6 September 2009 - Bumper crops threaten to engulf house

Phew! We just can't keep up. There's so much to do at the moment with the harvesting, the pickling, the decisions about who to dispense to and the freezing. The overflow freezer in the attic is already nearly full. We have donated veg to various colleagues, friends, neighbours and family and still we can't keep up. Last weekend was our camping Bank Holiday and we provided the main ingredients for the camp curry.

We were visited on Friday by K's sister and godson, L, who was extremely helpful on the plot, particularly when collecting beans. He had an amusing distaste for two courgettes which I cut for him which were not quite perfect - so much so that he attempted to repatriate them under the plant of origin. I relieved him of anxiety by taking them on myself. The visitors went away with a bag full of potatoes, broccoli, beans, courgettes, the first red cabbage (albeit a bit sluggy) and raspberries. It was lovely to see them enjoying the plot.

We definitely have more varied produce this year. The challenge is to find new ways of cooking - beans beans beans and more beans. The garlic is now fully dried and cleaned and ready for the dreaded plaiting exercise. It took 4 hours to clean it all - you have to cut the bottom thingy off and scrape off the dirty top layer so that the bulb looks like it does in the shops. They don't tell you about that.

We've also had the challenge of cooking a pumpkin that we rashly purchased from another allomenteer a few weeks back. Very lovely soup (enough for several days), a pilav and lots of cooked pulp to add to the groaning freezer. And we have the gigantic monster on the bank which is looking to be our very best yet. It has been christened it Fat Boy. The picture on the left is N with our very first parsnip, dug a couple of weeks ago. This was a random seedling in one of the beds. It has an interesting structure. Imagine our joy and surprise this morning when we tentatively dug up on of the pampered parsnips to find it long and true - and eminently show-worthy. We displayed it to Jan who let out a little shriek of admiration (and no doubt envy). So the nasty thing that ate the carrots from the inside out didn't destroy our parsnips and the special treatment worked. We dug them all up and have three worthy of The Show. The others can be stored. Woo hoo. I dream of a whole bed of parsnips next year. We will take a special picture of all the produce we will put into The Show, still a closely guarded secret, so you can see our lovely parsnips then.

Other news - we've dug up most of the second earlies now. They are a bit disappointing, in that they are big and nearly all have little holes. But edible nonetheless. After watching Gardeners World, we take off the blighty foliage of the maincrops and weed the whole bed. We'll leave them in until the first frost then dig 'em up. We also harvested the rest of the onions a couple of weeks back. Most of them are like spring onions and are not what we thought they were going to be. This is where the greenhouse will help - getting a head start and starting them under glass is, we realise, the way forward for good big onions.

We ponder sowing green manure on an empty bit in one of the beds and then I realise with a shock - that we have to have a plan for next year to know what to do with the beds as they finish this year. It may be better to leave it depending on what we intend to grow. You really have to think ahead. It's already the start of autumn and you can see the first signs of it on the plot. Two of the three apples on one tree have dropped, leaving one enormous fruit. The coxes are probably ready to pick although some of them have "issues".

The butternut squash is doing fine. The fruits are hardening up and we did some trimming off the shoots that aren't going to produce anything new. The leeks are still looking a little unhappy but we remain confident that their time will come. Next year we will experiment with leeks that come into their own earlier in the year. We discover to our surprise a rogue courgette plant amongst the squash which is harbouring what can only be described as a marrow. We had our first corn last week - very nice if a tad underripe.

Beans are still coming from the main patch and the runner beans on the wigwams are really getting into their stride now, as are raspberries. We were too tired to strim today - having weeded the beds, harvested and tidied up we have just enough strength to lug home our produce, whereupon we had to make instant managerial decisions as to its fate.

One of the questions to ponder is - whether to grow more of the crops next year that last over winter (roots, potatoes, kale, cabbage, leek) and less of the more ephemeral stuff (beans, courgette). We're hopeful that the transplanted winter cabbage and kale will be OK but will they be enough to keep us going? Another question that we have been actively addressing is our consumption of meat. Without really discussing it, we have drastically reduced our meat intake - partly because we have so many other things to eat, partly because red meat is a prime contributor to global warming. It's odd to think of meat as a sort of special treat but it's surprisingly easy to get used to.

And we had our second Allotment Association barbecue this weekend too which was great fun. Doesn't time fly when you're drowning in vegetables!