The Kitchen Garden - September

Rosemary Martin

 

Vegetables

Our maincrop potatoes have now been lifted and put into paper sacks in the shed for storage, as we are still eating our early potatoes, which did really well this year. Our onions are now hanging up in the shed and should last us all winter. The shallots have been pickled, as have many of the beetroot, and we are looking forward to trying them around mid October. Runner beans can continue to be picked and they freeze really well, but they will usually be finished around mid September, when the plants can be cleared and the canes put back into store until next year.

In the greenhouse the sweet pepper, cucumber and tomato plants are coming to the end of a productive season and now need to be put on the compost heap, but beware composting the tomatoes themselves, as the seed is virtually indestructible and they will germinate wherever you spread the finished compost! The Golden Berry plant (Cape Gooseberry) didn`t do too well this year as it may have got scorched in the July sunshine when we were away, but they are always interesting to grow and the small fruits, which taste rather like pineapple, are a treat in fruit salad or with plain yoghurt.

Fruit

Harvesting and preserving fruit are the main agenda this month. Our first crop of Victoria plums are a triumph, and we are bottling and making jam with all that we cannot eat fresh. Continue to pick late raspberries, blackberries, loganberries etc. which all freeze very easily; spread them out on trays and pop into the freezer for a few hours so that they freeze individually, then put them into bags and refreeze. It is then possible to use as few or as many as you wish over winter without waste .

When they have finished fruiting, blackberries and loganberries etc. should have this year`s fruiting canes cut to the ground and the new canes, which will fruit next summer, tied in. We grow the “Oregon Thornless” blackberry, which has lovely sweet fruits which are painless to pick, and the spent canes can be shredded and composted quite safely.

We will be planting new strawberry runners into their final positions before the end of October so that the plants settle in before winter. If you haven`t much space then the plants will thrive in almost any type of container, as long as they are well fed and have adequate drainage. Any plants over three years old should be replaced to maintain vigour and to maximize yield..