Monday, 14 August 2017
Ugly Fruits - But Extremely Tasty
Considering the weather we've had so far this August the weekend wasn't too bad. We had a couple of decent sunny days and it stayed dry all weekend. It was a bit chilly in the early hours of Sunday morning as the temperature dipped to 8.5°C or 47.3°F.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 12-14 August 2017
We're in between plum ripening at the allotment. Our early plum Oullins Gage is finished but our Victoria and Marjorie's Seedling plums aren't quite ripe. Looking at some of our Mannings greengages I could see that the fruits were splitting even though I didn't think they were ripe. Normally once the fruits split the wasps move in and picking becomes a rather tricky job and I normally leave the wasps to it. Maybe Sue’s waspinators are doing the trick as there weren't any wasps around the fruit so I decided to pick some as see if I could find any edible fruit on them.
Mannings Greengage
I must admit they don't look very appetising and they didn't look much better after they had a wash. The split parts were cut away along with some of the blemished flesh and the fruit that was left was remarkably sweet. It's a pity our trees never provide us with many fruits as without doubt they are sweeter than any of our plums and well worth the effort of picking and cleaning.
Thursday, 17 August 2017
Peaches Galore - Sort Of
The rather poorish August weather has continued over the last few days. We've had a few showers here and there throughout the day as well as a few sunny spells. In the sunny spells it's felt quite warm but they've disappeared as quickly as they came. We've had some heavy rain in the early hours of Thursday morning amounting to 11.8mm or 0.46in.
Temperature, Solar Radiation & Rainfall Records 15-17 August 2017
We've being tucking into our very own peaches this week. I think I've only picked one or two fruits directly from the tree and the rest have fallen off onto the greenhouse floor. Fortunately I've found these before the slugs have had a chance to taste them and the fall from the tree hasn't damaged the peaches much at all.
Peach - "Avalon Pride"
We've now managed to harvest a fraction over 1kg (2.2lb) of peaches and there's still some left on the tree. Our nectarines aren't falling from the tree like the peaches so it seems we'll be eating our peaches before moving on to the nectarines.
Saturday, 19 August 2017
Heaviest Rain of 2017
Friday saw our heaviest rainfall of the year. We'd finished lunch and were planning a trip to the allotment when the rain arrived.
Temperature and Rain Rate Records for 18 August 2017
As you can see from the above records it was only a short but very sharp shower with the rain rate peaking at 98.4mm/hr or 3.87in/hr. It was a good job it didn't last very long falling at such a rate.
Once the rain had stopped we did contemplate a visit to the plot but, after a little walk around the garden at home, we decided it was probably a bit too wet. The very heavy shower had given everything a good soaking in record time. The day's rainfall amounted to 4.4mm (0.17in) not very much at all, it's just that it all fell almost instantly.
Sunday, 20 August 2017
Windfalls
Saturday wasn't the best of days considering it's the middle of August. It was a cool and breezy day with a few very light showers. Despite some sunny spells it felt cool down on the plot. I thought a visit was required to check our tomatoes were okay for water in the greenhouse otherwise I might have not bothered visiting.
Temperature & Wind Speed Records for 19 August 2017
It's difficult to visit the plot at the moment and not do a little bit of harvesting. Saturday afternoon wasn't any different and, once I'd watered the tomatoes, I had time to pick some runner beans - Lady Di - as well as some climbing French beans - Cobra. Sue picked more sweet peas and some of the edible variety too.
The strong breeze had brought a few apples and pears down off the trees. There didn't seem any point leaving them for the slugs and snails so they were collected in a bucket and brought home. There might be a little bit of wastage on them but I'm sure I'll find some pieces of edible fruit.
One of the windfall apples is a variety called "Tickled Pink", which has a few fruits for the first time this year, and it is supposed to have flesh tinged pink from the outer skin to the core of the apple. Watch this space for news!
Now if only we could get a bit of decent weather a bit more like August that would be good. The forecast doesn't suggest that's going to happen.