Kitchen Garden Forum

Geoff that really is pretty void of seeds & will be drier flesh as a result. This screams to me they will make brilliant sauces for the freezer without too much mucking around sieving or boiling down.

I like the sound of Cherokee Purple, I hope I remember this when seed ordering in January!

We usually bottle rather than freeze - today's production.

I've always bottled tomatoes too. I roasted them with garlic and any other veg and then put through the passata machine a few times and jar up and sealed in a waterbath in the oven for 30 minutes. It lasts forever! I've still got one jar left I think, as I can't grow volumes any more due to giving up the allotment in 2018. My next house will have a big veg plot!!!

Should I mention there doesn’t seem to be any blight about…

I think I had some early blight about a month ago. As they were earlies, I lifted them immediately.

Use wait until the rain comes OH after all this humidity. Hopefully at least some of the tomato crop will have ripened by then.
What is worst? blight or drought?

I think blight, Primrose….

Early blight never seems to cause too much problem….but just as well to get the earlies out, Stephen….

Fortunately my main crop Cara is definitely telling me it is spent & it is on my list to cut the hallums back in the next couple of days. I have another small row of main crops Setanta, which I have never tried before & they are still growing. Apparently a red skinned spud with some blight protection, we'll soon see just how much protection if we do get blight! I may leave a couple of plants to test.

First two tomatoes picked, a Craigella and a Black Cherry, we also had a drop more rain over night, my water butts are nearly full again.

A happy person these days is a gardener with full water butts! Not many of them about.
We,ve just filled ours in anticipation of a hosepipe ban. Luckily not on a water meter but suspect that too will be imposed soon.

A bit of a galling thought when our water authority has apparently deliberately stalled on introducing a plan which would have improved water capacity and made a hosepipe ban unnecessary.

Read Thames water had a 250m desalination plant built for when there is a water shortage but is out of action.

Also they keep giving tips out on how to save water get a water butt they say to collect rain water... Um where's the rain?

No hurry to cut down the hallums - not a drop of rain for the next week & not even a cloudy day! Getting hyper warm again at the end of the week to boot!

At least the children have had great weather for their summer hols so the parents have saved some money by not paying to get into undercover venues. Surprising not many RNLI rescues either.

Today's harvest to name - just over 2" long.

Tomorrow is the lottie show. I have things to put in but unsure what category that would fall into?

I'm a thinking my Savoy cabbages might have a chance. They weren't meant to sown early but I put the wrong seed back in the packets, so these were supposed to be white cabbages. They are huge so the chosen one will have to go down separately as I will not be able to carry anything else without tripping up!

It looks fantastic, Westi, good luck.

Well the cabbage did indeed win & was runner up for Best in Show - to a runner bean entry - I was robbed! No seriously they were long & perfect runner beans unlike any of the others including mine. It was a shame their were no entries for some categories & some of the displays were poor due to the dry weather conditions, but the show went on as they say & the bacon butties were lovely! The cabbage was so heavy I could not be bothered to lug it back to the plot so along with my other entries & most of the other entries they all went into the food bank box.