2013 Growing Season

I've Honey Bear squash too, what are you planning on doing with them? Recipe-wise?

EDIT: please (where's my manners?!)

 

Manners??

If we roast meat or poultry then we do squash in the same oven. Cut them up into chunks, then coat all over with some olive oil and roast for 20 to 30 minutes. Otherwise we cook them for 10 to 15 minutes in the microwave with the lid on, coated in olive oil and possibly sprinkled with cinnamon or paprika. To serve, season with salt and pepper, and sometimes with toasted sesame seeds.

They can also be used for making soup. Sauté onion, garlic and spices, eg coriander, add cubed squash, fry for a while. Then add stock, boil gently until the squash is fully cooked. After it has cooled liquidize it and you can thin the soup with milk. Season well and garnish with roughly chopped parsley or coriander leaves.

Anyone has other ways of cooking squashes??? I'm interest to learn new method as well.


From Chinese dumpling recipe

It is a black vinegar, which only gets bottled after lengthy maturation, therefore it smells quite strong but tastes very smooth and not acidic as other type of vinegar. You should be able to get it from any Chinese shop.

 

Mrs Frost cuts them really thin so they're like crisps and then dip them in whatever you like! Or they can be a good alternative to mashed potatoed. I suppose we could use the Honey Bears in the same way, or scoop out in the innards and do something fancy with them.

 

Currently picking plenty of Early Onward peas and, after a slow start, my courgettes are finally up and running. I've just harvested the first two, there'll be no stopping them now.
It begins.

 

Chunks and bake with the Sunday joint during the Winter.

Carefully harvested and "cured" before storing and they last all Winter in storage.

 

Planted a dozen Savoy cabbages,sown Beetroot,Chard ,Mizuna and Radish...and planted out 5 sweetcorn that were hiding behind the GH

 

Help!!! Veggies have all gone mad. 3 days since we last went to the allotment to pick courgettes and so on, the courgettes have turned to little marrows and fennels have bolted.

Now my kitchen and fridge are full with vegetables (even after we left plenty to our allotment landlady).

Also the sweetcorns are in flowers which feels rather early .


With Mr H and me and 2 watering canes each, we still needed to spend 3-4 hours to water them all. This is really becoming hard work in this intense heat. Yet one has to do what one has to do .

 

Allotment empty apart from a few spuds which the slugs have got at too, they got everything else, sod the committee, I'm going to blast the surrounding overgrown plots with SBK, plaster my plot with slug pellets and treat with nematodes in the spring............. chickens would be easier and cheaper but not allowed any on the plot!

Loads of Cucumbers, climbing french beans and caulis on the way, what a difference a bit of summer makes?

 

Hiya Vince.

I'm surprised you've had slug damage. Apart from early in the season, I've had very little slug attacks. Mind you, my soil is very free draining.
The foliage on my spuds is dying down fast, so the new potato season is going to be pretty short this year, for me. I have some second earlies (Nicola) which are looking like they need digging up. I can't keep up! Spring Onions (White Lisbon) are the best I've ever produced, and are very yummy The Rocket is going to seed fast, but are quite edible, if not a little tough. Some more on the way though. My Cabbages are starting to split, even though I haven't watered. The Shallots are almost ready to harvest, so I'm looking forward to that The Elephant Garlic is dying down fast. I've never grown this before, so it'll be interesting to see how it compares to the 'regular' Garlic. The Courgettes I have growing in a large pot are producing, but not many, so maybe growing in the ground is a more productive option. I need more space! I have Carrots and Parsnips in the same bed, which is covered with Enviromesh. Problem is, although the Enviromesh offers great protection against Carrot Root Fly, the 'snips' are now so tall that they are now being restricted by the 'mesh' I won't make that mistake again!

 

You thinking of not protecting the Snips next year? There is a school of thought that although Carrot Fly doesn't wreck Snips, like it does Carrots, that the damage that they do do allows Canker to enter the Snips ... so might be best protected with Enviromesh too ...

 

Hiya Kristen.

I don't normally protect them. I've never heard of a Canker connection, so it'll be interesting to see how they turn out this year as I always have a bit of Canker damage.

 

Today's picking .... and it's only 2 days since we last harvested .


There are courgettes 10.5 lb, French beans 2lb, runner beans 1.5 lb, a cucumber, cherry tomatoes and red tomatoes. This doesn't include the cabbages, pak choi, chard which are all demanding to be picked. The trouble is there are not enough people around to eat them, quite a few neighbours are away on holiday.

I've got 4 courgette plants. In previous years I tried to have 3 plants, but sod's law applied, 1 or 2 plants developed some problems and withered away leaving me with not much to eat. This year back to 4 plants and all are doing well giving me heaps of courgettes and a headache of how to get rid of them . I think I'm going to let 2 plants develop one marrow each to slow the production down a bit.

 

Lovely show there

 

Ive just noticed that Ive got horned melons (Cucumis Metuliferus) growing in the greenhouse !

--
at the moment they are quite pleasantly fury & not at all spikey.

Not sure what to do with them when they ripen !

 

Honey Bear Squashes:



Looking forward to trying these!