Happy New Allotment Year! Yay!

I haven't posted for ages :( I have unintentionally neglected my blog since the Autumn, why? I got ill in late October, which culminated in the removal of my appendix. This left me unable to do much for quite a while and what with a major backlog of work, the downright nasty weather (my house escaped major flooding by just a few feet - I feel very lucky), and the onset of all things Christmas, the allotment has been left abandoned by me. 

Anyway, my enforced downtime gave me some time to think about what to grow next year. This year the pumpkins were a great success - I grew 8 of them on 2 plants and they all reached a good size. Inspired by Matron at Down on the Allotment I did think about attempting to grow a monster-sized pumpkin, but after a bit of thought decided against it as I've enjoyed eating my way through my little pumpkins. Plus, I don't really fancy attempting to move - or even worse chop up - a huge pumpkin. My youngest son saw a picture of Turk's turban squash in a gardening magazine and couldn't believe that they were real, so I thought I would give them a go. 

On the squash front, I am also going to give spaghetti squash a go, however I am unsure whether or not to try growing butternut squash again as it was a total disaster last season.

So, what else am I going to grow? I couldn't resist the mixed aubergine below as they looked so enticing on the seed packet. I'm not quite sure how I will squeeze them into the greenhouse but I will try!

Other than these seeds, and buying 3 more raspberry plants. I haven't thought much about the coming season. I am just hoping that the weather will be better this year. It was a beautiful sunny day today so hopefully that is a good omen for the rest of the year!

In which I am awash with pumpkins!

I have been so busy in the last month I have had no time to update my blog. However, I am now (hopefully) back. This is just one of my 8, yes 8, pumpkins. I love growing pumpkins, and I very much missed my pumpkin patch when I didn't grow them last year. I love the way they trail off, rambling across the allotment. I especially  love finding one that has managed to hide itself deep within the foliage on another crop (I found one such pumpkin among the sweetcorn this year).

I usually grow pumpkins to eat, bar one that is sacrificed for Halloween, however after being utterly inspired by the huge pumpkin grown this year by Matron of the lovely blog Down at the Allotment, next year I may set aside one pumpkin plant to see if I can also grow a Cinderella!

So, what am I going to do with my 8 pumpkins? As mentioned above, one is earmarked for Halloween, however I am not entirely sure what I will do with the rest. I made a head start today by chopping one of them up and adding half of it to my Autumn allotment broth, which as its name suggests, is a mixture of all the things I have from the allotment at the moment - pumpkin, carrots, onion, a chili, potato, and kale (green curly, and cavolo nero). I will roast the other half tomorrow to go with the veggie roast dinner I am hoping to make. 

I have found that pumpkin freezes well. In Autumn and Winter I like making root vegetable casseroles (great to make in a slow cooker) and its super easy to get a bag of diced pumpkin out of the freezer and add it to the pot. Of course, there is also pumpkin soup, which I usually make once or twice. I have never had pumpkin pie. I've just never fancied it. Maybe one day I will give it a go! If you have a surplus of pumpkins Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book has a number of recipes to keep you busy.

I do love Autumn. It's about the only time of year that I really appreciate orange. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this beautiful tree in the grounds of my elder boys' school. Maybe the super intense colours this year are due to all the rain we've had!

Pumpkin's Progress

Look at my pumpkin. I can't believe how much it has grown in the last few days - it has almost doubled in size. I am so pleased as several of my pumpkins rotted for some reason. I wonder how big it will be by next week? This weekend is forecast to be hot and sunny, so hopefully the heat will spur it on.

The issue I was having with my pumpkins and courgettes rotting from the flower end seems to have resolved itself. Although nowhere near as prolific last year, my yummy Lebanese courgette is starting to thrive - with 4 budding courgettes growing on one stem of the plant!

In my quest to keep the children occupied we went for a long walk to our local beach today. It's a 1 hour walk from the nearest road, which means you almost always have it to yourself. How lucky are we? Anyway, while we were there I spotted this lovely plant...

I thought this plant was so pretty. I guessed that it was some kind of sea thistle, however after a bit of research tonight I found out that it is sea holly (Eryngium maritimum). It is protected as it is classed as endangered. However, in the 17th and 18th centuries its roots were widely harvested as they were thought to be an aphrodisiac. According to Plants For a Future its leaves and roots are edible.

Runner Beans at Last

Getting to the allotment in the school holidays is not proving easy. To complicate matters it never seems to do much more than rain recently. Anyway, I managed to squeeze in a brief visit yesterday, and was delighted to find that in my absence a couple of baby runner beans have appeared. Yes, there is only two or three, but hey its better than none. By this time of year the runner beans are usually a dense mass of foliage, this year they are sparse and very see-through. I don't think 2012 will be a year where I get fed up of picking/eating runner beans.

This is one of my baby pumpkins. I have two pumpkin plants this year, each of which have undergone an impressive growth spurt in the last week or so. I have three or four pumpkins on each plant (however one went rotten/got eaten by something). I am not going to pull some of them off as I don't want to grow a monster pumpkin this year. Last time I did that I managed to drop one and it rolled into the greenhouse breaking it! The courgettes have finally got some decent sized courgettes on them and I think I might actually be able to pick some tomorrow.

On a different note, we went for a lovely long walk yesterday. The children were superpleased to find some wild raspberries (below), I have never seen one before so I was quite pleased as well. I didn't get to try one though as they ate them all.

Picking Fruit for Jam and Signs of Growth

I've picked my fruit for my jam. Now I just have to make it. I am hoping to get time for my first ventures in jam making sometime tomorrow. I have just over 1 kg of gooseberries, 1 kg of blackcurrants, and 0.5 kg of redcurrants.

Finally, there are some signs of growth down on the allotment. One of my Lebanese courgette plants finally has a courgette growing on it. This probably means that in a couple of weeks I will be writing a post saying how sick I am of eating Lebanese courgettes!

You can't beat a pumpkin patch. This is my first pumpkin to appear this year. I didn't grow pumpkins last year and missed them rambling over the plot. This year I have two plants.

My white cabbages are finally starting to get it together as well (although something does seem to be eating them). The red cabbages seem a bit behind.

This little honeybee was enjoying my lavender late this afternoon. I'm off to bed now. I need to have lots of energy tomorrow to tire my children out and hopefully get them to sleep relatively early, so that I can get on with my jam making tomorrow night!