I've got blight etc

[Catherine]

The chap on the next allotment to us has blight on his potatoes. Big time. Now we have it on our three tubs of small tomatoes outside the pt, and today the tomatoes in to pt are showing signs of it. I have cucumber mosaic on one of my cucumbers in the pt, the three aubergine plants are not providing any fruit as once they are forming flowers they go mouldy and drop off.

My one and only butternut squash plant which looked really healthy earlier in the year has quite a few fruit on and when they get to about four inches long they start to go mouldy and wither on the plant.

The only thing that is doing well at the moment are our courgettes which are providing six to eight fruit a day, we have four plants.

The pidgeons are ripping holes in our cabbages and curly kale/tuscan kale, we have covered them where possible.

But we have some of the best carrots we have ever grown, best crop of peas which we froze without blanching and tonight we have eaten some of them and they were delightful.

Has anyone ever not blanched peas before freezing, does it mean that we wont be able to keep these as long.

OUr broccoli is still producing stems, this is the first time I have ever grown broccoli that has grown so well. We have been picking for about the last six weeks

I think I might get an air rifle and get my OH to start on the pidgeons

I have some potatoes to put in a bag for christmas picking but I am loath to take them up to the plot to start them off in case they get blight. What do you think I should do?

[Primrose]

We've had one blight warning for our area so far although we've had a lot less rain in our part of the world than you have and I'm inspecting my tomato plants daily. I've sprayed them twice, and if it does appear I'll be watching to see whether my Ferline blight resistant tomatoes, , Ferline from saved seed, and other varieties surcumb to any different degree.

Apart from my runner beans hardly setting despite a promising start, everything else in my vegetable plot has perfromed splendidly. In fact (fingers crossed so far) this has been one of my best years ever. The outdoor cucumbers have been almost a major embarrassment in terms of sheer numbers of crops. I have 30 tomatoes plants which are groaning with ripening fruit so if blight comes now I shall explode with rage.

[Colin_M]

Has anyone ever not blanched peas before freezing, does it mean that we wont be able to keep these as long.

Hi Catherine, sorry to hear about the blight. Our Cara flowered several weeks ago, but I'm leaving the plants as long as I can - by the sounds of it, that may not be much longer.

As far as blanching goes, the simple answer is that I've frozen peas without blanching and they tasted find to me. We probably didn't keep them for more than 2-3 months, so possibly longer might show up problems.

Actually, I now don't blanch anything we put in the freezer. I remember helping my Mum do it with runner beans. One year, we had a massive crop & didn't have time, so bunged them straight in. To our tastebuds, it didn't seem to make much difference.

I'm sure others will offer more scientific advice (though if you can't taste the difference, you'd be saving a lot of faff).

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
A few years ago I was advised to freeze without blanching and ended up with freezers full of inedible rubbish!
Since then I have blanched however much of a faff. I can use Broad Beans and Peas that have been in the freezer for more than a year and they are as good as the day they went into the freezer.
I suppose that it depends on how much you are freezing and the anticipated use-by time. Now because I freeze an awful lot I blanche everything mainly because I am totally uncertain of when they are going to be used. But I do have the confidence to use everything that is in my freezers.
JB.

[Catherine]

Thank you I think we will blanch in future.

[retropants]

very interesting JB, does this work with runners too? I cannot abide frozen runners normally (unblanched)

[glallotments]

We don't blanch anything either and can't tell the difference!