{"id":556,"date":"2012-09-30T11:24:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-30T11:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/?p=556"},"modified":"2016-05-26T10:31:37","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T10:31:37","slug":"autumn-on-the-allotment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/autumn-on-the-allotment\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumn on the allotment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A selection of winter squashes<\/p><\/div>\n

A clear sunny morning was the perfect opportunity to harvest our abundant crop of winter squashes for further ripening and hardening off under cover before the first frosts appear.<\/p>\n

It has been an odd year on the allotment.\u00a0 Some of our stalwarts like purple and runner beans performed poorly, having either rotted in the sodden earth in early summer or fallen prey to the hordes of slugs and snails that appeared in the wake of all that rain.\u00a0 The tomatoes too were affected by blight for the first time ever and we lost the entire crop.<\/p>\n

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summer and winter squashes clambouring skywards<\/p><\/div>\n

By contrast the summer and winter squashes put on a\u00a0 marvelous show in terms of both colour and quantity.\u00a0 For summer squash, it is hard to beat courgette trombocino, which will happily climb\u00a0 or scramble at ground level , producing\u00a0 lots of tasty trombone shaped fruits. Firm and sweet fleshed when eaten young, or you can\u00a0 harden them off and treat like a winter squash too. Alternatively enter the more fetching specimens in the best dressed vegetable competition at your local country show and be prepared for groups of giggling gawpers and a panaply of rosettes.<\/p>\n

But it is the winter squashes that have been the most spectacular.\u00a0 This year we grew five varieties.\u00a0 Crown Prince is probably our favourite.\u00a0 With its blue-grey skin and perfect pumpkin shape it it would take the mere flick of a wand to be transformed into a fairytale carriage.\u00a0\u00a0 Plus it is the most long lasting of all the squashes, keeping up until Easter of the following year if stored correctly.<\/p>\n

\"turks<\/a>

Turks Turban – our finest specimen!<\/p><\/div>\n

A close second has to be the magnificent Turk’s Turban, with its mottled orange, cream and green skin and turban shape.\u00a0 This too is a good keeper.\u00a0 Top marks also go to the smaller onion shaped Red Kuri. Another firm fleshed variety,\u00a0 it is particularly good blanched and baked in the oven gratin style with some crumbled feta cheese, chopped rosemary and breadcrumbs.\u00a0 Since we have a good half dozen of these, friends be warned, this is\u00a0 going to be a regular addition to the autumn menu!!<\/p>\n

Small squash are perhaps\u00a0 more versatile than the whoppers because they can so easily be baked whole; just cut off the top and add a smattering of butter and some seasoning to the centre before replacing the lid and baking for around 45 minutes in a moderate oven.\u00a0 Burgess Vine Buttercup are the perfect shape for this and like trombocinos, will happily clambour over a trellis or arch.\u00a0 So useful in garden or allotment where space is at a premium as all squashes are real land grabbers.\u00a0 The Burgess Buttercup is a heritage variety and available from the Real Seed Catalogue<\/a>, which is well worth checking out if you are interested in growing more interesting vegetable varieties.<\/p>\n

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The unusually shaped Thelma Saunders<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, Thelma Sanders; another heritage variety and new to our allotment, where it grew like crazy and produced the strangest cream coloured fruit that we christened dragon’s eggs as we spied them glistening amongst the tendrils and greenery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A clear sunny morning was the perfect opportunity to harvest our abundant crop of winter squashes for further ripening and hardening off under cover before the first frosts appear. It has been an odd year on the allotment.\u00a0 Some of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":765,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions\/765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yoga-4-all.co.uk\/wp_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}