Things harvested Sat 27 June

leaf beet - larger leaves for cooking as spinach

leaf beet - small leaves to use in a salad (just me as my husband won't eat it raw)

leaf beet flowers (cooked like purple sprouting broccoli)

rhubarb

raspberries

strawberries

Update

The leaf beet has been so good. Only six plants but I am still eating it every day for my lunch and about three times a week as part of dinner. There is still enough to keep me going for another week. One plant had finished giving me useful leaves so we gave that to the hens. they loved it and within ten minutes, there was nothing useful left on the plant. Then it moves to the compost heap. Another plant has very little to offer so it will be going to the hens soon.

The rhubarb is just about finished. I would some new crowns as this variety  does not keep going very well. It does not seem to grow any new stems once the first ones are picked. There are a few feeble stems left so I shall pick a few more. We have thoughts about a rhubarb crumble : ) We have no idea which variety of rhubarb it is  as it was given to us originally by somebody who didn't know either as it was given to them. When we divided the crowns up, we gave some to our son and he finds exactly the same problem. 

The strawberries and raspberries are not prolific but there are enough for a couple of desserts in a week. They taste fabulous! I would like some new strawberry plants too as these much be getting on a bit. the berries are quite small which is a sign of old age in a strawberry.

The Worcester berries and gooseberries will be ready soon - yum! Worcester berries are a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrants or so I was told by the elderly chap at the allotments who gave us our first sticks. They are the colour and flavour of a blackcurrant but the size of a medium gooseberry, if that makes sense.

Pop-up Duck on Big Water

Today, Postman Pat and his mum took us on a socially distanced walk to "big water" which is what the local reservoir is now called : )

It was a lovely walk. Our grandson showed us silver birch trees, alpacas, brambles and nettles and told us their names. He was two in April so I was very pleased with him! I must say it was so nice to have him chatting to us and not super shy like he was the other day. I found it really hurtful to have him so shy albeit understandable as he has only seen us on video calls for over three months.

One of the delights of the walk was sitting on the bank of the reservoir while our grandson ate a snack and watched the pop-up duck performing in front of us. It was a grebe but I now think Pop-up duck is a much nicer name : )

In my photo, the black dot right in the middle is the pop-up duck but my camera would not cooperate and take a closer photo. In reality, the grebe was a few feet from us and we could see every movement it made very clearly.

Postman Pat

This is Postman Pat who delivered (in his postbag) the card and present from his Mum to Grandad for Fathers' Day. My phone was not cooperating so it took several goes to get a photo taken. Hey ho.

The longest day

Today has been the longest day of the year. I love summer (so long as it is not too hot) but the one disadvantage is that the hens have not gone to bed until after I feel like I should be asleep. It always surprises me how quickly the days seem to shorten a bit after the end of June so that I can go to bed when I am feeling tired and without the aid of matchsticks to keep my eyes open until the hens have stopped partying.

The hens are still laying well. earlier this last week, I had ten and a half dozen eggs and was wondering what to do with them all. Since Wednesday, I have had so many friends requesting eggs (socially distanced doorstep visits) that I now have barely two dozen left. Although I have put six bags each containing four beaten eggs in the freezer for the winter when I will be complaining that I have lots of hens all eating their little heads off whilst laying very few eggs. At least I know that we will be having six farmhouse omelettes over the winter months : )

My leaf beet (perpetual spinach) is slowly coming to an end. One plant which had totally finished giving us any leaves was brought home and given to the hens. Within a quarter of an hour, there was only the thick main stem left. Everything else had been scoffed completely.

Today is not just the longest day but also Fathers' Day. We had a special delivery from Postman Pat alias our grandson and his mum. We had a socially distanced chat on the doorstep. Three passers by stopped to say hello to a rather shy Postman Pat. He did look so lovely in his outfit : )

After lunch we went for afternoon tea to our son's house down the road. We ate our tea in the garden with us on one side and the rest of them on the other side. Very nice too and with homemade chocolate buns : ) And when we got back to our house, we found that our other daughter had been and left a tray of not-hot-cross buns in the hall with dad written across them all in the paste that the crosses are made from. We had one each after tea and they were lovely : )

It has been a lovely day but I am ready for bed now and the hens are all still up and doing   : (

Things harvested.

We have been back to the allotment today. We have had a few days off while my husband's sciatica eased off a bit. We didn't stay long today but put a few stakes in and I hoed a few rows of the brassicas. One of the other blogs I read has a list of the things that she has harvested and I thought I might find it of interest next year if I did the same. So far this year, we have had the biggest harvest off the leaf beet. We have had dozens of meals from it so far.

leaf beet - larger leaves for cooking as spinach
leaf beet - small leaves to use in a salad (just me as my husband won't eat it raw)
leaf beet flowers (cooked like purple sprouting broccoli)
rhubarb
raspberries
strawberries

And every time we go to the allotment, I bring a mixed salad home for the rabbit's dinner too. Usually there are things I can bring home for the hens too. They all like fresh greens, just like us : )

I have now lost four hens since the lockdown started, including my all time favourite. We don't usually lose so many close together like that but they were all older girls.

More allotmenting

We are making headway on the allotment now and I am confident that we will have a harvest from it despite the late start and the lack of energy to do a lot. The top end and the bottom end are looking ok and are planted up. It is the middle section that looks like a jungle. That is where the currants and gooseberries live and they have been absolutely overrun with weed. However our first concern was to clear some sections for the seedlings to go in to ensure a harvest. The fruit just had to take second place much as I look forward to the fruit each year. I must admit that I am really not looking forward to tackling that area.

My phone threw a wobbly this week. It has decided that the sd card is corrupted and has therefore deleted two of my three games that I like playing. It has also deleted my ringtone which really annoys me. I have been using the same ringtone ever since I got my first mobile phone over twenty years ago. Until now. When this lockdown is over, the first thing I want is a hug from my grandchildren and the second is for one of the younger generation of this family to fix my phone!