What are you harvesting today?

Oh they do look good ! I like the way the skin has rubbed off one one down the bottom there, to show that they are as fresh as can be. Parboiled new potatoes and broad beans tossed in a pan with bacon lardons frying in their own fat. Mmm

Chilli-head wrote:Oh they do look good !  I like the way the skin has rubbed off one one down the bottom there, to show that they are as fresh as can be.  Parboiled new potatoes and broad beans tossed in a pan with bacon lardons frying in their own fat. Mmm  

That does sound nice. Trouble is, we've eaten all the potatoes from the greenhouse, but the broad beans aren't big enough yet!

Some surprise potatoes, that were mixed in with a large nettle I was digging out. Haven't grown potatoes for about 3 years.

My first strawberry. Had it on my breakfast, along with some bought blueberries.

The last of the spring greens - but luckily the first of the summer cabbages should be ready soon. Oh, and the first tomato of the year. It was only tiny, but Mr D and I shared it!

Wow, that's good going Dandelion. My first tomatoes are green and marble sized and I thought I was doing well. What variety was it?

It was unfortunate that while we were away - just one week- the mange tout all went to seed and the broad beans got bigger than I like them to be. I had been harvesting them before we went but hadn't had very many because they were only just getting going.
Also in a week my gooseberry bush was entirely stripped of leaves by sawfly. It's covered in just fruit now but a bit hard & green (ok for jam) & I don't know whether to pick it or leave it for a bit.

It doesn't feel like much of a holiday when you come back to find devastation in the vegetable garden. Thanks for the reminder to check for sawfly, Ploshkin. (I think if it was me I'd leave the fruit to swell or 'plumpen up' as one of my girls used to say! I've never seen sawfly attack the fruits.)
The tomatoes were a new variety I tried, Maskotka. You can grow them in pots and hanging baskets - on the basis of this I've put them in fairly small pots (8") on the bench in the greenhouse, and they're racing away. The fruits have a little point at the bottom, making them look a bit like hearts, and they are very tasty!

I collected up my second batch of potatoes from the polytunnel. My total yield has been just over 10 kg from 8 tubers of Rocket. I'm more than happy with that and spuds will be on my 'worth doing' list.
Ironically, I had my Asda shopping delivered today and there was a bag of Jersey Royals that I hadn't ordered.

I'm trying to work that out in terms of yield, Ploshkin. So would 8 tubers be about 500gr? That would make the yield twenty-fold - not at all bad!!

Slowly harvesting strawberries but the dull rainy weather is holding back the ripening. Saw a squirrel running off with one yesterday. And they're netted, as well.

And asparagus (probably the last for this year) and first small handful of sugarsnap peas.

My first ever cauliflower! (from the polytunnel)
The head was only the size of a small grapefruit but it was really nice alongside carrots and courgettes, also from the polytunnel.
When I do some more I will read up on their requirements rather than just stick them in the ground - I don't think my other one is going to be any bigger than a ping pong ball.

freebird wrote:And asparagus (probably the last for this year) and first small handful of sugarsnap peas.

yes, a lot of things do seem to be in small handfuls at this time of the year! Mr D's Fathers' day feast included a small cabbage, a mixtures of peas and broad beans and a rhubarb and strawberry crumble all from the garden. There didn't seem to be enough of anything to avoid having a mixture!

My first few raspberries, and one of my three gooseberries - it got knocked off accidentally, and I'm not going to waste a third of the crop!

freebird wrote:My first few raspberries, and one of my three gooseberries - it got knocked off accidentally, and I'm not going to waste a third of the crop!

Not quite enough to get the preserving pan out...!

What happened to your gooseberries Freebird?

I have picked my first dwarf French beans from the polytunnel & harvested the last of the early carrots (must remember to do a couple of lots next year). I have sown some more Amsterdam Forcing in there as they should be quicker than the outdoor ones that I only sowed last week. PT strawberries are absolutely fab, there's another good picking to be had in a couple of days time and they're really big fruits too.

My first three tomatoes. Not sure I have ever harvested tomatoes in June before. These were from plants I bought in.

Ploshkin wrote:What happened to your gooseberries Freebird?

Well now, where should I start. I always battle against a combination of bindweed, couch and brambles down in the veg/fruit garden. It's manageable if I can get down there frequently to keep it under control. Last year, with the interminable decorating, I didn't get the chance and it became completely overgrown. I've spent the last couple of weeks cutting away all the rubbish and rediscovering my fruit bushes. One of my blackcurrants only had one surviving branch, the rest having rotted under the onslaught.

The gooseberry bush looks OK, and has just those few fruits. Having said all that, I don't think I have ever harvested more than a dozen in any year. Not sure if the birds have them.

The slugs have left me a punnet of strawberries. There may even be enough left on for jam if I move quickly. In a sunnier year it would hasve been a fantastic yield.

Is is a shame to see so many in holes or rotten, but I'm reminded of what a photographer friend said to me once; it is only the number of good shots you get that matters, not the number that end up in the dustbin (or on the compost heap !).

In some ways it's not a bad thing to have reliably awful summers because it means that I don't even attempt a lot of stuff outdoors hence no disappointment.
I never grow maincrop potatoes or outdoor tomatoes because of guaranteed blight. I gave up onions years ago because they always bolt. I've never done strawberries outside and have never attempted sweetcorn.
I'm just looking out at my beautiful delphiniums being battered by the wind and rain!

Loads of gooseberries ( sorry Freebird). They're a bit on the small side, I don't know if the sawfly destruction of the foliage has any bearing or it might be that I need to give my bush a bit of tlc.

My first two cucumbers. Greenhouse tomatoes most days now - don't think I'll be buying any for a while. Small handful of sugarsnap peas most days - soon builds up into enough for a meal. Think the first courgette will be soon.

Gosh you've done well to get tomatoes already. My first sungolds in the polytunnel are nearly ripe. Interestingly, I've got sungold and black cherry plants in both the pt and greenhouse (didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket). The greenhouse plants, in growbags look much greener and healthier but the polytunnel plants have more and much bigger fruits.

I'm still picking loads of strawberries, they've been producing since the end of May. I'm drowning under courgettes, almost all from the polytunnel and have had several good pickings of French beans, also from the polytunnel.

Ah well, I did buy the plants in, as I was too late to start my own. Funny things - slightly misshapen plum tomatoes, very fleshy with few pips and wet stuff, but superb flavour.

Picked my first tomatoes from the polytunnel. Sungold of course, just 4 of them

My tomatoes are still rather firm, but I have some yellow perfection which are at last yellow rather than green.

I lifted my garlic today. Not huge bulbs, the softneck a bit plumper than the hardneck sort. But not a bad yield because this year at least, I didn't lose any to white rot, which has been a problem in previous years. Don't know why not.

I also brought back some of the overwintered onions, and a handfull of strawberries - most of this year's crop have gone into jam. It looks like my blackcurrants will be fewer than normal, but really big - about the size of a marble !

In the veg plot at home, I dug a few more charlotte potatoes - I see some spots of blight on the foliage, so I'll take the tops off the few that are left. They have been pretty good this year - the veg plot in the garden is mostly made up of years of sandy spoil from the greenhouse by now, and is so well draining that a wet year suits the potatoes.

My tomatoes could have done with a bit of sun but I needed them to make up numbers for a salad.

I've just come back from the polytunnel with my first winter squash!  (Uchiki Kuri)
weighing in at just over a kilo.  It's probably not as ripe as it could get but it has been a good dark orange colour for quite a while now and I have at least another 15 coming, many of them bigger. I'm going to have to seriously tweak my timing next year.  I'm happy to have squashes any time but I do like to store some for the winter and somehow I don't think 7 months storage is feasible.