Allotment geekery

Well a full week back at work following two weeks off has been a shocker.  I am now on week 8 of the cold, I was fine for the first half of the week but then things really stirred up again and I have developed a delightful, chewy cough.  We went to the allotment for some fresh air, resting up did help but it hasn't helped enough to rid me of this damn virus entirely (I am SO frustrated with this damn cold now) it was absolutely knackering working on the plot but totally worth it.  I hadn't been to the allotment for at least four weeks and the weeds were taking over but I managed to clear about half of them today, here are some of the highlights from the plot...

Baby carrots!  I thinned these bad boys out so the ones left in the ground have more room to grow ready for later in the season.  MozzyMr cooked these up this evening and they were just so tasty, if you grow just one thing grow your own carrots they are lush!

The polytunnel is still nice and warm so we have lots of tomatoes coming along, there is no doubt growth has slowed down considerably but we are still bringing home bags and bags of toms.  In fact we are quickly running out of room in the freezer for all the tomato sauce and soup.

Before this little patch was weedtastic (you can see some of the evidence in the wheelbarrow to the left) but now the leeks and parsnips have the space to spread out and grow.  The leeks won't be ready until there have been a couple of good frosts on them but I should be able to pull up some parsnips soon.  I'm hoping some of them will keep in the ground until Christmas.

The last of the runner beans, once they die off we will cut them back to ground level but keep the roots in as they are beneficial to the soil.  Today was the first burning of the season, unfortunately all of the lovely dry material we had been saving for months got soaked in the epic downpours we've had over the last couple of days.

Dried mustard seed pods.  I kept these in the ground as it has been so warm and sunny, the plants have died back and dried enough for us to take them home and remove the little black seeds.  Chuck a teaspoon of mustards seeds into warming oil, when they start popping add your onion to fry or other veg and the little seeds will add a lovely flavour to your meal :)

I love the little curly stem on this little squash!

Only one of my pumpkins survived this year but happily we have a medium sized pumpkin ripening in time for Halloween.  The raised beds on the back quarter of the plot that we took over in December have struggled with a lot of weeds, it needs to be thoroughly dug over which is a job for the autumn and winter.