Monday 9 September 2013

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.



11 comments:

  1. I didn't grow Tigerella this year, but they're a great tomato. My runner beans are slowing down now too, but the Blue Lake French beans look to be starting to produce after a very slow start. Have a great holiday.

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  2. Beautiful harvest. Hope you enjoy your trip! Sounds lovely. So the Turkish sweet peppers are small and no heat? My daughter wants me to find a really small sweet pepper. She loves tiny little things to munch on.

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  3. Great harvest photos. I can't wait to hear about your Sicily trip!

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  4. Oh dear whatever will you do with all those chillies?

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  5. You have a beautiful harvest this week! Hope you have a very enjoyable holiday!

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  6. What a wonderful basket of tomatoes. I have Autumn Bliss raspberries too, and they've never done very well, except for last year after all of that rain throughout the summer. Then they were fantastic. It earned them a reprieve. This year they aren't very plentiful though. Hope you have a wonderful holiday. I love the Scilly Isles, so beautiful and peaceful. Lovely gardens too!

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  7. Beautiful raspberries. I wish mine were fruiting well. I think the lack of rain this summer really did them in. I need to set up some irrigation for them if I want them to do anything.

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  8. You've really fab looking veg. I'm afraid alot of my plants are looking a bit holy, or rather holey, with caterpillars munching thru them!

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  9. What an amazing bounty! Very interested to hear about Scilly. I wanted to go on a sailing holiday to the islands this year but for one reason or another it wasn't practical for me to be learning to sail this summer! Hope you have/had a great time :)

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  10. I hope the weather has been kind to you on your holiday, Mark, as Cornwall is famously damper than the rest of the south coast! Fantastic salad-themed harvest (bar the chillies!) but it's your raspberries that intrigue me. I'm growing Autumn Bliss and have been eating fruit since July! In fact, only this morning, I wondered if my raspberries are coming to an end! I'm not that impressed by Autumn Bliss and may well start a patch of Polka or Joan J off next year. Do you find the fruit a bit soft?

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  11. Lovely harvest, have a good holiday!

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