PRESERVING THE AUTUMN CROPS

PRESERVING THE AUTUMN CROPS

Autumn is the traditional time to harvest many crops such as potatoes, apples, pears, plums, sweet corn, pumpkins and grapes. Soft fruit is used for immediate use (strawberries, raspberries, brambles and tomatoes) with surplus for the freezer

Anna cooks fig jam and chutney

or jams and chutneys. In the past, although I was getting bumper crops of figs, picking was done over several months so they were all consumed as fresh fruit. This year however the tropical summer has brought on the ripening so fast that surplus figs had to find a home as two people could not consume

Fresh picked tomatoes

forty figs over three days. Anna found some great recipes for both fig chutney as well as fig jam. The fig chutney has apples, onions, sultanas added with brown sugar, cider vinegar and some salt, ginger, a clove and some ground nutmeg.

Apple Discovery

The jam is pure figs and sugar in equal weights with a vanilla pod and some lemon juice.

Potatoes harvested in autumn and onions in late summer are all dried off and stored in a dark cool but frost free shed or garage. Beetroot can be lifted and stored dry in boxes of sand or dry soil, but with mild winters mine have been happy outdoors where they are growing, and if frost threatens they get happed up with soil for protection. Some beetroots however are continually called for in the kitchen for a delicious beetroot soup, or in a borsch dish, as well as the traditional pickled beetroot. Leeks, Swedes, parsnips, cabbage and sprouts are all happy left in the ground and used as required. They will all happily survive till the end of winter.

Brewing fruit wines

Pumpkins in a normal year are harvested at the end of October, but this year mine are ready in mid September. The leaves suffered mildew then some damage as I harvested the sweet corn which shared the growing space as an experiment as they are happy together growing at different heights. The pumpkins will now be brought home to brighten up a shelf in the house. They usually last well into the next year, but are very popular when sliced and roasted as well as an ingredient in soups.

Summer crops of gooseberries, black and red currants are either in the freezer or converted into jams. Surplus raspberries and strawberries are also in the freezer to be used for jams, compote and summer puddings. In summer the gooseberry crop was huge,

Roast pumpkin slices

so a fair bit got frozen but some got combined with mint to make a savoury but sweet gooseberry jelly, and still enough for five demijohns of vintage gooseberry wine. Sweet corn gets harvested in one task once ripeness is at its best. Sampling is started ahead to see how the crop is progressing. Some are kept in the fridge for immediate use over a couple of weeks, but then the others are frozen. Preparing them for the freezer starts on a sunny day outdoors where we strip off all the leaves and remove the tip if it lacks corn. They are then blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes, removed and plunged into cold water before laying out to dry and then bagged up for freezing. The freezer space

Setanta potatoes

gets filled early with the gluts of soft fruit and vegetables like the broad beans, dwarf French beans and peas, but room is needed for the surplus raspberries and strawberries as well as the sweet corn. This is where my wine brewing helps out as I can utilise the previous year’s surplus of saskatoons, chokeberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. Once they are defrosted they are perfect for a homebrew and release space in the freezer for the next crop. At this time of year there is no shortage of produce.

Pears do not store for very long, so surplus can be peeled, cored and diced then slightly cooked with a dash of water and some vanilla. Once cold they can be frozen for future use in sweets, with yogurt, custard or with breakfast cereals. Tomatoes have had a brilliant year, but now there are huge surpluses for freezing to be used later on for soups and pasta sauce.

Wee jobs to do this week

As autumn weather brings down our temperatures our greenhouse tomatoes and grapes come to the

Solaris and Siegerrebe grapes

end of their season. No need for any more feeding but keep watering if required. Tomatoes can hang on the vine for many more weeks, but pick them as they ripen. If you have a few grape varieties, the early ones like Siegerrebe, the seedless Flame and Solaris will have been picked but Black Hamburg ripens slowly over many weeks so just pick those that ripen and be patient for the later bunches as Black Hamburg can continue to ripen up to the end of November.
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AUTUMN BEGINS

AUTUMN BEGINS

September is a very busy time in the garden as so many crops are in need of harvesting, then cleaning, processing and storing. The tropical summer weather has given everything a huge boost but now we have more produce than we can use

Anna picking Discovery apples

so we have to find a home for our surplus once the freezer is full. Peas, Dwarf French beans, broad beans, raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, figs, brambles, blueberries, sweet corn and gooseberries are all packing out the freezer. So wine brewing  and jam making are in full throttle to

reduce surplus berries. This year I tried to vary sowing dates for cabbage and cauliflower by a couple

Cabbage Kilaton

of months to avoid a massive surplus as they all ripen together, but the later sowings did their best to catch up so we still got twenty cabbage and twenty cauliflower all ready to eat over a few short weeks. Two small Scots people can only eat so much. We have a bad clubroot problem so it is not possible to use different varieties other than clubroot resistant, and they are all summer crops. Both cabbage Kilaton and cauliflower Clapton have had huge heads this year. It took us a fortnight to eat one cabbage.

Potatoes are also cropping very heavily. We are still trying to eat our way through the first early Casablanca before we start on second early Charlotte, but maincrop Maris Piper has been lifted and awaits our attention in store. Setanta, our other maincrop, is still in the ground but ready to lift as the foliage is going over. Land cleared of potatoes, onions, peas, French beans, sweet corn, cabbage and cauliflower and salads all coming early and getting harvested ahead of normal times has seen a lot of land left vacant, so it has left me plenty scope for sowing some late summer and early winter salads such as lettuce, spring onion,

Tomatoes

beetroot, rocket and cress. However other spare land without a late catch crop has been sown down with a green manure of clover and tares.

Tomatoes have also gone into surplus harvest mode as they responded brilliantly to the summer heat wave. Fortunately the wee cherry types are sweet and easy to eat fresh at all times of the day, but at some point soon the larger Alicante and Marmande will need to head into the freezer.

Summer raspberries are now finished, but autumn raspberries, Autumn Bliss and Polka are in great form with huge raspberries. Autumn Treasure is also a great cropper and comes in a few weeks after Polka so giving a longer cropping period.

Apples are going through a weird phase. Spring blossom was brilliant except Fiesta which shows biennial bearing behaviour with no blossom, and not one single apple this year. Others showed a huge crop, but then the June drop in July took out a fair bit, followed by my thinning to a manageable crop. However in August the trees started to drop even more apples long before they

Outdoor grape Regent

were ready, though Discovery and Red Devil seem fine both with a great crop of huge apples.

Grapes under glass matured early so I was picking small bunches of Siegerrebe in late August and Solaris in early September. Black Hamburg is well coloured up but I will leave these till early October apart from sampling a few grapes that look ready from time to time. Outdoors my three other vines, Rondo, Regent and Phoenix are all laden down with numerous bunches of large grapes, and now all beginning to show colour as I removed a fair bit of foliage to let the sun shine on them.

Raspberry Polka

Flowering plants have followed the sun and been at their best from spring till mid summer, but the wet spell in late summer spoiled the show. Dahlias and the annual Cosmos failed to show any flowers but put on a lot of growth. Both got dug out as it is too late now to expect a decent show of blooms. Chrysanthemums, gladioli, roses and sweet peas were all just fine so long as regular dead heading was practised. You know summer is just about gone when the cyclamen hederifolium comes into flower and the foliage of Nerine bowdenii the Guernsey Lily dies down soon to be replaced by the mauve pink flowers in September.

Wee jobs to do this week

Onions ready for storing

Onions that have been lifted and laid out to dry off can now be cleaned up ready to store either in onion sacks or if the withered stems are long enough pleat them into a rope. This makes storage a lot simpler as they do not take up so much room.
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OUTDOOR FIGS FOR SCOTLAND

OUTDOOR FIGS FOR SCOTLAND

I planted a young fig tree on my allotment plot over ten years ago. I first tasted a fresh fig about 50 years ago when I visited a farmer up north who had a bush in his greenhouse. It was delicious and I never forgot that moment, but it was years later before I decided to buy a fig and try it outdoors. My horticultural training in early youth, told me

John picks a few figs

they were not hardy in Scotland and needed winter protection, but today we have climate change and if Scotland gets a wee bit more of this global warming my fig should be just fine. Last year was a rotten year up north. The sun in summer rarely appeared, but we got plenty rain, yet my fig tree gave me

One days harvest of figs

well over one hundred figs. This year we have all had a bit of global warming so I think my crop will be even better. I picked my first fig at end of July and so far I have had over fifty. Fortunately they crop over a long period so it is easy to eat them fresh, but when gluts happen they are easy to freeze for future use.

History

Figs have been grown or collected for food for thousands of years. Sub fossil figs (over 9000BC) were found in a Neolithic village in the Jordan Valley. They were also grown by the ancient Greeks as well as the Romans for food. Human migration has resulted in them now being grown throughout the Temperate World. They are a major crop in California which has a Mediterranean

Early summer fig potential

climate. Continental countries with hot climates can harvest four crops each year, but in UK we only get two crops that overlap. The early crop is from small buds that successfully overwinter, then later more figs are produced from currant seasons shoots. In hot countries the fig is pollinated by a wasp which often stays behind in the fig but in our country our figs are self pollinating so no wasps to worry about. Figs originated in the Middle East and western Asia but have now naturalised throughout Asia and North America. It thrives in hot dry climates where its roots can grow deep into the soil to find water. Our hot dry summer this year is just what it really enjoys.

Culture

We need to use this knowledge to grow it successfully in UK and more so in Scotland with our damper climate in normal years. Left on its own without pruning it will grow into a small tree up to thirty

Developing fig fruits

feet tall, making harvesting a nightmare. In our climate on good soils it loves to grow vigorously, so we need to control vigour so it can concentrate its energy into fruit production.

Ripe figs in August

It is best to restrict growth by planting it in a prepared fig pit. Up north it is best to choose a south facing wall or fence to plant against and train it as a fan of sorts. Dig out a trench two feet deep, two feet wide and three feet long. Line the sides of this pit with slabs. Fork up the bottom to assist drainage. Backfill the pit with broken bricks again to help drainage just leaving about nine inches for top soil, but enriching the top soil with compost to create a rich medium. Add some fertiliser to get it started and as most plants come in pots you can plant at any time. Keep it weeded, watered and fed for the first year till it settles down. A two year old plant should give a few figs in the second year increasing to about twenty the following year, and getting better each year as it grows larger. Prune in winter to keep the height down for ease of picking, pruning off week shoots, cutting strong upright shoots by half and removing those that grow out of the fan shape.

There are numerous varieties available, but for us up north Brown Turkey is the most reliable.

So far I have not seen any pests or diseases on the figs, so this crop will be very organic.

Wee jobs to do this week

 

Semi ripe stem cuttings

Many shrubs and heathers can be propagated by taking semi ripe cuttings from end of summer to early autumn. Use shoots about four inches long for most shrubs and two inches for heathers. Trim the shoot below a leaf joint and remove the lower leaves, except heathers where they are left on to aid drainage and aeration. Insert about one to two inches apart in a shallow pot with a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand or grit. Water in and cover with a polythene bag to retain a moist atmosphere. Keep in a cool spot away from direct sunshine for the next three months. Plants should be well rooted by next spring.

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A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

Tomatoes reach the roof

Tomato varieties

Greenhouse crops have been growing and cropping at luxury levels following the long hot spell though watering has been a necessary and frequent task, and to control the high temperatures both ventilators and doors have been wide open. Even at night the doors were opened just enough to keep condensation down but keep resting birds out.

Tomatoes have been getting fed twice a week and grapes grown in the greenhouse border 

Peppers

once a week. This year I tried some new tomato varieties alongside my regular Alicante which always gives a great crop of large tomatoes. Included were Marmande a beefsteak variety, Yellow Delight a plum type, Red Cherry and Sungold a yellow cherry variety. In previous years Sweet Million was one of my better cherry types. This year Alicante is still my favourite large tomato. Armande was a poor cropper and the misshapen fruits were not attractive. Yellow Delight was a real bully as growth outperformed all the others and had to be stopped once it reached the top of the greenhouse and wanted to climb up and over my grape vines on the other side. It gave a good yield of yellow plum tomatoes, but some were slow to turn colour and the fruit had no taste. However Red Cherry was brilliant with huge crops of small sweet fruit but Sungold gave even heavier crops of very sweet tomatoes. It was this year’s winner. However both cherry varieties had long trusses with well over twenty small tomatoes, and one Red Cherry truss had branched out with fifty four tomatoes. Now, that is hard to beat.

Grape Phoenix

Excellent growing conditions on all types sent main stems skyward. All reached seven trusses, with Red Cherry reaching eight trusses and Sungold with nine trusses before tips were taken out. Lower leaves remained very healthy so stayed on a long time before removing, but from mid August onwards I allowed some sideshoots to grow to provide healthy foliage to feed the crop.

Grapes both under glass and outdoors are having a great year. Although we will eat as much as we can, the remainder will go into demijohns for a vintage year brew. I am hoping this year, providing we get a decent autumn (dry, warm and sunny) I can achieve good wine direct from the grapes without having to add sugar to achieve ten or even eleven percent alcohol. Siegerrebe was first to ripen in mid August. It is a sweet musk flavoured grape, but attracts wasps which have to be dealt with before word gets out and the whole nest arrives for a feeding frenzy. Sideshoots are still being removed as well as a third of the leaves to let sun in to ripen up the bunches of grapes. Both Black Hamburg and Solaris are ripening up well, and outdoors Brant has masses of bunches of huge grapes. It is outstanding as it is not normally grown for grapes as they are normally quite small. Rondo, Regent and Phoenix are all having a great year and potential harvest looks very promising.

Cucumbers started off with excellent growth, but then mildew arrived to hold them back. They like a moist atmosphere, but other crops like it dry otherwise diseases get a hold, so maximum ventilation is practised which may not suit the cucumbers.

Pansies

Peppers are the best ever as this hot summer is right up their street.

Freezer space is going to be tested this autumn.

Pansies normally grown for my spring display continued flowering right up till July, but then I let them go to seed. This was saved and sown, and now I have loads of young seedlings to grow on for next years spring and summer display.

Wee jobs to do this week

 

Land cleared early of peas, onions, brassicas and early potatoes and sown

with an autumn crop of salads (lettuce, spring onion, radish, rocket, cress, etc) will need weeding and the new rows of seedlings will need thinning. Some of the thinnings can be used to make new rows where space is available. These salads and baby beet will be much appreciated as we go into late autumn and early winter, and if we go back into mild winters these salads will be fine for many months.

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