OCTOBER 2013

 

This Is What Makes It All Worthwhile

 

The weather has been slowly deteriorating, wet conditions for several days in a row make final harvesting very difficult.  Despite the rain, however, the temperatures are unusually high for the time of year.  We brace ourselves for a massive storm with violent winds, hope the greenhouse manages to stay put - we survived!  Fortunately we have been getting the worst of our weather during the night leaving the days windy with sunshine and showers.

 

 

The decision was made on one of the few good days to harvest the potatoes, this could not be achieved all on one day.  The non Sarpo varieties were harvested first and the King Edwards were particularly good, although the foliage died back long before the Sarpo varieties.  I then harvested the three Sarpo varieties, Mira (red), Kifli and Orla (1st early), all three had high yields per plant, but Mira out performed all of them.  My fear was that although the they were very successful they wouldn't taste good! but they are excellent for all uses, chips, roast and mash.  Some of the individual potatoes were enormous!

 

 

 

The Biggest Boy!

 

 

The other bonus with the Sarpo varieties is that they don't seem to suffer from slug damage as much as other varieties for some reason.  I shall be planting these again next year, on a new part of the allotment of course and thank the Sarvari Trust for developing a potato that at long last can resist the dreaded blight which affects our damp and misty West country atmosphere.

 

The phantom pumpkin thief has struck for the second year in a row, they have taken their supplies rather than go and pay a pound at Tesco.  Perhaps next year we should consider putting tracking devices on them, trouble is one pumpkin looks very much like the other.  Not much we can do about it, just make sure last one out locks the gate securely.

 

The greenhouse has come up trumps this season and it now has a bumper crop of chillies, I have next had much success before but they seem to like where they are and I have been picking regularly from four plants.  The sweet peppers have also done reasonably well, I didn't seem to plant them early enough probably still on outside mode when I bought them.

The sweetcorn grown outside have grown into enormous plants and it looked at one point as if they wouldn't produce much in the way of heads of corn but they did quite well in the end.

 

The clearing up continues, the cages have been taken down and checked for damage which will be done during the winter months.  I have started to dig over the ground and plant the first of the over winter onions, but rain has severely hindered this job and it will have to wait until we have a drier slot.  The strawberry bed has been tidied up and the runners removed and re-planted where there are gaps - it seems a long time before we see the delicious fruit again.

 

That is the joy of eating seasonally, we look forward to beans at the right time and haven't travelled half way round the world, beetroot that doesn't come in vacuum packs and strawberries that taste like heaven.  Another bonus of growing your own food is colour, the green is so vibrant, carrots not only sweet and delicious but look  so colourful on the plate.

 

Savoy Cabbage and Broccoli - so vibrant

There is a good row of swede which will see us through several months and the carefully preserved parsnips have done well.  The freezer is well stocked with spicey ratatouille and rhubarb which will be a treat in the dark days of winter. The store cupboard is also full to bursting with the jams and chutney made during the summer and will not only keep us going but will be given away as presents. 

 

 

 

 

So the season draws to a close, there are still lots of jobs to be done and of course, everything has to be dug an manured before the Spring but I can allow myself a rest on my spade from time to time and think another job well done.  Oh that is apart from the shed at this time of the year it looks like this!

 

 

 

 

The End of Season Disaster Area!