Great expectations

OK, I admit it, I have been really lazy/ busy/ practical (delete as appropriate) and haven't been on the plot as often as I would like.  I mainly blame travel, bad weather and the fact there is precious little there to look at. I certainly don't blame myself (well, maybe a little bit).

When I find them (in an 'obvious' bag in the kitchen), I will plant autumn onion sets even though they are a little late and I should have done that in November. They will follow on from the Butternut Squash and go in the area cleared in front of the Jerusalem artichokes.  I bought them at the RHS show (which also had some funky late night drinks run by the Midnight Apothecary) along with garlic (Solent White variety and elephant) I reused some of mine from this year too.

I have also planned the location of my potatoes for next year which was pretty tough. I needed to avoid where they been before which narrows things down.  Especially as I put 2 lots in this year in different places and they take up a fair amount of space. The issue is I'll want to plant them around St Patrick's day (17 March) and the purple sprouting broccoli will be in full flow and the onions won't be out till June.

Luckily, looking at the plot recently, only a few seedlings of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli (PSB) have survived. This will create potato space and save us from eating PSB ad infinitum in spring. a bonus of failed seedlings I guess - silver lining etc.

Other things to consider now:

• Keep weeding
• Protect young brassicas from late cabbage White butterflies and pigeons love a brassica seedling. I clearly didn't do this enough as mine have struggled to fight off the attacks.  At this stage in the year it's probably more the birds than the butterflies that will be the problem (even the latest of late cabbasge whites must surely have gone 'home' by now)
• Cut back and divide mint if looking woody
• Start digging and cover with tarpaulin or sow green manure - think I'll leave that till spring.

My Butternut Squash (BNS) has been flourishing and we ended up with 5.5 squashes from one plant (5 normal plus one tiddler). unfortunately the bad weather and my impatience made me bring them into the house before they had cured. They developed mouldy patches alarmingly quickly so I have had to improvise BNS based recipes and stews to avoid some of my rare successful harvests this year going to waste.

For reference next year this is how you cure BNS without them going mouldy (hopefully):
1. Place butternut squash on a dry surface with good air circulation. Some gardeners may keep them outside provided the temperatures are at least above 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), but inside works just as well.
2. Wait. Butternut squash will take about 10 to 12 days to cure in 50 to 55 degree F temperatures. You can tell when the squash is cured if the skin is hard and not easily bruised. Properly cured butternut squash can last for several months.

Harvest festival

This is cheating slightly as the apples that are the main ingredient in this recipe were not grown in my garden but they were given to me by a colleague and it's a great way of using cooking apples. It's even a little healthy I like to think as it has yoghurt in.
Natalia's Apple tray bake cake
1 cup yoghurt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cooking apples, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix yoghurt with the bicarb of soda and then all the rest - the dough will look really sticky. Add the apples and add the cinnamon. should have more apples than dough. Pour into a brownie tin and cook for 160 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The second set of potatoes did OK but I only harvested 3.3kg from the 8 or so seed potatoes. In comparison with last year's haul 2012 has not been a stellar year. I suppose I could have left them in longer but the slugs had already got started on themand the top growth was less than perky looking.

I also harvested 950g of rhubarb which I was going to make apple and rhubarb jam but unfortunately I burnt the jam by leaving it on the heat too long while I was focussing on sterilising the jars. Now I have sterile jars but no jam. Damn.

I have 4 more beetroot which I roasted and will make beetroot houmous with using a Nigella recipe (below but with sesame seeds substituted for cumin which is verboten in our house because it's horrid) though I am also partial to a Beetroot horseradish dip where you combine 250g of beetroot with 2 tbsp of horseradish and 100 ml of creme fraiche or yoghurt and blitz in the processor.
Ingredients

• 400g Chickpeas in tin, drained.
• 2-4 fresh Beetroot, peeled & boiled until soft.
• 2-4 cloves Garlic, crushed or chopped
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 90ml Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon fine sesame seeds
• 1/4 Cup Tahini (optional)

Method

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and process till smooth.
2. If it is too thick, gently drizzle a little water into the mixture until just right 

As a final fling the yellow courgettes have done me proud (ish).  I gathered 2.5kg of yellow courgettes including one that got out of control -1.7kg alone.  I'm not sure yet what to do with these monsters (along with a gifted marrow). Thoughts on a postcard please.  Maybe Nigella's courgette and raisin pasta...

The butternut squash look promising and I planted some Charlotte seed potatoes by the Jerusalem artichokes as an experiment. Even if there is no sign of growth I will leave tehm in for an early start next spring. Broad beans were sown in the potato area and deep rooted weeds dug up (mainly). A productive session.

Pumpkin, squash and a damp squib of an aubergine

Top tip: Learn from my mistake - don't be in too much of a hurry to clear runner beans away. Leave the pods on the plants until the end of October.  Save seed by podding them and drying them on newspaper in a warm, dry place.  This also works with sunflower seeds.

With sunshine predicted this weekend and Tom having some free time on his hands, I decided it would be good to clear some of the plot. The tomatoes are almost finished and the courgettes are sending out very few finger sized courgettes.  The patty pan squashes are never making it larger than a golf ball before starting to rot and the runner beans are getting enormous and stringy. 

On the whole this was a good idea. We collected over 7 kilos of tomatoes (including 2 kilos of green tomatoes - if they don't ripen by the end of the month then more chutney is predicted. Friends and family you have been warned! Maybe I can get empty jars from work to put it in once I have a kitchen to make it in). We discovered a ripe butternut squash and the pumpkin has ripened to a proper Halloween orange. The debate now is whether to save it for Halloween or to eat it. Considering that I can't cook it properly and can't remember if it is a variety that is particularly tasty I think it might be best to keep it for a bit.  It can live next to the unfeasibly tiny aubergine I rescued from Tom's clearing onslaught.

2 kilos of runner beans were destined for my aunt but then Tom and I were struck with the cold lurgy so the fridge is stuffed again until I can work out what to do with them.

We also picked the largest pods off the runner beans before they were hacked down - making sure to leave the nitrogen fixing roots still in the ground. My plan was to to pod the beans and save them either for seeds next year (ignoring the fact that I have loads of beans already) or else to boil them up as dried beans in the same way that you would treat dried kidney beans.  This is where I should have waited until the end of the month as too many of them were under ripe and not worth the effort of podding - they should be a pretty mottled pink and purple.  Still they are now in the summer house next to the sunflower seeds and I am dreaming of winter stews.