Sooo much pooping

[Alis girls]

Not just bloomin plums (see other thread) - having got on top of allotment this yr - OH has the time to dig being jobless suddenly find his digging, chicken manure and my seed sowing, potting etc and we have courgettes, runner beans, beetroot, spuds, cabbage carrots etc all coming at once. Panic sets in as my finicky kids will only eat certain veg (like their mum at a certain age) so working hard to use it and produce wholesome food etc.

I find myself asking why I put summer cabbage in - must be mad. At the end of my allotment is a pear, bramleys apple another apple tree and blackberries. I asked the allotment manager who these bushes belonged to and she said they are yours to pick. OH and I have spent a lovely afternoon picking fruit and we had stuffed apples with blackberries tonight.

I am not compalining just wondered if I am the only one disappearing under a mountain of produce and yes have given some away.

I love having allotment - I got my first years ago after a traumatic incident in my life where I felt of the verge of a breakdown - I found I was good at growing veg - something I had never known - just need to get more organised.

[Old Speckled Hen]

I sorted courgettes/tomatoes last year by oven roasting them with onions and garlic then liquidising and freezing for pasta sauce. It was wonderful.

Similarly carrots roasted with garlic and rosemary can be similarly blitzed and make a sumptuous base for sauces and soups.

Beetroot is good roasted with honey and frozen in plastic bags...it keeps its shape and can be resurrected at Christmas time and can accompany pork and gamey meat. Just defrost and bung in the oven in a tray in the last 15 minutes of roasting your joint.

Apples.........I just had too many of those so I made my own pectin.

[Daphne]

You can freeze the runners and all the fruit. I make my courgettes into a soup with some cheese and freeze which is nice midwinter. Will your children eat fruit pies or crumbles or tart tatin? May need to buy another freezer tho Or you could hire a fruit press and juice the apples/pears or make them into cider? Or fruit juice lollies? If you drink you could try making a blackberry liqueur (delish). If you carefully store the apples/pears individually wrapped in paper in a cool dry place you could be eating them fresh for months. Ditto some of the roots/pots - I dimly remember talk of 'clamps', which I think is damp/cool sand or earth covering them but I'm sure you could do it in a deepish box in a garage. My top tip for next year, and I don't mean this to sound patronising at all, is only grow what you like and either succession sow so you have it for a while but in manageable amounts OR only sow a little and give away/barter excess seed. Or Freecycle in exchange for an odd job/hen sit or two?

[kinsk]

We have loads of courgettes at the moment. The best way I am getting though them is grated in pasta. Have done a few variations on it and my nice and nephew wolf it down, they are the worlds pickiest eaters. Courgetti spaghetti we call it. I either do it with salmon, trout, pancetta, sometimes mix eggs in for a kind of carbonara, sometimes some creme fraiche or philadelphia and some water from the pasta. Lemon juice and some parmesan.

 

Veg fritters, grate any veg, mix together with some flour and egg, fry, serve with ketchup, kids eat anything with ketchup.

[Alis girls]

Mmmmm mine are too inquisitive by half not sure if would be fooled by courgette spaghetti. Might give it a go and let u know

[chickencam]

I can recommend the roasted courgette and tomato blitzed for past a sauce, very good and they shrink in volume for freezer space too.