The Good Life - Harvest on the 18th July

The yields for the month of July are probably the biggest of any month. Most of the vegetables can be picked or are nearing maturity. Meanwhile the tomato and pumpkin type plants continue to grow and dominate their patches promising a good yield in the coming months. Equally smaller plants will equal promise such as cornichons and round courgettes are thriving on the edges of beds

By now all the red currants and gooseberries have been picked and transformed into luxurious richly coloured jam. I keep on suggesting to Corinne that we should use a container to gather the raspberries. She spends quite a bit of time at the end of the allotment with the raspberry canes, and as a result the raspberries rarely make it from one end of the allotment to the other. The blackcurrants are also starting to disappear, and very soon the blueberries and alpine strawberries will provide another diversion.

We have sown new beds of lolla rosa and baby gem lettuce which have proved to be very tasty and popular with friends. Corinne's artichokes, which were grown from seed, are steadily growing and we should be able to harvest some more next week.Peas have also been sown for a second crop of expectation.

The Good Life - Harvest on the 5th July

The weather has changed in the last two days. After the warmest June in 40 years, we are beginning to get more westerly windsagain. They can be full of squalls and driving rain at this time of year, which we experienced on Sunday, leaving some of the plants damaged, stems broken and generally tossed about. As yet the ground is still relatively dry and this may take a few days of rainfall to penetrate the dry soil and saturate it.

We have begun to sow more lettuce to replenish our stocks; lolla rossa and little gem. The dwarf yellow beans are beginning to flower as are the runner beans, and the courgette plants are the first to flower and produce in the pumpkin patch, adorned with large bright yellow flowers. Elsewhere, all the asparagus have finally broken the surface and the diminutive scarlet pimpernel is beginning to blossom. This pretty weed is tolerated unlike the rest of them. The tomato plants are growing strong and some fruit are beginning to form. They have been strategically placed in pots all around the allotment, in an experimental little poly shed built over a raised bed, and straight into the ground. I am hoping to produce a few pots of tomato chutney this year with our onions and tomatoes. In the kitchen over the weekend a bag of rocket was blended with olive oil and pecorino from Palermo, along with some roasted pine nuts and garlic to make a pesto. Corinne is eating this as I type.

Monday evening was beautiful and sunny but the air had a slight chill to it. We harvested our first artichoke and courgette of the year, and dug up two potato plants. The potatoes were medium to small in size and will benefit from a week or two more in the ground. My parents turned up for an inspection of the plot, and a carrier bag of vegetables. As I dug the potatoes and searched through the soil for those which had escaped, my mother recalled a scene from her childhood when her father would dug up the potatoes in the evening, and everybody would snack on the fresh boiled potatoes with butter that night. I think she might be having a small bowl now as I type.

Sunset by the Broadmeadow Estuary, Donabate