Terry Walton is enjoying a cropping bonanza
Friends and family all get to benefit from my abundance of tasty beans
The allotment food boom goes on and on, and I know I’ve reached the peak of the cropping season when my wife utters the words, ‘What am I going to do with all these vegetables?’ But use them we do, and our daily diet is very healthy.
The freezer never seems big enough to house all these readily available crops as it fills with copious runner and French beans. This year my peas have cropped extremely well and are fighting for a place in the freezer. Despite my almost continual nibbling on the peas popped straight from the pod on the plot, it’s having little impact on a copious harvest. At this time of year many of my family and friends also benefit from this bonanza as I distribute my fresh vegetables among the grateful throng.
The long hot months of June and July and the move into the month of August have helped ripen crops for autumn harvests. The onions are beginning to drop their leaves, a sure sign that their growing cycle is coming to an end. This action exposes their white, swollen bulbs to the sun, giving them the last chance to put on weight before acquiring a light, rich tan. When the drying process is over they can be carefully lifted before airing in a cool greenhouse. They can then be strung up and an onion plucked from its bunch as and when needed.
The runner and French beans for the freezer are selected from the youngest, most tender of the crop. This way I know that in the deepest, darkest winter months they’ll still have the taste of summer contained within them. To me the round, crunchy French beans are best to freeze as they keep their flavour longer, whereas runner beans tend to lose the freshly harvested taste. Hence more French beans get frozen than the runner beans, which are eaten as they’re harvested.
The broad bean crop has finished and the bulky tops consigned to the ever-growing compost heap. The roots are, however, still in the ground and releasing nitrogen-rich nodules. Not to waste this good nutrient, alongside each stalk I plant my autumn and winter cabbage of ‘January King’ and ‘Savoy’. The usual routine continues of a large hole lined with lime and the plant placed in the hole and packed round with compost. A collar is put in place, then the net that protected my strawberries is placed over the top as cabbage white butterflies are still on the prowl.
My feeble attempt at melon growing continues. I’m still trying to get a melon to set despite my attempts at pollination. The plant is still growing well so the persistence carries on!