BeetrootandSpuds

One of our successes this year has been Swiss chard, which is still flourishing in the polytunnel, although beginning to look a little ragged thanks to some hungry slugs. The stems range in colour from bright yellows to translucent reds and pinks, and it is very tasty stir-fried (stems first, leaves a minute or two later with a knob of butter and some salt and pepper) and goes well with our home grown potatoes and apple sauce. But that is far from all that can be done with it, as enthusiastic vegetarian Laura Lawless explains here (click "Read More" to see the link): Laura Lawless on Swiss chard

Pickling is quite a tedious job. Apart from cutting up the item to be pickled (in this case Jalapeño peppers) the bottles or jars that are going to be used need to be sterilised. We put ours in a low oven for at least 10 minutes meanwhile boiling up the lids. Still, the end result is not unsatisfying

Tomorrow's job will be pickling the last of our jalapeño peppers

Despite the dreadful weather we have had of late - and, they say, there is more to come - our polytunnel remains, for the moment, in place. We've weighted down the side flaps with concrete blocks and bricks, and have lashed the tunnel down with rope run through ducting from our local electrical suppliers to reduce friction. The ropes are tied to large iron pegs secured under cement slabs. And, most important of all, our fingers are crossed.

No doubt about it, our pak choi is now running to seed (in fact this photo was taken a few days ago). Whether we will be able to gather and use them for next year's crop remains to be seen.

When I was a boy my grandmother used to tell me to eat up my carrots, because "they help you see in the dark." Perhaps they do, in which case they might be particularly useful this year, as the lights flicker and we head towards the shortest day, which is, amazingly, less than a month away. Be that as it may, our carrots continue to thrive in the polytunnel.

Leeks are slow growing. When we planted ours as seedlings in the polytunnel around the beginning of August, some of our more experienced neighbors wisely shook theirs heads and told us there was no chance they would produce anything edible, probably ever, and certainly not before Christmas. Well, they may not be the biggest we've ever seen, but they've certainly done well, and we fully expect they will be delicious by the time of our Christmas lunch

It's cold, it's wet, the days are getting shorter and yet there are already signs that the next generation of vegetables from BeetrootandSpuds is on the way. Here is one of the onions we planted at the end of last month

No doubt about it, allotments need some hard work. At least ours does. Planting, weeding, harvesting and digging to improve the soil can all be back-breaking to those not used to it. Most of what we grow is chosen so a simple reason: we want to eat it. But some of our plants are not only nourishing, but a pleasure simply to look at. One of those is fennel

A few days ago we discovered that the last courgettes to which we were looking forward (sliced up wth mozzarella, tomato, olive oil and some salt and pepper) had been just too tempting. Slugs had beaten us to them.  For much of this year we have been lucky, the long hot dry days proved as good a slug detererrent as we could have wished, but with all the rain we have had recently, they are back.  And we will need to decide how we are going to deal with them.

This strange looking object (we think the picture on the left rather resembles the head of a rare gazelle) was passed to us recently, and we wondered if any of our readers would care to guess what it is ? Do let us know you think.  Answers can be posted using the Comments key below

One of the unexpected successes we have had since starting our allotment has been pak choi. The first batch we planted germinated fast, but bolted before producing anything very edible. The second batch, however, (bought from Wilko, at a mere £1 per packet), planted in early August, was producing delicious shoots within a few weeks and has carried on doing so until early this month. Stir fried in a little butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper, pak choi makes an excellent accompaniment to a huge range of meals from curry to chops

On a recent visit to France I went visited the local market, where several smallholders had stalls selling vegetables they had grown. Almost certainly their plots are much bigger than ours (which is approximately 35 ft square), but in terms of the range of plants they grow and the quality of the produce, theirs is the standard to aim for. I was particularly taken with the black radishes, many of which were bigger than my forearm, and which I am really hoping to try growing next year.

As I have mentioned before, we picked the last of our potatoes, against the "Oh so helpful" advice of allotment sages, on a damp day. And were they muddy! However, they are now clean, dry and ready for sacking up. That is, those that are left. The others, I am happy to report, have a great flavour. Desirée (pink skinned) at the top, Charlotte at the bottom

Beetroot is an astonishngly versatile vegetable. You can eat the leaves as well as the root, which can be fried, baked, pickled or turned into borscht, soup commonly eaten in Eastern Europe. We find that fried up wth crême fraiche, onion and a little seasoning it goes well with a variety of meals, hot or cold.

One of the unexpected successes of our allotment this year has been the Daikon radishes that we planted soon after the plot got going, back in July They go well in salads, sliced or grated, and are excellent for pickling. The picture below shows a couple of jars we prepared recently

One thing on which all the books agree is that potatoes should be gathered on a dry day. There haven't been many dry days recently down our way, so we decided to harvest ours yesterday during a dryish interval in the afternoon. We had planted two varieties, Desirée and Charlotte, as late crops back in August, and the results while not spectacular, were satisfactory. Within about two and a half months both varieties had produced enough for a small sackful from just ten tubers. This picture shows the Charlottes, but given the amount of mud, the Desirées did not look very different.

Four months - Ok, and a bit - in, here is some of our produce

A ready supply of pallets has proved invaluable

And by mid-September, when our allotment had been going for just 2.5 months, things looked like this

In early Auguest our poly tunnel (a bargain at £62) went up. It may not look much yet, but it should prolong growing conditions until well into autumn. In this picture you can see leeks and carrots to the left, Swiss chard to the right

At the beginning of August we pulled our first beetroots, and jolly delicious they were. Beetroot is a great plant for an allotment: you can eat the leaves and the roots, which can be baked, fried, pickled, boiled or turned into Borscht

With the site now cleared of weeds - though plenty of digging will still be required to get it fully productive - we were able to expand our crops to include fennel, pak choi and several sorts of radish

Mid-July saw the first signs that things were beginning to take root. By now beans, beetroot and radishes were all settled down. The only problem was that they needed watering every day

After a fortnight the plot was nostly cleared and was beginning to look more like an allotment, albeit rather an empty one

By the end of Week 1 we were able to plant out first beetroot, along with some runner beans generously given to us by our neighbour

As we began to clear the worst of the weeds we foudnt aht they had grown through black sheeting which must have been put down several years ago. Although it was hard work to cut the weeds and back pull the sheeting off, we did find buried amongst the overgrowth a compost bin and an elderly wheelbarrow, which bceome ssomething of a focal point during the summer

To begin at the beginning, we got our allotment at the end of June this year. It had previously been two plots, one of which had a few small raised beds on it, while the otehr was pure weeds, waist high docks, couch grass and bindweed.