Beautiful Crops

We are really reaping the benefits of our labours now and are gathering fresh vegetables on a daily basis.

Last year the potatoes were like marbles but this year we have got it right and what a huge difference in the crops.  The addition of some manure in the bottom of the pods and a little potato fertilizer given at regular intervals has made a world of difference.  We have so far harvested one pod of "Charlotte" and one of "Blue Belle", both of which, with a little butter on the top (oops, lots of calories) were absolutely delicious.

We have also picked an excellent supply of early peas, or at least my long suffering husband, Peter, has.  For some strange reason he really enjoys picking peas and shelling them and, whilst I fail to see the attraction, I am more that happy to let him carry on.  Any help with the produce is always gratefully received. We have now planted another row of peas "Kelvedon Wonder" to follow on.

The runner and french beans are also providing brilliant crops and we have this week planted a few more french beans to stretch the season.  Now it does say on the seed packet that these very fast growing vegetables should be planted by the end of June at the latest but I really can't imagine a couple of weeks into July will make that much difference, weather condiitons being reasonable.  I am sure the dear little beans themselves are unaware I am running a bit late.

Suddenly, with some rain, the onions have really improved and are not going to be the disaster I feared we may have.

One tip I had this year which proved more than helpful was to scatter crushed egg shells amongst the vegetables to keep the slugs away,.  It could well be that the slug population reduced a bit this year anyway but this certainly seemed to work well and we shall continue to use this method.

My solitary cucumber plant in the greenhouse is providing us with far more cucumbers than we can use in salads but, treated in the same way as marrows, these make an excellent and tasty hot vegetable so none will be wasted.

By the way, would love to hear from anybody that has a tried and tested recipe for cucumber relish.