Harvest time

Finally, finally, finally we are beginning to get a good supply of runner beans and zucchini, both of which have been worth waiting for. The zucchini in particular are extremely tasty.  The sweet corn, alas, are looking pretty and healthy - but are very small and have no cobs on them at all.  We have almost finished eating the first early potatoes and The Undergardener has dug the Lady Balfours and the Highland Burgundy Red.  These two maincrop varieties are usually highly dependable but this year they were very disappointing. We got hardly any potatoes from them.  What we did get was tasty but it was a very poor harvest.

The butternut squashes, on the other hand, are proving to be highly prolific.  We decided to pinch out the growing tips on them and to clear them back a bit so that we could see what was going on and so that the other plants might have a show at growing too.  While we were doing that one of the squashes fell off the vine. So we took it home with us. It was, of course, not properly ripe, but it was extremely delicious and lovely and juicy. We are waiting patiently for the rest to ripen - October or November, I would think, depending on how the autumn turns out

As for cucumbers ... some of them are still on the bitter side, and we have noticed that even the sweetest of them turns bitter if cut and then left.  So we are eating cucumbers as fast as we can possibly manage.  I have discovered that if you cut them into strips and de-seed them they stir fry remarkably well! 

Butternut squashes growing happily in the greenhouse

One of our many enthusiastic cucumbers

A self invited Bramley apple - I took all the blossom off in the spring because it is a new, small tree. So it produced more blossom and a few, hidden apples!

It's not quite ripe, but was very tasty. And weighed in at 1.25 kg

This could almost be the entrance to a Secret Garden :-)

The cages are doing a good job of keeping the butterflies and pigeons out

Marlo isn't keeping anything out!!!