Monday, August 05, 2013

Harvest Time…



After a long cold winter and a poor spring we have eventually started to see some decent plant growing weather settle in for a while and the veggies in the garden are responding to the warmer temperatures providing us with some long awaited produce. We have dug all of the potatoes up even though they might have grown larger because the plants have been raided by a badger - we think (the clumsy brute has done as much damage by stomping through the crops as it did from digging up the tubers).

We had some early beans a while back and are now on to the main crops, also we have raised our onions and garlic with mixed results – the red onions are always a struggle with their tendency to bolt and the garlic suffered a little with the wet weather, some of it rotting off, but the white onions and shallots did quite well.

We have high hopes for the squashes and pumpkins that seem to now be doing well, and the new greenhouse is full of healthy looking tomatoes, chillies and even a few exotics such as a watermelon a regular melon and a couple of cape gooseberries.

We have enjoyed a couple of meals now where all of our veggies came from the garden including a roast on the weekend that included various types of beans, carrots, chard, broccoli and cauliflower, courgette and potatoes.

Costing up the price of the seeds, compost, tools and other materials used without even considering the labour effort we are never going to see a commercial return for our work, but in terms of the rewards in the satisfaction of growing and serving friends with our hand reared food, and the exercise we gain, then we are quids in.

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