Summary of 2016 harvest

Total weight of harvest Jan - December 2016  73.627kg

Prices in shops of harvest June - December 2016 £332.08

Possible value of foraged food £168.98

Herbs - £37.50

Salads  £35.00

Total possible value of harvest June - December 2016 £573.56




Harvest sorted by weight

	Weight (g)	Shop price
Tomatoes	13624	£105.31
Squash	8528	£16.91
Potatoes	5424	£10.84
Parsnips	5163	£2.55
Green courgette	4308	£20.89
Cabbage	4219	£7.68
Cucumber	4122	£22.00
Onions	4120	£3.20
Runner beans	3618	£21.62
Swiss chard	2685	£12.21
Yellow courgette	2210	£14.85
Beetroot	2000	£9.69
Peas	1924	£18.48
Carrots	1428	£5.00
Cavolo nero	1358	£6.20
Grapes	920	£4.65
Spring onions	806	£4.50
Cauliflower	710	£2.10
Brussel sprouts	654	£3.05
Lettuce	646	£5.00
Jerusalem artichokeskes	627	£0.95
Damsons	576	£2.80
Curly kale	550	£2.05
Horseradish	466	£1.90
Garlic	466	£12.35
French beans	400	£5.66
Pea shoots	294	£0.50
Raspberries	290	£3.62
Sweet bell peppersrs	280	£1.01
Shallots	202
Babbington's leeks	200
Sprouting broccoli	184
Strawberries	156	£1.50
Pear	130	£0.70
Gooseberries	92	£0.65
White currants	85	£0.50
Fig	84	£0.76
Aubergine	78	£0.50

Harvest sorted by possible value

	Shop price	Weight (g)
Tomatoes	£105.31	13624
Cucumber	£22.00	4122
Runner beans	£21.62	3618
Green courgette	£20.89	4308
Peas	£18.48	1924
Squash	£16.91	8528
Yellow courgette	£14.85	2210
Garlic	£12.35	466
Swiss chard	£12.21	2685
Potatoes	£10.84	5424
Beetroot	£9.69	2000
Cabbage	£7.68	4219
Cavolo nero	£6.20	1358
French beans	£5.66	400
Carrots	£5.00	1428
Lettuce	£5.00	646
Grapes	£4.65	920
Spring onions	£4.50	806
Raspberries	£3.62	290
Onions	£3.20	4120
Brussel sprouts	£3.05	654
Damsons	£2.80	576
Parsnips	£2.55	5163
Cauliflower	£2.10	710
Curly kale	£2.05	550
Horseradish	£1.90	466
Strawberries	£1.50	156
Sweet bell peppers	£1.01	280
Jerusalem artichokes	£0.95	627
Fig	£0.76	84
Pear	£0.70	130
Gooseberries	£0.65	92
Pea shoots	£0.50	294
White currants	£0.50	85
Aubergine	£0.50	78
Shallots		202
Babbington's leeks		200
Sprouting broccoli		184

December 2016: brassicas, artichokes, parsnips and Christmas

The brassicas - brussel sprouts, kale, cabbages, cauliflowers -  and swiss chard are well established now and promise good harvests for the next few months. They can, of course, withstand frost and December saw the first of the really heavy frosts of the winter here in caversham.

Parsnips, I am always told, benefit from a heavy frost and taste sweeter. To be honest, I've never noticed much difference!


A crop I nearly forgot about were the Jerusalem artichokes.They are grown in a potato growing bag near the back of the garden and once the leaves have died back I tend to forget about them, as I did this year. I remembered in time to dig out enough for about 4 meals. I am sure there are more in the bag and I need to empty it to find them all. Some will go back into the bag for next year but I noticed this year that the foliage looked overcrowded, so time to thin them out.

The main event of the month was Christmas and the main Christmas meal. The brussel sprouts, kale (cavolo nero) and very wonky parsnips came out of the garden. The potatoes were from Paget's at the Reading Farmers' Market.

I was really pleased with our parsnips despite their "wonkiness". They were grown in a part of zones 2/3 that has only this year been brought back into use so they did well to grow at all.

Work on preparing the horseradish sauce started about three weeks before Christmas and is the subject of a separate posting. Suffice to say it was head-blowing stuff and perfect.

And we broke out the Quince Vodka and Damson Brandy with the brandied damsons served with ice cream, cream and hazelnuts.

Christmas fare

Frost on the garden fence

Quince vodka update and damson brandy

Quince vodka and damson brandy

The quince brandy/vodka prepared in November made an appearance on the dinner table at Christmas and quickly disappeared! The spices were at just the right level and the flavour of the quinces came through, but it was a bit too sweet for my taste. The recipe that we worked with specified 450g sugar to be added to the 8 large grated quinces and 1 litre of vodka. I did wonder at the time if this was too much sugar; next time I shall reduce the amount by half.

The damson/blackberry/elderberry brandy was perfect. For this I used a large jar with 1-1.5inches of fruit at the bottom, then 1-2 heaped tablespoons of sugar, repeated the layers of fruit and sugar and covered with brandy. I added more fruits as and when they became available, topping up with brandy each time.

Alternative Christmas pudding

Damsons made up the bulk of the fruit with just a handful of blackberries and elderberries. Most of the blackberries were eaten almost as soon as they had been picked and the elderberries made into syrup for winter coughs and colds. .

For Christmas I poured off and bottled the brandy. Some of the fruit was served with ice cream and crushed hazelnuts, and the rest made into a crumble.



Not on the dining table but in the kitchen is the quince scrap vinegar, which has now been bottled. This was my first attempt at making it, using the peelings and cores from the quince vodka workshop. During the first couple of weeks of fermentation the aroma of cider wafted through the house and it was tempting to have a glass, but we did manage to leave it to turn into vinegar.

I use it in general cooking but I am not the sure that the pH is low enough for it be used for making preserves. (I really ought to get a pH testing kit.)

The remains of the quince scraps were added to the compost heap. 

December 2016 harvest summary

Garden harvest total 2.998kg
Garden harvest shop/market price £12.13

TOTAL SHOP/MARKET PRICE £12.13

Garden crops	Weight g	Shop price
Parsnips	1096	£1.89
Brussel sprouts	654	£3.05
Swiss chard	392	£2.94
Jerusalem artichokes	272	£0.95
Horseradish	266	£1.90
Cavolo nero	142	£0.90
Cabbage	102	£0.10
Beetroot	40	£4.00

November 2016 harvest summary

Garden harvest total 4.048kg
Garden harvest shop/market price £28.31

TOTAL SHOP/MARKET PRICE 

Garden crops	Weight g	Shop price
Beetroot	942	£3.77
Carrots	778	£2.10
Tomatoes	644	£5.00
Swiss chard	492	£3.69
Squash	482	£1.90
Parsnips	386	£0.66
Cavolo nero	158	£0.99
Curly kale	62	£0.50
Yellow courgette	40	£4.00
Onion	34	£0.20
French beans	30	£3.00
Estimate for herbs		£2.50

October 2016: time to bring in the chillies and tomatoes

October is often a mild month and many of the summer crops are still growing, albeit slowly. There were some cold nights and the threat of frosts towards the end of the month so time to pick the chillies. There was a good crop on the plants that made it past the seedling stage but I lost most of them right at the start of the year. 

I always start the chillies indoors but we don't have an area in the house that is consistently warm enough for them. So, I use a propagator. Unfortunately, it is a very basic model: either on or off and if left on for too long it can get too hot. I was away for two days running some workshops and forgot to switch it off. On my return I was greeted with cooked chilli seedlings. A mistake I won't make again and time to invest in a thermostatically controlled propagator.

We picked all of the tomatoes and brought them indoors regardless of whether they were ripe or not. Some were beginning to turn and have been left to ripen in the kitchen. Others were nowhere near ready to ripen and used up in stir fries and omelettes. The last big green courgettes were picked but the baby yellow ones were left until frosts and slugs threatened. 

And I found I had a single, lone aubergine. When we started growing our own veg we had several years of successfully growing aubergines in pots outside (we don't have a greenhouse) but we then had three years when we didn't have the right weather at the right time. We gave up after that but this year I was given a plant so I thought I'd try again. I was underwhelmed by the yield but it was probably not the right variety for growing outdoors. They are not on my list for 2017.  

The runner bean seeds have been collected for next year. I've been saving these for so many years that I'm no longer sure what varieties I have apart from the white ones, which are Moonlight. Moonlight, however, has been a perennial disappointment. I have tried different suppliers as well as our own and grown in different locations. The plants grow well, they produce plenty of flowers but we get hardly any beans from them. All the other varieties we grow have been fantastic this year. 

I have no idea where we are going wrong with Moonlight but we shall try again in 2017. We are enlisting the help of friends who will grow some plants from two of our batches of seed so that we can see it really is us or the seeds that is the problem. 

The garlic has been planted and this year we have three heritage varieties: Red Duke, Mikulov and Bohemian Rose. 

Outside of the garden it has been a good year for Rowan berries. There is still rowan berry jelly in the cupboard so this time I made marmalade with the juice and some citrus fruit. 

The wasps that have been nesting in the kitchen roof space have been dying off in small batches over the last couple of weeks and this morning it looked as they were all on the way out. This sight was repeated across all three kitchen windows. But there are still dozens, if not hundreds, of them buzzing in and out of the nest so a lot more to go. The windows are covered in streaks of some sort of sticky goo but there is no way I am going to attempt to clean them while there are wasps still around.

Squash harvest minus five already eaten!

October 2016 Zone 2 and 3

September 2016 The squashes finally came good

The harvest continued this month unabated this month with the tomatoes continuing to ripen. The blight that has affected many gardens in the area seems to have passed us by but, with the late start this year because of cold weather, the yield this year is not as great as in previous years. Nevertheless, we have enough of a surplus to make two batches of tomato chutney and relish using recipes from the Simpson's Seeds The Tomato Book.




This is no longer available direct from Simpson's but there are a few second hand copies to be found on eBay and Amazon.

We had a good range of varieties, all very different flavours and characteristics making it difficult to choose a favourite. I suppose my top three this year would be the Purple Russian plum, Indigo Beauty and the super sweet orange cherry tomatoes. There are enough of the meatier types that are only just beginning to turn to keep and ripen indoors, hopefully until the end of November. We shall, though, leave them on the plants for as long as possible - maybe well into October if the weather holds.

This year, I had a go at preserving some of the smaller tomatoes by fermenting them in brine. I got the idea from a Radio 4 Food Programme episode on Fermentation. Olia Hercules talked about how, in the summer and early autumn in the Ukraine, they have a sort of fermenting fest during which the household spends days brining and pickling fruit and vegetables for the winter and spring. The programme and recipe for fermented tomatoes  is available on the BBC website at BBC Radio 4 - Food Programme, Ferment. 

I have already opened a jar after just 4 weeks and they are delicious with a wonderful "zing" to them. I have another two jars that I will attempt to leave until later in the year and at least until after we have finished the last of the fresh tomatoes. Olia Hercules has published a book, Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond, that has a wonderful selection of recipes from the region. I am steadily working my through it, but it will take about a year if I am going to stick to my self-imposed rule of using only seasonal produce.

In 2015 I grew squashes for the first time, mainly by accident. Seedlings started to pop up out of the compost made from our kitchen scraps and seeds and I let some of the plants get on with it. I was so impressed by how easy they were to grow and with the size of some of them that I repeated the experiment this year, but also deliberately sowed some seeds. Although they germinated readily enough and grew well it seemed as though they would never set fruit. Most of the flowers were initially male flowers and when a few female flowers finally look as though they were about to develop into squashes they dropped off the plant. I thought I was doing something wrong but many other gardeners in Reading and Caversham reported that they had the same problem, as did some of the TV and radio gardening experts.

The squash plants did finally come good, though, and it looks as though we shall have an interesting selection of varieties. There many not be many of them and they are nowhere near the whoppers in size that we had last year, but I am content with what we have.

One really nice surprise was the unexpected reappearance of some autumn raspberries. I had tried growing some canes in pots about two years ago and failed dismally. I thought that they had died but a cane that I had left in one container as a support for another plant sprung into life. It has encouraged me to try again with a couple of other varieties, although the ultra sweet autumn fruits are my favourites.









There are still grapes to be harvested but the foliage has started to turn. I'll be glad when the leaves have all fallen so that we have a chance to untangle some of stems and train it properly rather than let it run rampant.

Still on fruit, we had one pear. Such a rarity and I forgot to take a picture! I wasn't that surprised as the tree is still settling in and we had a severe frost just as the blossom came out. I'm grateful we had even one fruit.

Back in the kitchen the usual glut of courgettes was being converted into spiced chutney. Overall, it looks as though we shall have good store of preserves to last well into next year.







And, of course, we are enjoying some great meals prepared from our freshly gathered veg!

Grey dagger moth caterpillar on the pear tree 

August 2016: the harvest and foraging begins in earnest

August seemed to be especially busy this year. As well as harvesting the crops from the garden, we went out foraging for blackberries, elderberries, apples and damsons. See the August harvest and foraging summary 2016 for details of what and how much we gathered.

A lot of the blackberries were eaten as we picked - they were especially sweet this year - and the rest eaten fresh with ice cream, made into a pie with some of the elderberries and damsons, and included in elderberry, damson, blackberry and apple jam.

Around half of the elderberries were made into syrup to help alleviate the symptoms of winter coughs and colds. Some of the damsons and berries were also "brandied" for Christmas liqueurs. Depending on their type and flavour the apples were eaten, added to jams and chutneys, or incorporated into fruit pies.

Our own damson tree produced some fruit for the first time. It was not a huge harvest but more than we had expected. The tree was planted about two and half years ago and the frost had burnt off much of the blossoms so we were pleased to have the handful that made it through. The variety is Merryweather and they taste more like plums than tart damsons, so they were reserved for eating "straight" rather than being made into preserves and pies as were the foraged ones.

We had our first grape harvest. There were plenty of bunches and although the fruits themselves were quite small they were very sweet. We've had plenty of advice on how to improve the yield and size of the grapes, ranging from removing some of the bunches early to reducing the number of grapes in a bunch with nail scissors. I'm not sure either of us has the patience for the latter and it seems a shame to lose entire bunches. We'll see how it goes next year but might thin out the number of grapes in just a couple of bunches to see what effect that has.

The cucumbers went berserk. I went away for a couple of days and came back to find that several monsters had materialised. Similarly, some of the courgettes both yellow and green had decided to try and imitate marrows. 

The runner beans are in full flow, the cavolo nero is doing well and we have some green peppers, which we are particularly pleased about as they are being grown outside against the south facing fence. A few of the golden beetroot were of a size that made it worthwhile pulling them up, and the tomatoes are finally ripening en masse. Our potatoes, which are grown in pots and Marshalls Gro-Sacks, are now finished. We generally had good yields and they always taste better than shop-bought so it was worth the effort. It is a shame we do not have more space that we can use for growing them. 

The most prolific of the tomatoes at the moment is a yellow/orange cherry variety. It is one of the plants that emerged from the compost that we put on the Gro-Beds and as we have not bought any seeds that fit the description it must have originally been bought from our local supermarket. I do vaguely recall buying a pack of variously coloured "speciality" tomatoes that were on the reduced price shelf. They were described as extra sweet and flavoursome but when we tried them we ranked them a big fat zero in the taste stakes. I think we put them on one side and they were eventually consigned to the compost heap. Unlike the parent fruit, the ones that have now emerged really are indeed sweet, which I can only assume is down to the growing conditions in our garden. 

Our strategy of cutting the cabbage heads and leaving the stems in the ground has paid off as we are still harvesting small heads of pointed cabbage. It will be interesting to see how long the plants keep regenerating. Kale, brussel sprout and cabbage seedlings have been potted up and are in an area next to the north facing fence that I call the brassica nursery. They will soon be planted out and so far they are looking good. The main problem is that the wood pigeons have identified our garden as a source of tasty cabbage snacks so we've had to put up some protection against the feathered varmints! 

Our sole gooseberry bush (Whinham's Industry) has settled in against the north facing fence and produced a few berries for us. It's a lovely sweet dessert gooseberry. We have taken some cuttings but have yet to decide where we shall eventually plant them.

It's not all been good news, though. The large sycamore trees that blighted our own and our neighbours' gardens have been cut down by the council but the roots are still there and very much alive. We spotted leaves sprouting from one of the roots on on our side of the fence and it was increasing in size daily. Some people recommended that we just keep cutting it back and it will eventually give up and die. But that would mean checking on the wretched thing daily and it could take years to give up the ghost. Another approach that I found on the web, and which would be especially satisfying, is to drill holes in the wood, fill them with kerosene and set fire to the whole lot. While I am sure this would be effective, it would also probably be effective in burning down several fences along with the gardens in the immediate vicinity. So we have gone for the chemical option and applied tree stump and root killer. I suspect that one treatment may not be enough and it will try and spring up elsewhere along the root or from another one, so constant vigilance will be required.

But to end on a happy note, here is a photo of part of our zone 1 alongside the kitchen and bathroom extension. Beans, tomatoes and chillis are flourishing, and the squashes are rampant and clambering up the garden wall. I may have overdone the comfrey juice! 

June - busy, busy, busy

Like 2015, 2016 started off cold and sometimes extremely wet. Everything, including parsnips, was started off indoors but May saw the start of warmer weather and planting out could begin. The good growing conditions continued in June and we had a continuing harvest of overwintered crops. We also had to play catchup over a very short time-span with sowing and planting out so there was very little time to relax and lounge around.

I started to clear and tidy up an area against the kitchen wall where, last autumn, I had dumped a couple of pots and piled up some wood. I abandoned the tidying up and replaced everything when I spotted this grumpy looking inflated toad. It could explain why the chard and brussel sprout seedlings that I had forgotten about and left out overnight had not been gobbled up by slugs and snails as they normally would have been.

I saw a second one at the other end of the garden but it could have been the same one having a wander around in search of alternative hiding places. May he/she and their friends continue their good work in the garden.

At this time of year not all the possible food growing areas are in use so if flowers pop up I leave them be. Like this poppy, they add a welcome splash of colour and encourage pollinators into the garden.

The potatoes bags right at the back of the garden are doing well and we've managed to plant runner beans against the fence itself. We still can't plant much in that strip because of  the sycamore tree roots. The trees that were on the other side of the fence have been removed but the substantial roots remain and are close to the surface. The beans do OK there but very little rain reaches them with the potatoes overshadowing the soil, so I have to remember to water them regularly.

The Babington's leeks have now reached maturity (it is their third year in the garden) and three of them have sprouted flower stalks. Hopefully they will mature and we shall have dozens of bulbils some of which will go back into the garden and the rest shared with other gardeners in the area.

Clouds of these beauties have been darting around the garden this month. Common blue damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum.

This was an experiment in growing potatoes from supermarket potatoes. It is not generally a good idea to try this as you cannot guarantee that they will be disease free and they are usually sprayed with chemicals that inhibit sprouting; but I decided to see how far I could get with some Ruby Gem. As expected, they didn't sprout very well when left on the dresser in the kitchen (my usual chitting area) but there was enough growth to encourage me to plant them out in a potato bag. Growth was rather leggy and it quickly died back. The total yield from 3 potatoes was 274g. Some supermarket salad potatoes fared even worse. They just sat on the dresser for two months and turned green.

The experiment supports the general opinion that it is not really worth trying to get a decent group out of the treated potatoes to be found on supermarket shelves.

The peas that I used to test viability and germination rates for the Reading Food Growing Network are growing apace in the bags alongside the kitchen and bathroom extension. This is what they look like from the kitchen window.












And here is the outside view. The runner beans in the tub are also starting to take off.

We have plenty of  overwintered pointed cabbages and onions this year. Last year the cabbages were a great disappointment but they have more than made up for that in 2016. I have been cutting the heads off but leaving the stems with a few of the lower leaves hoping to encourage them to regrow. We are now starting to see a second crop of looser heads of leaves.

We have a lot of wild alpine strawberries in our garden that were planted to provide ground cover at the rear of the garden while we decided what to with that patch. The area had, for the last few years, been overshadowed by sycamore trees on the other side of the fence and their roots still restrict what we can plant there. The strawberry fruits may be small but they are gorgeous little flavour bombs. Delicious with homemade yogurt and the first of this season's locally produced honey from 600 yards down the road.

The wild strawberries take over a patch of ground very quickly and are difficult to manage so regrettably they will have to go now that the ground is to be used for higher yielding crops.

Replacing the wild strawberries in some places are the larger "domesticated" varieties and the first of those are beginning to ripen.  

Two years ago I planted a small grape vine that I bought from a stall at a RISC Roof Garden open day. We may have grapes this year!

The tea bags for this year's Tea Bag Index Project have arrived. See my posting about last year's participation for details of what is involved. This year the pairs of tea bags are going into the strip of ground next to the back fence, the ground that is next to the composting area, and the narrow strip alongside the garden shed.