Has Beans?

It's been a good year for beans.  I picked runner beans today, a whole month later than I would have expected.  The September cold snap normally switches them off, but this year they stuttered and picked up again. That's a real bonus.

All the same I decided today to harvest the Canadian Wonder. The weather must be turning soon, and already they have stopped in their tracks. Time to bring them under cover.  These are usually classified as Dwarf French beans in the catalogues. I grow them for drying. They don't stay green for long and for seed they produce what we all know as "Red Kidney Beans"

I've got all stages left on the plants:  

It is important to dry them off properly, and to do so in the pod.  There must be some magic natural chemical in the pods which inhibits mould.  It's hard to enough find space. Most are in the plastic covered shelving (the basil has been moved indoors). But for the final push this is a surefire place to dry them off completely.

It's looking like a bumper crop this year!

Lyonnais Pea Tree?

Been for a visit to Lyon. Came across an interesting tree in Parc Tete D'Or

Peas in a Pod?

Mimosa Albizia Julibrissin - Persian Silk Tree

A fantastic public park with Botanic Gardens

Banana seed pod

Mexican Garden

Flower Garden - lots of Dahlias

and a Zoo

Bat Eared Foxes

New arrival out for a gambol

And here are some other snaps of the sights of Lyon:

Goodbye Lyon

Breadmaker Bread

Here's today's breadmaker bread

and here's the previous batch:

Breadmakers have been getting a bad press courtesy of a certain Mr Cameron. I am a breadmaker fan.  (I've worn two out) but I never BAKE bread in my breadmaker.  In 90 minutes it will have reliably mixed kneaded and proved whatever dough I choose to put in it.  Sometimes I leave it to sit for an extra 30 mins or an hour, sometimes I get the machine to knock down the risen dough in a brief second knead, before swithing off the machine mid cycle. Always I remove the proved dough, shape it, on a baking sheet, baguette tray or in a tin and, after a further rise, bake it in the kitchen oven.  Not as convenient as Mr C's "load at night ready when you wake up" loaf but a whole lot better tailored to our tastes. (Also no trouble removing that paddle from the bottom of the loaf.

What was hilarious was to hear Dan Lepard, venerated author of "The Handmade Loaf" being lectured by some woman on the radio who was blinded by the therapeutic benefits of getting your hands in the dough and hanging around for hours on end.  What if you work all day at something else, commute and consequently have restricted time? What if you have arthritis (as Dan asked), or exzema or some other skin condition?  And what if , as I frequently find, your hands are grimy after a weeding session???  Bread machines are a boon, make no mistake!

The Early Nantes Catches The Worm?

Not if you cover it with a fine mesh net!

I've started cropping the carrots from the carrot temple:

Thank goodness I netted them.  There's no carrot root fly on any of the varieties. And thank goodness I bothered to label the rows:

Not So Early Nantes would be a true description.  The trouble is that once you have a net in place there is a natural reluctance to remove it so weeding and thinning can be overlooked for rather too long.  Here's the net with parsnips beside and Runner Beans and Sweetcorn beyond.

Encouraged by the results I've even got a second net of (very) late sown carrots; Quick growing Paris Market.

I've weeded and thinned since taking this picture, but they have got some way to go before producing an edible crop. I've got plenty to keep us going even if they don't come good in time. 

The nets aren't so pretty, but when the light catches them at a certain angle...

"Medication Time!"

Sweet Success

Today I decided to grasp the nettle and pick my four biggest sweetcorn to see if they were ripe enough to eat.

I'm happy to report they were.

and boy they were sweet!

These were the same sweetcorn that I sowed too early, but they hung on until it was warm enough to plant them out.  They each developed two side shoots which were a waste of time when it came to producing cobs (but the advice was not to cut these off). One cob per plant was not an overwhelming yield, but today I feel they have fully justified the space devoted to them!

18 Carrot Gold (White and Purple)

Started digging up the maincrop carrots:

Well pleased with the "Blanche a Collet Vert Hors Terre" -  Green-Collared White Carrot.  Trades Descriptions could have no argument with that.

Runner beans been knocked by the high winds and plummeting temperatures, but still cropping

as are the courgettes:

Time for a bit of piccalilli

 and plum jam

Talk about a season of mellow fruitfulness!

What's happening?

It's time for a roundup of the current state of play. 2013 has been a great summer so best to make a record:

Remember my carrot temple? 

Well it's still there and yielding a great crop of carrots.  The parsnips on the one side and the leeks on the other are also doing well.

In fact everything is doing well this year.  Even the newcomer on the block

appears to be on the verge of producing a crop.

The beans, French and Runner, have had a bumper year.

and the spuds haven't succumbed to blight.

Onion maincrop has had to make room :

in the "greenhouse" for basil and pepper plants:

Tomatoes and cucumbers are still on the go but needing some night protection: