There's no welcome in the hillside for vampires here boyo.

Today I planted 3 different varieties of garlic to hopefully get a decent sized crop next year. These have gone into the beds formerly planted with tomatoes (the ones that got blighted) so next year the toms go somewhere that isn't full of nasty tomato pox.

The chinese gooseberry bush is also looking good. The little lanterny shaped things should contain gooseberries with a bit of luck.



The leek patch is also doing well although there are no more ready to turn into leeky comestibles just yet.



Finally, the whole plot got a good scattering of chicken poo pellets to ensure that what gets planted in here next year should have lots of goodies to suck up out of the soil.

Leeky action

There's not a lot to do on the plot at this time if year so I wandered up to see what was ready to pick, and to turn over some of the empty beds to keep the weeds down.

The leeks have started to come good at last so I harvested the first two for my tea tonight.



There are several dozen in the bed still growing but not quite up to this size yet so looks like leek soup will certainly be on the menu this winter.

Last weekend I cut back all the spinach in the bed that looked ready, and this weekend you can't even tell I was there.



I cut a whole lot back again but looks like this might be a nice regular crop at this rate.

The brussel sprouts are also coming along nicely.

You can just make them out up against the stalks and with another couple of months they should make an ideal accompaniment to the christmas turkey.

Cabbages and salsify are also doing well but the fennel is still not forming bulbs, preferring instead to go to seed which I keep lopping off the top.



Next week, the garlic should be going in the ground (to give it time to form bulbs which this years crop didn't).

Popeye is sorted.

The spinach has now showed itself so I know what is a weed and what isn't.



The cabbages that were doing nothing for ages also have gone nuts this week with all the nice weather we're eventually having.


And the seeds I sowed are also starting to come up (I think).


The cabbages are on the right, but the things on the left are allegedly salsify. However, walking back across the meadow there were a lot of plants with remarkably similar leaves to these, so I think the jury is still out on that one.

There are still a few courgettes swelling up which should be ready shortly to add to my second batch of chutney (the tomatoes for which are currently ripening on the windowsill).

Dying for a leek.....

....but luckily I have plenty.

The leeks are coming on a treat now and should be ready shortly.



The fennel is also doing well although the bulbs are taking their sweet old time swelling up. I've kept chopping the tops off to stop them going to seed which they seem overly keen on doing.



The tomatoes all went down with blight (a problem for a lot of people on the allotment this year) so I rescued all the ones I could today to turn into chutney. The bad ones along with the foliage filled a dustbin bag and have gone in the bin rather than the compost heap so they don't contaminate anything else.



The cabbages and cauliflowers are starting to form hearts at long last, although the caterpillars are munching into the outer leaves of the later.



Finally, the spinach bed appears to have something growing in it, but I'm not 100% sure which bits are the spinach and which are the weeds. I've removed anything that certainly isn't spinach, and will leave the rest to grow and see what is in a straight line.

The Chutney harvest

Well one thing has cropped well this year.... chutney!



As you can see from the picture, some of these grew to 1lb in weight, while others only reached 1/2 lb ;-)

In true WI style I did these wearing a smock and hairnet while singing "Jerusalem" before bottling them into jars with Gingham print lids :p

For the recipe see here where Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall explains all. The recipe is fairly flexible, and after trying to skin some of the tomatoes I ended up just cutting the rest into chunks with the skins on because a) I thought they would add texture to the finished chutney and b) I couldn't be arsed skinning the rest. In a months time these should have matured enough to be eaten with copious quantities of pork pies, Cornish pasties, and other pastry comestibles.

The tomatoes I've left on the plot don't appear to be going any redder and the consensus on the allotments is that nobody elses have worked out either. This means a second round on the chutney machine next weekend to sort out the rest of them so any takers for chutney, shout up now.

Booker T and the MG's reform for......

........ Green Tomatoes.

As the slugs were making their way through my tomatoes before they had time to turn red, I decided to harvest them all today, leaving just the small ones to grow on a bit more.




I stood on the bathroom scales with these, and if you subtract my svelte figure from the total, there are about 6 stone of tomatoes in here. Or possibly 9 lb's if you prefer reality to fantasy ;-)
These are going to be combined with the mother of all courgettes, apples off my tree, onions from the plot, and miscellaneous spices as recommended by Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall and Aunty Louise.

Given 2 lb's of toms equates to 10 jars of finished chutney, it looks like I'll need to order pork pies in bulk from now on to use it all... which is nice :)

Goodness gracious great balls of ..... courgette !

Today was courgette harvesting day and after many weeks of keeping them supplied with water the boys have done good.





The observant will note that these puppies are 3 1/2 lb's each which should keep me in courgettey comestibles for a little while!

As for the rest of the plot, the cabbages now have hearts in them so should be ready to harvest later on this year. The tomatoes are still stubbornly refusing to turn red so I think I'll have to crop them and turn them into chutney if they don't pull their fingers out. The leek bed is also coming on great guns and looks set to produce a good crop in a month or two. Peppers? Well despite them being mollycoddled in the cold frame for about 6 months, the plants grew to a grand height of about 2" and didn't develop any peppers on them :-(. Looks like these may need a greenhouse to grow in this climate so won't bother with these next year.