Spinach harvest

[Sue]

Hi
This year was my second year of allotment growing and I've done a great deal better had some great successes and some near misses and down right failures but am starting to get the hang of it all.
But why was I so absurdly proud of picking 1 1/2lb of spinach last week and another 1lb today??? There was something about the glossy green leaves, cutting them off a plant that will grow again, the fact they've been under mesh so had little slug damage, I don't know, weird as well as I don't especially like it - although doing my best - spinach gnocci was rather good, am going to make some more of that.
Anyone else got a crop they're especially proud of??
Sue

[JennieAtkinson]

My cabbages this year. I'm pretty proud of them - particularly the Savoys. They are so large and look like show cabbages. I almost dont want to cut them!

I think my family think I'm a bit nuts!

PS Spinach gnocci sounds good - how did you make it Sue?

[Flummery]

Particularly proud of my toms. I grew 3 varieties of cherry tom including the wonderful sungold and one large one - green zebra - been eating huge quantities of own toms since mid July. Still coming thick and fast.

I'm also proud of my parsnips which, similarly to Sue, I don't like but the rest of the family do. Had my best crop ever using the loo roll tube method!

[moggssue]

My summer caulis did me proud - especially after being told by older neighbours that they are very difficult to grow hehe!

Sue - if you like curries, add a couple of handfuls of spinach, thats one way I like mine!

[Sue]

Moggsue
Any particular curry recipe (vegetarian) in mind?

Jenny
The first lot of gnocchi I made had ricotta cheese in it and was very runny and had to add a lot more flour to make a dough, they were quite heavy (!) but the next day when I reheated them were not so bad. So I think we'll discard that recipe,

Today I've tried making them with potato (got lots of those as well as the spinach) and this was much more successful, feeds 4 generously.
Gnocchi a la Piedmontaise (from In Praise of the Potato, Penguin Books)
290g floury-variety potatoes
90g plain flour
1 egg yolk
2 heaped tbsps green herbs (This is where I substituted cooked, chopped spinach)
olive oil
salt, pepper, grated nutmeg

Boil the potatoes in their skins in well-salted water. Cook and skin, Dry mash , season and pile on to a floured board. Make a well and add a small amount of the sifted flour, the egg and sprinkle and the olive oil together with the herbs or spinach. Quickly work the mixture to incorporate the flour, adding more as you do so. You will end up with a soft, light yet firm dough that is easy to mould. Leave it to rest for 20 minutes, while you put on a large pan of water to boil and butter a gratin dish ready to go into a warm oven.
Divide the dough into two and roll into long sausages, cut into walnut sized pieces and add to the hot water, takes around 5 minutes till they pop-up to the surface of the water.
Serve with tomato sauce or cover with parmesan and put to brown in the warm oven.

[moggssue]

Sue - try cutting up some potatoes into smallish 'squares', add cumin seeds, coriander seeds, bit of yoghurt or coconut milk and any other spices you fancy depending how hot you like your curry. Fry it all up then add a good few handfuls of spinach - makes a great sidedish. Same sort of thing works well with cauli too though I tend to use stronger spices to go with the stronger flavour of the cauli. I'll dig out some proper recipes if you like, I'm a curry fiend on the quiet!

[Winged one]

To answer the original question, this year's success was the "compost surprise" tomatoes. Quite a few varieties - some cherry, some regular, some plum cherry and 1 plant of larger plums. We got a good few for eating off them (I am having the last 3 today in my salad for lunch, having started to harvest in August) and I have pots and pots of green tom chutney upstairs maturing (for our use and Christmas hamper presents) - with 5lbs of green toms that I couldn't use and more toms (maybe 1lb or so) that OH got fed up waiting to ripen and threw out a couple of weeks ago.

Considering that the seeds I actually HAD planted failedd miserably, that was a lovely surprise result of spreading our home dalek around in late spring!!

[bubblewrap]

My runner beans did well & I got nearly a colander of seeds (I might try cooking some)

[Alice]

This was my first year growing Pak Choi (Mei Quing Choi was the best for me) Early in the season it was fabulous, up there at harvesting stage long before anything else was ready. Later in the season it was disappointing, but for an early crop it was great. Pak Choi with everything was the menu in this house. Hope it will be as good next year.