Gluts

 

I'm not complaining!  Figs for breakfast - yum!  And this time I took a picture not only of the figs and cream cheese which I since devoured, but also of a few spares which will disappear over the next couple of days.  I promise you that there are still loads on the tree.

Apparently, it is a good year for figs.  I have no fig tree so I don't know but I do know that everyone who is friendly with Holly Dog's human is fed up with making fig jam and fig chutney.  

What I have is tromboncino.  Like all courgettes it doesn't know what to stop.  Fortunately my neighbour doesn't have a plant but he does have rhubarb which again has no idea that enough is enough so we did a little swap.  I'm picking, cooking, pureeing and freezing tomatoes as fast as I can.

It seems to be an excellent year for apples, pears and plums but not very good for runner beans.  What's done really well in your garden this year?  Or not?  And has anyone tried dehydrating figs?

He's been!

Pot placed in a dull bit of garden

 I looked out of my window at 6.55am and saw a man and a dog.  Millie Dog soon came for a treat and a tickle but Jack was a man with a mission.  And a spray.  So he got on with his job.  And Millie sorted me out.

A small corner well used

We had to delay the bacon butty ritual as I was expecting a Sainsbury delivery which arrived about 7.45am so the great man didn't expire from hunger.  Actually, that would be unlikely as he had eaten his first breakfast at home.  The butty was a mere top-up.  Three thick rashers of (butcher's) back bacon in a large bun.  Milly Dog had another treat.  (She'd had her breakfast before she came, too.)

Poppies allowed to grow and Stulch applied

Anyway, the usual whirlwind has been around my garden.  I've been buying Strulch this year (mineralised straw mulch) and Jack thinks it marvellous as it has reduced the need for weeding considerably, it looks good and will bio-degrade.  I am gradually buying shrubs so that there will be less work in future especially as they will be surrounded with Strulch.  

Veg garden.  (Jack - just a few things for planting next time you come!

And then he  did everything else.  He's taken most of the leaves from the tomato plant to encourage the fruits to mature.  He's weeded the non-strulched areas.  He's picked beans (maybe because he fancied a few!) and sweet peas for me.  He's even got a few tomatoes to take home with him.  

How would I manage without Jack!

My beans are better than the one he's grown at home!

I have no idea!

 A couple of months ago I bought a courgette plant.  I asked Jack to plant it and before too long it flowered.  Jack was bemused by the fruits which started to appear but we left it to its own devices.  I kept looking but none seemed ready to pick.  

This evening while I was making my way around the raised vegetable bed something brushed against my leg.  A courgette.  At least two feet long! How on earth had I missed this!  And I have no idea what variety of courgette this is.  Can you help?  I think it is a grafted plant.  Fortunately I bought just one as it appears to be very prolific.

But while I was outside I also picked my first "big" tomato of the season.  I've been eating cherry tomatoes for several days but this is the first full size jobby of 2025.

And at least every other day I have picked a bunch of sweet peas.

Jack tells me his his own garden isn't doing nearly as well as mine.  Tee hee.  Shame about that! 

But thank you, Jack, for doing such a great job with my garden.  A bacon butty awaits your attention.  And I know you have some brilliant leeks which you hope I will turn into soup for you.  

In disgrace

 I don't suppose it's a surprise to anyone that I am in disgrace with Jack.  He came yesterday.

His first complaint was that I haven't written anything on this blog for a month.  As you can see I have remedied that. 

Then he moaned about the number of plants I had acquired.  There were carrots, beetroot, rocket, tomatoes, mimulus, sweet peas, gazania, salvia, begonia, antirrhinum, geraniums and African marigolds.  So he sorted all of them.  Except the geraniums which I have been growing on and they are still a bit small.  

And anyway he added to the quantity by bringing me a daphne, a cotoneaster and something he couldn't remember the name of.  Fortunately I like surprises.  

He planted up my vegetable garden but we have plenty of room for other crops.  The "snake" is a porous hose.  It's the easiest way for me to water the garden.

He filled pots and beds so that I will have a glorious show in the summer.

And he went home with six portions of home-made soup and twelve savoury ducks.

He can't complain about that.  But he'll find something else.  

My butcher thinks Jack is great!

My butcher has never actually met Jack but he's all in favour of my friend's dietary preferences.   I've cut back a lot on meat-eating, so I don't see my butcher as often as I did.  When I do see him it is to buy minced pork, pork liver and dry cured bacon.  These translate into savoury ducks and bacon butties.

You see, savoury ducks and bacon butties are the preferred enticement for the Lesser Spotted Jack.  He will also come for leek and potato soup but he can't resist a duck.

Last week he came even without a duck, though, so I gave him double helpings of bacon butties.  (By the way, he usually has his breakfast before he comes: the butties are just a minor snack!)

While he was here he sorted the flower bed.  The bacon butties must have been truly wonderful as he allowed the foxgloves to stay.  That is a huge concession.

But he also planted the vegetable garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers carrots, lettuce, beetroot (and a soaker hose).  

And leeks.  They may have been a hint.

This one's for Jack

 Jack is back in full force this year.  The garden is about to look magnificent and it looks pretty good now.

What I like best about my garden is the food we grow.  Here's a few of this year's crops.

These brassicas have been growing quite a while and will soon be ready to be munched.  

The potatoes are grown in pots so that I can harvest them when Jack isn't here.  They've really appreciated the wet weather we've been having.  We've grown Charlotte, Javelin, Maris Bard and Maris Peer. 

Tomatoes are also grown in pots.  Some are upright and some trailing.  My cousin gives me a huge variety and he doesn't know when to stop!  This group is a tiny part of this year's planting.

Most of the vegetables are grown in this raised bed.  We've got carrots beetroot, salad leaves, radishes, courgettes, beetroot, lettuce, and cucumber and probably quite a few more!

Herbs are grown in pots between the clematis and the back door so that they are handy for cooking.  It's also a handy place to leave the mop to dry!

Jack is definitely back!  My garden will be truly magnificent in a few weeks and it looks pretty good now.  We tease and bait each other but I am truly grateful for all that he does for me.  

Thanks, Jack

A Tasty Joy

So, a small pleasure for today!

Well, three things came together and make me feel very grateful that I live in 2020.  First of all I was sorting the presents to put away and I found the butternut squash which a friend had grown and given me.  Then another friend fetched me two lemons.  And the first seed catalogue of the season dropped on the mat.

And I feel so grateful for the lovely variety of food which I can get and grow,

I was a very lucky little girl in that my Father and my Grandfather both grew wonderful vegetables.  Both grew carrots, parsnips, potatoes, beans, onions, peas, and other traditional vegetables.  Daddy had more leisure time than Grandad and he grew other things like asparagus, raspberries, cucumbers, and sprouting broccoli but basically the food we ate at either house was fresh and seasonal.  Tomatoes were a greenhouse crop so they had to be bought.

During my lifetime the seedsmen have done great things in creating reliable and tasty strains of vegetables. We can grow a far wider variety in our gardens - the nearest thing to a butternut squash that Daddy grew was the dreaded marrow, of which the least said the better.   I grow tomatoes in the open garden every year, along with peppers, aubergines and sweetcorn which were unheard of when I was a girl.  The seed catalogues tempt me with Oca, Yakon, Callaloo and Inca and the tomatoes run to seven pages!  Commercial growers doubtless can grow even more

We still import a lot of fruit and vegetables: too much I fear but that may be another post as this one is about joy.  However, I shall enjoy the lemons brought for me today just as I enjoyed the pineapple which I had at Christmas.

So my source of pleasure today is quite simply food, beautiful, varied, colourful and plentiful.

Hook cuisine returns

Some people have a really hard life.  Jack isn't one of them!

A week ago he and Mrs Jack came home after three months in Malta.  After two days at home they nipped off to their caravan at the coast for the best part of a week.

They're home now.  Mrs Jack is toddling off to the USA at the end of the week.  Jack has plans.  My suspicion is that while the cat is away (sorry Mrs Jack!) the mouse will be having a ball.  

However, Jack will be visiting me quite a lot so I had better be good.  He's been today.  he's mended the fence.  He's put a new handle and lock on the back door.  He's done a lot of weeding.  He's planted lots of veg.  

Transcription:  Yes I had hook sandwiches for lunch.  C U Jack

Watching him would exhaust me so I've been out!!!!

He still had hook cuisine for lunch.  He left me this note to tell me about it.

He has threatened  promised to write a post very soon.  He will tell you how wonderful he is.  I just wanted to get my version in first.

(I know he will be reading this so, Jack, it's lovely to have you home and it was wonderful to come home to a much tidier garden.  Thank you!)

Dreaming

I had a lovely surprise present this morning – ten seed potatoes!  I realise that might not be everyone’s idea of bliss but ten seed potatoes are potentially ten wonderful harvests.  And even more, they are the cue for a bit of dreaming.

Pink Fir Apples

The weather is a bit iffy but we are nearly at the end of February.  Next week it will be March and then the garden will be calling.  What shall I grow this year?

Potatoes obviously.  The ten I have been given are Pink Fir Apples but I’ve got International Kidney, Vivaldi and Swift as well and I shall look for a couple more.  Even the names are triggers for dreams!  I shall grow some Nantes carrots to eat as lovely tender finger sized vegetables and I’ve got some seed for Paris Market, a round carrot which is delicious when eaten at radish size.

Paris Market carrots

Nantes carrots

Broad beans

There will have to be broad beans – they’re just about my favourite vegetable.  I haven’t decided which type yet but they will be going in soon. A little later runner beans will go in.  I’m told that they were originally grown in English gardens for their flowers and there’s no wonder at that.  They add height and interest to my plot.

Runner beans

The next couple of weeks will indeed be a time of dreaming – I haven’t even thought about flowers or salads yet.  Then will come hard work and waiting.  Finally, bliss – the joy of home grown veg!

Yes, spring is on its way!

The Garden in February

Leeks

On Sunday when my family came for lunch we had leeks from the garden.  I find that wonderful.  I've hardly been out there for two or three months and yet we had leeks from the garden.   I have had little inclination to stick my nose out of doors and still less to do anything to my garden and yet it still produces joy in abundance.

Winter lettuce

 The winter lettuce has survived and I must try it.  

Lambs' lettuce

The lambs’ lettuce is positively flourishing,

Swiss chard

Even the Swiss chard looks OK

Snowdrops

And even better the snowdrops look wonderful.

Spring can’t be too far away.

Normanby Hall again

One of the best things at Normanby Hall (see yesterday's post) is the walled kitchen garden.  Vegetable growing methods of about 1890 are used and heritage varieties grown.  It's a big old walled garden of about an acre with huge glass houses. 

They have fantastic trained fruit















and beautiful vegetables.

There's companion planting to attract beneficial insects.   (Spot the butterfly!)

  And beautiful pots for forcing rhubarb

.

All in all a fantastic place to visit and be inspired by.