I have all of two chilli fruit. One jalepeno and one hot Thai. And that’s it. Nothing else had fruited, there is lots of foliage but nothing else. As the summer ends, and we enter the twilight of autumn; I am becoming disillusioned with the likelihood that anything is actually going to crop in there. Not really the success that I was hoping for in the poly tunnel.
Earlier in the summer, I rescued two raspberry plants from a well know high street garden centre. Knowing that these were autumn fruiting, i didn’t think that they would actually crop this year. Something of pleasant surprise though to have a handful already.
Not quite enough for boozy vodka.
Yet.
Through sheer fluke, and manual pollination, I have two ghost rider fruit. The one, has starter to ripen and has today been taken from the vine. It does have a whopper of a big brother.
This one is just under 5lb at 4lb 12 ounces. The smallest that I have had, but as I have two this year; this is a bonus.
The last week has been spent going a funny shade of olive on the Greek I island of Corfu. And I do mean a funny shade, the scorching sun meant I went a bit crispy in the first two days despite the factor 30 being slapped on. Surrounded by what looked like purple bindweed, the resort was lovely. There was nothing to do, but sit in the sun and read.
And I did, I went through a few bond novels. Found that they were an interesting genre. Nothing like the big screen adaptations. Though I did read them with chris Cornell and Adele running through my head. Bond is a strange man, and his Bond girls are awful. Much of the novels content and language is a child of the time in which they were written. Making some of the novels uneasy reading. The other literature was Sue graftons alphabet serie. I am up L or M, I think. Both of these novel genres can be read in a couple of hours, if you have the sun, nothing to do, and few rounds of Gin fizz.
As for the allotment, ma has been overseeing it. I had almost daily reports about a cherry tomato going red, but being eaten by a birdie. And she had plum picking again, and with blackberries wants to make a plum and blackberry tart. Tomatoes have appeared in abundance. Green though. Much has survived the cold temperatures, even the poly is leafy. Though I do need to check in there properly. Last I checked there were only two chilli fruit in there. No aubergines since the two that grown.
So watch this space normal service to be resumed.
I am fortunate enough to have allotment neighbours who don’t mind sharing. In one neighbours case, pleading for things to be used. In this case, a tree laden with beautiful Cadbury purple plums. Ma and I asked permission and picked about five or six pounds. I only needed three.
Then there were blackberries which were also harvested from the edge of my own plot. These were all gathered up. Washed and the plums where stoned as it were. All piled into a pan with sugar and water. stewed down a mashed before lemon juiced was added and set to boil.
And boil. This didn’t get to setting point of 104 degrees; but the bottom of my pan did get very black I tell you. All very disheartening, this gloopy jam, poured into jam jars. One of which has so far set. I guess this can be used as gloopy jam; though ma did spread it onto toast. I also put some onto bananas and watermelons.
Might be saved yet!
Please do not make this if you are under age and without parental supervision. My mother was present through out.
The plan is to steep them both in vodka or another dark liqueur. Which ever is cheapest. The blackberries contain sugar and vanilla essence. The rhubarb has cloves, cassia bark as I had no cinnamon.
Popping into a cold dark place for occasional inversion.
My thanks to @bobleponge216 and @haywayne and @notjustjams for their advice.
Have never had two on the same vine before. But here we have it. Two large fruit growing beneath the sprawling mass of leaves. Think these are the ones that were assisted in being pollinated. They are still growing, and rapidly at that.
Maris peer potatoes are sending out green foliage. It’s gonna be long wait til Christmas; especially if we have to protect against the frosts from October. I know I could have put them in a bin to live in the poly. But this space opened up and was asking to be filled.
The tomatoes are coming thick and fast. Just not very red, as you can see. There are also sorts here, my favourite by far are the knobbly marmande. I strongly recommend these as a a variety. Some smaller F1 rainbow mix are there; as well as a cascading sunstripe.
Ma spent some time on the plot and has come home with bundles of chard and spinach. Reckons she fancies doke palak paneer for dinner. Paneer being the cubed Indian cheese.
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