Growing your own - is it worth it?

[vinteuil]

Are you still at the YMCA or is Casa Vints fit for human habitation once more?

... the builders claim all will be done by late October. Me, I have the confidence of our 1914 politicians - I'm sure it'll all be over by Christmas....

But the temporary pad is civilised enough, ta

[amateur51]

... the builders claim all will be done by late October. Me, I have the confidence of our 1914 politicians - I'm sure it'll all be over by Christmas....

But the temporary pad is civilised enough, ta

Good to hear, what with you and Caliban being in a state of domestic upheaval, those of us who lives relatively disorganised and chaotic lives are beginning to feel encroached upon

These thoughts prompted by a recent incident in which a 'tower' of CDs suddenly tottered over on top of me

This of course is what comes of trying to live in an orderly fashion on a quickly spinning ball progressing around the Sun.

[doversoul1]

courgettes / marrows

Drat!! It’s only just into July and I’ve already let two courgettes grow into marrows (i.e. missed then when they were just right size).

Does anyone have a good recipe for marrows or overgrown courgettes? I have tried stuffed marrows but wasn’t too impressed. The case wasn’t quite cooked and the whole thing tasted rather bland. The stuffing works well with cabbage.

Soup is the best thing to use up surplus but again, it can be rather boring and it does become quite boring when you have a huge cooking pot full of it for two people. I have put it in the freezer but then, it tends to stay there until next defrosting session.

They can quietly go to the compost heap but I’d like to avoid this option as much as possible. I don’t think any of my neighbours know what to do with marrows.

[umslopogaas]

Two possibilities.

Let them keep growing until the autumn and donate them to the local church for the harvest festival. They will have to say thank you even if they dont know what to do with them either. But only do this if you dont want any more courgettes, because I think leaving big ones on the plant may suppress the formation of more little ones.

Repeat the stuffed marrow recipe, but make more stuffing and chuck away most of the marrow, just leaving enough to encase the stuffing. Its really just an excuse to eat stuffing.

[french frank]

Drat!! It’s only just into July and I’ve already let two courgettes grow into marrows (i.e. missed then when they were just right size).

Does anyone have a good recipe for marrows or overgrown courgettes? I have tried stuffed marrows but wasn’t too impressed.

If they're big enough, cut them into thick rings, peeled, remove the seeds and fill with a thick tomato and herby sauce with lots of garlic. That shouldn't be bland :-). I would quickly parboil the marrow and finish in the oven with the sauce added. It makes a good side vegetable for a meat or fish dish anyway. I call it marrow 'à la portugaise' although I think this is only my interpretation of the meaning.

[Anna]

My mother occasionally made stuffed marrow, she used sausage meat mixed with onions, herbs, etc., but what made it tasty is that she then poured over an undiluted can of Campbells condensed cream of mushroom soup when it went into the oven. It was a cheap and filling way to feed 6 hungry mouths!

Ontopic. My beans, which I put in very late, are at the top of their sticks and I've pinched the tips out; the tomatoes are a bit slow (again I was late) not as many trusses as I would like yet and something is eating round holes in the leaves of my scotch bonnet but I cannot see any caterpillars. Which reminds me, last year Ams said he was going to embrace veg growing, I wonder if he has?

[french frank]

I was going to call for help over my runners: the blossom was dropping without setting, which apparently can happen early in the summer. However, the remaining flowers are setting better now and the packet says they can be harvested from the beginning of August, which will probably be about right. Still not a lot of bees around, even though I have specially provided flowers for them ...

[amateur51]

My mother occasionally made stuffed marrow, she used sausage meat mixed with onions, herbs, etc., but what made it tasty is that she then poured over an undiluted can of Campbells condensed cream of mushroom soup when it went into the oven. It was a cheap and filling way to feed 6 hungry mouths!

Ontopic. My beans, which I put in very late, are at the top of their sticks and I've pinched the tips out; the tomatoes are a bit slow (again I was late) not as many trusses as I would like yet and something is eating round holes in the leaves of my scotch bonnet but I cannot see any caterpillars. Which reminds me, last year Ams said he was going to embrace veg growing, I wonder if he has?

i got going with some straweberries and some tomatoes Anna but despite a vigorous soaking with water prior to my week in France they did not survive the week of neglect

I'm just not cut out for growing my own, I suspect.

[doversoul1]

Re: courgettes / marrows
umslopogaas
I do something similar toward the end of the season when I’ve had enough courgettes to last another nine months.

ff and Anna
Parboil sounds a sensible thing to do and sausage meat did occur to me. I’ll certainly try them both. Not sure about the soup bit but I could add leftover gravy or sauce.

As for runner beans, has anyone tried growing white flower variety? The flowers are not terribly pretty but the beans are very long, tender and string-less.

[clive heath]

We've been growing a white-flowered "Climbing French Bean" called "Romano" for many years. It is indeed flat and stringless and absolutely delicious. You used to get the seeds from Thompson and Morgan but they ceased selling, possibly poor sales and/or licence costs so we have to save the seed. There are similar varieties in the shops which get quite close in flavour which we have experimented but not stuck with.

On our light, excessively well drained, West London alluvial, gravelly, sandy soil we have some success with Charlotte and Desiree second early/ maincrop potatoes but have struggled to find a decent first early and we have tried Ratte, Pink Fir Apple and other supposedly waxy first earlies to no avail, poor cropping, hang around for years after! so we are looking for suggestions of varieties that work on this soil type. We are currently lifting Casablanca which is OK but lacks a little tastewise.

[Anna]

I find I am - most unexpectedly - growing white flowered runners!! I'd left it late so went to the weekly market to buy bean plants only to find he'd sold out (to a bloke from the allotments, 18 trays of them @ 16 plants per tray!) so I ordered some beans for the following week, collected them and assumed they were Enorma as that's what he'd had previously. I'll go to market this Friday in the hope that he can remember what variety I have and, come harvest time, I can report what they were like (I'd wondered in fact why the foliage was a paler shade of green) In a way I'm disappointed because the traditional red flowers look so pretty. As to blossom dropping without setting, in the past this has always happened to the very lower flowers, I'd assumed it was perhaps the same as apple drop?

As to bees, earlier in the season there were loads but now there seems to be a definite lack of them.

Ams, sorry about your failure - what you need is an obliging friend/neighbour or perhaps move them indoors to a cool shaded area whilst on holiday.

[umslopogaas]

#220 Clive, according to the RHS Vegetable bible, 'Pink Fir Apple' isnt an early, its a late-maturing maincrop, so perhaps you just harvested too soon? I've got some in big pots - never tried this before, but ran out of space in the veg garden - and tipped one out yesterday to have a look. There are definitely edible tubers, but they are still rather small, they'll be better in another month or two. Apart from needing a lot of watering in the dry spells, growing them in big pots seems to work well.

[clive heath]

Thanks umslopogaas...as my wife is fond of pointing out, I've never been very good at reading instructions!!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Re Pink Firs, these are indeed a latish main crop. The best thing to do with potatoes is to wait until the leaves start to decay before lifting. My "earlies" all have yellowing leaves now, but the pink fir plants are a rich green and are still flowering.

[umslopogaas]

Thanks EA, my Pink Fir Apples will certainly be a lot bigger in September, and knowing that even when they are mature you dont get a big crop, I shall wait. The main problem with these late maturing spuds is that the longer you have to wait, the greater the chance of pests and diseases taking their toll: the ones I tipped out of the pot yesterday already have some scab and in a couple of months they will probably have a lot more.