How many things can we harvest in the second half of October?
1. We are still picking a few AUTUMN RASPBERRIES. Earlier this month before we went away to Cumbria I'd been picking about 1lb every other day so after 6 days there were nearly 4lb waiting - and much to my surprise all were still in good condition. Returning from Norfolk and picked nearly 2lb - such a treat. Yesterday's three-quarter pound may be the last.
2. I've harvested the SQUASH - 12 small but valuable- (in a useful rather than monetary way) butternuts.
3. The COOKING APPLES are looking well. I picked several straight away for a crumble and now we have started putting them out for sale.
4. I also harvested the conference PEARS - it took just 2 minutes as there were only 14, and they were small. They've been peeled cored and frozen for 2 future pear crumbles.
5. I pulled some LEEKS and made 3 chicken and leek pies using just 1x 8oz chicken breast and a tin of condensed chicken soup. One pie was eaten and 2 for the freezer.
6. POTATOES are still being dug as we need them - we really need to dig up all we have left soon. A few also went into the pies.
7. I'm going to run out of ONIONS before Christmas this year because we had such a poor crop but one of the few we have left also went into the chicken pies.It might be cheating to count these as they were "harvested" from the net bag in the shed.
8. The EATING APPLES on the early tree have been picked and are being eaten.Some from another tree are on a tray in the craft room.
9. We still have plenty of TOMATOES in the poly-tunnel, though the plants are looking very sad.
10. And the last few CUCUMBERS are hanging on - just.
11. The LETTUCE plants Col set out in the poly tunnel are growing well, enough for just a few leaves each.
12. I'm going to make a quiche with tomatoes and CHARD next week.
13. A saucepan full of BEETROOT has been cooked up again. We have some everyday with our salad/sandwich lunch. We are still pulling them as we need them but will put some into a box of sand soon.
14. We have a lot of PEPPERS in the poly-tunnel, the plants just didn't get going during the early summer but then had more flowers late in the season. I don't think many of the peppers will turn red now and once we have a hard frost that will be the end. I've already put lots in the freezer and a few in the fridge salad drawer.
15. I've brought some BAY LEAVES indoors to dry in the Rayburn oven. I'm hoping to take our small Bay Tree in a pot when we move.
16. We tried the first PARSNIPS last week, they need a good frost to sweeten them up a bit but even so it was nice to get round to parsnip season again
16 crops from the garden and I haven't counted the KALE which I'm not keen on so it's for winter emergency use only.
Back in a day or 2 or 3 or maybe even tomorrow
Sue
