Ron and Shirley arrived today, so after we had fed them tea and courgette cake, we took them down to see the allotment and while there we had a major harvesting session.  This included another heap of gherkins, all of which are going to Essex for pickling more courgettes/marrows and the first of our follow-on crop of peas.  The new peas are again lovely and we’re already talking about trying to get some serious successional planting of peas going for next year.

We didn’t water the “lotty” yesterday and even though last night’s downpour meant that the outside crops did not need watering, the plants inside the cloche did, so I dropped Lynn off at work and headed down there first thing this morning.  I did the watering and then had a tidying and harvesting session.

I cut the haulms of the Vales Sovereigns potatoes and then couldn’t resist digging the first plant to see what we’d got.  The answer was 6lb of lovely looking white skinned, pink-eyed potatoes.  Also in the basket for bringing home were multiple courge(tte)s, sweet corn, a beetroot and the first of the winter squashes.

I finished up with a quick strim of the paths to leave everything looking very smart.  Just as I finished this, I met Margaret from Cookham Parish Council who was up taking some shots of the site, which is generally looking very good at this time of year.  She asked for a look at our plot and was very impressed with what we’ve done and asked if I’d mind posing in front of the plot (see below) as a newcomer to the allotment world.  A later e-mail invited me to have the shot submitted to the National Association of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Magazine along with a few words.

Margaret's shot

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This afternoon I headed down to the allotment to finish off the grand weeding that I’d started and the plot is looking really good at the moment.  I had a swift batch of harvesting courgettes and sweet corn (both sorts).  With the weather drying up, the green courgettes seem to have slowed down a bit, which is good news; a steady long season would be great.

We had the first two large sweet corn cobs as a starter tonight and they were great, well worth the space investment and a crop for the future without doubt.  I’m less convinced about the mini sweet corn, although they do add a different texture and flavour to salads, it will be worth trying some in a stir fry to explore flexibility.

Today, I dropped Lynn off at work and headed straight down to the allotment to get the Rudolphs harvested.  Mid-way through, I realised that there was a great photo opportunity to capture the feeling of “treasure” that root crops give, so nipped home for a camera and also picked up other tools and a some drinks to allow a longer session.

While there is something magical about the first signs of sprouting, the first bud, flower or setting fruit, I don’t think that there is much in the gardening world to beat the excitement of a successful harvest of roots, carrots and parsnips are great, but you know that it is one root per plant, but with potatoes it really is searching for buried treasure.

Buried treasure

Inevitably I managed to spear a few of the spuds and after cleaning them all up for storage there were still a few pounds worth that will require fairly swift usage.  This evening’s portion was turned into a large potato rosti to accompany pork steaks and ratatouille (yes a few more courgettes used up).

After the harvest I got cracking on a major weeding session and cleared about half the plot and plan to get the rest finished on Thursday.  Whilst there I also took some photos to allow comparisons with earlier snaps to show how growth has developed.  This is particularly noticeable in the cucurbit bed and with the sweet corns.  The large sweet corn (while on much smaller plants than the mini ones) appear to be getting very close to ripe and I think that it will be worth harvesting a couple later this week.

The cucurbit bed

Sweet corn and beetroot

On Thursday Lynn was working from home, so I started the day with a swift bike ride.  Then I headed off to the allotment, with the main aim of building the gate, which I succeeded in doing.  The weather remains fairly damp, although not too cold, so things are still growing quickly – especially the cucurbits and another batch of courgettes and gherkins made their way home.

At last the sun has returned and first thing we set off for the allotment.  Lynn treated the newly built gate, and as I remembered to take a camera, we recorded it for prosperity as well as gathering documentary evidence of the way that the mini sweet corn have grown and the enormous productivity of the yellow courgette plant.

We harvested the first plant’s worth of “Rudolph” potatoes, which look great.  This plant produced 6lbs worth of potatoes and if they taste as good as they look, this level of productivity should make them a variety worth sticking with.

The gate

The yellow courgette plant

Harvesting the mini sweet corn

Lyn and her sweet peas

Inside the cloche

After an early morning start, we headed down to the allotment for a burst of harvesting, weeding and watering.  This done, Lynn set off to the golf course and I cleaned the various vegetables that we had harvested, and salvaged what I could from the onions that had suffered “white rot”.  In fact although they will be no good for keeping, we have plenty of onion to use over the next few days, so I cracked on with roasting some vegetables for salads and pizza – this included the first carrots of the season from the garden.

I prepared gherkins for pickling and am trying two different approaches – one with whole vegetables and one with sliced.  I think that we have discovered that pickled gherkins for Boxing day is not a very challenging target.  A more serious challenge is what do you do with all the Gherkins that three plants produce?