WHAT CROPS HAVE YOU PICKED THIS WEEK?

As the UK folks among us will probably know we have a tremendous amount of rain here. Our lotties are completely ruined here, floods were up to 3 feet deep on our land and although the water level has dropped a bit , the ground is still underwater by several inches, and we have torrential rains again as I type.Flooding is forecast again for today. We have been underwater now for three weeks, all has gone apart from a few things that we salvaged from the high raised beds which were under water for about 3 days only. The school I work in was under water too and has lost absolutely everything. Despite all this however we are fortunate that our house did not flood while many around us did.

So there will be little imput re growing stuff from us this year.

I shall look forward to all your news even more to compenaste.

Pat, which ice cream maker did you buy, I have been seriously debating this for about 2 years and still have not taken the plunge. I do have one but wanted to upgrade to a better one.

XX Jeannine

I'll bet if we get a dry spell you will be able to grow plenty of things as soon as the water goes down. The only problem is there are usually lots of weed seeds washed down with the floods. We never had the Garlic Mustard weeds in the garden until the previous flood which came down from the woods. That is 20 years ago and every year it still germinates all over the place, particularly in the gravel paths and paving so the seeds must be viable for many years.

On a pleasanter subject, my ice cream machine is a Magimix Gelato Chef 2200. I had been thinking about getting one for a while, and when I got my new Sarah Raven cookery book with all the lovely recipes it coincided with the Independent newspaper having this machine on special offer so I took the plunge. It cost £199.99 with free delivery and a free book "Ice Cream Machine" by Rosemary Moon which is excellent.

If you look up Independent.co.uk, then look under Independent Services on the right hand side, and under that is a picture of a shopping trolley and Independent offers, which lists all their recent offers. I phoned the order in and it came within the week, so I was very pleased.

I have had one of the small ones that you freeze the bowl in the freezer over night, but I'm a bit of a spur of the moment cook and never got round to planning so far ahead.
I'm very pleased with this though and have it in its own corner in the utility room so it is always handy, and also they are a bit noisy when they are churning, so it is better there than in the kitchen. It makes 1 1/2 pints of ice cream at a time and as I said it is ready to eat in 20 mins.

Your icecream maker sounds very good Pat. Mine was an impulse buy when I was ordering a juicer, and the combination is excellent - I'll have to look up the book you mention. My icecream maker makes 1 and three quarter pints (1 litre) at a time and was £35 so I'm happy for now ;) But I do have to mix by hand at the end of chilling (20 mins), so yours wins.....

Hi Pat, the one you bought is one of the 2 I have now got down to , the other being the Gaggia one, I simply cannot make up my mind.

XX Jeannine

Hi Jeannine, The Gaggia was also on my short list, but the price of this one decided me - it does everything the Gaggia does and is much cheaper, especially with the offer and a free book too. It just seemed rather extravagant to spend going on for £300 on an ice cream maker. It also seemed quite a coincidence my newspaper having one on offer when I had been comparing them all on the internet the week before.

Today was going to be a gardening day, but after I lifted a couple of rows of potatoes the heavens opened again - "coming down in stair rods as Dad used to say".

How have your potatoes done this year? The tops of the Kestrel and Yukon Gold had died down really early and the tubers were small to medium sized - not nearly as large as Kestrel usually are. They must not like all the rain which I find surprising.

Today I've lifted the Record, which also were not very big, but plenty on them and then the Marfona surprised me with lovely large baking size tubers and equal in weight to the Record even though I only planted half the number of Marfona seed potatoes.

Also no slug damage on any of them, so the Nemasys must have worked. I have noticed that it seemed to get rid of all the small keel slugs even though there were quite a lot of the large varieties still around.

It is a really good crop of peas on all the varieties. I've decided not to grow the fancy coloured ones again next year as they don't taste anywhere near as good as they look. Perhaps I will use them up as an ornamental if I have a spare corner. The yellow podded mangetout look really pretty and are very prolofic, but are not very sweet and the purple podded stand out but the peas have a slightly bitter taste and go tough quickly. Has anyone else found this?

My favourites are the early Eat All mangetout from HSL, Sugar Ann sugarsnap, Kelvedon Wonder, Hurst's Greenshaft and a lovely tall pea also from HSL called Robinson which is very prolific over a long period and the peas are very sweet with lots in each pod.

Better go and feed the hens and see if it has stopped raining. I was going to transplant the brassicas today before they get too large.

No one seems to be talking to me on this thread, I suppose you are all too busy in your gardens.

Anyway, I've boiled some of the Aura potatoes grown from the ones the little micro-propagated plant produced last year and they were lovely.

I'm very disappointed with the sweetcorn this year, although the plants have almost doubled in size with the sun and warmth this week. I've given up on the pumpkins and squashes too the ones the slugs have left are pathetic.

I've noticed that the sun has had a dramatic effect on the flavour of all the tomatoes and some that I thought weren't very good taste much better now. There is one very tasty cherry tomato which has self seeded in the border and I let grow to see what it was. It must be from the Sungold, although it is a red one as I didn't grow any other cherry ones there last year. It is a little larger than the Gardener's Delight and has a very good sweet but rich flavour so I'll have to save some seeds for next year.

Had a nice salad for tea with Little Gem, lettuce, five kinds of tomatoes, the first cucumber, some Boltardy beetroot and (home grown) boiled eggs. Finished off with Autumn Bliss raspberries, home made ice cream topped with a slurp of cassis that I've just bottled up.

Hi Pat, I am popping and looking now and again, school is out and I have recuperated a bit.
Sadly due to the floods my gardening news is poor as we lost almost everything but my tomatoes are doing well as are my peppers .
I big collection of tomatoes as they are quite a passion of mine so it was good that we managed to save them.

Sadly all my squash perished and these are my favourite things to grow. I have an incredibly silly squash stash but this year there will be none, and 80 different varieties planted!!

The weather here in Hull has settled down , and the ground is now baking like clay but no more heavy rains forecast ofr a few days.

It is good to hear about your super crops, and you had several varieties of toms too. Which is your favourite?

Nice to chat, XX Jeannine

Hi Jeannine, I'm glad you haven't lost everything in the floods. You will just have to appreciate the tomatoes and peppers and look forward to a better year for the squash next year. I planted ten varieties of squash and pumpkin, some I hadn't tried before and I think there are only three plants that are even attempting to flower and all the rest are just stumps. The only one that is doing reasonably well is a self seeded one out of the compost that has sneaked its way into the edge of the strawberry bed and I've no idea what that will be.

My favourite tomatoes this year - it changes depending what I'm trying - are Garden Pearl for sheer productivity. They started early and are still going strong and have a nicely balanced good tomato flavour. Their skins don't split either. I've grown Sungella instead of Sun Gold this year and the tomatoes have thin skin, a similar flavour to the Sungold but are golf ball size. The plants seem a bit spindly but they are producing a good crop. I'm amazed at the gorgeous rich flavour of the Cherokee Green that I've grown for the first time this year. The plants aren't terribly productive but worth it for the flavour. My all time favourite for sandwiches is Abraham Lincoln, but I'm still waiting for them to ripen this year. I've been comparing Opalka with the Cornu des Andes as the plants and fruit shape and size are almost identical and I thought they might be the same variety with different names, but a taste test showed that the Cornu des Andes had a much better flavour, so that remains my favourite cooking tomato.

A really beautiful tomato I've got from the tomato seed round robin is Eva's Purple Ball. They are medium to large fruits, perfectly shaped darkish red with a purple tinge and taste very good indeed. They aren't too acid. They are producing a good crop too even though they are a bit slow to ripen.

A good alrounder is the Early Cascade also from the R.R. with lots of medium sized fruits good but not outstanding flavour, nice shape but thickish skin and they keep well.

I usually grow Black Plum which has a rich smokey flavour, but I've grown Black Krim this year and it hasn't as good a flavour.

Another really weird one I've tried this year is Purple Calabash, I'm undecided about this one or two plants have had a good crop but others are rubbish. I'm waiting to taste a few more before I decide on the flavour as the next ones to ripen should be better after the sun this week.

What are your favourites?

Good gardening

Pat

Bliss ....... I've just picked and eaten the first peach from my new tree, warm from the sun and juice dripping down my arm and chin!!!! I might just go and get another one or perhaps I should save a few for my partner.

LOL Pat. Don't be cruel ;)

We have delicious Mirabelle plums at the moment - the peaches are finished :(

Hi Hilary, How is your garden doing this year, and is your pond nicely established now?

I've never tasted a Mirabelle plum, but have bought one at the beginning of this year. It is only about three feet high and is in a pot at the moment. I'm not sure where to put it - as usual I thought I would like one before thinking where it was going to go. I also bought an apricot at the same time and that is also still in a pot, but I might leave that one so I can bring it in for winter.

Anyway, off into the garden to sow some Chinese veg and some leafy things for over wintering and probably a few more lettuce. I remembered to sow my spring cabbage yesterday - I usually leave it too late for them to get going before winter.

Slow progress here - but in the right direction :)
The pond is doing very well and has produced dragonflies and damsel flies. I bought 6 baby shubunkins last year and they have multiplied wonderfully. It's great to see all the different colours and patterns on the babies.
The lilies have flowered very well - and are still doing so, though I am fighting a battle with the aphids. It's been dry for a while and the level is very low at the moment. Hoping for rain soon so I don't have to resort to tap water. I bought a lotus last year too. After a spindly start it has produced lots of strong leaves, but no flowers yet.
The chicken run pond, which has no fish, has produced another batch of newts too.

Mirabelles are small, but a very good sweet flavour. They make good jam too, if you don't mind stoning them or don't mind stones in your jam.....

I don't have a big crop to harvest this fall, but I did finally manage to grow some carrots to a decent size :-) I tried 'Puple Haze' this spring as well as 'Early Nantes' and both have grown well this summer. Purple Haze look really good in a salad - my girls love them - they think they look so cool :-)

Here's a photo :-)

What a great colour Rannveig, do they taste as good as they look?

I've just had a look round the garden to see what is ready as we came back from our holiday last night. It seems as though everything is ready all at once so I'm going to have a very busy couple of weeks dealing with it all. Even the pattypan squashes have got some fruits on them which is a surprise after this horrible summer - it just shows what a couple of dry weeks and sunshine can do.

Thanks Pat - yest they taste just like the normal orange ones - and homegrown always tastes better than storebought as you know ;-) The pruple ones have an orange center so they look really good cut in slices.

I've just thought the person who named your purple carrot must have been a Jimi Hendrix fan, I think I have that record somewhere.

I've just picked some carrots and found these entwined like a yin and yang. They were supposed to be Early Nantes.

~The white one tasted nice and sweet too.

Hi Pat - those are pretty cool. That white one is very interesting - haven't seen that before.

I suppose like everyone else I'm getting lots of brassicas just now. The Romanesco broccoli are doing very well and three kinds of kale, Cavalo nero, Red russian and Sutherland. There are a few cauliflowers ready too. I'm still getting lots of peppers in the greenhouse and two courgette plants are still producing well. I've had a lovely crop of florence fennel this year that haven't gone to seed and made really large bulbs.

The leeks are tender and delicious and I've lifted a few Jerusalem artichokes. I'm still not sure whether I like the flavour or not, not to mention their reputation for causing flatulence.

I've still a few lettuces ready and a few rows of spicy Chinese leaves which are always handy and very hardy, and the parsley has made nice bushy plants. The carrots are still doing well - I'm leaving them in the ground as they seem to keep better where they are than lifted and stored. Oh and there are a couple of rows of beetroot just about ready. I've enjoyed the Golden variety which I've not tried before they are nice and sweet and tender and look pretty.

Something strange is happening to the raspberries this year - has anyone else noticed that the summer fruiting ones have started fruiting again on the new canes that shouldn't be doing anything until next year? I've picked a dishfull of large ripe fruits today!

So everything is doing well despite the horrible summer.

Hi Rann
What colourful carrots! And names LOL, will have to agree with Pat, Jimi Hendrix :o)))

Pat, nice carrot! (nature making it´s own abstract art :o)))
Never seen a carrot that white before. Does it taste like regular carrot?
Oh the pleasures of having a greenhouse :o))) some day
Have you ever tired raw Jerusalem artichoke in a salad? I don’t like them cooked but raw in salad taste great.

I´ve been reading this tread a few times, and wishing I could grow some vegs.
my garden is so small that there is almost no place to grow vegetable (have a few Jerusalem artichoke my neighbour gave me).
The solution? Runner beans, there is always place for things that grows upwards :o)))

They have been harvested throughout the summer, but as they almost immediately were eaten or frozen down,
I always forgot to take a photo.
There has been frost the last tree-four days, so this is the last harvest.
As you can se it is a mixed bunch of tender beans, more bigger and woody ones (for my dog, he gulp everything so he will not notice a little hard bean) and the dry ones are for next year harvest and exchange (want to try new ones)

My runner beans; 'Prizewinner', Desiree, Painted Lady.
Now…. Sorting them is next :o)))

Hi from Sweden, well what delicate picture of carrots I like 'Puple Haze' , this one I must try next year, I understand it must see very delicate out in a salad.
We´ve got snow now, so now it´s only to dream about next garderningsummer, I have only grow tomatoes 3 kind this year, and some early potato 'Maria'.
~Sylvia