We got a team of helpers in to take the plastic off the tunnel frame.  

Nice job!

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Having survived yesterday's sheep shearing challenge we decided to take things easy today.  P had to repair the Avant (broken cable) and I decided to dig up the jerusalem artichokes and a few parsnips.

The butternut squash that didn't have time to ripen in the tunnel (and weren't sold at the market) have ripened off nicely indoors, in front of the windows. Here I sliced one of them down the middle, drizzled it with olive oil and roasted it in the oven with some thyme.  

P. soent the weekend on the digger, we decided to put a drainage ditch through the polytunnel.  This is because when we used the programmed watering system we noticed that water accumulated in the middle of the tunnel and was not draining away quickly enough.  No problem if we are around to turn off the sprinkers but annoying if we are elsewhere and it gets really soggy.

And here it is filled in with gravel and plenty of manure we had delivered a couple of weeks ago.

In a week or two we will take the plastic down for the winter.  Everyone seems to think that the lifespan of the plastic is prolonged if you take it down and roll it up.  It also means we take less risk with winter gales (and we certainly know what they can do) and snow & ice damage.

Next year we will have some staging, we will grow only climbing toms and cucumbers to give max floor space to the butternut squash.  And we will make our own grow-bags.