What to harvest in September

September is abundant in crop and deep within the soil, your vegetables have been maturing and ripening in the warmth, ready to add to delicious and healthy meals. Let’s face it, there’s nothing better than home grown is there? There is something so rewarding about eating a meal that is packed full of fresh flavour, that you’ve not only cooked from scratch but with added ingredients that you have grown and harvested with your own bare hands. Not only will your very own vegetables be healthy and nutritious but they will also be free from pesticides, which supermarkets use to protect cultivated vegetables. Additionally growing your own veg will save you money and you’ll also be reducing your carbon footprint by growing your own instead of buying fruit and vegetables that are imported from overseas – what a bonus!

Grab a trug and come with us on this beautiful allotment as we pick some seasonal vegetables. We are located along the south coast of England and depending on where you are located in the world, there is a variety of vegetables that you can enjoy during this season. Seeing as we are in the UK, we will be focusing on UK grown crop. Perfect for freezing ahead for the winter months, which can be made into stews, delicious roast dinners and hearty pies. Here is a list of some of the fruits and vegetables that you can harvest this month.

Harvesting Squash In Late Summer

Fill an Antique Wash Wicker Trug with a haul of vegetables from the squash family. Including vibrant yellow and green summer courgettes, cucumber, butternut squash and pumpkins which are perfect in soups, a hearty squash lasagne or simply as a roasted Mediterranean side dish with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

Of course, Halloween is a month away so you’ll want to get your carving knife ready to make some fabulous pumpkin displays and perhaps a delicious spiced pumpkin bake, such as a cake, pumpkin spiced muffins or even a pumpkin stew. The stew is a great way of using up the flesh of leftover pumpkins. 

Harvesting Root Vegetables In Late Summer

Delicious root vegetables, which are packed with flavour such as onions, shallots, radishes, carrots and beetroot are all ready to be harvested and added to your colourful autumnal dishes.

Our favourites are radishes which are perfect in vibrant salads and, of course, beetroot which can be sliced and pickled for a delicious apple and beetroot salad. Your carrots can be glazed in a delicious honey drizzle or roasted up with crispy roast potatoes for an extra special roast dinner.

To acquire these delicious veggies in September sow carrots and onions in late spring and radishes in early-late summer.

Don’t forget your trug!

For smaller veg like radishes, onions and carrots, our Wicker Gardening Trug is the ideal size for carrying your vegetables from your allotment to your kitchen.

Harvesting Potatoes In Late Summer

When you harvest potatoes from the ground, it is quite literally like harvesting nuggets of gold. The excitement of seeing patches of gold beneath the earth and on your gardening fork is the most amazing feeling.

Depending on what type of potatoes you go for, there are different types of potatoes you can harvest later in the year. “Early crop” potatoes (or new potatoes) are generally sown from March and harvested from June & July. “Second early” potatoes (or salad potatoes), which are sown from March to late May, can be harvested from mid-July, a couple of weeks after your early crop. Then finally “main crop” potatoes, which are sown from April and harvested from late August through to October.

Top tip: If you have an abundance of potatoes, cook them (or part cook them) and freeze them to save for dishes throughout the whole winter period! Potatoes are such a versatile vegetable, which can be made into all sorts of dishes: jacket potatoes, creamy mash potato spooned onto cottage pies, chopped and cooked into crispy oven cooked chips, drizzled with truffle oil or slowly steamed and smothered in butter and mint sauce.

For the best type of basket to harvest your potatoes in, our Double Steamed Wicker Trug is a functional and sturdy trug for harvesting any type of potato and just about any kind of vegetable.

Harvesting Leafy Greens In Late Summer

Cabbage, kale and lettuce are all delicious leafy greens that can be harvested to add a little more vibrancy to your already botanical list of vegetables. Cabbages need to be sown in spring and harvested before winter and you will know when it’s ready to harvest when the cabbage head is firm throughout. Cabbage is either perfect roasted or served in a soup with bacon. We also love it sautéed with onions, or cooked in the slow cooker. You’ll need a large harvest basket for these, so choose our Bramshaw Wicker Trug Basket to help you harvest heavier veg.

Harvesting Fruit In Late Summer

And finally for a little sweetness: apples, blackberries, pears and raspberries are all fruits that can be harvested in late summer. Perfect for an apple and blackberry crumble or a sweet apple pie. If you have an abundance of raspberries, why not bake them into a delicious raspberry sponge cake, topped with extra raspberries as a garnish?

Let’s not forget tomatoes, we know that tomatoes aren’t a sweet fruit but they are equally as delicious and best when harvested in late summer.  

Are you a beginner or thinking about harvesting your own vegetables? Congratulations! You are one step closer to a healthier lifestyle. Check out our new Antique Wash Wicker Gardening Tool Kit, which is perfect for beginners looking for the easiest way to get started. Complete with a gardening fork, a trowel, jute string, wooden markers and a wooden measuring garden dibber, all beautifully presented in a stylish mini Antique Wash Wicker Basket.

To view our wide range of wicker trugs and outdoor baskets, click here.

If you’re looking to plant some flowers for next season. September is a great time to plant your daffodil bulbs, as well as English marigolds, cornflowers, poppies and Queen Anne’s lace.

For some tips on how to plant your daffodil bulbs, check out our YouTube video here.

To browse more pages of our journal, click here.