Where Did Autumn Go?

Wow, it seems like a very long time since I last posted an update on smallholding life (if you don't count the onion and potato posts). The main reason has been my devotion to a very special craft project which can't be revealed just yet but has now thankfully been completed. At last I can switch my focus back to all those other jobs which I have been ignoring for so long and give you a bit of a summary of what we have been up to for the last few months.
 
September

This has always been really busy time of year, harvesting and preparing our fruit and veg for storage and this year was no different. Indeed, most of this month was spent going back and forth between the garden and the kitchen.


As usual we had a lot of runner beans; last year we made runner bean chutney while also cutting, blanching and freezing a batch. The chutney was gorgeous and disappeared very quickly while the prepped veg was a major disappointment. Despite my attempts to de-string them they were still stringy and not very pleasant to eat. This year all the runner beans were destined for chutney, 2 batches made and a total of 9 jars really for the winter.

After a consistently wet summer our tomato plants were looking rather grim but, despite the lack of green leaves we had a bumper harvest of 9 different varieties, some more successful than others. A selection of the varieties are above, from top left clockwise we have Marmande, Tigerella, Gardeners' Delight (just one here), Sungold, Golden Sunrise and Red Pear. The Moneymaker, San Maranzo and Orange Queen were really poor and I probably won't bother with them next year.


I hate to waste the food we grow so when there is a lot of fruit and veg I normally try to find some way to store it. I recently discovered that I like homemade tomato and chorizo soup, this is the second batch using up 2.5kg of tomatoes and it is handy to have in the freezer.

Food plays a major role in our daily life and with all the extra pork in the freezer we have been experimenting with new recipes. This was our first attempt at barbecue ribs, they look a little well done in the photo but they were really just caramelised with some beautiful pieces of onion and garlic in the sticky sauce. They were absolutely amazing, such tender pork with the sweetest stickiest sauce.

 

As a side we sliced a Marmande beef tomato, some mozzarella and drizzled it in balsamic vinegar. Although it didn't look good enough as a Masterchef contender it was gorgeous.

From our 5 plants these were the best of the Cucamelon crop; a major disappointment from a promising start and we are definitely not going to bother growing these again.

Some of our brassicas were badly attacked by caterpillars but we managed to get a couple of decent cauliflowers which M made into a very tasty cauliflower cheese dish.

Although our little orchard is only a couple of years old and is yet to produce much fruit we are fortunate to have a few older apple trees around the smallholding. M was keen to try some pressing and have a go at making some cider. It will take a few months to mature so I'll update you later once we have completed the taste test.

M has been busy in the kitchen, mincing pork and making sausages. We've had both chilli flavour and a milder herb variety but the chilli ones are my favourites.

Planning Ahead - October

I think I may have mentioned (maybe once or twice) how I long for a carpet of Bluebells in the woods, well this year we thought we'd go for a mass bulb planting session. However, we don't just want Bluebells as we really would like some colour and some naturalising bulbs throughout the woods. After much research and time spent on every bulb website I could find I made our orders in the hope that buying in bulk would be cheaper!

 First order: 250 Wood Anemone, 250 English Bluebells, 100 Naturalising Tulips.

Second Order (mostly for the White garden): 10 Erythronium White Beauty, 50 Narcissus Thalia, 25 Tulip White Triumphator, 25 Tulip White Dream, 20 Wild Garlic, 100 Crocus Joan of Arc and 20 Erythronium Pagoda.

Order 3: 165 Mixed Alliums.
This photo also has the 2x5kg bags of mixed Daffodils and a couple of extra packets (another 50 bulbs) we picked up at our local garden centre. All in all I think it's safe to say that there were lots of bulbs to plant.

M was a little aghast at the number of bulbs but we had said we would plant loads this year, see how they got on and hopefully if they started to naturalise we would not have to plant any more. It took us about a week to get everything planted. The white bulbs (Tulips, Crocus, Daffodils, 6 Wild Garlic, Wood Anemone and Erythronium white beauty) were all put in the white garden with 2 other areas set aside for the Wild Garlic. The Alliums were used to fill an entire area on the edge of the woods where a few Alliums successfully flowered last year. The Bluebells, Erythronium Pagoda and the rest of the Wood Anemone were spread throughout the largest and most accessible parts of the woods. The Daffodils and Tulips were planted around the edges of the deciduous trees where they should get plenty of light before the ash are in full leaf.

While out planting bulbs we also managed to get a few Primroses, Ferns, Jack Frost and a couple of Viburnum planted in the woodland garden. Unfortunately it doesn't look good at the moment as the leaves are falling and all the colour has disappeared. We are really hoping it will be blooming in spring.

Our usual end of season tidy up included potting this little chap up. This Fig has grown so much this year but was starting to look a little yellow that we thought we'd go one pot size up in the hope that it would have a little nourishment before hibernating for winter. We were very surprised to find the beginnings of fruit but as it is such a baby plant we removed the fruit to keep all the goodness in the plant growth.

We trialed our sweet potatoes in old coal sacks in the polytunnel and throughout the summer and autumn they grew wonderfully but under all that lush foliage this was our meagre harvest. I love Pweet potatoes and don't feel totally defeated yet so we may have another go next year, space permitting. As the rainy season continued we cleared the greenhouse ready for overwintering our geraniums and dahlias and M spent some precious time building new deeper raised beds for the polytunnel.

This week we have had our first frosts, scrapping the car windscreen in the mornings and walking across the frosted paddock reminds us that autumn has nearly gone and winter is just around the corner. Thankfully the garlic has been planted and most of our outdoor chores can be put to one side for a while. I guess what I really need now is another craft project which will help justify my position on the settee in front of the fire.