Last week has certainly been a memorable one. We had a new prime minister at the beginning of the week and by the end of the week, we had a new monarch. I just can’t get used to having a king now rather than a queen. Queen Elizabeth II is the only monarch that I have known and is no doubt the only monarch that most of the UK can remember. The term king just doesn’t seem right – kings belong to other countries. No doubt I’ll get used to things in time. Queen Elizabeth II’s seventy year reign is in stark contrast to the longevity in office of our prime ministers who, of late, have been coming and going in rapid succession.

Anyway, life, for us, has gone on as usual. We continue to tidy and clear the plot. I spent one afternoon sorting out the shed. It was becoming almost impossible to get inside. The shed doubles as a retreat, where we can escape any showers and sit having a coffee break when it is too unpleasant to sit outside. We don’t keep anything of value at the allotment as sheds are often targeted by opportunistic thieves so any equipment is transported from home.

Besides the usual end of season clearing of beds we have continued to harvest, although harvests will soon become less abundant.

Last week, we harvested our Crown Prince squashes. The plants were dying off and so the squashes wouldn’t grow any bigger and they will cure just as well at home as on the plot.  Over winter, they will be stored in the summer house. The fruits are smaller than usual this year but are plenty big enough for us. We can’t usually use a whole squash at once so when we cut into one we usually end up needing to freeze some of it. Smaller fruits mean the squash will take less space in our crammed freezers.

Our pear trees didn’t set much fruit this year but we picked some fruit. The pears are not ripe enough to eat and will continue ripening off the tree.

We dug up a few beetroots which were the only plants that remained in that particular bed. Being emptied meant that I could remove any weeds so that the bed was ready to be dug over.  We’d actually had a few short showers and the soil looked damp but, once I started to work on the bed, I saw that any moisture had only dampened the surface and the soil underneath was like dust.

We had one bed in which we planted leftover seed potatoes so this had contained a mixture of varieties.

Again the showers had only dampened the surface of the soil which was hard and lumpy. Beds that were watered over the season are more like dust bowls now but where potatoes were planted and no watering done the beds have boulders of soil that need some persistent heavy rain to break them up. The difference can be seen in the photo below.

No doubt over winter our bone dry soil will turn into a claggy mess. We just need to hit the sweet spot where the soil can be dug over and prepared for next season.

Back in the garden, the experiment with the spring onions seems to be working. We no longer seem able to grow spring onions on the allotment so Martyn sowed some seeds in a large crate and they are growing well. We just need to wait and see whether they bulk up.

We are still harvesting masses of tomatoes. Usually, the allotment tomatoes would have succumbed to blight by now but, being so dry, this year has been blight free. As well as growing tomatoes at the allotment, we grow some in our garden greenhouse and in a raised bed at the top of the garden. The outdoor plants are loaded with fruit that is now ripening fast. We tend to pick tomatoes from the garden as we need them. Martyn made some tomato soup with one lot.

It was quite exciting this week as we actually had some rain at home and at the allotment. For a short while, we had thunder and a fairly heavy shower. The problem was that the shower didn’t last very long but it was better than nothing.

Besides making tomato soup we have used our vegetables in other meals. I made a turkey and quinoa dish that used, our peppers, tomatoes, carrots and peas. I used chopped turkey breast as I got the wrong  meat out of the freezer.

We used some tomatoes and onion in a tomato sauce that accompanied some bought in tortellini. We haven’t tried making home made tortellini but never say never.

I made a chicken hotpot that used some of our potatoes, onion, carrot and frozen peas, sweetcorn and broccoli. I used wholegrain mustard and omitted the nutmeg as we don’t like it in casseroles.

I  made a vegetable bake that used our potatoes, onion, peppers, tomatoes and courgette. Again the recipe has disappeared from the Internet. It also contained celery, mushrooms, red wine, tomato paste and oregano. The potatoes were topped with grated cheese.

That’s all for this week. As always stay safe and well.

I am once again linking to Harvest Monday on Dave’s Our Happy acres blog.