Sunday 16 September 2012

Lazy Harvest Time

Fresh back from brief holidays in Dublin, we had just time to do a swift bit of harvesting and surveying of the plot this morning, after having escorted my sister down to the Great North Run.


I've never even been down to the start or finish, much less actually run the damn thing; it was pretty mad to see the crowds starting to build up. I'm usually just crawling out of bed in time to switch on the tele to be confronted by grinning hordes of do-gooders and 'slebs, causing themselves moderate to extreme pain in the name of various charities, their altruism doing little to make me feel any better about the grim echoes of last night in my head. All that said, it was quite - what's the word? Inspiring? - seeing everyone get ready to run. Maybe next year. No such qualms for Megan, who, running for the umpteenth time, was showing few signs of nerves just before the off...


But for all the heroic endeavors on display today, we were, quite rightly I think, more concerned to check on  what progress the patch had made in our brief absence. So, what news?

Bolt alert!
Well for a kick-off, the Romanesco cauliflowers that were looking so good have more or less bolted into something that looks more like sprouting broccoli. All very attractive looking, but a bit of a bummer as we'd hoped these would grow and grow. Ho hum.



That's what you get for going to seed, you shit.
"Hang on what about those pumpkins, have they ripened much", I hear you ponder/question. Well, yes, they have a bit. Hopefully we get enough ripening action in before the frosts start to threaten.


Elsewhere, we picked the last of our cabbages which felt a bit sad, but at least we actually got some, and pretty great they were too.

Taking down the cabbage nets til next year
Show-offs
We were gladdened to see the Red Arrows fly overhead, just at the moment that our last cabbages parted company with the earth; certainly a fitting tribute.

We also picked a few good sized courgettes, plenty radishes, a couple of lettuces, loads of chard and heaps of sorrel as well as a few autumn rasps, resulting in this merry pile:


Maybe if we keep eating this kind of stuff, we'll be in shape to run the GNR next year.

If however, we continue to slather our produce in (admittedly very fine, having been made from Cashel Blue - a brilliant Irish cheese) blue cheese sauce, as per here, we can forget about running any half marathons I would've thought.

Potatoes, romanesco cauliflower, blue cheese sauce

4 comments:

  1. Looks like a good haul you have there...you didn't mention the marrows though...did you intend to grow these or were they supposed to be courgettes??

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    Replies
    1. I'm claiming those as courgettes, on the basis that they still had some flavour! Where does the border lie between marrow and courgette?

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  2. Marrow and courgette are actually two different fruits . People say if you let a courgette get too big then it's a marrow but it really isn't, it can however be used like one and stuffed etc. but it will always have a different flavour and texture. However I would never eat a small marrow raw and would never eat the skin on it as they are quite tough.

    So technically it isn't about size at all!!

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    Replies
    1. Hey, thanks for the marrow knowledge!
      My only experience of (what I think was) marrow has been having it stuffed with some sort of tomatoey slop and then baked; not very exciting.

      We have had no shortage of courgettes however, both big and small. My favourite thing to do with them this summer has been to cut them lengthways, no more than 1cm thick, give them a thin coat of oil, salt and pepper, then griddle or bbq them; delicious.

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All comments gratefully received. Sorry about the word verification thing, but I've started getting bombed by spam.

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