I miss the food posts on this blog, they all seem to be over on the 'Year Without ...' blog at the moment, but I thought I would put up a photo of my just strung onions on here, as they are homegrown food and that's what our life is all about.
I even clicked on the Approved Food link on the righthand sidebar to see what they were selling these days, it seems ages since I did a blog post about them, but then I've not ordered anything at all this year. It was interesting to have a trawl around the website though ... and I was almost tempted to place an order.
Yes, the onion crop has been poor this year the ones you see strung here are pretty much all we have at the moment. The overwintered leeks all went to seed before I could harvest them and before they had time to put on any real growth to make them worth harvesting (and yes I have saved some of the seeds for next year) and the best onions I have in the polytunnel at the moment are the Spring Onions. They are doing well, this reminds me I need to get another batch of seeds in asap to replace the ones we are eating. The tomatoes are turning slowly ... ever so slowly ... red and the cucumber plants have started giving us enough cucumbers to keep us going. Shortly, hopefully, there will be some extra and I can gift a couple to my neighbour to say thank you for all the gooseberries and red and blackcurrants that she allowed me to pick a couple of weeks ago.
I don't know what has happened to my courgette plants, they seem to be on a go slow, at last there are a few flowers but no fruits to speak of at all, I'm sure I'm further behind than I was at this time last year. It seems nothing has enjoyed the strange unpredictable and changeable weather we have had over the last two months, well except the bugs, slugs and weeds of course.
One really good thing is that the Blueberries are now ripening and this morning I picked this trayful, currently open freezing ready to be tipped into a box in the freezer for free flowing easy use. I only stopped picking because the little tub I had taken over was full, so I will be back first thing in the morning to gather in all the rest that have turned that delicious shade of blue that means they are ready to eat. I'll bring you some next week Mum when I come to visit ... we always share they were Mum's bushes before they were mine :-)
Today's main job has been pruning the tomato plants of the excess leaves and extra little side shoots that have sprung out seemingly everywhere, but it was so hot in the polytunnel this morning that I had to end that and leave some for later on when the temperature goes down to a more tolerable level.
It's that time of year when it almost feels like a full time job growing the food we eat ... but a good one at that!
Sue xx
Our courgettes have gone mad this year, but our veg plots are in a very sheltered corner of the garden, and the courgettes are also semi hidden by the broad beans, so that may be why. There are a lot of broad beans going in the freezer at the moment, we just can't keep up with them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my blueberries are beautiful and plumptious, but still green, and the morning that I was going to net the red and blackcurrants, the blackbirds got there before me and stole the lot....well, not the lot, they left me one lonely little redcurrant!
We don't have many blackcurrants this year but have lots of lovely raspberries which have just ripened. The dogs have eaten all the strawberries as usual!!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy reading about you growing stuff
ReplyDeleteWe no longer have a vegetable garden - the farmer has grassed it over - so I really enjoy reading about other people's hard work. Our last year of growing resulted in a poor crop of onions and also leeks which went to seed.
ReplyDeleteOur neighbour (and brother in law)'s veg garden is visible from my back bedroom window. He is an excellent gardener and everything is put in and was growing to perfection. Now I see that his potatoes are dying off - I don't know why but it is the sort of thing that really makes one downhearted. We have an excellent Friday market here and I get my veg there - it is certainly less work.
Looking forward to more fruit next year. Gooseberry,cherry, rhubarb and blackcurrant are all young plants. Strawberries did well and I have another flourish of flowers and fruit. I'm learning more each year from people like yourself.
ReplyDeleteI think it must be swings and roundabouts Sue - I had NO courgettes last year, this year it will be a glut. I have wonderful garlic, about to be harvested, but last year's leeks died of hunger. I have ALWAYS had bumper crops of runner beans, but this year I just planted enough to keep me going, and they got slugged and I have had to start a 2nd lot to replace the 4 (yes, just 4!) plants which survived. Soft fruit has been good though and we will have a bumper apple harvest as usual.
ReplyDeleteMy slow starting tomatoes have come on a treat but although lots and lots of flowers still very few actual tomatoes however my cucumbers are doing brilliantly. We've had several already and they seem to grow a mile a day! My blueberries are dismal this year. Hardly any fruit :( You win some you lose some. x
ReplyDeleteI've found so much of approved food seems to be junk at the moment, it goes in fits and spurts though.
ReplyDeleteSlowly but surely our garden is beginning to be harvested. Hubby picked a tomato today!! The first of what we hope are many.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
My garden is so very small, still waiting on a harvest.
ReplyDeleteYour blue berries are beautiful.