The benefits of home-grown produce have finally started to kick in, even if it was mainly grown by other people!
I’ve just been given a lovely jar of blackcurrant jam and a tub full of blackcurrants from a colleague, grown on her allotment. I’ve picked some of our blackcurrants, but there weren’t enough to do anything with yet. I’ll now be able to have a go at making my own Ribena – something I’ve missed!
At the weekend I did pick a decent crop of gooseberries, which I’ve cooked up with some sugar ready to make a fool. I’m afraid I will have to crack open a tin of custard we have in the cupboard – I can’t think of anything nicer than fool to do with them, and although I could make some custard, apart from not having time it doesn’t seem worth it when the most local milk I can get is from Leicestershire!
I’ve also harvested about four raspberries – nothing for it but to eat them straight off the plant! The strawberries are being attacked, I think mainly by ants, so haven’t managed to have a single one yet!
All the veg is way behind, so apart from lettuce we’re not going to be self-sufficient any time soon. But we have managed to get everything in the ground, which for us, busy as we are, is an achievement. The veg patch is very wet, which means things like onions are struggling, and the plague of slugs isn’t abating. My husband Simon was a professional gardener for seven years, and he says he’s never known conditions like it – onions are meant to be easy!
Yesterday I dropped by the Growing Spaces garden on Castle Row on my way home, and helped Simon, Zoe and Kora with a bit of weeding. We were rewarded for our efforts with a couple of handfuls of peas each. They were kind of meant to be picked as mange tout, but never mind!
Posted by Vicky