By Anne Akers
What a great year it’s been down on the allotment.
A warm, dry-ish spring followed by a hot, even drier summer made for very good growing conditions, providing I could keep up with the watering, especially since the hosepipe ban meant schlepping watering cans from the water butts. That was quite a workout!
The good weather meant some crops were early. Broad beans were plentiful and tasty, I’ve frozen loads – we’ll be having those well into the new year. The peas came early too, those that the mice didn’t scoff, that is.
Brussels sprouts will be in the ground for some time yet, well netted to protect against pigeons. Once they’ve been nipped by the first frost, those sprouts will be at their best and ready to pick.
The potatoes just keep on giving and came out of the ground with no holes and, more importantly, no blight. They’ll keep us going through the winter. Thornless blackberries were huge and juicy, I had so many, I made batch after batch of jam.
Once you’ve tasted home-made jam, you never want shop-bought again and it makes great gifts. Leeks and shallots are maybe a bit smaller than I’d expect. They probably didn’t get as much water as they needed, they’d definitely qualify to be in the wonky vegetables section at any supermarket, but still, like all wonky fruit and veg, they are very usable and good to eat. One crop that has done particularly well this year is squash.
I planted three varieties, Butternut, Crown Prince and Bush Baby. The plants throw out long vines which produce both male and female flowers, only the female flowers will make fruit, so, harsh as it seems, the males are discarded. Left unchecked, the vines would work their way to my allotment neighbour, so the experts recommend to nip off the ends once four fruit have started to form.
I slid flat stones and slates under the fruit to raise them from the soil and stop them rotting, and there they will stay until the leaves die back. They need to be left in a cool, dry place for the skin to thicken and should keep well into the new year.
Mine are going into the greenhouse, which is looking a bit sorry for itself now, after all the tomato plants have gone.
Tomatoes were another crop which did well this year, both in the greenhouse and outside. I’ve made passata, sauces and chutney.
Tomatoes that are green now have little chance of ripening, so I’ve made them into a sharp chutney, which will mature just in time for Christmas. I’ll have some of that with cheese on Boxing Day as I peruse the seed catalogues and choose what I’ll grow next year.
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