This weekend, the first yellow courgette and tomatoes were plucked; we’ve been gradually denuding the plum tree as the fruit ripens with increasing pace and deliciousness (Emily loves home grown plums), and we’ve seen continued signs of life from the cucumber plant. I dug up a couple of sample lapland potatoes (looking good), the blueberries were sampled again (not quite ready) and Amanda brought up a small bushel of carrots – tricky to get up, those ones. 500g of Rhubarb was picked and turned (by mine own hand) into a reasonably delicious baby-led-weaning oat-topped rhubarb crumble, with portions for the freezer.
Absolutely loving this stage of the season. Slightly concerned that the two apples on our tree will not survive but really hoping they do – they look enormous and delicious – as my judgement of on-tree ripeness is not great. I’m pretty much just wiggling the fruit around and seeing if it drops off the branch of its own accord, and using that as a measure of its desire to be eaten.
Returning after four days away, we found the garden thriving; a few days of sunshine as well as the lateness of summer had sent everything into ripening overload; apples and plums are shifting hue, a few of the blueberries are looking almost edible, the strawberries are plentiful and ready for picking, the tomatoes have started to redden and the courgettes are continuing to come in apace. The late planted squash and pumpkin plants are growing incredibly fast and the carrots are getting bigger every day.
We took a substantial crop off the rhubarb plant and a carrot to taste (want them to have a little more time to grow out), but imagine we will have to harvest more or less weekly now to the end of the year. Apparently the flowering on the Lapland potato plants means that the pots are ready, but I’m willing to let them grow a little more – or is this a bad idea?
Will do a rhubarb taste report when we get a chance…
Managed to make myself weed the plot on Sunday – I need to do that a bit more regularly. Some weird creeping weed had made its way into the carrot plot and finding its source proved impossible. A fruitless task, you might even say (sorry…).
Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.
