Pumpkin time!

Hard to believe the summer is over and it's autumn.  Time to clear out vegetable beds, cut back old growth and its.....

PUMPKIN TIME!!

I never planted pumpkins but somehow these little plants came up amongst the beans and courgettes. The leaves looked like courgette at first but it soon became obvious they were not! 

Little green globes started to form and then grow and I decided to just leave them and see what happened.

They grew and grew and then started to ripen to orange a dead giveaway they are pumpkins!

In the end we have 10 lovely round, orange pumpkins waiting to be picked.

I have promised BoyG he could pick one next weekend and if Miss Lizzie comes she can have one too.
 

The biggest will hopefully last till Halloween and I can carve it out but the others will become roast pumpkin, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin jam, jelly and chutney to remind us of them throughout the darkest days if winter!
 

Next year I will plant some and nurture them where I actually want them to grow!

Pumpkin soup anyone??

Summer's Bounty

I love my allotment and even Mr R has come to want to be there, to carry out the day to day tasks that keep it running.

This year we have eaten more vegetables than ever and they were all free!  We have had courgettes in every form possible, baked, steamed and made into cake. I have written about lots of the food I have made and will be writing about the recipes for other things too. Check them out here.

But the deep shiny black star of the show is the fantastic crop of blackberries! 

I have so far made over 25 jars of jam,

blackberry and coconut cake,

blackberry pie and today made blackberry chutney.

I have also made blackberry vodka

and blackberry Bacardi

I made a visit today and although I thought the blackberries were slowing down they have had a new spurt - there are thousands of them still to pick! And still they keep on growing! 

When we get to the end of the month the bushes will be cut right back to encourage growth for next year but it will also give us a chance to encourage the blackberries to grow in a more civilized way next year. Wish me luck!