Some July pictures

Beautiful edible Lillies

Mark from Vertical Veg talking us through compost
Phacelia

August pictures from the allotment Garden

A wasp squabble in a pumpkin flower
Tumbling Toms in a hanging basket
Scabious Flowers

The BEST raspberries. Fact.

Some of the mid August bounty
A lurking currant
More marrows and beans, late August
A shield beatle nosing around the asparagus berries
Water marrows

Our first apple...

Check out the size of this beauty, harvested in the allotment garden today!

We will be harvesting the rest of our lovely crop of coxes and dessert apples and pressing them for juice at the Harvest Festival.

Tomato disaster

Last week I noticed the tomatoes weren't looking their best. This Monday I discovered that a whole bed had succumbed to blight. We had to pull the hole lot - it was a very sad day. Now how will we make sauce for our Harvest Festival pizzas? It's just as well we have some frozen and over-dried in stock. However, if any Capital Growth spaces would like to sell some of their surplus please contact Amy - amy.capitalgrowth@gmail.com

Oven dried tomatoes (part 2)

This is what the tomatoes looked like this morning, after a night in the oven on a very low heat...

...and this is what they look like with some fresh thyme and extra virgin olive oil... yum!

Oven-dried tomatoes....

In preparation for our 2011 Harvest Festival we're trying out various preserves to make sure there's plenty of produce to enjoy for all. These tomatoes were harvested today by our volunteers, and will last in the cupboard to make lovely pizzas toppings or salad ingredients.

Oven-dried tomato recipe

1. Harvest tomatoes of any variety, shape or size.

2. Leave small ones whole, but medium ones in half lengthways, cut large ones into quarters lengthways.

3. Place in a baking tray (cut ones should be placed cut-side up).

4. Place in the oven on a very low heat (between 50-100 degrees C).

5. Cook for 4-6 hours depending on the size of the tomatoes.

6. They are ready when they look shrivelled up like sun-dried tomatoes.

7. Leave to cool then store in a jar with a few springs of thyme (or rosemary or garlic etc), completely covered with a good olive oil.