Shoots and leaves...
The whims and woes, highs and lows, of trying to grow fruit and veg in Nordic latitudes.
From the veggie patch:
Yes, we're picking French beans twice a day. I prefer to pick them when they are "extra fins" (very thin) - the French way, rather than let them get too big and risk them being stringy. I blanch them in boiling water for one minute, rinse them in ice cold water, let them dry and then bag them up and put them in the freezer. They are frozen within an hour or two of being picked. Huge yields from each plant. I need to check the variety (will definitely use the same one next year), Also picked more beetroot but I will try making relish or borscht rather than pickling any more. We used seed tape for the carrots but I find they are too close together so I have pulled some of the larger ones (and frozen them) to make room for the smaller ones. Pulled both red and purple onions and dug up all the garlic from the veg garden (but there are more in the ground up at the farmhouse). I tied up the Jerusalem artichokes as they were falling over and covering up my tiny lavender bush, but won't be digging any up for a month or two yet, In the forest: Picked blueberries in the forest and found enough chanterelles to make a nice big 6-egg omelette for P and me. There are still tons and tons of raspberries. The heather is starting to bloom but no sign of the bees... In the polytunnel: Tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, gherkins, courgettes all ready to pick. Butternuts and pumpkins are reaching scary proportions. Cinderella eat your heart out. No sign of mice but lots of small birds visit the polytunnel during the day. The temperature falls quite dramatically night-time so we need to fix the curtain at the north end of the tunnel.
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