The legacy of our hot summer

[Colin_M]

This should probably have been posted under the title of "boasting again". However the hot weather earlier in the summer seems to have affected so much in our gardens - have you found the same?

Down here, most things that I managed to keep watered seemed to thrive on the extra warmth & light. Although I usually concentrate on veg, I heard that fruit growers have had a good year.

Thus I was very pleased that a single vine produced quite a good harvest of grapes:


I'm not sure if these will make enough for a gallon of wine till I extract the juice. Unlike previous years, they're actually sweet enough to eat (though not as tasty as shop grapes).

One side effect of all this bounty - the wooden trellis they were climbing on at the end of the garden collapsed during Friday's gales! Can't have everything I guess,

Colin

[Angi]

No photos, I'm afraid, but I've felt like bragging about the dozen HUGE sweet peppers I managed to grow and ripen outdoors! All from just three plants.

[Primrose]

Well, after that I suppose I'm allowed to throw in my one ripe melon grown in a border, and yesterday I picked the solitary ripe fig from the small tree in my patio container. (Selfish me, I gobbled it up quickly while my husband was out of the house!)
We have enough grapes on our single grape vine to make a gallon of wine but last year's efforts produced wine which didn't clear so we're not sure whether we want all the bother of repeating that exercise. Maybe the birds will just be allowed to have an autumn treat as there are far too many for us to eat. And yes, our fragile vine trellis on the fence has collapsed in the wind too.

[richard p]

primrose you said last years wine didnt clear, how long have you left it before deciding it wouldnt clear? in my experience it can take up to a couple of years, some experts recomend racking it off into a fresh demijohn every couple of months so the wine isnt sat ontop of sludge, but i normally leave mine alone in the demijohn it worked in, if you transfer to a new jar you must expose the wine to fresh air during the transfer which i think does more harm than leaving the sludge in the bottom. which reminds me ive got some plum on the side in the utility room thats probably 3 year old now must get round to bottling it soon.
of course the other school of thought is to bottle it as soon as the fermenting has stopped, bung it in the back of the garage and open a bottle after 5 years to see if its cleared. if it hasnt wait another five years and open the second bottle.

[peter]

The only legacy I'm seeing on my plots is the incredible weed germination in this warm wet autumn after the dry summer.

[Primrose]

Richard, we have left the wine until now, despite three racking offs. The previous year's wine cleared in the matter of weeks and produced a very acceptable Reisling. We made vast quantities of home-made wine many years ago and never had problems with it clearing after being racked off so I'm afraid we have decided to cut our losses on this batch.

[Colin_M]

Hi Primrose, I'd agree with your assessment, especially based on your past experience.

I finally got round to treading my grapes (a plastic bag over each foot, but no French accordian music in the background...!). It's produced enough for one gallon and it's busy frothing away now.

Interesting to note your previous successes - are you actually growing Reisling grapes or is that a generic term for that style of wine?

Next to my "English white grapevine" I've planted a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Gewurztraminer. I never expected much from the Cab (till things get a bit wrmer in the UK) but I hoped the GWT would have found conditions suitable. However both have struggled in the last 3 years. I probably need to prune them back to just 3-4 bunches of grapes each, since they try to produced masses and most don't ever get larger than a peppercorn!

Having said that, on the one or two that do mature to full grapes, you can definitely taste the actual grape variety.

Colin

[Primrose]

Colin, We're actually growing a Reisling grape. Not having grown a vine before I wanted something that could double up as being sweet enough to eat, or to make wine, and although it makes good quality wine (normally!) the grapes are tiny, probably because I can't be bothered to thin them out.
We crush our grapes in my Magimix Food processor. It takes a lot less effort that any other method and really extracts the last drop of juice. If you have one of these hand "stick pulsers", I imagine that would also do a reasonable job if the feet are getting a bit sore !

[Colin_M]

I wanted something that could double up as being sweet enough to eat, or to make wine ... although the grapes are tiny, probably because I can't be bothered to thin them out.

My plain white has never tasted sweet enough to eat until this year. As well as the 2006 heat, the thinning definitely makes a difference.

We crush our grapes in my Magimix Food processor....I imagine that would also do a reasonable job if the feet are getting a bit sore

Almost ashamed to admit this but I find treading grapes is strangely soothing on the feet! Mind you, I had to wait till my wife went out, to give me time to do it and clear up the fallout afterwards.....

Colin

[Primrose]

Just hope you don't suffer from Athlete's Foot! On the other hand, grape juice might be the ideal undiscovered natural cure.

[Tigger]

Gross........

Get to Boot's the Chemist ASAP.

[Colin_M]

Just hope you don't suffer from Athlete's Foot!

For those that missed the first message, I put a plastic bag over each foot first Ok, I know that doesn't sound any less insane - just less unsanitary!

However I've seen photos of the French harvest where the farmers are using large casks and are up to their armpits in the stuff, stark naked. So if you ever find a suspicious hair in your Cabernet Sauvignon.......


Colin

[Colin_M]

Lets get back to the topic quickly...

Anyone else had bumper harvests of things that normally only do averagely? I harvested my main crop of Butternut Squash at the end of August/start of September. Since then the plants produced more flowers, which fruited and I'm just picking the second crop now.

They've grown to pretty well full size, though of course they're not as golden brown as the ones which had the warmer sun. This has been a real bonus, as the BNS I've tried for the last 3 years have never managed more than about 1 fruit per plant (I think it was Waltham). This year I changed to a variety of Butternut from the Organic Catalogue and the change has been very marked.

Colin

[Primrose]

I have one courgette plant that is still producing fruit although I have yanked all the others up and put them on the compost heap. This one seems to have been self-sown and the courgettes look more like miniature butternut squashes in shape. The texture is also far more creamy than than the Defender seed packet courgettes I grew. I never cease to be amazed at how this species do strange things with their genes. I also have one outdoor mini cucumber in a sunny border which against all the odds is still producing small fruit.