Sydenham harvest

[SepticSkeptic]

A mini harvest...

[Tim Lund]

Impressed by those radishes - I don't seem to have the hang of growing them.

(And by the rhubarb and blackberries, but those I don't have problems with)

[Tim Lund]

Mulberries just starting for 2013!

[marymck]

How wonderful. How do you eat them? Do they need to be cooked, like quinces. I love quinces. Especially the smell of them.

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[Tim Lund]

Yes, just eating them's pretty good, though soon your hands will look like those of a deranged serial killer



because their juice just goes everywhere - so you wear old clothes to pick them. This is also why you never get them fresh in shops, because packaging and transporting them is always going to be a nightmare. But they freeze well, and you can use them mushed up as the base for puddings, or mixed with yoghurt, or made into a fool. Very good in summer puddings too.

They should be a bit riper that the ones in my picture - I just didn't want to wait.

They get to be big trees, and don't like being pruned, so it's worth knowing where trees are - e.g. the car part of the Golden Lion, Lawrie Park Avenue in from the St. Christopher's Hospice. In the past they've let me pick some in return for a donation. Now I have my own tree ...

[marymck]

Fascinating. How old is your tree Tim? How long did it take to get a crop? And what's needed for pollination? I seem to remember an old one in the garden of the Shakespeare birthplace trust, when I lived nearby. It was very old I believe.

Edit to say I'm now wondering if Shakespeare's tree was a medlar?

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[Tim Lund]

Probably took about six years before we started getting a crop. Mulberries were widely - mistakenly - planted in the reign of James I thinking they would form the basis for a silk industry. Sadly they planted Morus nigra rather than morus alba. I think there's a tree from that era still in Evelyn's garden in Deptford. There's a huge old tree on my cycle route in to Canary Wharf, on a housing estate in Lewisham / Deptford - whose fruit, within the reach if kids, I'm pleased to say get eaten.

[marymck]

Thanks for this Tim and for introducing me to John Evelyn's garden. What a wonderful discovery! I particularly like the mottoes he used: "the year encircled with flowers". It sounds as though I must get there soon, as it seems the remains are going to be built over.

I have a theory that almost everyone who researches their family history will find a connection to Deptford somewhere down the line. Far fetched, I know, but it's very emotive to experience a tree ones ancestors may have known and that has had do much happen around it.

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[Tim Lund]

That's the lot of gooseberries and red-currants and just a few more blackcurrants. Blackberries are just starting, as are mulberries. If anyone would like some mulberries, just let me know. Otherwise I have to buy another deep freeze.

[simon]

Do you think we are in for a decent quince harvest this year, Tim? Last year was so disappointing.

[Tim Lund]

I've not been to check in my contact's garden, but apples are looking good this year, so I would imagine quinces will be too. OTOH, quinces are - or have been - on sale this year at Penge Food Centre; with lamb in a tegine it seems to be a Moroccan classic.

[sean]

This year has been a bumper year for fruit. Recently picked 15lb of currants. [youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSOHpR1BbUA[/youtubes]

But friends of mine have had terrible trouble with blackfly. [youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TumlY9ms4xc[/youtubes]

[Tim Lund]

Figs. The standard variety for growing in this country - Brown Turkey. Just starting to ripen up, with probably about 100 fruit on a tree I planted about 6 years ago. Here's John Cushnie in the Telegraph on how to grow them.

[Tim Lund]

Somehow that war time spirit lives on



My Mum, former domestic science teacher, would be proud of her daughter-in-law

[JRobinson]

I made two jars of lemon curd last weekend.
I have some plum wine on the go, some pears from next door, some elderberries from another forum poster, and some foraged blackberries - all to be made into very nice wine (hopefully).
22 onions lifted this weekend, of various sizes, 'spring' onions growing a second crop, Brocolli getting rather large, and tomato harvest continuing apace.

[Tim Lund]

The fig tally just reached 41



This was what I had to leave the Neighbourhood Forum meeting for



But still plenty of ripe ones being protected from fruit flies by a very handy product from Lakeland Plastics

[Tim Lund]

Do you think we are in for a decent quince harvest this year, Tim? Last year was so disappointing.

Every prospect Simon, but at least another month till they are ripe

[Tim Lund]

Not me, but another local allotment holder has a glut of Victoria plums.



(I've cheated on the image here, taking it from this commercial site. Just thought I should say that, out of principle.)

I just took 1.5kg off her hands (an informal trade against mulberries earlier in the season), and am thinking of using them for this, from the Waitrose web site

Ingredients
3 onions, finely chopped
50g fresh root ginger, finely grated
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped
2.5kg plums, stoned and quartered
1 litre white wine vinegar
250g light soft brown sugar
200ml light soy sauce
½ cinnamon stick
3 star anise
Method
The sauce Put the onions, ginger, garlic, chilli, plums, vinegar and 300ml water in a large pan. Simmer for 20 minutes, until soft. Sieve, in batches, pushing with a wooden spoon to extract all the pulp and liquid. Discard the contents of the sieve.
Return the strained liquid to the pan with the sugar and soy sauce and bring back to the boil. Add the cinnamon and star anise. Simmer, uncovered, for about 11/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until thick. Remove the spices, pour into sterilised bottles, seal and cool.
Store in a cool, dark place for up to 4 months. Once opened, keep refrigerated and use within 3 weeks

Of course, here in Sydenham there is no need to aspire to an actual Waitrose store, when Penge Food Centre will have all the non-standard ingredients - thinking here of star anise.

Anyone else who wants any should PM me fast - they will go off very quickly.

Who'd be a traditional commercial fruit grower, having to deal with the vagaries of nature: nothing to deliver some years, gluts in years like this when you can hardly give your product away, and consumers seem to want the reliability that supermarkets can deliver?