Monday 23 July 2012

Harvest Monday - 23 July

This week I have been harvesting Broad Beans, Beetroot, Cucumbers, French Beans and the first of my Tomatoes.

The Broad Beans this year have been particularly good, though they are coming to the end now. I reckon that so far I have harvested about 3 kilos of pods from my little 2.4 metre double row, which I consider represents a good VSR (Value for Space Rating) - especially since my beans were Spring-sown and did not occupy the ground all Winter.


The beetroot is still growing very slowly indeed, and I was only able to find five more of a useable size this week. Actually I think they are at the perfect size - about the same as a golf ball. I boiled these ones for about 40 minutes to make sure they were fully cooked, and served them just warm, alongside some pork sausages, new potatoes and Broad Beans.


I got one more of the "Iznik" cucumbers, which as usual we ate as a "nibble" with a drink before dinner. The skin on this particular specimen looked a bit tough, so I peeled it off before eating, but actually I think it would probably have been OK.


As you can see I also mustered a small batch of French Beans (these ones are "Speedy"). Not really enough to be a viable serving on their own, so these are waiting in a plastic bag in the fridge until some more come along.

Those three tomatoes are the first ripe ones I have had this year. Whilst they were lovely and sweet, they were also very tiny, so I sincerely hope I will get loads more before the blight puts paid to them. In order to minimise the chances of cross-contamination between the blight on the tomato plants I have arranged them at intervals all round the garden, well separated from their nearest neighbour. This may slow down the rate of blight attack, but I'm realistic to know that it won't cure the uncurable. [I'm going to write more about blight tomorrow...]


As well as the things shown above, I also harvested the rest of my Shallots, because it was plain that they were not going to grow any more, and their foliage was beginning to dry.

To see more of what people around the world have been harvesting this week, visit Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.

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P.S. Apologies for my low profile over the last few days - we have been over to France to spend a couple of days with our daughter and son-in-law (which of course involved, as usual, a certain amount of consumption of excellent food and drink...)

14 comments:

  1. Do you usually get blight in your garden as we have more of a problem on the plot than in the garden.

    On the plot, one year even the tomatoes in the greenhouse were affected - to slow it down I pulled off any affected leaves as soon as I saw any symptoms and it did keep it at bay a little.

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  2. I wish my broad beans had done better. Maybe next year I'll stay on top of the black aphids.

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  3. Well done, we have only had broad beans, radish, lettuce & spring onions. Looking at the tomatoes, there are a couple which are ready.

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  4. Looking forward to more info on blight. I'll be tuning in tomorrow!

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  5. Late blight or early blight???

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    1. Mary; Early or Late, I don't know, but ALL blight comes at the WRONG time! :)

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  6. I am always in a battle with fungal and disease problems with tomatoes... comes with our mild and often cool growing region. I hope your strategies of coping/reducing the problems are successful for you. Those beets look just about perfect sized and I bet they were delicious.

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  7. I got one single broad bean this year (my first try), but I am inspired to try again :-) Great harvests this week!

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  8. Beautiful perfect beetroot! I wish I had some ready to pick.

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  9. Oh I do hope my broad beans hurry up they seem to be progressing very slowly this year.

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  10. very impressed!... harvested my first courgette today... woot woot! and broad beans keep on coming but no toms yet... lots of flowers tho... can't wait!

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  11. Nice Harvest - Those beets look good!

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  12. Thats a lovely harvest. The tomatoes and beans look yummy.

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  13. Nice harvest Mark, I agree those beetroots are the perfect size and the broadbeans look delicious.

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