Harvest time has been and gone in our house, and I am sorry to report that it hasn’t been a successful year.
I know I am not much good at gardening anyway, but the odds have been well and truly stacked against us. Our organic pest control turned out to be quite a costly affair, when we discovered that the slugs here are fussy about the beer they choose to drown in, and we only got good results with the best Bavarian beer – not the cheap stuff from the garage (yes you can buy beer from the garage).
The position of the sand-pit/come vegetable patch turned out to be a bit shady too, meaning that the one plant that did well, did so through alien like means, snaking out of its alloted space and out across the garden to bear fruit. And instead of the the big orange pumpkins we were expecting it to produce, this bizarrely shaped yellow object appeared instead, just the one too! 
We only got a few tomatoes, a strange looking cucumber, about one blackcurrant (because the birds ate the rest), no courgettes (because they died in a hot spell when we were away), and our once magnificent sage plant now looks as though it’s been freeze dried…
But we did get plenty of red-currants of course, and the blackberry bush felt sorry for us and joined forces with the apple tree to cheer us up. And because our Harvest was well and truly a load of old cobblers, this is what we made to console us – a big blackberry and apple cobbler, it has the same comforting properties as crumble by the way.
Oh well (she said with a mouthful), there’s always next year…
Blackberry & Apple Cobbler (serves 4)
Fruit: 500g apples peeled and cut into chunks, 250g blackberries, 15g melted butter, a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar.
Cobbler: 225g self-raising flour, 100g cubed cool butter, 50g caster sugar, 4tbsp milk, 1 egg lightly beaten.
Preheat the oven to 180°C, put fruit in an ovenproof dish and cover with 25g melted butter and a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Another all is right with the world moment, with breakfast this time. Thanks!
Funny..we planted the seeds from the package showing gourds (your bizarrely shaped yellow object) but we got yellow squash instead.
You’re very welcome! I reckon someone’s playing funny games in the seed sorting office! Made me laugh! :)
A good compensation I think. It looks yummy.
Aw thank you! You can kind of pretend it’s really healthy as well! :)
You should patent that pumpkin shape, you never know! It might make you famous, as a decorative object perhaps. Just consider it all “feedback” for next year
Now that’s an idea… Thank you! :)
oh my dear, you have made a somewhat tragic story rather funny. slugs with gourmet taste buds! and did you say the veg that looks like it landed from outer space—but it is rather attractive, don’t you think?— is a pumpkin? indeed! my, my….
well the recipe sounds delish. hurrah for the berries : )
Thank you! Yes I do believe it’s some kind of gourd… I feel a bit robbed of a halloween pumpkin but we will just have to buy one :D
My new house has a veggie patch, am so looking forward to failing at growing stuff!
Maybe we should start a failed gardeners society! :D
i have to say you did a lot better than me in the garden we had a dreadful year against mice, slug, snails and pigeons. I do love blackberry and apple this time of year.
Glad it’s not just me!! :D
Can’t go wrong with a nice blackberry cobbler – delicious!
Gardening is very zen, isn’t it? Sometimes a bountiful harvest, sometimes not – you just never know.
Good luck for next year, and enjoy your blackberries and squash in the meantime :)
I am hoping for a bountiful harvest too next year. Hopefully I will be able to speak more German soon enough and I can enlist the help of our elderly neighbour who is by the looks of things the best gardener in the world! Thank you! :)
Wow – that is one wacky looking pumpkin! Don’t be disheartened by your gardening difficulties, failure is all part of the process (at least it is for me!). I view any harvest at all as a roaring success :)
Thank you Mary! I guess I should count myself lucky that we don’t at least have any snouted marauders like you have to put up with!! :D
We didn’t do very well either. I wasn’t expecting much because we were away for such a chunk of the summer. I did plant carrots (twice) parsnips and beans, but the only veg to survive was beetroot and some tiny potatoes.
Your alien squash thing is amazing! And the cobbler is the kind of pudding I love. Looks delicious :)
Oh boo. Beetroot and new potato salad with goats cheese? Better luck to both of us for next year! :)
I’m not really a gardener but we were given some raspberry canes last year. We shoved em in and hey presto a fab crop of huge raspberries. I may make jam tomorrow!
Send me a pot please! It’s my favourite! :)
Look at that ‘pumpkin’! :) That’s a work of art in itself, Emma. You couldn’t possibly call it a bad year after quirkiness like that!
It’s in the kitchen still, I have no idea what to do with it! :D