Friday 27th July 2007 - Weather: sunny, breezy, overcast in the distance

Our lovely friend and neighbour offered to have the children for a couple of hours today to give me a chance to get to the plot for a pick. In return, I would give her a selection of the goodies. Also, lovely lovely Jim from the A4all site sent me some Dithane to treat the blight threat on the toms, so I was able to do those whilst I was there.

Picked over a dozen courgettes. Amazing how quickly they grow. When I was last on the plot I cleared all of the courgettes, so I was really suprised at the harvest. I love these little ones with their flowers, and we had the flowers stuffed with our steak tonight. Delicious!

Now beans......oh beans.....beans coming out of our earholes! So much for staggered sowing! Not one batch of beans were sown on the same day and the purples were a good 6 weeks after the rest, and look, all coming at once. Fortunately my neighbour loves beans, so she had a pile, plus I do find the frenchies freeze very well, so some went in there. I love french beans lightly blanched, so they are still crunchy, but tender, then cooled, drizzled with olive oil, plenty of pepper and served with feta cheese or flaked tuna. I think they make a lovely salad and could eat them every day....good job!!

The yellow is one I brought in France called Beurre something, the long thing greens are called Corden Bleu, again from France, the flat frenchies are a climber and called Gold something, I think they were from a swap, the purple, again from France are called Amathyst and the runners are called Enorma.

I pulled a few carrots, picked the peas, yanked out a few beetroot, picked some blackcurrants and cut some spinach. Ooo, also found some brocolli to pick! My final job of the day was spraying my toms. I don't like to spray anything, but I wouldn't be able to stand loosing my hole tom crop. I do always keep a few plants at home in the greenhouse as a backup, but there is nothing as wonderful as being on the allotment and picking toms, especially those cherry babies which pop into your mouth as you work!

Whilst over on plot number 2 I checked out the seeds I sowed last visit, kale, mooli, chinese cabbage etc, and they are all up already! Nature is amazing.

Before I left, I did take a few photos of the various squashes that I am growing. We don't tend to grow them all to eat, which I know seems like a waste, but I grow them because the children love to go and collect them and sort them, and then at halloween they carve some of them, not necessarily traditional pumpkins, plus I make soup. All in all, a productive couple of hours.