We've had some highlights and some lowlights in the vegetable patch this year. My potatoes have been a bit small and we had no! strawberries, but the broad and french bean crops were good.
This year, however, has seen a bit of a pumpkin fest.
I took Chef bear Oakley out the other day, to show him the pumpkins and start harvesting.
They are beautiful specimens and especially pleasing, as they were grown from plants given to me for free. The cultivator had grown them from seeds from her previous year's pumpkin harvest.
I love the traditional bright orange colour - it fits autumn so well. However, I'm also very fond of this much paler specimen that had grown to a good size. It was too much for a bear of my size to carry when cut, so I had to call in Blue Bear to provide some much needed muscle.
Oakley has some great plans for pumpkin curries and soups. We had a great pumpkin and chick pea curry at the weekend and will be cooking it again for visitors from our various branches, who will be with us at the weekend.
The courgettes also did very well and quite a few grew into marrows as we failed to keep up with supply. That's o.k. though as we all love stuffed marrow, and that legendary marrow chutney kindly introduced to me by Aunt Jessie from Devon.
Somehow I think we'll be very well fed this winter. I hope it isn't as cold as last year though.
Lots of love
Gardening Bear Tommy xxx
