We didn’t do much gardening at the beginning of the week for a number of reasons. One welcome reason is that we have had a few wet days. A less welcome reason is that I have had a painful shoulder. Thirdly we have been shopping for new carpets and once we had chosen carpeting someone needed to visit to measure up and price our order.
Martyn, cleared the tomatoes from the garden greenhouse which will make way for everything that needs to be kept in there over winter. The temperature is already dropping over night.
Quinces are always the last bulk harvest of the season. Once they have lost their furry covering and have turned from green to yellow they are ripe for picking.
As the growing season was exceptionally dry, we did wonder whether the fruits would be spoiled. Quinces can suffer from bitter pit as a result of dry growing conditions which causes a calcium deficiency. One year we lost most of the fruits due to this as a symptom is that the skin and flesh becomes speckled with brown marks. Often bitter pit is only apparent once the fruit is peeled. Apparently the fruit also tastes bitter but as we have never eaten any disfigured fruits I can’t confirm that.
Some quinces were ready to pick so we took a few home as a test. They were fine so Martyn, picked more when we went to the plot on Sunday.
I added some asters picked from the garden to the dahlias.
We had a batch of sweet William plants waiting in the garden coldframe. We had been holding back planting them out on the allotment until we had enough rain to add some moisture to the soil. Enough rain came for us to decide to plant them out which we did on Sunday.
We also planted two varieties of overwintering onions – Radar and Senshyu and two varieties of garlic. Casablanca is a hard neck variety and Germidour is a soft necked garlic. After we had planted the sets we covered the bed with enviromesh to stop any creatures from scratching about or digging the sets up.
Ideally we would have liked to have planted the onions and garlic a couple of weeks ago so we are hoping that they manage to get going before winter sets in.
We paid our regular visit to Nostell.
The cygnets haven’t yet left and the family are still content to relax together.
Included in last week’s meals, I used some of our beetroot, onion, garlic, tomatoes, carrot and coriander in a beetroot and chickpea curry.
Some of our frozen French beans and peas along with a red onion, garlic, mint and coriander were used in a turkey stir fry.
Finally, some of our squash, onion, garlic and tomatoes went into a chicken tagine. I used ras el hanout instead of their choice of spices and also used fresh in place of tinned tomatoes
As always until next time stay safe and well.
I am again linking to Harvest Monday at Dave’s Our Happy Acres blog.
I do hope your shoulder gets better soon. That’s a wonderful haul of potatoes! Mine were awful this year.xxx
It’s OK now thanks, Dina
Mmmmm – I can smell those quinces from here Sue! I’ve grown sweet williams from seed too this year although I’m not quite sure yet where they are all going to be planted 😂 What do you do with all your tomatoes?
They do smell good, Anna. I make pasta sauce and freeze it using the tomatoes. Some tomatoes are frozen raw ready to make more sauce later. We have tomato soup, some of which is frozen. I made ketchup this year. I use fresh on place of tinned tomatoes in recipes. Of course then there are salads and sandwiches.
Very similar here, but I sowed my Shenshu Yellow a few weeks ago, from seed. Now I am weeding all the grass from the bed to give it a chance. I have recently read that it is a mistake to plant your garlic to early, so it is a relief to me that someone else has planted theirs already too! We are getting a quince this winter, but currently the apple and green tomato preserves are more than enough to cope with, so I am wondering if this is wise. (We love Membrillo and, sweet though it is, and don’t consider it to be devoid of flavour)
I usually plant garlic a couple of weeks earlier Mal and it is usually fine. The pack stated plant from September to November. I guess it depends where you live but our ground wouldn’t be good for planting in November. Our quince is 12vyears old.
Your tomatoes and quince look very good. I’ve only tasted quince once, and it didn’t taste of anything very much at all. And the quince jam we sold in the National Trust was more sweet than flavoursome. Do you do anything specific with them? Another question, do you keep your Cranberries in the freezer and then have them at Christmas?
There are different varieties of quince Debs. Some are rounder rather thatbpear shaped like ours. They are certainly not tasteless. The flavour is very distinctive.some love them others godlike their flavour. We really like them. We stew ours and make compote to freeze and use on porridge. We don’t make jam due to the amount of sugar used. We don’t have a traditional Christmas dinner so use the cranberries fresh. The last lot were stewed with some apple.
Those end of season tomatoes look great! My vines outdoors have mostly dried to a crisp. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a quince, though my parents had an ornamental quince bush that made fruit. We never ate them however, and I don’t know if they were edible or not.
I think ornamental quince are edible but maybe not palatable, Dave. We have one but have never eaten the fruits.
I plant my onions and garlic much later than you and I’ve never had an issue with them, so you should be fine
That’s good to know Steve.
Your tomatoes look excellent. My outdoor tomatoes are very slow to ripen now, so no doubt they will be coming out soon. The quinces look very good, I do love their flavour, a shame I don’t have room for a tree. My walnuts were no good this year, I assume because of the drought. They were shrunken and black inside their shells. Conkers have been very big though! Not many of them, and just one per shell, but they are a very good size. Your cranberries are looking good. You inspired me to buy a cranberry plant a year or so ago, but it’s not had any fruit on it yet. I’m hoping next year it might.
Great to have a walnut tree CJ. Do you bear it with chains as I red they did on the past. I’ve noticed more acorns and sweet chestnuts which were scarce around here last year. We have two cranberries – one fruits but the other doesn’t. The flowers are interesting too.