The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: chriso on August 09, 2010, 01:20:55 pm

Title: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: chriso on August 09, 2010, 01:20:55 pm
Like the title says what's been your best crop or what have you been pleased with? :farmer:

I have been chuffed with my garlic, chillies and pink fur apples - mainly for the taste but onions have done well too. :yum:
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: egglady on August 09, 2010, 01:23:35 pm
great thread..be good to know what's worked for folks..

my 'best' this year so far has been: garlic, courgettes, cucumbers, black currants and chillis i think
my 'worst' has most definately been my tomatoes (in fairness i think that is mainly due to a touch of neglect tought)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Cinderhills on August 09, 2010, 01:44:20 pm
Definitely courgettes and carrots, and blackcurrants too.  First year of growing anything so am quite pleased.  Sweetcorn was a flop.
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: dizzy1pig on August 09, 2010, 01:53:58 pm
Best so far round cabbages.... 1st prize on saturday well chuffed
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: jameslindsay on August 09, 2010, 02:20:56 pm
Well done Nicki  :)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Sharondp on August 09, 2010, 02:28:16 pm
Courgettes - hundreds of them!  ;D
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: egglady on August 09, 2010, 02:46:20 pm
oh i forgot about my cabbages!  yes they have deffo been my best - there are about 20 of them and each one is feeding a family of 4 for 2-3 meals!

james - need any for the hotel???
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: jameslindsay on August 09, 2010, 02:52:07 pm
Thanks Laura, we could certainly use a couple. :)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Samantha on August 09, 2010, 02:55:30 pm
My best crop every year has to be blackberries LOL they are everywhere :)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: chriso on August 09, 2010, 03:00:47 pm
My best crop every year has to be blackberries LOL they are everywhere :)

Yeah, I don't grow any but i do pick a lot.  ;)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Samantha on August 09, 2010, 03:02:57 pm
I don't have to grow them in my garden they pretty much took over themselves :) lol
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: egglady on August 09, 2010, 03:24:48 pm
I don't have to grow them in my garden they pretty much took over themselves :) lol

i want to live in your garden then!
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Andy1982 on August 09, 2010, 03:43:48 pm
Best crop this year has been my onions . Event the red onions which everyone keeps telling me not to grow in norfolk cause they bolt. Hahahaha not mine with exception of 4 which i'm quite happy to take the seed from thank you very much, and TBH i havn't payed them an excessive amount of weeding etc so bonus :)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: plumseverywhere on August 09, 2010, 06:34:18 pm
apart from plums  ::)   blackberries, garlic, red onions (overwintered ones) and runner beans  :)  oh and first early potatoes, that went well .
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: langdon on August 09, 2010, 09:58:18 pm
was quite pleased with me spuds but so far i have to say right now its got to be me onions.
63 we harvested from one single bed.
we tried last year with no bulbs just green shoots.
our sweetcorn is coming along nicely so am keeping an eye on them!!
langdon
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Mo on August 10, 2010, 12:05:49 pm
We're happy with our brassicas. First year we've had decent cauliflowers and the calabrese put on a good show and are still sprouting. But the best crop so far has been French Beans, although I think my borlottis might outdo them. The runners are 'running' late but looks as if they'll be in one of the top spots.
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: supplies for smallholders on August 10, 2010, 06:41:04 pm
Got to be Thistles!! Millions of them this year - anyone got any good recipes for thistle jam / soup / stew ??  ;D
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Daisys Mum on August 10, 2010, 08:05:20 pm

My potatoes were pretty good this year and my peas too, unfortunately i have sown everything in the raised bed a bit too close together so some things are a bit hard to get to although everything looks ok, wont be able to get to the onions until the peas come out. ;D
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: piggy on August 10, 2010, 08:36:50 pm
Well mine would have been my runner beans,i say would because my naughty lambs have been and gobbled the lot! they very kindly left the aubergine plants but had stripped the leaves from the pepper plants but left the peppers!
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Mo on August 11, 2010, 06:06:09 am
Got to be Thistles!! Millions of them this year - anyone got any good recipes for thistle jam / soup / stew ??  ;D

"The roots, stems, young leaves, flower buds and even the seeds can be eaten."

http://www.wildernessadventures.net/nl-thistle.htm

You try it and let us know?  ;)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: supplies for smallholders on August 11, 2010, 10:27:47 am
Quote
You try it and let us know?  Wink

Errrrrm....

Interesting article - But I think I will give it a miss....

Thanks
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Greenerlife on August 11, 2010, 03:14:51 pm
Not too many GREAT things, but some absolutely rotten results this year  :'(  Radishes that bolted without forming radishes.  Broad beans that flowered once and formed not nearly enough beans.  Cauliflower that got eaten by mice first followed (after netting) by something that's eaten the heads.  Squashes with all male flowers.  Very poor plum season.  Carrots that were planted in tubs to avoid carrot fly being eaten at ground level by something unknown.  Peas never getting to flower stage.

It's a good job I like potatoes!  (First year of growing in a slab clay field)  My blues are lovely mashed!  :yum:
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: egbert on August 12, 2010, 05:31:05 pm
Well this is my first year growing so its been a real learning experience.

Brassicas seem to be harder than anything else - I planted it all too close together, the broccoli heads are ok but cabbage and cauli failed so far. My carrots are all still tiny, may need to do some thinning. Onion sets have grown but I am not overly impressed - I need to get them out to dry now though. Peas did grow, but next year I know to plant lots more to have enough for a family! And the same for strawberries! :-\

HOwever, my cucumbers have been great - loads of them and they taste lovely. And the tomatoes are now turning red and taste delicious! My squash are coming along well and my pepper and melon plants have some nice looking fruits ripening up.  And my 1st earlies were lovely, I am now itching to get my main crop potatoes out.  ;D
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: JD on August 12, 2010, 08:36:44 pm
My best crop so far this year has been the soft fruit. Raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries have been great which I was surprised at considering the winter we had. The chickens had most of my strawberries and caused havoc in the onion bed. Cucumbers, toms and chillies have been good in the greenhouse. Didn't do spuds this year to give my small plot a rest.
JD
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: BlueDaisy on August 13, 2010, 10:11:50 am
My best crop this year ( and every year) is my mange tout peas, we use the variety Delikett and they have never failed us (touch wood :) Great as mange tout and if you miss any they are also great as shelled peas! :D
Also good is the french bean Ferrari it's a dwarf plant that just keeps coming, you think you've finished cropping then, notice more long thin pods!
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: northfifeduckling on August 17, 2010, 11:01:36 pm
currants and rocket
and I'm really chuffed with my sweetcorn and gherkins in new greenhouse and poly tunnel, my daughter's got superb parsnips and peas :&>
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Shovel on August 22, 2010, 01:12:11 pm
Best have been peas, dwarf beans, runners, garlic.

Toms, lettuce, cauliflower, peppers, beetroot, all disastrous!
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Gordon M on August 22, 2010, 09:21:49 pm
Weeds, and more weeds!! Apart from them (as I've been out of the country at work most of the year) my apple trees (the ones the deer didn't wreck) have produced a bumper crop, so it'll be out with my grans old jelly pan and a couple of days work in the kitchen making apple jelly and the odd apple and bramble pie.
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: xillent on August 23, 2010, 09:08:20 pm
best have been, potatoes, garlic, onions, courgettes, peas.

Apples look to be good too.

Worst has been plums. The tree is having a wee rest this year.

As usual the ground elder is doing very well.
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: pikilily on August 23, 2010, 10:41:50 pm
Oh lordy....where do you start!!
We have had a bumper year for everything. I have not had to buy fruit or veetables for four months.... ;D
Peaches, apricots, figs, asparagus, fennel, tayberries, logan berries, blueberries,
Huge crops of fruit- blackcurrents, whitecurrents, redcurrents, rasps, strawbs ah the strawbs were heavenly!
cabbages, onions, courgettes by the hundreds, enough tomatoes that i am using them for chutneys etc.
The sweet corn is coming out the roof of the polytunnel, I couldnt eat another lettuce!!! we are on beans and peas at the moment.
The apple trees are creaking amd the ground is covered in windfalls. The plum tree had never been so laden!

To be honest with you, and running the risk of being rude, we are eating so much veg just trying to keep up with the growth that my bowels are a bit 'thundery' :-\
....... and then there is the lamb- just been butchered on Friday,  and I have spent the weekend making sausages. I think i am most proud of the animals actually.
Emma T
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: BlueDaisy on August 25, 2010, 08:40:02 am
Peaches and apricots, Emma! Wow! That's impressive.
I think I am very jealous of your set-up :(
Sounds heavenly :)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: pikilily on August 26, 2010, 09:20:36 pm
Its my version of heaven!!!  :)  Maybe others would think its a lot of hard work. We have the labour well devided. I do the animals and WMT (OH) does most of the veg. .....with me overseeing of course LOL. I keep the fruit in order too.

works well for us!!
Emma
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: valr on August 27, 2010, 10:13:50 am
Yes, sounds fab, Emma!

My cucumbers were a miserable failure, but everything else has been ok .. although I havent had many RED tomatoes yet!
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Daveravey on September 02, 2010, 11:05:57 am
Our best crop this year has definetly been peas, cos it's the only thing the hens won't eat   ::)
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Susie on September 02, 2010, 12:50:04 pm
We started late as haven't had the land that long but still managed to be over run with squashes - crookneck, patty pan, butternut. Loads of them! The chard and spinach have done well and the peas have done ok. We have tons of green tomatoes - beginning to think they will never ripen  ::) but everything else got eaten or didn't do well....
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: egbert on September 07, 2010, 04:26:27 pm
I have just harvested 4 bowls of tomatoes - all going red at last and loads more still green  ;D :farmer:
And a load of green peppers and courgettes.  :farmer: :yum:

Now - what to cook for dinner . . .  ;D
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: Megansmam on September 11, 2010, 11:12:45 am
Peas and potatoes have done well this year.
 Last year I left a few hole ridden, mushy potaoes on the garden thinking they would rot away. They have grown back into the tastest potatoes I have dug up this year. I was suprised to find they had survived, barely under the soil, with the thick layers of snow that covered the ground here for a few weeks in the winter. 
My purple sprouting broccolli was doing great until the ponies decided that it looked to tasty to resist. Also managed to succesfully grow beetroot this year for the first time. Oh and overload of strawberries as usual.
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: pikilily on September 16, 2010, 10:22:00 pm
we now have the most mega-bumper crop of apples!!!! really more than we, the horses, the sheep and the pigs can eat.....I cant walk across the orchard without seious risk of sprained ankle!  cider on the go!!
Emma T
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: OhLaLa on October 05, 2010, 02:49:12 pm
Best: Sweetcorn, French Beans, Leeks.

 ;D

Worst: Sprouts (they blew), Lettuce (they bolted), Spinach (that bolted too)

 :(
Title: Re: What's been your best crop this year?
Post by: langdon on October 11, 2010, 08:10:19 pm
our spuds came up realy well this year, but i have to sat me onions!
i love these babies i get me wife to add these to her cooking when she can, last year was a disaster with them
this year we had 60 plus ;D
langdon