After the glorious days of early summer, the weather has turned cooler, wetter and greyer.  This has meant that some of the fruiting crops have not ripened on as well as we might have liked.  Still, as earlier comments have made clear, things like tomatoes and aubergines have done much better than in the last two years and we are picking up very colourful harvests.

A colourful harvest

The onset of autumn means that our focus is starting to shift; so we are now concentrating on our winter (and especially Christmas) crops.  The parsnips are developing very nicely and the winter greens are all in.

Parsnips 27 Sep

In the past we have grown Minicole cabbages for summer harvesting, red cabbages for autumn harvesting and pickling (Kalibos at the moment) and experimented with winter cabbages.  This year we have grown Tundra for the first time based on a description that says it will stand through the harshest weather with little problem.  That is yet to be tested, but we are very pleased with the way that the plants are growing on.

Tundra 27 Sep 2013

Peas are one of our favourite crops.  Rather like sweet corn, peas are a crop that is best when eaten as soon as possible after picking.  The difference between really fresh peas and those that have sat around for just a few days is really marked.  It is an unwritten rule of the allotment that the first few pods don’t make it back to the house.  They are either “tested” on the allotment, eaten while walking home, or on one occasion surreptitiously scoffed in a beer garden on the way home.

In the past we have grown Kelvedon Wonder on the allotment and Sugar Snaps at home.  Kelvedon Wonder (on the right below) is ideal for producing both an early summer crop and a late sown autumn crop – both of which usually miss the pea moth season, so no maggoty peas.

Peas 6 May 2013

This year we also tried Blauwschokker – a marrowfat pea for drying and storage.  Fish and chips with our own mushy peas was the plan.  The plants are very vigorous and both the flowers and pods are really attractive, it is always nice when the allotment looks good as well as producing a tasty harvest.

Blauwschokker peas 1 July

The peas cooked well and we have had our first serving of “pie ‘n’ peas”.  Unfortunately, this cultivar matures during high summer meaning that it is exposed to pea moth.  We therefore ended up sharing the harvest rather more than we’d hoped; not to mention chasing maggots around the front room carpet while we were shelling.  Chatting around it seems that other people suffered quite badly this year, so we’ll give the Blauwschokkers another chance next year, but maybe harvest them earlier and freeze the peas rather than wait for them to dry on the vine.

The late sowing of Kelvedon Wonder (below) should be maggot free and make up for the loss of some of the marrowfat crop.

Peas 23 Aug 2013

After two really grotty years for tomatoes, things are finally looking more promising this year.  The relatively dry weather earlier in the summer has meant that so far there has been no sign of the blight that has tormented us for the past couple of years – even inside the greenhouse.  In early July the plants in the greenhouse were looking healthy and vigorous.

Greenhouse 1 July 2013

As the second photo shows the fruits are starting to ripen and here is a prize specimen.

Marmande tomato - as big as your hand

We have always grown one or two Marmande plants, but an emerging contender for a large fruit is a new cultivar that we have tried for the first time – Ferline.  We tried these this year as some blight resistance was claimed and we were thinking that in the event of another bad season we might at least get something.  We weren’t expecting to get such large and tasty fruit from the descriptions and the plants’ vigour and productivity were a very pleasant surprise.

An annual challenge is the growing of aubergines.  Two crumby summers with very low light levels has meant very little success over the past couple of years.  However, this year is looking more promising.

We got the seeds under way in the first week of February in a windowsill propagator and then grew them on indoors for a couple of months before moving the strongest plants to the greenhouse in late April, while bringing on the remainder on the back patio ready for planting out in containers at home.

The following pair of pictures show that by early July we had quite sturdy plants, producing healthy flowers. 

Greenhouse 1 July 2013

Aubergine flower 1 July

With the peppers moved outside in July there was plenty of space for the tomatoes and aubergines to develop and we are now seeing the fruits of our labours.

Early Black Purple

The pale aubergines below are Rosa Bianca.  As well as looking very attractive on the plant, they cook well and are definitely a cultivar worth trying.

Rosa bianca 23 Aug

While there has been much talk of the wait for a man to follow in Fred Perry’s footsteps a slightly shorter wait has led to success in the allotment.  We planted up a strawberry bed in the autumn of 2011 and the young plants and the foul summer of 2012 meant a minimal harvest last year.

However, a decent summer and bit of love and care over the past 12 months (trimming off runners, clearing dead foliage and thinning out the bed where stray runners had started to root) has led to a bumper crop this year.  The photos below show how the bed has developed this year.

2 April 2013

27 May 2013

Strawberry jam is a household favourite, but fresh strawberries are even higher up our hit parade, so to have enough strawberries to be making a few pounds of jam means that we really do have a lot.

So, congratulations Andy Murray but for those who’d prefer to wait for 18 months or so, get your strawberries in this autumn.

It looked like it might never happen, but summer is really here.  After an idyllic early morning spell of working on the allotment yesterday, Mark suggested that we have breakfast down there this morning.  A flask of tea was prepared, some croissants warmed and wrapped up along with some home-made strawberry jam and we set off to enjoy the sunshine.

Breakfast on the allotment

A bit of harvesting followed breakfast with the strawberries and sweet peas both now in full flow.

A summer's harvest