Saturday 28 March 2015

The Rot Sets In

Friday turned out to be not too bad a day. It was a little bit on the cool side and as it was very cloudy and threatening rain at lunchtime so we decided not to visit the plot.

We took the opportunity to use up some of last year’s vegetables. Our winter squashes, Crown Prince, that have been stored in the summerhouse are starting to show some serious signs of deterioration. 
However, one very large squash in particular looked in excellent condition and we decided to cook, puree the flesh and freeze it. This way we would have some squash to use in pumpkin pie through the summer.
By the time the flesh had been cooked we had enough to make two pumpkin pies, two pumpkin loaves and two batches of pumpkin muffins amounting to 2.6kg of squash.

This got us into the mood and we decided to cook and freeze some of the potatoes we had left in store in the garage. These have kept well over winter but are now starting to grow new shoots and as a result they will soon be turning soft.
This box is full of a variety called Casablanca which is a first early variety and is grown for its new potato flavour rather than its keeping qualities. These potatoes were one of the first to be lifted last August and boxed up to go in the garage. Due to my lapse in organising skills the box was left at the bottom of the pile in the garage and as a result the last to be used. Nevertheless the potatoes had kept in remarkably good shape overwinter and weren't actually growing any more the any other of our remaining potatoes. These got the same treatment as the squash. They were cooked and will be frozen in suitable proportions.

We still have one or two small savoy cabbages on the plot to use, some red cabbages, a short row of leeks, possibly some carrots and some onions and shallots still stored in the garage. We’re now entering the produce gap between the last of last year’s crop and the wait for the first of this year’s crop. We’ll be very glad of our freezer supplies.

4 comments:

  1. My son in laws mother reputedly made a wicked pumpkin pie which I never got to taste, he said he would make one sometime perhaps its time to remind him

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pumpkin pie is awesome. Good luck getting one to taste.

      Delete
  2. My family loathes pumpkin anything, so I am a bit envious about the pie, cookies, bread, etc. Our pumpkins are rotting (quite a bit further along than your squash) on the garden wall. I wonder if we'll get any seedlings from them?

    Christine in Alaska, no rain or pumpkins here, yet

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Collected lots of seeds from one of our pumpkins. It will be interesting to see if any will grow and exactly what sort of pumpkins they produce.

      Delete

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