It was another blustery day on Sunday but nothing like the gales of mid-week. Some decent sunny spells were spoilt by the strong breeze. It wasn't very welcome after the gale force winds of last week.
Temperature & Hi Wind Speed Records for 11 June 2017 |
However, it was one of those days that make you aware of why you "grow your own" despite the setbacks that weather conditions and pests throw at you. On our visit to the allotment on Saturday, we harvested some calabrese and strawberries.
I emptied out our sack of Casablanca potatoes growing in our home greenhouse to make way for growing peppers and aubergines through summer. Three potato tubers were planted in the sack on 02 March 2017 and had been left in the greenhouse to do their own thing. They'd got very leggy and certainly hadn't flowered but I decided to harvest them in any case.
The results were a little disappointing but we had enough potatoes for Sunday dinner. The main problem was that the compost in the sack had become extremely dry and no amount of watering helped as the water merely ran down the inside of the bag and out of the drainage holes in the bottom.
Growing Record for Potatoes & Calabrese |
Just out of interest, I've included my growing records for the sack of potatoes and calabrese. We've still got more calabrese heads to harvest and then with a little bit of luck we'll have some tasty side shoots too. Once we've harvested all our calabrese I'll enter the total weight of the crop in the table.
For Sunday dinner we had home grown potatoes "Casablanca" with a helping of calabrese "Aquiles" followed by "Cambridge Favourite" strawberries for dessert. It was a reminder of why we go to the trouble of "growing our own" and hopefully the harvesting season is only just beginning.
Plants grow so fast for you over there! I, too, think that the prime reason for growing your own vegetables is the taste, the superb flavor, the premium texture and age of picking. So thrilling.
ReplyDeleteWe are just about at the peak growing season now Jane. I Think it's down to our long hours of daylight. Sunrise today is 04:36 and sunset is 21:37 so basically it is light by 04:00 and not dark until 22:00. If we have some mild night plants have 18 hours a day of growing time.
DeleteCouldn't agree more with you about the taste of home grown veg not to mention the satisfaction when it all comes together.