The first autumn gale is upon us and a second one scheduled close behind so we spent a busy few days harvesting and clearing up. Most of the onions are now drying in the guest room and some pumpkins are hanging out in the vestibule.
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| Jack be Little pumpkins |
Now this pumpkin variety is called Jack be Little so I was expecting smallish pumpkins, but maybe they should rename it Jack be Tiny. At least the second lot is looking a more useful size.
We've just had a lovely gourmet weekend, with lots of garden produce, including artichokes and a watermelon. I couldn't resist and left some flowers on some of the artichoke plants for a small sampler.
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| Gourmet weekend cornucopia |
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| Artichoke starter |
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| Scottish watermelon dessert |
I've been experimenting with the dehydrator a fair bit. Drying tea herbs - excellent. Kale crisps - very good, which is just as well as I've gone a bit overboard with the kale, but only make what you want to snack on that day since the crisps don't keep well. Courgette crisps - disgusting, never again. Brambles - looks good, but the taste test will be in the porridge of the coming weeks.
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| Tabasco a go go |
We've also been using 30 of our finest chillies to make our own Tabasco sauce. This has been quite a drawn-out process: three weeks of fermenting in a homemade Pickl-It jar, followed by one week maturing with vinegar. It should be ready for straining and bottling this week.
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| Doesn't look like we'll run out of cabbage this winter |
In the veg garden, the spring cabbages and kale have come on immensely. They are ready to eat already! The leeks have also bulked up nicely.
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| Leeks Musselburgh, but they also work on the west coast |
A big thank-you to Green Bean who's sent me a gift of Egyptian onion babies, which I just managed to plant in a sheltered corner before the gale hit.
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| The middle paddock is on its way to becoming an orchard |
Next to the veg garden, the middle paddock is slowly turning into an orchard, with four apple trees, 12 blueberries, six raspberries and two tayberries. We've already got the plastic down for a further six fruit trees this winter. Please note the nicely scythed grass!
The next few days will be spent hunkering down indoors. Might be the perfect opportunity to decide how to spend my first seed voucher...
Exiting times ahead with your first seed voucher, I understand there a big changes ahead with the new range of seeds they are about to introduce. Lets keep our fingers crossed the two storms forcast do not cause too much damage
ReplyDeleteSuperbly done, you two. I'm going to show your mixed produce piccie to the next non-believers who sneer and giggle when I say you can grow almost anything in Scotland
ReplyDeletetoo!
Thanks, Silvia! Hope you'll get to try some of the produce next year. I'm still surprised at what you can grow here, but you definitely need a greenhouse or polytunnel to expand the range.
ReplyDeleteOh, it all looks so lovely. Watermelon in Scotland? Wow!!! I'm highly envious of all those winter veg, your leeks look wonderful and we're definitely going to miss not having any this year. Hope Sarah's baby onions do as well for you as they are here, I've never seen anything grow quite so fast!
ReplyDeleteYes, I love the Gulf Stream that makes watermelons feasible here - long may it last. Next year, I'll start them in April rather than June and hopefully get larger ones. Jim's supposed to build me some cold frames from our old windows to house them. It won't take you long to get all your veg sorted - I bet by next summer you'll be all set! The Egyptian onions are looking good so far, fingers crossed.
ReplyDelete