The days are drawing in, the evenings are darker and the weather is significantly cooler. However, there are still green tomatoes, some of which seem to be ripening others of which are succumbing to blight.
Since the last harvest post we’ve picked another 9kg of tomatoes, four cucumbers, 2kg of carrots, half a kilo each of beans and courgettes, a couple of cabbages and a few handfuls of raspberries.
Our courgette plants and runner beans have been pulled up as have most of the tomato plants and we’ve planted a few spring cabbages. The carrots will continue to supply us for a few more weeks yet, we’ve eaten about half of them so far. Assuming that the weather doesn’t destroy them and that the squirrels leave them alone, I think its an indication that we should grow slightly more next year, filling the bed with an extra couple of rows.
The peppers (both sweet and chilli) are still doing their best to ripen, so in a week or so we hope to have enough for a couple of weeks. As I’ve said a number of times, chilli peppers are a problem, with highly variable heat, its difficult to know exactly what to do with them. Putting them into recipes is a bit like Russian roulette, sometimes you end up with something inedibly strong and at other times you can’t notice anything, I really should give up on them and rely instead on bought chilli sauces. So, my view is that next year it will be sweet peppers only, a mix of different sorts to give a selection and spread of ripening times.
The physalis still haven’t ripened enough to fall off the plants. The fruit are much larger than many years (constant watering I guess) but the plants have been severely battered by the wind, they need to be put somewhere more protected without being out of the sun. Until they fall off, they really aren’t ripe but this year looks like it will be a good harvest. I like them on my cereal in the morning but others are less happy with them.
Need to sow the broad beans for next spring.