One day one photo - 10: Harvest festival

Actually no harvest festival has taken place. Maybe I should have one. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and the school used to do one around this time of the year.

We always had to take something in to school that could then be donated to less fortunate folks (this was in pre-food bank days).

My mum would generally give me a tin of baked beans or tomato soup to take in, and I would feel a bit embarrassed that we we weren't taking something that had come from a farm, like the word "harvest" implied. If only we had an allotment or vegetable patch back then.

So this is the latest release from my allotment. Everything there came from packs of seeds that cost around £2. Actually, I confess that the tomatoes came from my neighbour's allotment.

Apparently this has been a good year for tomatoes and people just can't give away enough. So he's been dishing them out to everyone who comes by.

I have had a great supply of courgettes though - green ones, yellow ones, and ones the same colour as marrows. The corn has been good too, though in these busy times I ended up picking them a bit late so they were a bit dry to eat.

As for pumpkins - I am just glad to know I have got something in time for Halloween. The last time I grew pumpkins was a couple of years ago, and I planted them so late in the season that they weren't ready until late November!

For someone who could never even manage to keep a cactus alive, I don't think I do too badly now. This year was quite challenging in the excessive heat, and I had to get down to my plot two, sometimes three times a day to water everything, and going away even for a weekend was out of the question. I was morphing into a farmer!

But it's paying off now, and I can also look forward to chicory (endives), fennel, and nasturtium, which conveniently need less attention than some of the other crops.

Furthermore, the secretary of the allotment society will be happy to see that I am making an effort. So hopefully I won't be on his list of people to get a warning letter! This good life isn't so bad!

One day one photo - 18: Nasturtium

I have entitled this post "nasturtium", but in fact it can relate to other produce I have reaped from my garden and my allotment.

It's that time of the year when my crops are ready (even more than ready) to be harvested, and I have ended up with so much stuff I don't know what to do with it! Last year I had around eight pumpkins, and I only recently finished eating them!

This year I have had a number of courgettes - usually aroud four per week. There is also sweet corn to look forward to as well. I think I should have picked them already, but I haven't yet managed to get down to the allotment.

Some might say that having lots of produce is a nice problem to have, particularly as a packet of seeds for these crops only costs a couple of pounds. I realise I do have to get organised though.

Nasturtium has been the real star. Last Autumn, there was so much of the stuff that I didn't have to buy any salad for around two months, and that was even with me eating the stuff for lunch and for dinner, sometimes at breakfast too! Sadly I was not able to pull up the leaves quickly enough, and one day after we had a frosty night I woke up the following morning to find them all drooped, damaged, and inedible. That was a shame. This year, the challenge is to try to avoid that happening again, though it will be more of a challenge as I have had even more nasturtium grow. It's not just on one flower bed in my front garden, like last year, but also a few rows in my allotment too.

So I am really on the hunt for as many recipes as I can find. So far I have put them into a quiche, into a fish pie, and also had them as a salad. I also intend to make an alternative pesto with them.

Sadly I can't put them into a spiralizer like I have done with the courgettes, but I hope to find some equally exciting dishes to make with these leaves that some people dub a superfood, in the same vein as watercress. Apparently nasturtium is packed with vitamin C and it is a natural antibiotic. It can stop colds dead in their tracks!

Well, I haven't seen any randomised controlled trial done on that so I can't say for sure if that's true. I haven't had a cold though, despite most people in my office coughing and sneezing these days, so I will just take people's word for it.

As a cyclist (and runner)  who is going to have to battle the elements over the coming months, I think that I can't have too many superfoods, so anything that will help my immune system, and stop me from getting the dreaded lurgy will be a good thing.

One day one photo - 3: The Good Life

Courgettes and nasturtium from my allotment for dinner - hmm!

I've had an allotment since May of last year. It's been hard work getting rid of all the weeds on the whole of the patch, and I have only managed to plant crops on half of the plot. However, I have been pleased with the yield. Last autumn I harvested eight pumpkins of varying sizes from 1 kg up to 5 kg. I have only recently finished eating them all. I also harvested a load of nasturtium, which was great because it meant for a time I didn't bother buying any rocket or spinach! The nasturium were a good enough substitute. Sadly, I was a bit slow to pick them all and they ended up being destroyed when the frost arrived.

This year I have tried to be a bit more organised with my crops, though the success has been variable. The pumpkins have not done so well. I planted around eight and all but one were destroyed by slugs or foxes. I am not sure that the remaining one will sprout and ripen before winter comes. The beans had a similar fate, though one of them remained and I was able to harvest a few before it got blighted. However, the big success story has been the courgettes. They have just been sprouting the whole time, giving me about four a week. I just can't eat them quick enough. They are also pretty big - a lot bigger than the shop size! As a consequence I am constantly eating gratin de courgettes, courgette quiche, I've also made courgette soup, fritters, and the loaf I used to make with bananas is now, you've guessed it, a courgette loaf! Any other recipes for courgettes would be most welcome!

The nasturtium are growing nicely too, so I look forward to using them in salad, and making pesto with them. I also have some corn which seems to be ripening well too. My allotment neighbour, Barbara gave me some lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes from her harvest as she had a surplus. I tried to give her some of my courgettes but she declined as she said she's awash with her own yield of crops from her plot that she has had for around 30 years!

In short, having an allotment rocks! It's surprising how much food you can get just by planting a few packets of seeds that cost a couple of £s. There's something really satisfying about eating a meal that consists of homemade food that you have grown yourself.

You just have to be ready to spare a few hours to weed the place and do a bit of digging, but that keeps you fit. I am beginning to feel like the folks in the 70s sitcom The Good Life. Though I won't be moving to Surbiton any time soon!