The Good Life: Harvest on the 20th August

The runner beans are beginning to make an appearance in the harvest basket and we hope it will not be long before the yellow dwarf beans join them. A late crop of green beans, lettuce and fennel are now sprouting and they should provide some variety to our weekly gathering in September and October.

We are still not sure what the yellow squash or pumpkin is. For a few weeks we thought it could be a crook neck yellow squash or zucchini, however as time passed the neck has straightened out and our thoughts are leaning more towards the thingy being a miniature yellow pumpkin. It may be too early to harvest at this time, but we have cut the largest one in the plot, measuring almost a foot long, for further investigation. Once cut, it had a noticeably thin skin and bright lemon coloured flesh. It might go well mixed with chard in a gratin!

The artichokes continue to provide us with messy starters for a number of meals during the week. The plants have continued their production since May, throwing out their fleshy flowers. The thorny ones catch me unawares at times depositing their hooked thorns into my fingers. Our mammoth crop of tomatoes continues to grow in a healthy fashion. They have only been struck down by the wind this far and not any sinister form of blight, mildew or pestilence. Over the next month we can look forward to these ripening into bright red giants and the bush varieties forming long clutches of tomatoes. My fingers are crossed so that the majority ripen because there is only so much green tomato chutney you can make, and I do not wish to repeat last year's quantity of production

Apart from making the selection for this weeks basket, an hour was spent weeding and looking after the beds. The scarlet pimpernel, and other little flowers, have made their home in the raised beds and were beginning to take a hold competing with the leeks and tomatoes. The asparagus patch received special attention, and was fully cleared of weeds and stones in preparation for next years growth and our first harvest.

During the week we went for a little adventure in the forest to search for mushrooms, and whatever else was growing. As we wandered around we found the first blackberries ripening, wild damsons thronged together on brittle branches, the first bright red rose hips, and some other oddities like the radiant berries of the guelder rose. There were no mushrooms to be found, and it was clear from the healthy floor of the forest that there had not been a growth yet this year. We will have another look in the forest in or about the next full moon, but I will no doubt return in the next two weeks to gather some of the damsons to make a flavoured gin.

 

My sunflowers have grown tall this year and are magnificent and colourful