Indian Summer in Essex

It was a fantastic weekend in South East Essex, the mornings had a thick dew settled on the grass in my back garden and the sky was a picture perfect hazy blue without a cloud in sight. There was no wind either. My wife wants to decorate our living room so she set off early for the day to look at furniture shops and the like with our littlest one. I had Max for the day and he wanted to go up to the plot.

We took my mother in laws little Peugeot because I needed to get some manure from a scary old house up in Eastwood that sells the good stuff which is a couple of years old and cheap. Just 50p gets you a big sack of Shit. I crammed eight sacks into the boot and on the back seat "Sorry Belle mere". I'd never met the owner of the house before because you take what you need, and then pay on a trust basis by putting the change into his porch. But just as we was leaving today a silver haired guy in his sixties stopped to say hello that turned out to be the guy who sell's the manure. He told me he had loads and loads of it and would deliver if we wanted fifty bags or more at a time. That'll be useful in the future as it’s not really a good idea to load your car up with horse shit, especially when it’s not your own car.

We popped into the garden centre whilst in Eastwood where we found some found some radicchio and more purple sprouting broccoli - Yum; I'll have over two dozen of these for next spring.

Back in the car and over to the plot. On the way the radio the DJ was banging on about the Indian summer and how nice the weekend was, he got it all wrong with the Indian bit though as he was referring to India and how lucky all those Indians where.

In fact the Indian summer relates to the North American Indians who used the cooler but dry and hazy late summer months to harden of their squash and dry their beans and maize.

Over at the plot Max opened the gates and raced me to the top where our plot is, I followed up in the manure filled car very slowly so that he won - again!

There were a few children about and Max went to catch up with one of his friends.

I hadn't seen Keith for quite some time and he was there pottering around, we had a chat for a while. Keith had been to a local timber merchant where he buys up the seconds in decking for his raised beds. The merchant had a load of bits and bobs of wooden frames and the like which they delivered to the plot next to his. It was a free for all and I took several useful lengths to make netting cages. Gave Keith one of my Swedes for his Sunday roast and a packet of turnip seeds I had spare. Not sure if they will be any good this time of the year but he'll plant em any roads.

On to my plot and I thinned out my turnips a little more as the packet said one every ten centimetres or so, I have them at about every six to eight now so I will thin out once more when the time is right.

Then I Cut down a load of the strawberry growth and potted some of the runners. I may actually dig them all up and replant them in the same box but with the gardeners membrane spread about and holes cut into it for the plants, but not for now.

A few of the Garlic and onion sets had begun to sprout. Amazing considering I only planted them a week ago. These all got a good soaking and onto the beans which I am leaving on now for shelling and seed saving for casseroles and next years planting. Shirley grew way too many for her own needs and kindly gave me a bunch of beans for Sunday’s dinner.

Max and I planted out the Radicchio and we gave Shirley a couple of them to try. To be honest I have no Idea what its going to taste like so I will Google it and find some recipes that use it to get an Idea. We dug over the area and dumped two sacks of the manure into the area where three of my courgette plants have bit the dust, mixed it all up a bit and dug them in.

I'm down to just four courgette plants now and two of them are about to croak it. I will put them out of their misery once they have given me four last courgettes. It’s a bit sad really. I only have two left in the veg box and as much as we ate these this summer, we never once complained of having them three times a week.

The cucumbers seen better days too! There are two left on the vine so I fed the plant and keep it well watered in the hope they will grow larger than the gherkin size that they are at present.

We checked on the Squash and Pumpkin. The squash has been a little bit of a disappointment as we only have one decent sized fruit developed and a few little ones about the size of a can of pop but still green. The pumpkin has provided three basketball sized fruits. We ate one a month or so back. I knocked up Pumpkin Ravioli which totally destroyed my kitchen but was very nice and then I made soup with the other half which was lovely too. Another is on a shelf in my garage and the last one is on the vine.

We picked up some broccoli. I had harvested all the main Calabrese heads already but left the plants in which was a good idea because we now get lots of small spears appearing all the time. I don’t know why but one the purple sprouting broccoli’s has started budding too so we bagged this up for lunch.

The second batches of peas have a couple dozen pods forming and a load of flowers. I was giving these a soak when Bob and his wife came up to say hello. I showed Bob about the plot. He and his wife liked the sprouts and Swedes which made me happy because Bob's a bit of a farmer in my eyes. His wife (another Shirley) asked if it was not too late for the peas and salads I had shown them. I thought about this a moment and replied that it maybe but my expectations are now zero so If I have to dig up four mini lettuces for one meal or only manage one plate of peas from my entire row then I would be happy because I would have grown it.

Afternoon was becoming evening so we picked all the tools up and packed them into the shed. Took out the watering can and soaked the back of the plot with all the winter veg and made our way home for a sneaky Indian summer’s barbeque and the last of the courgettes.