Feeling jammy

A typical day's harvest 

The harvest season has well and truly begun. Everything is a month behind but cropping very well. Hopefully we'll have a warm autumn so that the later crops will ripen as well.

First jam and chutney of the year

We (or rather our guests) have been gathering 1kg of strawberries a day and a good lot of gooseberries, too. So the jam-making machine has sprung into action. The total so far: 10 jars of gooseberry & elderflower jam, 6 of strawberry conserve (where you soak the whole fruits for a day, then briefly boil and leave for another day before making the jam - this makes for a very intense strawberry flavour) and 4 of strawberry & rhubarb jam. And 15 jars of beetroot & green tomato chutney.

A rare chance to dry

There's been no need to water the plants, with frequent showers every day, but we've had two days without rain this week. The ideal window of opportunity for our onion harvest. They got one day in the sun, before being sorted into immediate use and winter storage piles, and are now filling up every available space in the house. They'll need to dry for a month or so to develop their skins. We have a lot more than last year, but probably not enough to last until the next crop. And there is one whole fish box for immediate consumption. Today we had French onion soup for six, and onion chutney making is already planned for this week.

Drying in the kitchen

And in the bathroom

The wild flower border has burst into colour all of a sudden, with lots and lots of poppies.

Wild flower strip

The Finnish poppy corner

The top corner is basically done. Seven herb beds made from old tyres, with stone surrounds. Even though it's a bit late in the season, I've sown some coriander, thyme, oregano, summer savoury, lemon grass, camomile and caraway. Let's see if anything comes of it; otherwise it will be coming into full use next year. My friend Sally has kindly donated a whole bunch of nice-looking non-edible perennials (whose names I can never remember, other than astilbes) and they've been planted along the wall. Now all that remains is to sow some grass in the remaining area and maybe plant a few spring bulbs.

Jim finishing off the new herb beds

And another piece of good news: The first asparagus seedlings have popped up!

New shelters

This week we've been improving the shelter in the garden. Another southerly gale came through so we decided to make some extra wind break fences for vulnerable plants. First up were the Jerusalem artichokes, which are getting quite tall. They now have wind break fabric on three sides and potato plants on the fourth.

Jerusalem artichokes - almost a full-surround system

Then we rigged up some protection for our new fruit bushes. The Saskatoon berries, especially, were not coping too well with the wind.

Fruit bush protection

And since the chicks were rapidly outgrowing their nest box, Jim fixed up an old hen house with run with a whole lot of free polycarb. The chicks are delighted with their new accommodation and have been grazing a lot. One of them even seems to have a fondness for ground elder.

The two silver greys

New chick accommodation

Loitering by the door

Looking distinctly cocky

And this was the week of one of the culinary highlights of the year - our first new potatoes. A bit delayed because of the frost damage and the cool weather but no less delicious for all that. Dunluce is a winner.

Dunluce First Earlies

In the veg garden, everything is growing slowly but steadily. A bumper crop of broad beans this year and very good beetroot. The salads are plentiful and the fennel looks like it's going to bulb though one plant bolted - I thought you needed heat for that.

Rocket and Salad Bowl Red 

Fennel

Parsnips doing well

We also finished preparing the new leek bed and planted 99 leeks. This was more akin to quarrying - a lot of back-breaking labour for Jim. From a soil book in our local library we found out that our soil is glacial till (loam with greywacke stone) and there sure is a lot of stone.

New leek bed

And all the stone removed from it

Meanwhile, I've sown the rest of the new planting area in the middle paddock with turnips, lots of spring cabbage, kohl rabi, carrots and salad leaves.

The new planting area, with comfrey in foreground

Now it's time to tackle the top corner of the garden, before painting the house and running a quasi hotel for the summer. Jim's already started by building a mighty fine stone wall.

The heather slope is doing well and weeding is getting easier

Jim's new wall

Hens and roses

Domino watching over the chicks

Did anyone say heatwave? The only place that reached 37.5C here in the past few weeks has been the incubator, where we've been hatching our first batch of chucks. Otherwise, 22C was the limit, now fondly remembered.

Tough start to life

 

 

 

The first hatchling

Now transferred to the brooder

It was fascinating to watch the entire hatching process in the incubator. We had a couple of late nights! It takes about 21 days for a chick to hatch. After 7 days you candle the egg to make sure there are signs of life. Out of our nine eggs, six developed and five hatched - not a bad rate. On day 21 the chicks start to pip a hole in the shell, but that's so exhausting that they take a long break after the first hole has been made and then later continue work on breaking off the end of the egg to get out. We got five cute fuzzballs, one brown, one yellow, one white and two silver-grey ones. Now it will be quite a wait to find out what sex they are, though the yellow one and one of the silver-greys are much larger and more assertive than the others - so maybe they are cock birds.

In the garden there is now produce, though everything is weeks behind. We have:

Aguadulce broad beans

Tasty rhubarb of unknown variety

Kelvedon Wonder peas

And the first tomatoes are turning red

Outside, we haven't had to water anything and everything is very green.

Freshly mown middle paddock

There are roses everywhere, and a few other flowers, too, but mainly roses. The previous owner was an afficionado so we have an enormous variety. And I have to say, David Austin roses make a lovely tea.

One of the posh David Austin roses

Dog rose

Another of the posh roses

Wild rose in the hege

Beautiful catnip flowers

The lavender is out

I've resown several veggies: squashes, beans, sweetcorn and asparagus. It will be interesting to see if the season is long enough for them to ripen (and for the asparagus to do anything at all). In the meantime, the original squashes and courgettes seem to have recovered. Phew!

First courgette forming