Enjoying harvests

[Sian Bunney]

Hello all,

For our November Allotment Inspiration pages, I'd like to know:
What crop have you enjoyed harvesting the most so far this year?

Let me know your ideas - thank you for all your past responses to my questions, you have been really helpful and I am very appreciative!

Sian

[craftymarie]

Runner beans are so much fun to harvest because there are so many of them and you really have to search through the jungle-like vines to find them all. My little girl loves to search and find the lower hanging beans that she can reach and has fun pulling them off and popping them into her basket.

[Jay-ell]

The crop I enjoy harvesting the most - probably the one that's starting to come into harvest that week.

The joy of picking the first strawberries, raspberries or gooseberries, elation at the first courgette, the ooh's and ahs as you see the size of your onions and garlic - it changes from week to week. At the moment I cant help nibbling on the french beans and love their sweetness.

At the moment this year it's probably the peas as I've never been that successful with peas in the past. This will probably change in Sept/Oct when my first ever apples should be ready (all three of them) and may change again on Halloween when it's time to weigh the pumpkins.

[Small pumpkin]

Tricky...... I like harvesting most thing. I really enjoy harvesting potatoes and carrots. Spuds because it's like digging for treasure, carrots you never know if you're going to get perfection or a bit of a freak. Pea, bean and courgette harvest is a bit like an Easter egg hunt. You know the little blighters are in their somewhere. Chilli's and tomatoes, who could ever get bored of picking them.

[sparrow100]

So far this year it's been padron peppers, tomatoes and autumn raspberries at the top of the favourites list. I am really looking forward to the cape gooseberries and seeing what yacon is like. And the saffron, which has double the space this year.

[KevinM67]

A new Mod ???

I've been posting prolifically on here for the last 20 years - without even a sniff of modship !!!

Who do I complain to ??

[Guest]

Thankfully I have had a little of most things, but the harvests I can say I have enjoyed are the ones I have had enough to play around with. So far this year the winner is rhubarb - left to its own devices and it just kept giving. So that meant crumble, syrup, jelly, ketchup were all on the list and I still have some more in the freezer.

For new and exciting harvests this year it would be stone fruits, I got to enjoy samplings of apricot, peach, nectarine and yellow plum for the first time from my own garden

[noviceveggrower]

I love digging up the first earlies. So exciting pulling up the tops then having a good rummage about to see what there is and then digging a bit deeper for the hidden ones.
Have just started picking black berries. Its the challenge of dodging the thorns to get the juiciest ones

[Penellype]

What a tricky question. The first of anything is always great, especially things like early peas which herald the start of the summer harvest. Turning out a bucket and finding a big harvest of potatoes (often sadly lacking this year unfortunately) is really satisfying, but probably the best of all this year has been having a supply of carrots right through the spring. I do love my carrots.

If you asked me again you would probably get a different answer!

[Bex2012]

Mine has been sweetcorn/corn on the cob. The taste is amazing, doesnt even compare to the shop bought stuff. The raspberries have been pretty good too.

[bario1]

Probably broccoli raab - because you can't get it in the shops here, and my OH who lived in the States for a while misses it.

[Snadger]

Has to be spuds for me. Took over a new plot on the allotment this year and as I am a bit of a 'no dig' officianado I decided to blitz the plot with spuds.
I layed cardboard over plot, cut holes through cardboard with a small border spade, planted the spud then backfilled the hole with some free horse muck we sometimes get delivered to the site.I also added half a handfull of blood,fish and bone fertiliser to each planting hole.

I started off with earlies (Charlottte) then progressed up the plot with self saved Elfe and Desiree followed by Kestrel. Next came Kerrs Pink and finally Pink Fir Apple. This is my Tattie field!
I have harvested the earlies and eaten most of them. I have started harvesting the others as the tops die off. I did hoe them up with a draw hoe and by that time the cardboard had rotted and done its job keeping any weeds down.The Elfe's have been wonderful. All large tubers and maybe only 2% keel slug damage, which I had a problem with on my other plot..As well as eating them I have a cardboard box full stored in my summerhouse along with quite a few empty boxes ready for the rest of the harvest!
The good thing about digging them up is that the soil does get cultivated even though thats all the digging it will ever get. It will be covered with straw whilst I start work on my keyhole garden project.

[WPG]

The most satisfying harvest for me this year, and other years, has been the blackcurrants. I'm guessing they enjoy our soil and climate, because they're always reliable when other crops might have an off year.
Didn't weigh them, but probably harvested around 6 lbs per plant, as well as leaving quite a few for the blackbirds to pick.

[Funny onion]

Undoubtedly tomatillos. Mainly because they're so difficult to buy over here and I love the taste, but also because they were such a delight to grow. Nothing eats them, they have tons of flowers (and later fruit) that seemed to attract all the bees in Liverpool and their papery lanterns look boss.

[Ladyslip]

^^^^^^^i actually have a decent crop from mine too this year big unruly plants but very rewarding