Monday, July 13

Picking berries in the rain

I don't know about you, but I keep having to remind myself that we are now in July! It's mid summer and we’ve been tweaking the heating in the evening and wearing jumpers. The temperatures have been nothing like as high as they should be! I thought the planet was supposed to be warming up.

It seems only a short time ago that we were bemoaning the lack of rain. The weather gods may think that we gardeners are never satisfied but really moderation would be good. The weekend did remain dry so let’s hope that the tap has been turned off for a while but let’s not bounce back to drought conditions.

Last week we made a couple of visits to the allotment during the week. The first visit was to check on the damage done by the gales force winds.
Most things had stood up to the winds fairly well, but one of our cardoons is in a very sorry state. The other sheltered by a neighbouring plot’s shed escaped the ravages of the strong winds.
The only other 'casualty' was one of out brassica beds which had the enviromesh cover blown off. Fortunately the abysmal weather meant that the wood pigeons and white butterflies were probably too busy sheltering.
During the same visit we managed to plant out a few lettuces and some kohlrabi plants. We were going to raise all our lettuces at home in pots but, in the end we decided to pop some in on the plot.
The plants were covered by a wire mesh tunnel to protect against the ever present pigeons.

The dahlias had been sheltered behind the cold frame that had fortunately stayed in place this time.
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We managed to direct sow various varieties of spinach, some Rhubarb chard, beetroot and swede, The swede is probably late but we will just have to see what happens.
On Friday we decided that we really did need to dodge the rain, if only to do a bit of harvesting. During the heaviest of the showers we took shelter in the shed but, as the rain didn't show any sign of completely letting up, we had to bite the bullet when the rain eased a little and carry on harvesting.
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Some of the raspberries and cauliflowers hadn't enjoyed being battered by the heavy rain but we managed to salvage something.

The cauliflower went into a Baked Cauliflower Pizzaiola

12 July
We lift lettuces with the root so that they can be popped in a bucket of water to keep them fresh until we use them.

The weekend was an improvement especially on Sunday. Sunday lived up to its name, the sun made an appearance and I was reminded that it actually was summer. It was also a prompt to sort out some waspinators to hang in the plum trees. The idea is to make something that resembles a wasps’ nest so that passing wasps think the area is already colonised.
Saturday I made the first picking or rather pulling of peas and also cut the first of our courgettes.
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Martyn was reading, on the internet, of a serious problem with some courgettes this year. People were reporting that they had become very ill after eating a small amount of bitter tasting courgette. The courgettes had an increased level of a substance found in all curcurbits. The problem arises when the flowers are pollinated and this leads to seeds developing a toxicity that is passed on to plants grown from the seeds. Apparently one cause is if the courgette flower is pollinated by an ornamental gourd. One supplier has actually recalled a batch of seeds. Apparently before using you should lick a portion of the courgette and discard the whole fruit if you experience a bitter taste. In extreme cases eating affected courgettes can be fatal.

On Sunday we managed to do more planting. One of our brassica beds was filled up with the addition of more cabbages. This time the variety was Kalibro.

We planted more lettuces and in the same bed sowed some left over peas and dwarf French beans.

Finally we planted leeks. Three varieties were sown - Porbella, Musselburgh and Below Zero. Unfortunately the indelible pen that we used for labeling them wasn't even indelible in the greenhouse so we have no idea which are which.
We also harvested more peas and berries. This time in the sunshine, a much pleasanter task. As I approached one of the fruit beds, I heard the unmistakeable  sound of a wood pigeon taking off, confirmation of why we don’t have a single jostaberry this year. Some you win and some the wood pigeons win!
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Hope everyone is staying well and safe 

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

PS: It's not just our gardens that suffer from blight. Martyn and I are currently suffering from an influx of blog blight. It seems that it is the season of the spammer. One in particular is persistently targeting our and what appears to be lots of other people's blogs. Most are sent to the spam or moderation folders as we moderate comments on posts over five days old. These spam comments are deleted and never see the light of day but unfortunately some do sneak through. I apologise for any that sneak through and end up being emailed to those who subscribe to comments, Please do not click on any links in spam comments which gives these nuisances satisfaction and encouragement. They can track where click throughs originate from and will target a blog even more if they think that this is causing more people to visit their site.



28 comments:

  1. Rain? What's rain? It is still really dry down here - and windy most of the time too, which dries the soil very quickly even if we get any rain! At least the local pigeons don't seem to bother me - they eat stale bread which I put out, but very seldom show any interest in my plants.

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    1. I think it’s worse on an allotment site, Mark. Maybe the wood pigeons are attracted by the bounty on offer. The wood pigeons in our garden tend to stick to the bird table fare.

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  2. Your plot is looking lovely and productive even with the crazy extremes of weather - Wales went down to 1degree last night apparently! The baked cauliflower dish looks very tasty, that's on my list for future use!

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    1. The baked cauliflower was tasty, Belinda. We had it with a jacket potato.

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  3. Will we gardeners ever be happy with the weather? Like you, I cannot believe it's mid July and the heating is tweaked daily, and I am wearing woollies too. At least your fruit and veg now comes ready washed.

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    1. At least I don’t feel that I have to buy any summer clothes, Deborah

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  4. I've had to change my sleeping habits so I can get up early before the heat hits. Your produce looks delicious.

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  5. Oh my, I have harvested in the rain and it's no fun but you do what you have to! I have a wide brim harden hat for just those occasions. If you wonder where the heat has gone, we have it here. It's time to plant the fall brassicas here, hard to believe it's that time already.

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    1. It isn’t fun, Dave. At least the brassicas and potatoes are enjoying the conditions and we don’t need to water.

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  6. What a good idea to lift the lettuce with the root and store that way until use. I'll have to try that. As usual your berries are enviable.

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  7. That's really interesting about the courgettes, I shall lick before eating! Lots of rain here as well, but hopefully dry next week.

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    1. Our courgette will get a good licking, CJ even though we didn’t buy our seeds from the supplier that seems to be having the problem. Must admit that the info was a surprise.

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  8. I'm worried that the sunshine we had in spring is our summer this year. I have the heating on most days, it's so cold, and I'm thoroughly fed up of the wind. It's another dull day here today, the weather forecast says it's going to stay dry but I'm not so sure. Thank you so much for all the kind comments you have left on recent posts, it's been such a sad time but it's been a comfort to know I've been in the thoughts of so many people here in Blogland.

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    1. The weather certainly doesn’t help to lift the spirit, Jo

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  9. You need to have pigeon pie along with your veggies. ;) That is what I think about the squirrels in our garden doing destruction. ha... I have never heard about a courgette illness like this. You just never know about these things. Weird. The winds are just awful this year and we are having a lack of rain. We didn't have to mow last week. Might not this week but we are having company so we probably will since we got a half inch of rain this week. The grass didn't grow much but the weeds sure were encouraged. Enjoy your harvest, it looks good.

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    1. I have threatened them with a pastry overcoat, Lisa. It was the first I knew about courgettes. I’ve only just found out the the stones in plums, peaches etc contain cyanide too.

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  10. Despite your rough weather, your harvest looks superb! What a strange situation with the courgettes.

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    1. I used courgettes today in a bolognese Lisa and Robb but not before a good lick. Of course I didn’t use the licked bit!😉

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  11. Thanks for that info on the courgettes. It's not something that I've heard of before and good to know.

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    1. Apparently it can affect other members of the squash family too Julieanne but less frequently.

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  12. Goodness, the courgette issue is worrying, thanks for the warning. I think summer happened in spring, it's like autumn around here too and the rain and wind is getting old fast. Moderation is what we need. Poor cardoon! All my plums were blown off, at least I made a jam with them. Your harvest is wonderful as always and that cauliflower recipe sound delicious, I must try a vegan version.xxx

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    1. We seem to not do moderation, Dina. The cardoons never seem to manage to stay in tact for a full summer.

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  13. I agree, you've got a fine healthy crop here Sue in despite of all your weather challenges in growing them. I had heard about the issue with courgettes. It's good that you are highlighting it here.

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    1. It seems that there are lots of food plants that have some form of toxins in them, Shirley- it’s just a matter of how much

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  14. It's the same here Sue with rain,wind and cool temperatures and today has been no exception. Glad to hear that we are not the only ones having the odd fix of putting the heating on in July!
    You seem to be rising to the elements though with those healthy crops.

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    1. Some enjoy the conditions and others don’t Anna as is always the case isn’t it?

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