It's the first of my "Uchiki Kuri" Winter squashes. My first-ever successful Winter Squash. Here is a shot of it next to my mobile phone so that you can gauge its size. By the way, it weighs 928 grams, which seems typical for this variety - the catalogues mention "1-kilogram fruits"...
To be honest, I hadn't really intended to harvest it just yet, but I noticed that both of my Uchiki Kuri plants have new tiny fruits on them, and I thought that picking the mature fruit might improve the likelihood of the new ones setting. I'm not sure if things work that way, but it sounds possible!
In the circumstances, I intend to keep the harvested squash for at least a couple of weeks before eating it, just to allow it to complete its ripening. I have two more at exactly the same stage, so I'll see how things go before cutting those ones. To be honest, three squashes from two plants doesn't sound like a very impressive crop, so a couple more would be welcome.
My other "First" was the first ripe tomato from any of my 6 Dwarf tomato plants, in this case "Dwarf Barossa Fest". In this next photo it is the yellow one seen next to two red "Mountain Magic" ones:
I'm hard to please when it comes to yellow tomatoes. I find most of them very bland, and many have a spongy texture. Not this one though. It has a very nice taste and good texture. The skin was not tough either, so a winner all round.
It wasn't all Firsts at the plot today though. The ordinary stuff is still producing quite nicely, like these "Boltardy" beetroot.
The beetroot has developed slowly this year - probably because of the hot dry weather - but it has very conveniently matured over a long period. I'm pulling a few at a time and am not having to cope with loads of them all being ready at once. This batch of 5 was 3 for the plot-owners and 2 for Jane and me.
Likewise, the French beans are still churning out pods at a good rate. The Dwarf "Canadian Wonder" have done OK, but nowhere near as well as the "Cobra" climbing beans, which are in the middle of a second flush right now. They are my favourite French Beans by a long way. The pods remain tender even if you let them get very big (which I don't!).
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| French beans "Canadian Wonder" (flat ones, at back) and "Cobra". |
If you grow "Cobra" don't pull up the plants until you really have to because they often spring back into life and give you more pods, just when you thought they had finished.
Hello Mark great blog you have here. I also grow vegetables here at home (see my
ReplyDeleteturnip growing posts at growerexperts.com) . Your beetroot look really good - so uniform too!
Hi Richard; Yes, "Boltardy" has stood the test of time for good reason. I think the "old-fashioned" varieties are sometimes still the best, despite modern breeding programmes.
DeleteI’ll look forward to a second flush of Cobra although we have already harvested more than enough.
ReplyDeleteI'm eating the pattipan squashes I've grown. I'd expected several colours but they are all bright yellow - and delicious. I've picked some spaghetti squashes too - they should have been left to ripen longer but, surprisingly, they didn't seem to mind. If I grow winter squash next year . . . do they 'keep'?
ReplyDeleteYes, a properly-ripened Winter squash will last for months (if it gets the chance!)
DeleteWe used the last of last year's Crown Prince in late April One thing I've found that helps prolong storage time is to leave on as much stalk as possible. My preferred method is to cut a couple of inches each side of where the fruit comes off the main stem so that you end up with a 'T' shape stem on top of the squash.
DeleteYour tomatoes are very beautiful!
ReplyDelete