Our visitors have been and gone and, despite me feeding them lots and lots of veg, we still have heaps. We obviously need more visitors, especially ones that like potatoes and courgettes (and kale, carrots and Swiss chard).
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| Last of the cauliflower and first of the purple carrots |
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| Factoid of the week: Purple carrots are orange inside |
The one thing we don't have so much of is fruit though we're doing OK on brambles. The first melon was ripe and smelling invitingly at tennis ball size. It made a delicious amuse bouche for four:
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| Mini cantaloupe |
Not everything looks end of season in the plot. The peas Douce Provence that I sowed in July are about to come on stream and the sweet and crunchy purple kohlrabi is just really getting going.
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| Peas again |
Our first batch of sauerkraut was a failure. The brine level wasn't high enough so it started to go mouldy. Heart-breaking to dump it all on the compost bin, but at least we have more cabbages to try again. I've just had a slug and snail killing spree around the cabbages. The seaweed does seem to help keep them away, but at this time of year some manual removal is obviously necessary. I've been keeping all the harvested cabbage plants and crossing the stalks and new little spring-type cabbages are emerging. Neat little trick.
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| Second growth from one of the red cabbage plants |
I like how there are always new crops to look forward to, even if it is sad that some things are coming to an end. The cauliflowers are finished, just one Romanesco and a few little broad beans. One of the next crops we look forward to are Brussels sprouts - and all the squashes, of course, leeks and parsnips.
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| Brussels sprouts Evesham Special |
More homebrewing equipment is on its way. Hopefully next week we'll get to start our first batches of wine: bramble wine, of course, and, since we have a bumper crop, we'll give carrot wine a go, as well. Now that's a nice way of preserving veg.
Those purple carrots look a real treat, where did you buy the seeds from?
ReplyDeleteThey were given to me by a friend to try out - I think they were from Thompson & Morgan. But I see that vegetableseeds.net also has a purple variety, Purple Haze. Might try that next year.
ReplyDeleteI agree wiith noemeportugal, your carrots are looking great. Mine haven't really grown straight, they have grown wiggly..how did you grow them? I may try growing them in big bags or pots next year instead!
ReplyDeleteIt must be the variety, Early Nantes, that is easy to grow. Didn't do anything special and sowed straight into the ground. My husband did dig up the carrot bed very carefully though to make sure there were no stones. I chose Early Nantes because we don't have sandy soil and it's more of a chunky carrot.
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