Potatoes dug up and Garlic planted

A fabulous day today and if the forecast is right a late summer too.

Plenty of harvesting has been done this week, but the Climbing French & Purple Beans have finished, so I dismantled the frames & put the foliage in the compost bin, I did leave the roots in the soil as a nitrogen fixer.



I dug up the last of the Early Potatoes Hunter & Anya.
We have had a really good yield of these, each bucket contains about 10lb from 6 plants of each. So I estimate our total yield is 50lb of Hunter and 35lb of Anya.
Will be digging up the 2nd Early Charlotte over the next few days, will calculate the yield when the last ones are dug up.




This raised bed is where the Mange Tout frame was, as they have finished and the frame dismantled, we planted some Winter growing Garlic.
7 Rows of 3 varieties:
Bella Italiano (Italy)
Avignon Wight (British)
Edenrose (French)
These should be ready to harvest by late Spring 2012

So been another week of harvesting:
Beans & Beetroot
Carrots & Courgettes
Parsnips, Peppers & Potatoes
Raspberries & Runner Beans
Sweetcorn & Squash
Tomatoes too.

Thanks for reading/returning.Ian

Final Harvesting of some summer crops

Well I couldn't do my usual Blog last weekend, because the main gate onto our site had the lock Superglued and couldn't be opened. It turned out to be an unhappy plot holder who objected to the locking gate, but superglue softener & a blow-torch sorted the lock out & entry was gained the next day.

Here are Maud & Betty two of our ex-battery Chickens just being nosy again.

But here is the harvest from today:
Beans
Beetroot
Carrots
Courgettes
Parsnips
Peppers
Raspberries
and Tomatoes


The Pumpkins have done well on the Manure heap, but as the foliage had died back it was time to harvest these too, the largest one weighs 2.5 Lb (1.1 Kg).
Certainly enough to make a tasty soup.

We also harvested some Sweetcorn cobs, but some had been attacked by Mice we think, not unusual as it has happened before.


Earlier in the week, I dug up the last of the 'Bleu 'D' Artoise' French Heritage purple potatoes, they have been a great success, and are best as Boiled, Baked or Fried, we have been told they are good for Mash too but haven't tried that yet. When boiled they turn greyish, but when fried the purple/blue colour is retained and look lovely on the plate. The other Potatoes shown here are the 'Markies' main crop. They also make great Chips but I'm a bit disappointed with the yield, I'm growing 'Cara' again next year as they do have a high yield.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian.

A forest of WEEDS! But I won

I decided to weed the Potato patch today, because the weeds had taken over a bit because of the rain we've had lately, but mainly because I will be digging them up soon for winter storage and need to cut back the dying Halums.

It took me almost 3 hours to clear the 7 rows of Markies (main) and 2 rows of Charlotte (2nd early) you can see the results below.

But while I was weeding I disturbed a fat Toad, it's nice to know they are patrolling and hopefully eating the Slugs.




Here is today's harvest, in alphabetical order:
Beans
Beetroot
Carrots
Courgettes
Flowers
Lettuce
Potatoes (Markies)
Raspberries
Tomatoes
Some of the above were included in tonight's dinner, I can highly recommend Markies they make lovely Roast Potatoes.


I know some of you like 'Before & After' pics, so here it is.

After removing the dying Halums, I earthed them up again to cover any spuds near the surface, we don't want any green (poisonous) potatoes.

I did leave a few un-cut that were still in green leaf so still growing, will check on these regularly and hope blight doesn't cause a problem, all is OK so far as I do try to grow resistant varieties.

I will now leave them there for as week or two so the skins harden ready for lifting & storage over winter. Will have to hope for a dry day so I can lift, dry and store.

Thanks for reading/returning. Ian