An odd question, I think, but if you're picking your various crops and you
have more than you can eat in one go (which I'm currently getting with
courgettes and raspberries and it's on the ever-closing-in horizon with the
beans) ... next time you pick fresh, do you tend to eat the freshest you
picked, with the worry that the earlier stuff will probably go past edible,
or do you eat up the earlier stuff first, where you then end up with lots of
mediocre not-so-fresh-but-edible stuff?
Or am I just the most disorganised person around, and everyone else is
keeping up with eating and freezing as required?

--

wrote...
An odd question, I think, but if you're picking your various crops and you
have more than you can eat in one go (which I'm currently getting with
courgettes and raspberries and it's on the ever-closing-in horizon with
the
beans) ... next time you pick fresh, do you tend to eat the freshest you
picked, with the worry that the earlier stuff will probably go past
edible,
or do you eat up the earlier stuff first, where you then end up with lots
of
mediocre not-so-fresh-but-edible stuff?
Or am I just the most disorganised person around, and everyone else is
keeping up with eating and freezing as required?

Freeze what we will use and eat what we want of the fresh stuff and the
older unused stuff in the fridge goes back on the compost heap.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Vegetable gluts are something I don't have a problem with, since I grow mainly fruit and my vegetable growing space is tiny, overshadowed, slugridden and totally unsuitable.

Each day I pick strawberries and raspberries and tayberries, and we eat what we want. Anything uneaten after 24 hours is then tipped into the deepfreeze.

But reading the courgette thread in particular, I can't help wondering - wouldn't it be easier just to plant fewer plants?

kay wrote:
But reading the courgette thread in particular, I can't help wondering -
wouldn't it be easier just to plant fewer plants?

Then what do you do when you catch a late frost and half the plants die?

On 08/08/2010 21:49, wrote:
An odd question, I think, but if you're picking your various crops and you
have more than you can eat in one go (which I'm currently getting with
courgettes and raspberries and it's on the ever-closing-in horizon with the
beans) ... next time you pick fresh, do you tend to eat the freshest you
picked, with the worry that the earlier stuff will probably go past edible,
or do you eat up the earlier stuff first, where you then end up with lots of
mediocre not-so-fresh-but-edible stuff?
Or am I just the most disorganised person around, and everyone else is
keeping up with eating and freezing as required?

Definitely eat the freshest stuff first and worry about the already
picked stuff if necessary - after all you've got to have something to
feed the chucks with! The best thing about grow your own is tasting the
really fresh taste that you never get from supermarket stuff! Last
night's courgette (well it was almost a marrow!!) was delicious, sliced
and roasted with some sweet chilli sauce.
Jill

Neither do we. Our garden has to keep us in food all winter. We tend to pick and freeze immediately. In fact this time of the year the garden is left to its own devices as there is not enough time in the day to pick, process and garden. Doing it that way means that all the frozen stuff, fruit and vegetable is really fresh when processed.

On 09/08/2010 10:13, kay wrote:

But reading the courgette thread in particular, I can't help wondering -
wouldn't it be easier just to plant fewer plants?


I grow them from seed and plant enough to allow for germination
failures. Then there is the risk of a slug or snail eating the heart out
of the young seedlings. Finally once they are in the garden there is the
danger of a late frost hitting them or cropping suddenly coming to an
end due to mosaic virus appearing. Since I've effectively got unlimited
space for growing vegetables I'd sooner have too many and put surplus on
the compost heap than not have enough. Same with the brassicas - there
are usually far more than we can eat or give away - except for this year
and they have done terribly, possibly due to the lack of rain. The
courgettes get hand watered to keep them going but I can't do that with
everything in the veg garden.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On 9 Aug, 12:31, Janet wrote:
In article , kay.6d56646
@gardenbanter.co.uk says...

But reading the courgette thread in particular, I can't help wondering
-
wouldn't it be easier just to plant fewer plants?

* Yes; except that (at least in the north) *how they perform varies
considerably from year to year. Some wet years they either rot off or *
are all leaf and minimal flowers /fruit. This year we had two months of
sunny unusually dry weather so they flowered their socks off.

* Janet

I am amazed at all this talk of wasting so much "Surplus" food,
Doesn't anyone have friends, neighbours who wouls appreciate some
"Eresh" fruit and veg, also one or 2 local OAP's, then there is
freezing, salting and jam and chutney making.
If your courgets are to many then let some grow into marrows, when
properly ripe they will last well into the winter.
I always keep my best peas and beens on the plant to ripen for next
years seed( on this subjuec I use a blue flower spray to mark the pods
I am keeping so that they dont get picked by accident).
With runner beans I do 2 sowings, with the 2nd sowing end of June/
early July so that they will crop almost till the frost.
David Hill

"kay" wrote in message
...

Bob Hobden;896832 Wrote:
wrote...-
An odd question, I think, but if you're picking your various crops and
you
have more than you can eat in one go (which I'm currently getting with
courgettes and raspberries and it's on the ever-closing-in horizon with

the
beans) ... next time you pick fresh, do you tend to eat the freshest
you
picked, with the worry that the earlier stuff will probably go past
edible,
or do you eat up the earlier stuff first, where you then end up with
lots
of
mediocre not-so-fresh-but-edible stuff?
Or am I just the most disorganised person around, and everyone else is
keeping up with eating and freezing as required?
-
Freeze what we will use and eat what we want of the fresh stuff and the

older unused stuff in the fridge goes back on the compost heap.



Vegetable gluts are something I don't have a problem with, since I grow
mainly fruit and my vegetable growing space is tiny, overshadowed,
slugridden and totally unsuitable.

Each day I pick strawberries and raspberries and tayberries, and we eat
what we want. Anything uneaten after 24 hours is then tipped into the
deepfreeze.

But reading the courgette thread in particular, I can't help wondering -
wouldn't it be easier just to plant fewer plants?


It's never that simple.

One plant would be enough for the two of us, but if I only plant one, it
dies and we have no courgettes. So I plant two, and both survive, creating
the glut. Murphy's law is quite specific in this regard.

Incidentally, you'll be able to see the two of them later in the year.
That's all I'm saying for now, I have a cunning plan. Watch this space.

Steve

Dave Hill wrote:
I am amazed at all this talk of wasting so much "Surplus" food,
Doesn't anyone have friends, neighbours who wouls appreciate some
"Eresh" fruit and veg, also one or 2 local OAP's, then there is
freezing, salting and jam and chutney making.

A lot of my problem at the moment is lack of time. I went to do a job on
the allotment yesterday morning. I was distracted by something else that
had to be done. Then I had to go elsewhere, and only got back by about 6.
Then I got distracted by something else that was more urgent (raspberries
had suddenly started cropping heavily and were starting to rot on the
plant!). By the time it was getting dark enough for insects to start feasting on me (and I'd already had to phone home to tell Nick to feed the children,
as it was after 7 and he never remembers if I'm not there to do it!) there
was no time to do the job that I'd originally gone out to do. I have about
6 of those 'really urgent must be done today' jobs lined up now, and every
time I go to do one, something else goes to the head of the urgent queue
instead.

If your courgets are to many then let some grow into marrows, when
properly ripe they will last well into the winter.

Which is a nice idea, but then they would never get eaten. :-)

I always keep my best peas and beens on the plant to ripen for next
years seed( on this subjuec I use a blue flower spray to mark the pods
I am keeping so that they dont get picked by accident).

Ooh, now that's a good idea. I've never seen such a thing before, where do
you buy it from?

Janet wrote:
" We don't like courgettes; what are they?"
" I wouldn't know how to cook them"

Those I've had from my nan. I think I traumatised her with a utternut
squash once - told her how to cook it, but apparently she spent 3 hours with
a potato peeler trying to peel it, instead of just taking a sharp knife to
it! (or, in fact, leaving it a week or 4 to ripen a bit more)

"My husband won't eat anything green or foreign".

"Foreign muck" is my nan's response to pasta. It's very depressing, really.
I'm sure she would like it if she tried it, and it would be a lot better for
her than her current reliance on roast dinners!

I offered the latter person some perfect new potatoes and she replied
"he won't eat anything with dirt on it, either".

"So wash them then!"

On 09/08/2010 16:36, Janet wrote:
In articlebf1cff4a-3eee-4e96-bd1f-
,
says...

I am amazed at all this talk of wasting so much "Surplus" food,
Doesn't anyone have friends, neighbours who wouls appreciate some
"Eresh" fruit and veg, also one or 2 local OAP's,

If I can give surplus away I do (and have). However, I live in a rural
area, where its the nature of gluts that local growers all have the same
excess at the same time, are all trying to give it away at the same
time..if they can find a recipient.I'm always shocked how many people
won't accept or eat fresh veg from the garden because they either, don't
recognise them, or don't know how to prepare them.

In the last few weeks I've had the following refusals from OAP
neighbours;

" We don't like courgettes; what are they?"
" I wouldn't know how to cook them"
"My husband won't eat anything green or foreign".
I offered the latter person some perfect new potatoes and she replied
"he won't eat anything with dirt on it, either".


I've had similar responses from people, surprisingly some pensioners who
lived through food shortages during the war. One old lady refused to eat
any of my fresh home grown greens because they had the odd caterpillar
hole or similar damage. She preferred to buy perfect looking but
pesticide ridden limp greens from the supermarket.

I too have had people turn up their noses at root vegetables because
they had traces of soil on them! Some people are really bizarre!

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On 09/08/2010 14:57, Dave Hill wrote:

I am amazed at all this talk of wasting so much "Surplus" food,
Doesn't anyone have friends, neighbours who wouls appreciate some
"Eresh" fruit and veg, also one or 2 local OAP's, then there is
freezing, salting and jam and chutney making.
If your courgets are to many then let some grow into marrows, when
properly ripe they will last well into the winter.
I always keep my best peas and beens on the plant to ripen for next
years seed( on this subjuec I use a blue flower spray to mark the pods
I am keeping so that they dont get picked by accident).
With runner beans I do 2 sowings, with the 2nd sowing end of June/
early July so that they will crop almost till the frost.

I guess those people who live in towns who haven't sold their gardens to
building developers may have plenty of outlets for their vegetable
surplus. In rural communities everyone tends to grow their own anyway
and everyone has the same surplus. Just can't give the stuff away.

A good idea if someone could arrange it, would be to have some local
drop-off points where people with surplus vegetables could leave their
produce for collection by one of those charities associated with helping
to feed the elderly or those living in poverty with no garden themselves.

In France I'd imagine the local Mairie would maybe be interested in
organising such a scheme. Not sure about the UK.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

"Dave Hill" wrote
I am amazed at all this talk of wasting so much "Surplus" food,
Doesn't anyone have friends, neighbours who wouls appreciate some
"Eresh" fruit and veg, also one or 2 local OAP's, then there is
freezing, salting and jam and chutney making.
If your courgets are to many then let some grow into marrows, when
properly ripe they will last well into the winter.
I always keep my best peas and beens on the plant to ripen for next
years seed( on this subjuec I use a blue flower spray to mark the pods
I am keeping so that they dont get picked by accident).
With runner beans I do 2 sowings, with the 2nd sowing end of June/
early July so that they will crop almost till the frost.

We give some to family/friends but none of them live close so do I drive
them there? If I do I put up the cost of MY veg so it's a lot cheaper and
easier to return them from whence they came, the soil, if we aren't going to
see them anyway.
Neighbours do take some, but Runner Beans, for example, are a British veg so
only two households would eat those.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 9 Aug, 18:13, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Dave Hill" *wrote

I am amazed at all this talk of wasting so much "Surplus" food,
Doesn't anyone have friends, neighbours who wouls appreciate some
"Eresh" fruit and veg, also one or 2 local OAP's, then there is
freezing, salting *and jam and chutney making.
If your courgets are to many then let some grow into marrows, when
properly ripe they will last well into the winter.
I always keep my best peas and beens on the plant to ripen for next
years seed( on this subjuec I use a blue flower spray to mark the pods
I am keeping so that they dont get picked by accident).
With runner beans I do 2 sowings, with the 2nd sowing end of June/
early July so that they *will crop almost till the frost.

We give some to family/friends but none of them live close so do I drive
them there? If I do I put up the cost of MY veg so it's a lot cheaper and
easier to return them from whence they came, the soil, if we aren't going to
see them anyway.
Neighbours do take some, but Runner Beans, for example, are a British veg so
only two households would eat those.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

The drought set my beans back so none for about another week and 2nd
lot are just showing the first flowers.
Looking in Tesco today they had packs of Value Beans for 45p BUT the
pack was just 3 beans, Kilo price was £4.00 and they were from Kenya.
The Spray for marking pods etc
Oasis flower colour, ask your friendly florist or find a wholesale
florist. must be cheaper than ordering on line
http://www.onlinepackagingshop.co.uk...ay-colour.html
David Hill