The latter part of August is when sweetcorn starts to come on stream. You may remember seeing a photo of these being planted on the allotment in May. We start to test to see if the cobs are ready for picking from about the middle of the month – and this year they are a little earlier than usual – which means sweetcorn as a starter every day for quite a while! Can we stand eating it every day? Absolutely – when it’s as fresh and sweet as these. For the last few years I have grown the variety Goldcrest which is an absolutely delicious corn. Left too late the cobs become tough and floury but right now they are in perfect condition. If we can’t eat them all then they will go in the freezer – they freeze well but they aren’t as good as eaten fresh. Even if left on the plant too long they can still be frozen and used for sweetcorn chowder over the winter months.

I’ve been caught a little on the hop with the apples this year. Over the last week or so there seemed to have been a lot more windfalls than I would have expected. Actually the apples are ripe and starting to drop off – both the Cox’s Orange Pippin and the Worcester Pearmain. Rather earlier than in most years but I shall need to get picking this weekend. The Egremont Russets and the Howgate Wonder cooking apples are much later anyway so they are still firmly on the trees!

One of the more unusual crops I’ve grown this year is Kohl Rabi. These are a brassica – in the same family as cabbages but grow into a small solid globe shape about the size of a tennis ball when mature. It’s something like a cross between a carrot and a turnip.  Jane Grigson the renowned English cook and writer says about this vegetable; “…there are better vegetables than kohl rabi but it is at least a pleasant alternative to the grim pair of turnip and swede…”. Somewhat harsh I think – but it is a few years since I’ve grown it but I do remember it as being quite enjoyable. I’ll let you know when I’ve used it.  My inclination is to eat it raw – possibly grated into a salad along with carrot and cumin.

About now the winter squash are swelling and benefiting from all the rain this week. As well as the familiar bell shaped butternut squash we also grow the delightfully named Uchiki Kuri – an onion squash, bright orange in colour resembling a miniature basketball. They don’t get very big but they really are one of the best flavoured squash you can grow. This year for the first time we have grown them in and around the sweetcorn as an experiment – one which seems to have worked!