Harvest Monday - 9th September 2013

I am posting this automatically via the Blogger Scheduler, because I am away from home again. This time Jane and I are visiting the Isles of Scilly, about 30 miles off the coast of Cornwall. This is the place where my Father was born, but I haven't been there since I was about 6 or 7 years old. Should be an interesting time!

Harvests this week have been similar to those of last week. The Runner Bean crop is beginning to slacken off, but there are still plenty for our needs:

The yellow "Meraviglia di Venezia" beans are in full swing now. They are never going to be as productive as the Runners, but their different colour makes a nice change.

The tomatoes are also ripening rapidly now.  Many people in the UK have been reporting poor tomato harvests, or slow-ripening fruit this year, but I have had no such problems.

And here is the promised cross-section photo of  a "Zapotec Pleated" tomato. I think this particular specimen was not yet 100% ripe, and would probably have gone a bit darker after another couple of days.

As you can see, it was very fleshy, with hardly any seeds. A good paste tomato I think.

The cucumbers are still coming in thick and fast. With four plants growing, I am getting an average of one fruit a day, which is more than enough for us. I'm storing most of them in "Stayfresh" bags in the fridge, for next time Holly and Lara visit. They absolutely love them! Here you can see a couple of cucumbers with some of the little Turkish Sweet Peppers.

Adding to the salad theme, I have picked some of the Little Gem lettuces that I grew in an old plastic washing-up bowl. They were surprisingly good, with quite decent hearts. Something this good that matures quickly and takes up hardly any space HAS to be worth growing, even if you have only a tiny garden!

I have picked quite a few chillies this past week. Most of them have gone into the freezer for later use. Since Jane's illness a few weeks ago she has wanted to avoid very spicy food, so chillis have definitely been off the menu.

Here is another photo showng the chillis next to a pair of stripey "Tigerella" tomatoes.

My Raspberries are very late this year. Despite being called "Autumn Bliss", they normally start producing ripe fruit in early August. So far we have only had the odd one or two fruit - which usually get eaten immediately and never make it as far as the kitchen. I hope I will get a proper crop at some stage.