This year has been disappointing for many crops with the constant rain, meaning a lot of things have simply rotted in the ground. We have been lucky with the potato crop. It has been unaffected by the blight that seems to destroyed some crops at the allotment. We have new potatoes, and baking potatoes by the bucket load at the moment and it will be a challenge using them all before they go off.
The runner beans at the allotment are just starting to be ready and there is a bagful every time we go to water the crops. We have had a good crop of the smaller and sweeter French beans from the garden and as I personally prefer these to the runner beans I think I will plant a few rows of these in the allotment next year.
The courgettes are also starting to produce fruit. We only have 6 plants this year, down from last years rather excessive 10. The resulting crop gives us one or two fruits every week and I have rediscovered my love for them after getting a bit sick of the glut last year. So far the tomatoes have been a little disappointing and I’m unsure whether there will be much of a crop at all again this year.
We have a fair amount of damsons, plums and blackberries to collect both from the garden and the allotment and jam production is very much underway. At this rate I will enough jam to see us through the winter and that’s before the apples are ready.