September 2009 - Crown Prince squash and some marrows
This has been our first year of growing a lot of squashes. Well, not a lot, exactly – two kinds, but the plants are huge and that makes them seem like a lot.
We’ve tried Crown Prince and Butternut. The Crown Prince ripened a lot faster than the Butternut and although we only ended up with three of them, they are beautiful and a good size. I’m not sure yet what we’ll do with them, but they go well in soups, stews and curries and can be roasted with other vegetables, so I’m sure we’ll get through them.
Crown Prince squash
The Butternut squash have taken a lot longer to get going, but there are more of them. We have yet to cut the first, but they are starting to ripen and the first should be ready in another week or so.
Ripening Butternut squash
In the same family, of course, are courgettes and a few of those turned into marrows during a period of heavy rain when we didn’t go to the garden for a week. The Romanesco type is still ridged, as they were when they were courgettes, and they look especially fine. I have a great fondness for stuffed marrow and I think we’ll be eating that regularly for a few weeks.
Romanesco marrow
Elsewhere in the garden, when we cut some cabbages earlier in the summer, we left the stalks and now have clusters of two or three baby cabbages growing on each stalk.
Baby cabbages forming
The ‘Autumn King’ carrots are huge. The bed they went in had been filled with gritty soil from the pond side and it hadn’t been mucked, but some of them have forked a lot. No matter, the flavour and texture is excellent.
Giant 'Autumn King' carrot
Sweet peppers are finally ripening in the greenhouse and the ‘White Tomesol’ tomatoes have ripened to yellow. They are juicy with a mild flavour and if you cut them up and mix them with cubed red tomato, they look just like pineapple.
Tomato 'White Tomesol'
© Copyright Miranda Hodgson 2009