Allotment harvest August

Well, took the kids this morning to have a pick. The weeds are as high as the veggies - going on holiday in August isn't such a great idea, especially when the weather is wet and mild, everything has grown at 100 miles per hour!

Beautiful blackcurrants. I will freeze these as there are still masses to pick. Once the whole harvest is in, I will bottle some and make some jam.

Borlotti beans. Only a few as I really want to leave the beans to mature for the dried beans.

This is the best year for carrots ever for me! These are only the thinnings and they are so big. Well chuffed.

Round courgettes, far to big. I might stuff these later in the week with savoury mincemeat.

Cucumbers, 2 different varieties. One is marketmore...don't know the other!

French beans! Eeek. These were the climbers. I didn't even look at the dwarf beans. I will gather them at the weekend.

Minipop baby corn, a favourite of my daughter. Popular in oriental cookery also.

Patty pan squash, like courgettes/zucchini. These are lovely drizzled with olive oil and roasted, then served with pine nuts and basil. Yumsky!

Peas, a sprinkling. These are the last really - mange tout are in flower now for the next legume feast.

Purple french beans. These are coming toooo quickly! I was hoping these wouldn't be ready for another 2 or 3 weeks.

Runner beans, my fave! Only a few at the moment but the plants are smothered in flowers and young beans. This is a good year for beans on Emma's allotment!

Sweetcorn/maize, grown just for my son as he doesn't eat much in the way of veg, just carrots and brocolli, and sweetcorn. This variety is called swift. I have some multi coloured ones almost ready.

And the bad news. Mother nature gives bounty with one hand, and takes it away with the other. My toms have been struck down with blight. I might get a trug or 2 full but not the lovely ripe harvest I would usually get. My own fault, I should have sprayed before we went away, but I hate spraying and try to never use chemicals unless it is a real last resort. However, I do like fried green toms, and I do have a couple of great preserving recipes for green toms, and we like green tom ketchup as much as red so it isn't a total disaster.

Hope you enjoyed all of the shots. You are all welcome to supper, on Thursday I think, when I stuff those giant courgettes! You just bring the tomatoes! Smile

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Hehehe, party on Thursday then. Smile

Fingers crossed I will get some Toms, just have to keep an eye on things.

The Frenchies aren't Rakkars but they are a French variety, a climber, but I can't remember the name! The runners are called Enorma, and they are very long and slender. The sweetcorn was devine, the three of us scoffed them in seconds with lashings of butter. Both kids agreed they prefered them to shop brought ones, because of course, they were as sweet as sugar. The mini corns were also a hit with daughter who scoffed several with her tea. The patty pans are just like courgettes really and I do think they all taste similar, altho I find these slightly nuttier and firmer fleshed. Mark had morrocan lamb shanks for his supper and I put one chopped in that, and even after 4 hours of cooking the squash was recognisable, not moosh.

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Check out my blog
http://allotmentnews.blogspot.com/

Here's where I post my photos
http://photoart.myfreeforum.org/index.php