late summer harvests ....

The growing season is slowly winding down on the lottie.
After weeks of drought and scorching temperatures, there has been rain - quite a lot of rain.
The grass paths have recovered ... and so have the weeds!
It's been a good year for the squash. We have picked lots of yellow crookneck squash and there are a number of beautiful orange Hokkaido winter squash ripening nicely in the late summer sun.
Though the crookneck squash are pretty to look at and a little unusual, I'm not sure I will grow them again. Despite picking them whilst still small, the flesh had a lot of large seeds in the middle which I scraped out prior to cooking - hence quite a lot of wastage.
Nevertheless, there have been a lot of courgette/squash related meals chez fenland lottie recently.
This is a recipe called Baked Ratatouille Tian from Kellie at Food to Glow.




I can recommend it as a delicious and healthy supper dish. I added some mozzarella cheese but it would be equally yummy without.

I've also returned to a favourite recipe for chocolate beetroot cake.
This is recipe I've written about before. You can read about it here.
The recipe calls for pre cooked beetroot, but I used raw beetroot from the lottie, steamed it until soft, then continued with the recipe as written.


Quick, easy and deliciously squidgy!

This morning the postman knocked on the door with a parcel; a big box containing two carefully wrapped Ruby Falls raspberry plants.
You may remember that earlier this year, I took a spade to the autumn fruiting raspberry canes and dug them up!
Though raspberries are one of my favourite fruit, the raspberry canes on the allotment were slowly taking over the entire plot ( and despite digging them up, 6 months later, I am still finding runners popping up everywhere!)
But .... I missed having fresh raspberries, so enter raspberry Ruby Falls, a raspberry that can be grown in a hanging basket or container!

I've read that they fruit well and so fingers crossed for a good harvest next year.
I will keep you informed.

Speak soon.

Annie
x



Comments

  1. My raspberries are the same, they pop up all over the place, miles from where they've originated. I love the sound of a hanging basket variety. Chocolate beetroot cake sounds like a winner. I've made lots of beetroot chocolate brownies in the past which always go down well. Any minute now I'm going to be deluged with pears, so it will be pear and chocolate cake here I think. CJ xx

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    1. I'm hoping the 'Ruby Falls' will be a winner. Pear and chocolate - that's another match made in heaven.

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  2. Oh, it has been such a disastrous season on our plot, though bizarrely the yellow patty pan squashes have done well. In the end I reckoned the payback for hours of watering was too small to drive myself into the ground for, so declared the Weather Gods the winners and gave up there's always next year!

    Tian looks good, and I may even begin baking again now I've seen thT cake.

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    1. It's been a hard year with such scorching temperatures. The one redeeming feature was that even the weeds gave up!

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  3. I've not had that much luck with raspberries in the past but I rather like the idea of growing them in a hanging basket

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    1. Hoping the raspberries grow well. I will let you know.

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