A visit to the plot

Saturday was mild again and with the snow having thawed we made a trip to the plot to harvest some vegetables.

There's plenty of jobs to get on with on the plot and it looks bleak and neglected a far cry from the productive days of summer.

The soil condition around my unprotected parsnips was really good and the parsnips lifted in good condition. The variety I lifted were Gladiator which has given us a good crop since I first grew it several years ago now. It was then on to uncover our carrots. The carrots appeared to be in good condition once the protective straw was forked to one side. Some Early Nantes were still in the ground and looked unaffected by the severe frosts of last week. I suppose the proof will be in the eating!

Initially it looks like the straw has protected the carrots down to temperatures of around minus 8°C. I’ll be honest when we started using straw as protection the prediction in line with global warming was that snow and extremely cold winters would be a thing of the past! It might have been the case then but the last three winters have made a mockery of that forecast. So the straw has done a great job.