Harvest time

Happy 4th July everyone! It's dull, hot and cloudy here this evening, so I hope you have sun where you are and that the hot dogs and fireworks are wonderful!

Here's a view, taken this morning, across the top of plots 1 and 2, with Millie standing guard (and wondering what I'm up to). About now the allotment is really beginning to produce a lot of produce, all at once. We are beginning to find out why folks who have allotments are so generous with fruits and vegetables - you simply cannot eat them all as they come in! Of course, we are very lucky that the plot has so many established fruit trees and bushes already there. But the strawberries, potatoes, broad beans and peas, which we planted are also producing well.

Today I picked some raspberries and strawberries, which I thought looked pretty beautiful, so (naturally) you get a shot of those!

The peas are producing at least as many peas as the four of us can eat.

And the broad beans are really magnificent at the moment. I need to work out how to freeze these or preserve the excess in some way.

I have made some blackcurrent jam and that's pretty lovely. The worst part is tidying up the fruit in preparation, the actual jam is easy to make and really sets well too. Even my Mum approves of the result. So, that reminds me to mention that Mum is still doing really well. She walked from hers with Millie and I today and then went on to the local store on her own, which was a first.

Meanwhile, Annie is doing fine, though her mobility is less than brilliant with her damaged foot. Clearly we aren't going to get stateside for a while. Anyone who knows Annie's Mom please don't mention said foot as she is keen to save Mom that worry. So far though, the x-rays suggest it is healing fine.
Back at the plot, meanwhile, the apples are growing apace, though many did fall in the "June drop", clearly the harvest will be big (apple butter .... yummmmmm) and there is one pear tree, which has a reasonable number of fruit on too.

Most amazing (at least for me) are the vines. Truly. They grow up beside the shed on plot 1 and there were just some little twigs at the beginning of the year. Now they are yay tall.

And sport mini grapes. What on earth do we do with those? They are not really likely to be very sweet (so far as I know dessert grapes don't grow well in our climate) so I guess that's going to be a wine-making experiment! When Mum taught chemistry she used to run a (rather popular) course on wine-making, so I'm hoping she can still remember how that's done.

The pear tree is up on plot 3 which is away from the other two and we haven't truly managed to get much of that one cultivated this year. Here's Colin though, by the shed on 3, trying to excavate some lettuce Manda planted, from the mess of weeds that have sprung up around them. At the moment Manda's mum is not well in hospital, so we are hoping for the best for her. I guess this rota of sick parents must just go with our age, huh?

The runner beans, which went in during May, are just beginning to flower (small red dots in this picture!) and are really climbing up the frame now. Likewise the sweet peas (in the background) which smell really lovely, are coming into flower very nicely.

Obviously I can't end a plot post without another shot of my faithful assistant gardener. She gets to run around the field on the way up there and on the way home again, but she is really patient waiting for me to work on the plot. ((((Millie)))) Awww.

Love to everyone, K xxx.