Late summer

Click on the photo to get to the late summer photo album

It has been a funny summer this year.  We've had fairly cool temperatures in August and quite a lot of cloud - but almost no rain.  The fruit trees have been quite stressed. And I had expected the vegetable crops to under perform. But in fact, we seem to be doing really quite well with most things.

The tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse are producing like crazy. I have so many it's almost impossible to keep up with them.  At least I can freeze the tomatoes for use in winter stews. But there's almost nothing you can do with excess cucumbers except eat them faster. Still, we're just about managing.  The potatoes could have done with more rain than they got this year (although at least they haven't been struck by blight, although the helpful allotment neighbour is still telling everyone to dig their crops before the blight affects the tubers!!) and I am fairly sure we would have got more peas and broad beans had they been favoured with a bit more water.  On the other hand, the freezer is almost full of peas and broad beans so we maybe didn't actually need any more.  There are still a few potatoes and peas waiting for attention up on the plot.  But it is more or less done for this season (barring the greenhouses) and nearly ready to be put to bed until next spring.

Meanwhile, back in the garden, everything is going great guns.  We have loads of magnificent rainbow chard, the zucchini are running amok, we have oodles of beans (although the runner beans didn't do all that well this year, but that is mainly because we weren't here to pick them early in August and they stopped setting flowers), the carrots are amazing (The Under Gardener has been feeding them with tomato food), there are pumpkins growing and corn cobs growing and also cheerfully coloured tiny cauliflowers growing. Always supposing we don't get covered under 2 or 3 feet of snow this winter, we should be chomping on our own veg well into next year.

The only things that aren't producing abundantly in the garden at the moment are the chickens who are only laying one or two eggs a day. This is enough for us, mostly. But it's nice to have extra to give away or to use in custards, ice creams and other eggy delights. Still, no doubt they'll pick up in due course.  Or - I do have quite a large stock pot. And new chickens aren't ll that expensive :-D

Oh - and we are feasting well on Bramley apples from our tree in the orchard and on blackberries which are overhanging our fence. There's an apple and blackberry crumble in the oven as we speak :-)