At the beginning of last week, although we had some light rain, we were still watering, The heavy rain that was forecast seemed to be determined to miss us.
We had to follow a different watering regime as we needed to allow more time for harvesting. We decided to concentrate on watering one section of the allotment each time we visited.
There is little to show as far as work on the plot went as, other than watering, we spent time weeding which doesn’t make for interesting photos.
Harvesting is taking up more of our time. Picking berries is very time consuming especially when there are nets to negotiate.
Picking peas and beans takes time. Not only do you have to find the pods amongst all the greenery, but you also need to decide whether the pods have swollen. Then once home, there is podding to be done to prepare for the freezer.
The new dahlias have produced their first flowers. I’m hoping as the plants grow, the stems will be longer.
We dug the roots of two varieties of potatoes. Casablanca has been one of our favourites but this year the tubers are very small. Winston, on the other hand, produced fewer but larger tubers. We have grown Winston in the past and found that they suffer from lots of slug damage, however, we decided to try them again. As the soil is so dry we thought Winston would escape slug damage this year but we were wrong. If there is slug damage in a dry season, I guess Winston will be off next year’s list.
One planting job last week was in the garden. Last year we lost many of the plants in our pebble beds so we bought some replacements which have now been planted. We just need a few more pebbles to finish things off.
We had two very different afternoon trips to Nostell. The first was on a warm and sunny afternoon when we stuck to the shade and walked in the wooded area.
All six cygnets are growing quickly. They all waddled out of the lake to preen.
The second afternoon was cooler, so we walked in the meadows where we spotted a few more wild flowers to add to our list.
Below from left to right are rosebay willowherb, lady’s bedstraw, tansy and birdsfoot trefoil.
As we walked through the meadow, the rain, that had been avoiding us arrived so we ended up very wet and soggy. We hoped the rain was also falling on our plot and garden.
Ruby was due a shampoo and blow dry, not her favourite thing but she didn’t seem to mind getting wet in the rain.
Once home and shampooed she was lovely and fluffy. I’m sure that won’t last long.
The good news is that the rain continued all evening and into the night so we can take a much needed break from watering. On Sunday we managed to clear some areas that had housed earlier crops where we had done no watering and despite all the rain, the soil was very dry.
Finally, in last week’s meals, courgettes featured heavily. I made a chicken risotto that used our onion, garlic, courgette, frozen peas and fresh basil. I also added tinned tomatoes, celery and cheese.
A turkey dish used more courgettes, garlic, onion and our frozen peppers. I also added fresh tomatoes and mushrooms.
More courgette, onion, garlic and potatoes went into a vegetable bake. I also added celery, fresh tomatoes, red wine and topped with grated cheese.
I can’t find any of the recipes on the internet so, I’m afraid that I can’t give links.
Anyway, that’s all I have for you this week. As always stay safe and well.
Again I am joining Dave on his Harvest Monday post hosted on his Our Happy Acres blog.
Thank goodness for rain. Your harvests are great and the dahlias lovely. It’s great seeing the cygnets doing so well. Bless fluffy Ruby! Courgettes are featuring in lots of meals here too, I try to pick them when small but lots run away with themselves.xxx
We could do with less rain now, Dina. It’s hard to catch the courgettes when small as we don’t get to the allotment every day.Ruby is good at getting her ears in her food and chewing them, they’re not fluffy then.
Well harvesting makes all that hard work worthwhile Sue 😂 You’re right about picking berries being most time consuming. I had two blackcurrant bushes at my allotment, a redcurrant, two gooseberries, strawberries and a row of raspberries and usually just me to pick. It seemed sometimes to take forever. Great to hear that you’ve had some decent rain. We’ve had more than our fair share with just one dry day so far this month!
Too much rain now Anna
Looks like your harvests are indeed keeping you busy! Your chicken risotto dish sounds worth trying with what we have here.
Very busy, Dave
Great peas and beans. I’m also waiting for my peas to ripen, Sue. Very beautiful dahlias, Ruby is inquisitive, walks in the rain.
Rby poke her nose into everything Nadezda
We had torrential rain here since yesterday evening. on top of a prolonged dry spell. I’m wondering how much of it will have soaked in. your harvest looks bright and colourful. but you are so right, berries do indeed take a lot of painstaking care to pick but they’re also worth it in the end.
Berries take even longer to pick when you have to duck under nettng Debbie