The garden in late June

A wet June but it hasn't all been bad. The pears are amazing; for once I thinned then and it seems to have paid dividends as the fruit is developing nicely and we should have a good crop.

The artichokes always look beautiful and add structure.

Stargazer lilies and decorative poppies outside the kitchen door add colour and the courgettes are delicious - we've just eaten some!

 

Fruit - A new discovery

One of the things I love about living here is the abundance of fruit. The cherries kick off the year and we then have fresh fruit right through to about late September. The strawberries this year were abundant - for three weeks we were picking between 500gms and 1 kilo every two days. Then came the raspberries; again three weeks of picking a huge amount but I didn't weigh them (difficult when they are already eaten!). Now we are eating mirabelles (both yellow and red) - not quite so abundant this year but never mind - and the figs have just started to ripen (shhh - don't tell anyone!).

In the vegetable patch I have water melons with golf ball size fruit - I planted 20 seedlings and about 15 are doing well so we'll be feasting on water melon later in August. I also have 15 regular melons but they were planted late so are still developing.

The peach tree is heavy with fruit which will be picked shortly and the pear trees also promise a good harvest.

But the biggest surprise this week was a new discovery - bear in mind we've lived here for over 10 years now. Two days ago I was inspecting the bees and suddenly noticed that the tree behind the hives was full of a small plum like fruit, green/yellow in colour. Definitely not a mirabelle and the taste is delicious. I'm guessing a plum of some sort and am not too bothered which sort so long as it tastes good! Harvesting them will be fun though as they really are a metre from the hives!

Last night two friends came for supper and I had approximately no notice. The joy of being able to go into the garden to find supper. We feasted on French beans cooked with onions, salad and cucumber. We decided that courgettes would be too much. For pudding we feasted on ice cream and honey straight from the comb. Perfect!

A good yield so far and our first rabbit...

It's funny how the garden catches up with you. One day you're lucky if one of the lettuces is big enough to stretch to a couple of mouthfuls and the next you are feasting on fruit and veg. Everything has been late this year because of the long winter and the late cold spells. I think we still are running a little late - I am sure the elderflower was later than usual - but with enormous benefits it seems to quantity.

We were still picking cherries in June and I know for a fact that hasn't happened before. And what a crop. We thought last year was good but this year wasn't only good in terms of quantity but in quality as well. I suppose the fruit starting ripening late and then with a sudden burst of sun and heat at the critical moment it all burst into ripeness. The cherries have never been darker in colour nor sweeter in taste. Once again the birds left us plenty and for once we could reach them from the ground - indeed the branches were so heavy they sort of came down to greet us!

And then the strawberries - for three weeks we were picking about 3 kilos per week. Not bad when there's only two of you to eat them - and at the weekend we were good enough to share them with our youngest son (he's away at school during the week).

Right now we are feasting on raspberries. The yield isn't quite so magnificent but I am picking about two kilos a week so I can't complain. Certainly enough to accompany ice cream or yoghurt.

And what about the vegetables? Well, of course we are still fighting the rabbits and I had to put netting over the courgettes - all the leaves were eaten one night. But all the same we are eating our first baby courgettes, baby and medium sized carrots (the sweetness of a freshly picked carrot...), and of course lettuces when we beat the rabbits to them. Also potatoes left in the ground last year (by mistake) have given us a few tasty meals.

Chard will be on the menu next week and for some time to come, mangetout are in flower so hopefully they will be eaten soon, French beans likewise.

The tomatoes will be later this year and also the melons and water melons. Cucumbers are still without flowers but enjoying this sunny weather. Onions are doing well. The pumpkin plants look fantastic.

I could go on - aubergine, peppers, chillies, brassicas. But they can be a subject for another day.

The fight against the invasion of rabbits goes on but they are two down. One was taken by a dog, the other by us. Stir fry rabbit for lunch yesterday was delicious.

A year of fruit

We have now lived here for 11 years and I can only remember one other year like this one for fruit.

There were so many cherries on the trees that even the birds couldn't eat them all, leaving more than enough for us.

Strawberries were the next delight and although we didn't exactly struggle to eat them all we came very close to striking strawberries from the luxury fruit to be savoured list. We only had a few raspberries but then we only planted them a few short months ago so they are forgiven.

For the past two weeks we have been gathering mirabelles - small yellow prunes with enough flavour to eat raw but not enough, in my opinion, to bother cooking with. We had so many that this year we squeezed a lot and now have about three litres of juice in the freezer ready for sauce on the ice cream. The pigs love mirabelles and we gather about half a bucket for them each day. (They also loved the strawberries!)

Our peach tree, which has struggled to provide more than one edible fruit per year, has this year gone mad and there must be at least 30 peaches which, if I don't pick them today, will be devoured by the wasps - I just hope they will finish ripening off the tree.

The pear trees are in danger of breaking their branches despite the fact that I thinned them vigorously.

And finally the fig trees are promising HUGE amounts of fruit.

Our real worry are the six new trees we planted in the autumn - four apples and two plums. They are showing severe signs of thirst despite having masses of water during the winter and regular watering by Max and I now. If we can get them through to the winter I think they'll survive - but there's August to deal with first.