A Bit Of A Squash

 

Winter squash is a big hit with us. Harvest time is approaching and there is the usual mayhem in the cucurbit patch. A forest of leaves but what lies beneath?  While every plant has been labelled at the planting point the vines have travelled the width of the patch and well beyond laying down fruit at random intervals. 

Every plant is labelled at the planting point but has developed fruit after scrambling across its neighbours.  The conditions this year mean that fruit has not set reliably and the slugs have had a field day on a lot of immature fruits resting on the soil.  My strategy of planting parts from a bunk bed at either end of the patch for the vines to scramble up has proved a crop saver as the fruit in the best condition is raised off the ground.

This year I have grown:

Crown Prince

Buttercup

Uchiki Kuri

Marina Di Chioggia

No sign of the last one yet - although it was grown later than the other three. I have started harvesting at risk fruit to season at home in the dry. The Crown Prince is 4.5k so harvesting and transportation from the allotment has to be done a bit at a time.

Crown Prince and Uchiki Kuri

Biblical Beans

 

Forget the Holy Trinity planting scheme (Sweetcorn/Climbing Beans/Squash) I'm going for the 4 Apostles - hopefully not the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

For the record the 4 wigwams are Greek Soup Giant Beans, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Barlotti Tongues of Fire and a mixture of Runner beans (Scarlet Emperor, White Lady, Painted Lady) 

Composting Weeds

Warning = if you are into "No Dig" you won't like this. It is next year's cucurbits and legumes patch in my 5 way rotation. As the season progresses all my allotment weeds get stuffed into black lined bags previously used for manure or proprietary compost mixes. The bags are piled up and left to languish in the sun wherever is out of the way, until now. Yard by square yard I dig a pit, tip in a couple of foul smelling bags and then fill it in from the next square yard. This last year I collected twenty bags of weedy material. I call this fertility recycling. The runner beans, courgettes, squashes and peas seem to like it. Even the pernicious weed remnants underneath seem to get the message that they are the providers of nutrition, no longer the beneficiaries.

I do "high fibre" composting in a plastic dalek at home with the help of brandling worms. Here kitchen waste is generated and so are supplies of paper and cardboard so that the lasagne layering required to keep the greens and browns in balance are to hand. As the allotment is several miles across town the "stuff it in a light excluding bag" method seems to be more practicable. Weeds are excluded from my home compost which I use for mixing my own seed mixes and mulches. I find this a happy arrangement.

Sweet Dumplings and Drying Beans

 With the cold wind blowing it is time to enjoy some of the summer's stored treats: Sweet Dumplings squash.  One of these is just the right size for a person...

...once stuffed and baked.

The kitchen pulley is serving its purpose as a drier of beans.  These net bags are suitably positioned so that if you don't watch out you bump into them on entering and leaving.  This, together with the occasional rummage ensures good air circulation.  As the Barlotti bean pods dry they start shedding beans - a sure sign that they are ready for podding!

Autumn Watch

 

November is not far off and it is time to gather in produce that is susceptible to the cold nights ahead.

Surprisingly the runner bean stand is still green and still producing some edible beans (in addition to the few swollen pods left to mature and produce seed for next year)

Next door the blueberries have definitely got the message that autumn is here and are putting on a fiery display.  Still one or two berries have persisted or rather have been overlooked.  These have been left for the birds, particularly as we had a bumper crop over the summer.

Jack frost has not appeared yet this year, as proven by the beans. But it won.'t be long now.

Here Come the Cucurbits

 

Another rainy day dissuades me from visiting the allotment.  Instead I am tending to the plants at home waiting for their invasion of the allotment.  OK these courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers don't look quite so alien when they are in the greenhouse under natural light.

There are plenty seedlings awaiting improved weather.  You might spot the tomatoes which are having a temporary excursion out of the greenhouse, and there are runner beans and peas too.  I have plenty of spare alliums and a whole host of lobelia just needing to be found a final spot.

Also there are some later brassica seedlings.  More than enough to fill the garden, allotment and school garden!

It is a relief to get to the direct sowing.  Soon I will have to reconfigure the greenhouse for the tomatoes and cucumbers.

Oooh What a Big One!

 

Now that the leaves are dying back the pumpkin patch is revealing this year's crop.  Special mention for the butternut squash (Hunter).  This one weighs in at over 4 kilos.  There is twin awaiting harvest but there is only so much carrying power between the allotment and home.

Then there is Blue Kuri and Golden Hubbard

And here they are together

There's plenty more to come.  As ever 

Plants on Lockdown

Peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and squash.

The greenhouse plants are growing on ...

More tomatoes, peppers, squash

...and I would dearly like to move them on...

Flowers seedlings, basil and celeriac (top right)

..but this weekend we are threatened with the possibility of a frost....

Flower seedlings and veg too

...so I am having to improvise with the overspill...

Mostly Hardy perennials 

... and bring some indoors for the night.

Flowers Lobelia, Cerastium, Lobelia, Tagetes

Once the seedlings move on I will have room to set out the tomatoes peppers and cucumbers in the vacated space.

At least I held off sowing the sweetcorn until now!

Emergency Action Required

Here's a nightmare picture.  It is my potato patch after the chop.  The blight must have blown through our allotment site last week and the only thing to do was to chop off the haulms in a belated attempt to stop the spores descending into the soil and damaging the tubors.

20th August 

My haste meant that I neglected to take a picture before.  Here is the latest picture I can find of the potato patch, taken on 26th June.(July was busy)

26th June

There's no practical precaution that I know of for blight, aside from isolation from other potato plants.  That's not practical on an allotment site.  

At least for carrots the dastardly root fly can be kept out using a barrier method:

Environmesh protected carrots.

Thank goodness some crops are able to flourish out in the open without protection: Here's a current shot of the salad bed:

Also thriving on in the warm and wet conditions: squashes and sweetcorn.

I also had a nice surprise to discover a bumper crop of blackberries was ready for picking. 

I will be leaving the potatoes for storage underground for a week or two in the hope that any blight spores not removed with the leaves will dissipate out in the open.  Hopefully the emergency measures will have saved the crop.

The Allotment in September

There are signs that summer is coming to an end, so here's a celebration of the veg patch at it's best before the turn.

Squash Carrots Jerusalem Artichoke and Sweetcorn 

The Jerusalem Artichoke is taller than I can ever remember it. 9 ft.  If it gets windy I will have to chop it down to size even before the frost burns the tops. Nestling behind those leave s in the foreground are some happy looking fruit:

Sharks Fin Melon and Kabocha Squash

Main crop potatoes Rooster being lifted

 It has been a fabulous year for potatoes. Yields have been massive, but wet conditions also mean more pest damage.

Brassica Patch

 Already Cauliflower Cabbage and Kale.  Plenty more to come right up to the Purple Sprouting Broccoli next March.

Fill in Salad patch where the broad beans were

Uniform carrots

The most sensitive crop appears to be the French Beans.  They stole a march on the runners but are not lasting as well.  The runners are just going mad!

Runners (left) v French Beans (right)

I hope your 2017 season has been good too.

Time of the Season

Kabocha - Crunch Time

It's a few weeks since harvesting 3 Kabocha fruit. This is the first year I have grown this.

 

 

These winter squash are very popular in Japan, so much so that they are called Japanese Squash in other countries.

 

I was relieved to see the flesh was firm and nice and orange...

After scooping out the centre ...

there were plenty of seeds to save for next year.

I sliced and diced one half before freezing. One quarter is in the fridge and the remaining quarter was sliced and roasted for half an hour to go with a roast chicken tonight.  It was really sweet and wonderful. I would say it outdoes butternut squash and would make great soup too.  So there'll be no problem using the other two!

Kabocha!

Rather outshone by the Shark's Fin Melon, I have managed to grow three Kabocha fruit. I started with 6 seeds of which three germinated and one fell victim to damping off. So I value the fruit from the remaining two.  Also these are more of a known quantity than the Shark's Fin.  We have bought and cooked these before.  They are very popular in the north of Japan where they are an essential element in soup curry.

I think they are rather photogenic, but I am biased!

Twisting My Melons

It's harvest time and pride of place this year has to go to the Shark's Fin Melons (Fig Leaf Gourd).

6 of the best

Each fruit weighs about 7 Kg so I can only harvest two at a time because  that is my carrying capacity!  From 3 plants I have a dozen fruit at the allotment.  The two plants I had over I planted out at home - I just can't bring myself to "waste" healthy plants.  The ones at home were much later (perhaps because I removed the male flowers - see my earlier post) and the fruit  are probably 4-5 Kg each.  A bit more manageable.

A nice pair grown at home

Now the task is to decide how to use them.  So far I've only made the Mexican drink, Chilacayote.  Now I will have to try (mock) Shark's Fin Soup from the Far East and Angel Hair Jam from the Iberian Peninsular.  And the good news is that, while whole, these babies keep for two years or more. In the meantime I'll keep you posted.

p.s.  Yes, I have been offering fruit to all and sundry, although they have to be delivered in person.