August is here already and the weather has cooled a little with heavy rain showers - this is becoming typical August weather in the UK over the past few years. Anyway, the broad beans are well past their prime and if I don't pick them now they'll go to waste.
It was a sunny this morning so I finally got around to the beans. I don't take them bit by bit, I like to sort them all in one go, freezing them for future use in pasta sauces etc. I pulled each of the plants up and stripped the pods off - stalks into the compost bin and pods into a bucket then a bag to be taken home. The beans are then extracted, blanched for a few minutes in boiling water to kill any bacteria, they are plunged into cold water then put into a large freezer bag and frozen.
As I have explained in previous blogs, I've been reducing my crops this year as I've planted way too much over the past few years and am going back to half a plot from next season. This goes for the broad beans too, I planted a lot less this year but still started with a large bucket of pods and ended up with a large bag of beans in the freezer. Note to self, 12 plants are plenty!
The Sturon onions will have to come up soon, they have really 'gone over' now but I prefer having a few days of warm sunshine forecast so I can pull them up and leave them outside to dry off a little. I'll hang on a little while longer to see if the weather will oblige.
The carrots in the barrel, Sweet Candle, seem to be doing OK but the ones I planted out in a 'V' trench with compost (Nantes) didn't germinate too well. In all fairness, the seed was a couple of years old so it was my own fault. I have managed to pick a few that did germinate and the trench technique in my clay soil does work.
I'm cropping Primo II Summer cabbages, courgettes, French beans, Runner beans, Kale and loads of early potatoes. In the freezer I have carrot and various types of beans, I'll be adding more over the next few weeks too. The beetroot, which I thought had been decimated by pests, has done well, in fact they are too big. I need to pick them this month and pickle them - I always have a jar or two ready by the Autumn. The sweet corn, Incredible F1, are putting on quite a few cobs, this F1 variety usually has at least two large cobs per plant which makes it an excellent choice. I did around 16 plants last year and ended up with over 32 cobs, too many again - there's still frozen corn in the freezer! I've reduced the number of plants this year.
There are gaps appearing on the north side of the plot now where the spinach, broad beans and new potatoes have been cleared. I've weeded those areas as the crops are cleared and have dug them over. I'll probably add a bit of fertiliser in the Autumn, weed and dig it over again before covering for the Winter.
That's it for the start of August. I'll post again in about a fortnight. Bye for now.
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