Saturday 17 October 2009

Last of the toms!

First of all:
Mum - Many Happy Returns for 16th
love from us all
xxxx


Welcome back to Reads Retreat. Sorry we've been absent for a while, but we've been a little busy. Not much has been happening in the garden, but we did venture out earlier to pick what is probably the last of the toms. The basket pictured left contains what is probably soon to be chutney! Some of these toms were given to me by a fellow allotment holder who had "no use" for the greener ones - that surprised me a tad ! Not much gets wasted here at Reads Retreat, and this mixed bag of ripe / green toms is no exception. Check out Reads Recipes in the next few days, and you might find another mouthwatering chutney recipe!
As usual at this time of year, we are hanging up bean pods to dry, and this pic shows some "drying" in progress. We never seem to save enough pods, but at least the seeds that we get this year can be mixed in with whatever we buy for next year, which does of course save us some money in the long run. Also, we can be very selective as to which plant we save seed from, and hopefully the following year we'll get bigger and better crops. This is especially important on the runner bean front, as my Grandad Read collected runner bean seeds for many years, and I'm carrying on the tradition, writing this blog in his memory. Wonder if he's reading this now ?

That's about all for now.

We hope you'll pop back soon for more updates from Reads Retreat.

Till then,

TTFN.

3 comments:

Shaheen said...

So sad the last of the tomatoes. Enjoy them!

I tried to dry some beans last year. Some were a hit: the peas; some were not: the climbing beans had not dried up well, and became mouldy. I am trying again this year, perhaps I didn't give much room around them to aerate!

Anonymous said...

good luck with your bean drying...a lot of people seem to do this though I have to say that I don't usually bother..however there are a few beans I missed this year which have started to dry so maybe I will keep them for next year!!!

Gary and Jen, and Ruby and Peter said...

I dont shell the beans until i can hear the seeds rattling around in the pods. That way you know they are dry.