Of course the tomatoes have continued to come in. We have used a lot of tomatoes, but we're not yet tired of them!
Jane made some tomato ketchup, and a tomato pizza; I made a spicy tomato sauce for with Runner Beans; our granddaughter Lara has used our dehydrator to make a couple of batches of semi-dried tomatoes (for which she has developed a craving), etc.
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| A mixed platter - most of the big ones are "Grushkova", and small ones are "Montello" |
Every few days I pick another small batch of beetroot. Fortunately they are all maturing at different times, which suits us well.
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| Beetroot "Boltardy" |
One of my favourite ways to eat beetroot is to boil it and serve it cold, smothered in Blue Cheese Dressing. A lot of the commercial Blue Cheese Dressings are very unpleasant, but we have found that the French's one is not bad - though we do sometimes feel the need to add extra cheese to it!
The "Streamline" Runner Beans seem to have picked up again - I think because we had a spell of decent heavy rain one night - and are producing some of the best pods I have had this year. "Tenderstar" continues to under-perform.
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| Runner Beans "Streamline" |
This is the most recent batch of Runners (600g), which are mostly "Streamline" ones.
At this stage of the year I seldom bother to photograph the very small harvests, which somehow seem less exciting in September than they do in May, so I'll simply mention the fact that I have during this past week picked a Lollo Biondo lettuce, one cucumber, a handful each of Raspberries and Blueberries, about six "Cobra" French Beans, and one green chilli (the latter went into my tomato sauce).
Late addition - harvests from Sunday afternoon, after our return home...
Another batch of "Pink Fir Apple" potatoes - the third of my four pots of them.
This batch weighed 845g. That's from one seed-tuber.
Carrots. Lots of carrots. This bunch weighed just over 2kgs, but there are loads more. It's amazing how many carrots you can get out of a bed 2.4 x 1 metre!
Most of these ones were "Autumn King", with a few "Norwich". The off-trend yellow one is one of the former. It alone weighed 321g.
The sad thing is that about 75% of my carrots would be rejected by most of our supermarkets because they are insufficiently regular, which is ridiculous really, since they have excellent taste and texture.
This is my entry for Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres, where I'm sure you will be able to see the details of many more fine harvests.
Your carrots are doing really well. There's such a difference in taste between home grown and those bought from the supermarket. My Maskotkas are starting to ripen now, I picked lots yesterday, enough to share with others so they're pleased that I'm finally starting to pick them.
ReplyDelete845g is an impressive yield from one seed tuber! I am guessing you are happy with those results. Those are some good looking tomatoes as well. We do like them dehydrated too, it really seems to concentrate the flavor. Your beetroot with Blue Cheese dressing sounds great. We have a restaurant that makes a good dressing, plus they have a big chunk of the cheese on the salad bar. I try and get my fill whenever I go there!
ReplyDeleteDave, with PFA, 845g from one seed-tuber is about average. This is the third of my 4 pots. The first one produced 890g. I don't seem to have weighed the second one, but it was approximately the same.
DeleteLove the idea of beetroot with blue cheese dressing Mark! Your PFAs look very good. I find the huge foliage hard to deal with though. What did you do please?
DeleteAs you probably know, I grow my potatoes in containers, which are moveable, so if the foliage flops over I just shift the container around. I've never had much of a problem, but maybe you could tie the foliage to an upright cane if it's an issue for you?
DeleteThat's a good haul of tomatoes. It is a pity that the commercial retailers out how carrots look above hoe they taste. How old is Lara now?
ReplyDeleteLara is 7 now, Sue. We have 3 other grandchildren - 4, 2.5 and 1.
DeleteLovely harvests - I'm itching to dig up my potatoes every time I see other's beautiful tubers! Well, you are quite lucky that your beans got a second wind - mine are not producing anything worth eating so they are likely heading for the compost bin sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that unfortunate perfect veg trend will change in the future as more and more people become aware of what delicious "real" food looks like.