Harvest – Mid August 2021

The year progresses and (at last) we’re getting tomatoes with the total (as of today) at just about 4kg. What’s interesting is how it varies from year to year. 2020 and 2018 by now had around 15kg but 2019 was only 1.5kg (that’s all I’ve got weekly totals for). In a week or so, I’ll probably be complaining about “too many tomatoes” but, as I’ve only got tomatoes in one greenhouse and outside this year, I don’t think we’ll have too many (but enough to make some soup and freeze some for the winter probably).

Cucumbers on the other hand are doing really well 16 so far (and five unpicked on the plants. We’ve three plants in total, one in the greenhouse (which has provided most of the fruit) and two in the netted tunnel. I think its proven that they need a lot of food and water. I have watered them every day and fed them (with liquid tomato feed) most days as well. There have been enough for us to experiment with pickled cucumber (a post to come if its successful).

Our beans and courgettes are also doing well (3.5kg and 7.3kg respectively) enough to keep us going in green veg without having to buy any if we don’t want. This year I’ve managed to get the balance of french beans and runner beans about right. The French are slowing down just as the runners start to pick up. With enough to make a few jars of relish. Similarly with the courgettes. There are eight plants of five different varieties and between them it means we can pick small every other day and have them at their best. The Patty-Pan are not doing very well, the flowers seem to be filling with water and rotting the fruit before they have a chance to grow to any size but that’s possibly a good thing. Finding recipes to use them up is always a challenge.

The apples are still being taken by the squirrels and we’ve a few weeks before they’ll be ripe enough to eat. My guess is that we are losing around five apples a day and I wish I could find something to discourage them before the apples are all gone