Autumn Bits and Bobs.

[Westi]

Thanks Tiger, found a pair on there & thanks to Black Friday got a huge discount of £100! Mid waterproof whatever that means but from the pic it looks like the lace up area might be the weak link but not planning to jump in deep puddles.

Going to need them as the affected plots are all underwater again, I think I know why judging by the size of the crane working behind me on the railway track. It was humungous, 2 sections & the first went way above the embankment & pylons & they raised it further to lift things over. Quite impressive really! Fortunately there is a break in the weather for an extended spell next week so I might be able to get it a bit drier & cover it with black plastic to protect it from the rainfall even if I can't do anything about the soggy clay layer. Plan is to dig a channel alongside the path & line it with the black plastic edging & then to continue the channel alongside the dry beds, also lined with plastic, so it runs off into the track/road out the front which is full of pot holes anyway. 2nd bed has been mulched as only one end holding water & fence side was OK.

Can only try, but please intervene if there is an obvious flaw in this plan!

[Malk]

Hello again from Finland. Nice to see there are still a few familiar faces here. OH

Getting on here. First proper snow of the season so my allotment work is basically done. I did manage to build a big raised bed, but didn't get the winter digging done. There's always something. I need to try and rake the leaves in the garden when this snow melts.

I stuck a question in the Harvesting section but I don't know if anyone checks that out. Some pumpkins I was curing were forgotten and have frozen. I'm not sure how much but they seem pretty solid. Iff I let them thaw, will they be usable or should I just chuck them in the compost box.

Thanks, Malk

[Primrose]

I did reply Malik . Worth a try experimenting.

[tigerburnie]

Thanks Tiger, found a pair on there & thanks to Black Friday got a huge discount of £100! Mid waterproof whatever that means but from the pic it looks like the lace up area might be the weak link but not planning to jump in deep puddles.

They should have bellows tongues, so they shouldn't let wet until you go over the lowest part of the top edge, I have crossed some quite steep mountain streams in mine, I have also fell in a few as well, but that's another story lol

[Westi]

Crane not operational today & moved further down the track so not in my area. Despite rain yesterday the water level had dropped significantly so I think it did contribute to the re-flood, not ready to work on yet but reassuring it is draining. Asparagus beds all cut down, just need to weed, give them a seaweed sprinkle & a big compost mulch top up. Haven't got the new boards yet but I don't think I need them as last years mega top up has dropped significantly, but I will take them!

Nice to see the that after tomorrow we will have a nice week long dry spell so I can forge ahead with the flood protection work & see what I can save! Fortunately the kale & PSB that is only dropping bottom leaves & some signs of continuing new top growth - of course that just might be their snorkels!

[oldherbaceous]

I love your positive attitude, Westi!

Finally cut down and pulled out, all my outdoor tomatoes yesterday….don’t think I have ever had so many small green tomatoes on the plants at this time of the year…a good job done.
Still picking tomatoes from in the glasshouse.

[Primrose]

Yes OH. I think this year was un usual for late green tomatoes. We picked some v late ones which ripened indoors. Yesterday I had some grilled shop bought tomatoes for breakfast. They were absolutely tasteless after our outdoor ripened ones which we,ve been eating since July until they finished recently.

Don,t think I,ll bother with them again. Eating your own sun ripened ones, even when the weather is mixed definitely seems to educate your taste buds,

Westi. - glad your flood situation is improving. Hopefully a week of dry weather will enable the ground to immprove and become more workable.

[Stravaig]

I would think that pumpkins which were accidentally frozen would probably not have a good texture or very great taste. However, they could easily bulk out any casserole or curry so that's what I would do with them. Just use them as bulk. Add a teaspoon of Marmite. (Can you get Marmite where you are?)

Good luck and enjoy!

PS: Home grown anything is ALWAYS better than supermarket stuff. Picked before it's ripe. Flown for thousands of miles. Grown by people who get paid a pittance for their efforts. It's not surpising that GIY is the better option.

[Primrose]

It,s hard not to think about the massive amount of food waste generated in this country and North America by the annual Halloween pumpkin growing marathon where some farms devote a large proportion of their acreage to growing them, only for 90% of their products to be thrown away uneaten.

I know this is straying from the query in Malk,s original post, but. I suspect if this country was ever involved in another conflict like WW2 where we were obliged to become self sufficient in food production, this Halloween custom would die overnight. Hardly anybody I know has any idea what to do with a pumpkin as a food source. It,s certainly a very wasteful gobbler up of food growing space!

Does it actually have any specific food values that make it a particularly valuable food to grow? ( apart from the seeds which apparently have a good vitamin value).

[peter]

So many fools then put the decomposing pumpkins out in their garden, or worse in public spaces "for the wildlife".
Hedgehog charities are really unhappy with that as pumpkin gives hedgehogs diarrhoea, mostly fatal.
Not seen a hedgehog in years, but plenty of evidence of rats on dumped pumpkins.

[Malk]

Pumpkins seemed to have been ok. The soup wasn't great, but that was more because the half-frozen apples I put in were too sour. The pumpkin quick bread I made was devoured by the teachers at my school, so must have been ok.

They held their texture after defrosting. They weren't Halloween pumpkins though I did have one of those that went in the compost after recently. I don't remember what type they were, just little light skinned ones. I was suprised I got 2 Halloween and 2 of the others, usually summer is just too short here for pumpkins. I also had a few heads of corn as well which is usual. Global warming, I guess.

[Stravaig]

Those very large pumpkins, intended for Halloween carving were never meant to be eaten. They'd be completely tasteless. Anyway, this is something we've imported from America for some unknown reason.

When I was a kid - in Scotland - we got a neep. Carved out the innards and cooked and ate them. Then we'd carve a face out of the shell. I once saw a neep about the size of a tennis ball for about £7 in Bangkok. The swede is a hybrid of a turnip and a cabbage. Very rarely seen it outside the UK.

This pumpkin thing is not British at all.

Malk, how are you doing? Isn't there some kind of earthquake or problem in your neck of the woods? Best wishes.

[oldherbaceous]

Cook always uses a Parsnip too, when she is making Pumpkin soup!
Adds a good flavour…..

[tigerburnie]

Seemingly Pumpkins taste similar to butternut squashes, so should make a good soup, though I have never knowingly grown or eaten a Pumpkin.

[oldherbaceous]

Good to see you back on the forum, Malk….as you can see, they still haven’t managed to get rid of me….