It has Eustace, lots of French beans first, then runners, they seem to have thrived in drought. Tomatoes, marrows, leeks, lettuce, al done really well. I’ve now got Spring green plants to grow in the GH when the tomatoes are finished, I’ve already got carrots and turnips in there. Spinach seeds sown, not up yet.
Nice to see the freezer full of fruit and veg.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Today picked more sprouts. The whites have been laying again and the caterpillars are all over the tops....but we still got sprouts. Picked our last dwarf french beans and yesterday had yet another full bowl of pea beans. Started the quince wine, bottles spiced ones and made jam. Taking an assortment of produce to a friend on Friday. While a very slow start for our veg it has given us such a great return in the end. The freezer is full, the jars are mounting up.
Isn't it grand @bertrand-mabel when the season slows and you realise you have enough produce to last most of the winter in jar or freezer.😁 I still have some frozen bits and bobs to make up, but that gives me something to do in the winter months. ( I also go back to my glass and watercolour painting) Most have finished, but we are still picking the Sunchocola cherry toms, 35 in the last pick, but they won't keep ripening much longer in the cold greenhouse .
I'm amazed at how much the garden can produce. For example, we have one apple tree - a Red Falstaff. It's about ten feet high, and this year has been a bumper one - much like the last few years. I've never been very successful in storing apples, and ended up losing a lot over the winter months, despite the careful storage. This year I opted to stew and bottle what I could, and only eat fresh during the season. I declined to freeze, due to the cost of electricity needed to run the freezer. So, I have around 60lbs of stewed apple in the cupboard, along with various jams, including a low-sugar apple and redcurrant. A lovely pale pink colour.
@rowlandscastle444 We have managed to store in our porch many many apples from Sept_ April. I do go through them and pull out the ones that are showing problems and these are then put back into the orchard area for the winter birds. I have frozen apple slices...brilliant. In a bottle...not so.
I ended up supplying several neighbours with apples this year - and a neighbour's horse!! I didn't want to see them wasted.
Storage jars have increased in price, and while I use jam jars, etc, I never seem to have enough. This year I bought several jars of cheap jam from Aldi, spooned the jam into plastic containers, then used the cleaned jars. Cheaper than buying jars!! How daft!! Now I need to find a use for a large quantity of strawberry jam.
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Tomatoes, marrows, leeks, lettuce, al done really well. I’ve now got Spring green plants to grow in the GH when the tomatoes are finished, I’ve already got carrots and turnips in there. Spinach seeds sown, not up yet.
Most have finished, but we are still picking the Sunchocola cherry toms, 35 in the last pick, but they won't keep ripening much longer in the cold greenhouse .
I've never been very successful in storing apples, and ended up losing a lot over the winter months, despite the careful storage. This year I opted to stew and bottle what I could, and only eat fresh during the season.
I declined to freeze, due to the cost of electricity needed to run the freezer.
So, I have around 60lbs of stewed apple in the cupboard, along with various jams, including a low-sugar apple and redcurrant. A lovely pale pink colour.
Storage jars have increased in price, and while I use jam jars, etc, I never seem to have enough.
This year I bought several jars of cheap jam from Aldi, spooned the jam into plastic containers, then used the cleaned jars. Cheaper than buying jars!! How daft!!
Now I need to find a use for a large quantity of strawberry jam.
A few runner beans are still there, I'll leave them to set seed.