Jenny Mollison: Allotment tales

The flavour of allotment produce takes some beating. Enjoying it is a privilege which I wish more people could experience. I choose varieties for old-fashioned tastiness rather than appearance.

Growing from seed rather than buying in plants offers the widest choice. Most of mine come from the first class seed scheme which our allotments organise, but I also buy unusual varieties from specialist seed suppliers who sell small quantities for correspondingly modest prices.

Plant breeding experiments used to concentrate on developing disease-resistant strains. I suspect shelf-life and uniformity take precedence these days to suit the supermarkets, whereas knobbly cucumbers and forked carrots are commonplace in my kitchen! I am grateful to the plant breeders for producing Invicta, a mildew-free gooseberry, but I remain to be convinced that the new range of blight-resistant 
potatoes are anything like as tasty as my favourite Cara and Pink Fir Apple ones.

Traditional greengrocers selling local seasonal produce are fast becoming endangered species on our high streets, and supermarket produce has a boring sameness about it. Farmers’ markets are very welcome but too infrequent. So unless you grow your own produce, it’s all too easy to forget that some of our best home-grown fruit and vegetables have very short seasons. Spinning out the harvest for as long as possible is a bit of a challenge, but there are still some delicious late summer specialities to look forward to.

Brambles are a treat in store. My plant came from an off-shoot of my neighbour Morag’s and she got it from her mother. We don’t know the name of the variety, but we do know that it fruits prolifically and reliably every year. Mine makes a glorious edible boundary to the plot as it clambers over a sturdy makeshift trellis.

Sweetcorn is another of my late season delights and not difficult to grow. TV gardener, Bob Flowerdew recommends picking it minutes before you want to eat it to enjoy maximum sweetness – the flavour is not nearly so good when the sugar has turned to starch.

It’s still too early to tell if Sweet Dumpling, a variety of winter squash which got a good write-up by the Royal Horticultural Society, is going to live up to its jolly name. Right now, the plants are romping all over the bare patches left empty since digging the early potatoes.