the variety "Tropical Ruby".


As well as the tomatoes, I lifted a few more of my potatoes - more of the "Charlotte" variety. I don't have many more potatoes left now, just one pot of "Pink Fir Apple", and those re-planted ones that may or may not produce a few more tubers.


As you can see, I also got some more of the Finger carrots. These are the last ones from the second batch grown in washing-up bowls. They have been very successful. Even these last ones are really clean. Only one carrot from this lot was infested with Carrot Root Fly, which for me is a major breakthrough. For those of you who have not been following this experiment, the gist of it is that the washing-up bowls were kept well above ground level in the hope (justified, as it happens) that this would put them above the cruising height of the flies.



I have also cleared the last of my red Beetroot. This crop has also been very productive this year. Even this last batch I have lifted consisted of 19 roots. OK, some of them were very small , but some of them were pretty respectable. I picked out the best 8 to be photographed:


Did you notice the couple of green tomatoes in the first two photos? They are "Green Zebras". These are the  first ones that have been really nice. I have now learnt to judge by the colour and feel when they are ripe. The first few we ate were slightly under-ripe and had not fully developed their flavour and texture. I now have about 20 more Green Zebra fruits to enjoy, but I will make sure they are really ripe before eating them. Next year I think I will revert to growing mostly red tomatoes. Something deep within me says that tomatoes ought to be red - and of course it's so much easier to tell when they are ready!

19 comments:

  1. I thought the plate of vegetables was your dinner!

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  2. A good haul there Mark - it was interesting about the carrots - I presum you drilled holes in the bottom of the washing up bowls - good idea - might try it myself if that's okay

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  3. Now I don't quite understand the ol' carrot-fly. If they only fly at a certain height & ones garden is surrounded by fences, do they not crash in to the fence??

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  4. Elaine; Yes, I did drill drainage holes in the old washing-up bowls. Any suitable container would do of course; the essential thing is to have the container at high level.

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  5. Jane; Carrot Root Flies are very small, and the average fence is not going to keep them out! (Unless it's made of Enviromesh of course!)

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  6. Thats really interesting and clever - elevating the carrots that is. How high did you have them?

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  7. The comment posting problem was at my end - I had to enable third party cookies apparently - not sure what it meant but disappointed I don't get to eat any biscuits....

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  8. That comment about the carrot flies crashing into the fence is really funny.

    Did you like the green zebras???

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  9. Your harvest photos are really super - the content and the staging! I didn't get any beetroot from my sowings. They either got eaten or just didn't grow. Was looking over your posts - hope the fox stuff works. I've seen fox around the garden and surrounding fields but they don't seem to give me any bother or do any damage. Kale - do you start eating kale now through winter? I've been eating it alreay, the biggest leaves; my plants look about same size as yours. Your kale is a beauty; mine of course has some pest damage - story of my life!!

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  10. Ali; Yes, I did like the Green Zebras, but I'm not sure I would rank them as my all-time favourite. Perhaps there is some lingering hang-up in my brain that says if the fruit is green it can't be ripe. I shall have to eat them with my eyes shut!

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  11. Kelli; I don't normally harvest any of my kale until late Autumn, simply because I want to keep it in reserve for when all the Summer crops have finished.

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  12. Liz; My carrots were about a 1.2 metres above ground level. The "cruising altitude" of the Carrot Root Fly is popularly reckoned to be about 45cm - though of course this can only be a generalisation.

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  13. I too harvested some of the last vegetables in my garden. Still have tomatoes, beetroot and kale. I made mixed vegetable pickles.

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  14. You know what they say, it's not the quantity but the quality which counts. You seem to get plenty for the two of you from your garden, and different varieties too, those which can't be found in the supermarket.

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  15. Fantastic pictures - I'm hoping to grow some veg next year (in a container, so hopefully well above carrot fly level!) so this is super inspiring, though I will be working on a MUCH smaller scale. Lovely to see what can be done though.

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  16. Cracking vegetables Mark, those beetroot look perfect to me.

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  17. That is a lot of harvest for 2 people Mark! Your beetroot look perfect. I just harvested ours since they are bolting and grown into funny looking shapes. Shining red tomatoes.

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  18. Lovely looking carrots Mark, the bowl experiments were a hit, clearly. I have sort of taken over the kitchen table with ripening (hopefully) tomatoes, though I keep discovering ones with signs of developing blight and having to fling them.

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  19. Lovely carrots, tomatoes, and beets this week! I have been fighting carrot fly in my garden the past several years - was at it's worst this year. I am planning to keep the bed of carrots covered with the lightest weight reemay I can find next summer. I did get some without damage though - as two small plantings seems to have avoided the fate of the larger main carrot patch. I have some planted in containers in the greenhouse to over winter as well and they should be safe too.

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