November greens and roots

A visit to the allotment in the afternoon sunshine to collect some veg.Last night's first heavy frost of the Autumn has knocked back the vegetation on the Jerusalem artichokes but not the serrated stems of the Globe variety.

The "greens" that I cut were multi coloured and include Cavolo Nero,Red Ursa and Scarlet kales,green and orange chard , radicchio and flat leaf parsley.

I lifted the first of the Jerusalem artichokes as well as a few more parsnips and leeks. While looking for a suitable pot to park a Bee Balm plant that was being smothered by the globe artichokes, I "rediscovered" the Harlequin carrots which have been grown high in pots to avoid carrot root fly. Quite a decent crop from the contents of one pot so far.The yellow ones seem to be the cleanest roots.

Bonus spuds

I cleared another area of the plot today and gave it a top dressing of horse manure which I will leave to overwinter. While forking over the soil and removing weeds I found three Salad Blue potatoes which I'd missed in August.
They are quite difficult to spot in the dark soil and I managed to fork through one of them.Apart from that they have very little damage except from some brown scab which appears standard for this variety and is only skin deep.

They look pretty good after cleaning and peeling, and there's no slug or eel worm damage!

I'm looking forward to eating them as they have a delicious taste and are particularly good for soaking up the gravy.
A must grow for next year,along with some other coloured flesh varieties and perhaps Romano or Shetland Black.

Late October colours on the plot

I've been doing an Autumn tidy up ,clearing the spent bean and sweetcorn plants and putting a layer of horse manure on any freed up areas that will have brassica,beans and potatoes on them next year.Today's warm ,dry and windless weather was perfect for completing the T shaped membrane path on the lower half of the plot. I'm quite pleased with this simple path system as it gives good access to the plot without sacrificing too much of the growing area.

There's still a colourful display of seasonal veg including : scarlet ,red ursa and cavolo nero kales; radicchio; gold, pink ,rhubarb and green chards ; parsnips and leeks.

Radicchio

 

New asparagus bed

The leeks look bigger now that I've weeded them

Mallorca October 2013

Port de Pollenca

I went to Mallorca for the first eleven days of October during a very warm spell of weather,with the daytime temperatures 25c+ and pleasant warm evenings where you could eat outside comfortably. 

Link to photo album https://photos.app.goo.gl/W1pCKV6i1gH1NA5p6

The usual mix of mountains,food,drink,flowers and some colourful shots of Palma market just before I left for the airport for my return flight.

Above Cuber lake looking east from Puig Sa Rateta

On the first three nights I stayed in the capital Palma for easy access by bus to the north west coast and mountains beyond Esporles,then the next three nights at Lluc where the mountains are accessible from the doorstep and the last four nights in Port de Soller which has good bus and foot access to both coastal and mountain walks.

Cala de Deia

Palma market

Quite a few of the mountain shots appear to show someone following me in a balloon! Very annoying as I thought it was caused by dirt on the lens but it seems to be something inside the camera itself. I'll have to resurrect my old camera or buy a new one.