Selfsufficientish.com

Today...masses of tomatoes, cucumber, french beans, broccoli, courgette, peppers, beetroot and potatoes. Had mash today cos that's what the Maris Bard said! Very nice.

In temperatures hitting 40C we stay indoors after 10am so litres of courgette, pepper and tomato sauce made, mixed (yellow, red, green) cherry tomatoes bottled, a load of whole and halved plum tomatoes bottled and yoghurt, cucumber and garlic soup for tea. Fans going all day, it's still mid 30s at 6.45. Hey ho, thank goodness for the plunge pool.

I've just cooked our first homegrown courgette of the year. Delicious.

Has anyone grown Kailan before - I'm not sure if I should be eating the leaves or waiting for flower heads - we managed 5 tiny shoots today. Oh well leaves it is. And some of my other brassicas are flowering already = they're only about a foot high! This extended cold/wet weather is stressing quite a few things, I'm afraid.

I am really hating this year. I have hardly any tomatoes, usually harvesting great basket loads by now, my winter brassica's look like hell, they had to be brought inside as they were doing so badly outside, just planted out my leeks which had to be nurtured inside as well, I have tons of Hungarian Black chillies, but you can't live on them, even a lot of my lettuce seed failed so I have no salad crops for sale at the moment and the new lot is a few weeks away from being ready. Carrot seed sowed has failed, made a second sowing which are coming up. On the plus side, there should be plenty of spuds, all my onions seem to be going to seed and I have four different sorts, I don't think they know whether they are coming or going, a bit like me. My wonderful Workaway is like a garden fairy, she has all the weeding done and I can now get on with other things, instead of sitting around, feeling depressed and sorry for myself

Courgettes by the dozen. If anyone is in Wiltshire and wants one or two. Please PM me.

It's not been the greatest year I've ever had for peas or so it seems but I have just looked in the freezer and seen worse. But there's not a lot more to come. The beans are all slow mind.

But I'm not buying veg so there must be stuff there. Raspberry glut was great. Strawberries not bad.

Our first strawberry is nearly ripe. I'm thinking of camping next to it to make sure the birds don't get it.

And we're nearly ready to pick a few goosegogs. They're taking forever to ripen.

Oooh - beat you to it - I've already had a handful of strawberries (that's our southern influence!)... I've loads of gooseberries on the bush, but like yours, they don't seem to ripen.

Bring on the sun folks. Mind I could do with some of your rain. Still on with peas and salad.

My broad beans need a bit more bulk, too...

Broad beans, salad of various sorts, very odd fennel but it tastes of fennel, yellow courgettes and the marrows are nearly ready, various sorts of mint.

Did you know that chocolate mint goes just fine with strawberries and ice cream?

It makes a fine cup of mint tea too.

I didn't have much time this year to attend my vegpatch but I've dedicated myself to collect other things like perennial fruits and nuts. We are harvesting apples, figs and walnuts right now. Soon in the forest we will find tons of mushrooms :)

Today half a row of spuds, onions, radishes, parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers, french and runner beans, spinach and plums. That should keep us going for a few days. Enjoyed a lovely bean salad with wedges and a spinach and onion quiche tonight.

Yesterday I picked loads of sweetcorn, all now frozen.
Next job is to start picking the greenhouse white grapes which have suddenly ripened, about a month late. I thought they were never going to turn sweet this year.

Mika wrote:Soon in the forest we will find tons of mushrooms :)

So far it is a great year for mushrooms round here, what with all the wet weather

I have found a big patch of white coral fungus, and the amethyst deceivers are also abundant