Thursday 23 June 2011

What a Harvest !!

A visit to the allotment between showers on Tuesday paid off as there was a bumper harvest ready for the picking.
An amazing amount of strawberries, a huge bag of spinach, I get a bag like this every other day!  I had my first picking of broad beans, but they are still small as I prefer them small if they are going in a salad. Then there was a few tasty Tayberries which were also the first, but there are quite a few more to ripen so not too bad for the first year.  The blackcurrants were kindly given by my friend as mine all got eaten by the birds whilst still green.  They stripped the whole bush in a couple of days before I had time to net it. needless to say  LESSON LEARNT !!!

I have enough Lavender bushes now to harvest lot's to dry in the airing cupboard in a pillowcase. I will use it to fill the fabric hearts that I make.  I didn't take too much yet as they look and smell so lovely on the plot.



I made Strawberry Jam which I haven't done for ages. I made 9 jars and they were large jars as well !! it took ages to get to setting point. I doubled up on the recipe, which doesn't always work for me, but the thought of washing the preserving pan and doing it all again put me off, so I doubled up and as I said it took forever to get to the correct set.  I was still a bit unsure of how well it had set even when it had turned cold. However we had some for breakfast and it was perfect !!!! and my daughter-in-law loved it. PHEW !! so glad I didn't have to start again.  I make a lot of curd's which is so easy, but Jam is harder to set I find.


We have been away from home for a couple of days, so I'm sure there will be lot's more to harvest when I next visit the plot which weather permitting will be tomorrow.

I'm growing a 'Cape Gooseberry' in the greenhouse, well three actually.  It's the first time I have grown them and I already have little fruits forming on my largest one, which I must re-pot as it has outgrown the pot it's in.
The harvest I'm most looking forward to is the Courgettes and the mangetout.  I have flowers on the courgettes and just a few pods growing on the mangetout at the moment, so I will have to be patient.

I hope you are all getting some good harvest's.
M x

7 comments:

Maureen said...

Hi Tanya, thanks for dropping by my blog. I hope your strawberries ripen soon. I still have loads to ripen myself. I haven't yet cooked with lavender, but I had some lavender meringues recently at a friends and they were lovely.

cupcake castles said...

I even dreamt i was picking strawberries in my sleep the other night !, next problem - what to do with them all?

liz x

Matron said...

What a wonderful June harvest!

Kath said...

It's been a good year for strawberries. We picked our first blackcurrants, rasps and gooseberries this week too. (Oh, and LOADS of healthy weeds!) I made strawberry jam last year but I think we are eating them faster this year!

Damo said...

What a bumper harvest! And many happy returns, hope you had a nice birthday today.

Maureen said...

Thanks DAMO, I did indeed have a lovely day, but a quite one as we were tired out ater a busy week-end in London.

RobD said...

Well done on getting the jam to set - strawberry is a right sod to get to set, it still pains me to think of the time I burned it a few years ago. Thinking about it that was when I doubled the quantities...

I have some in the fridge now waiting for me to jam them, but I need some jam sugar first.