Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

After a particularly poor summer, it's nice to be treated to a bit of sunshine and warmth like we've had for the past few days. Warm and settled weather is quite common at this time of year but after the endless cloudy, damp days of August an Indian summer seemed an impossibility.

It's a really nice time to be out pottering and harvesting at the allotment, particularly as the mellow sunlight of September is less harsh and bright than that of June or July but possesses enough warmth to make you feel like it's still summer. The dewy mornings, the subtle change in colour of the leaves, and the squirrels busily burying nuts everywhere, are an indication that summer is indeed on the wane, but whilst it stays dry and fine I'll gladly take every opportunity to get down to the plot and make hay whilst the sun shines.

This late spell of warmth has seen the courgettes continue flowering and fruiting and there are still a number of embryo fruits to form and swell if the evenings remain on the warm side. The pumpkins are now more orange than green, the sun helping to ripen and harden their skins for winter storage. The warmth has also helped the sweetcorn to ripen perfectly and we are now enjoying large, well filled cobs as and when we feel like a treat - boiled, smeared with butter and a twist of black pepper they are divine!

In readiness for winter, most of the beetroot has been harvested and will be boiled and pickled as soon as I can find the time, ditto some of the red cabbage that will go perfectly with winter stews. There is also a fine crop of borlotti beans, the speckled red pods dangling from the plants in readiness for picking and creating some hearty, warming soups. We will use most of them fresh from the pod, although some will be dried and stored for use in the coming months.

Last week I put in a few blocks of spring cabbage to plug a few gaps and deposited several long scaffold planks down at the plot in anticipation of some winter graft. I didn't get round to completing every raised bed this year so some free planks will finish the job nicely. They are 4m long and 20cm deep so will create perfect raised beds to be filled with the mushroom compost I'll soon be ordering. There'll be plenty of jobs to keep me occupied over the coming months.