Fruits for winter

Checking them every day, August 2022

I wish I had more veg growing for winter harvest!  Hopefully I'll get some cabbage, chard, Brussels sprouts and a few leeks.  As it is, I'm preserving all I can of the summer harvest to make up for it.  We are concerned about food security (though to be honest, I've been concerned about it for years, ever since we got snowed in for two weeks during the winter of 2009-2010), and while we're eating a little bit fresh, most of it's going in the dehydrator or freezer.

Those two Kumoi pears above (and their third and final sibling) will probably go into the fresh category.  I've now dehydrated most of the figs and the plums and Sparta apples are almost ready (though the Laxton Fortune apples have nearly all been eaten).  I've got a bag of Morello cherries in the freezer from earlier in the summer, and a bag and a half of wild blackberries the son and I picked--it was a great year for them (they're usually small and seedy).  I was hoping for some good grapes, but it looks like they haven't thrived in the dry summer we've had;  there's a lot of small, partly-formed bunches.  If I possible I'll dehydrate them, but they might only be good for the birds.

Now at the end of August, fresh fruit season is nearly over for us.  I would normally have yellow raspberries next month, but I transplanted them to the allotment early this spring and they haven't flowered.  Hopefully next autumn.  In September I hope to pick some wild (or feral, at least) apples to store, and that will be it until next June at the earliest.

In summer, but looking to winter 2022

Achocha--it self seeded (from a self seeded plant last year!) August 2022

It pays to start planning two seasons ahead when growing your own food.  To some exent, I do this (but I'm still not great at it).  Right now, late summer, I've started some more lettuce seed, along with spring cabbage and cauliflower seed.  I hope to get a few more things going for autumn/winter growing, like chard and mizuna.

But my main planning was done back in spring, when I sowed and planted the main crops, some of which I have been busy preserving for winter;  I froze a few little bits earlier this summer but am on to the main harvest now.  Nearly all the beets and kohl rabi have been cooked and frozen, and I'm starting to dehydrate the first of the regular tomatoes (we're eating the cherry toms fresh);  I'm also dehydrating figs.  I hope to preserve apples and plums soon, and if I'm lucky I'll get some corn (it went out late and is a long-season variety to boot).

I also sowed and planted the main winter crops already:  the cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts.  These all have some degree of growth, though all have been set back by those pesky caterpillars.  Next year I'll have to plan ahead (again) and try to rig up some butterfly netting.  I should buy some later this year--I've got a few small lengths, but I'll see if I can get a big piece.

Mid August 2022

Uh oh!  Aug 2022

It's been an unusually hot, dry summer again, though not as bad as 2018 where it didn't rain for more than 50 days straight.  There has been rain this summer, and I even have some saved up in my water butts still, for hand watering my patio containers.  I have two 200 L butts collecting rain from the house roof, and one 200 L and one 100 L collecting from the garage roof (though the gutter has come down and I've rigged up a very dodgy temporary replacement to make do until the husband gets around to sorting it out).  

I don't have quite so many planters this year, as most of the large ones have gone to the allotment to hold strawberries and cherry tomatoes there.  The idea was to keep them out of the beds and thus out of the encroaching grass, but now all the pots have that same grass (at least it's easier to weed out)!  I try to visit daily to water them, and have been rewarded by both;  though the strawberries finished by July, the tomatoes are now in full swing.

Along with hand watering, my other main job (well, besides harvesting/cooking/preserving) is collecting caterpillars off my brassicas.  The purple sprouting broccoli in particular looks very bad (pictured above).  Every few days I'll take a bucket with a little water and start filling it up for my ducks:  brushing, picking, or shaking off caterpillars into the water.  

The ducks go crazy for these caterpillars;  they've had a few free range spells to go out and self-harvest, but they poo so much I really don't want them out there all the time--we want to go out there and enjoy the lawn and patio.  And they started self-harvesting my lettuces too--so they get a hundred or so caterpillars in a bucket instead (which take about 10 seconds for the three of them to slurp down).  I guess since the lettuces are nearly finished now I might let them have another day or two, and save me a job.

So big!

I've been harvesting the largest kohl rabi and gradually clearing out that bed;  in their place I may put down some of the Brussels sprouts which have been growing on in a small holding bed, a la John Seymour.  I was going to plant them at the allotment, but have decided against it.  The purple sprouting broccoli may still go up there (also growing on), but I've yet to decide. 

Maybe I planted a little too close? Aug 2022

Despite having a little more room amongst the kohl rabi (not pictured), the cabbages (above) seem to be way too crowded.  I knew they were supposed to be big, but I didn't realize they'd be that big!  Some look like they are trying to form heads though I think they're several weeks away from harvest still.

The tallest corn is as tall as me (I'm 165cm) and the toms are not far off, Aug 2022

The photo above was taken at the first of this month (August).  Compare with the photo taken at the first of July.  I can hardly believe they could grow so much!  I pinched out the growing tips of the tomatoes last month when they reached the tops of their supports but the corn is still going upwards.  Neither the corn or tomatoes are ready for harvest but this bed has produced a lot of lettuce and some fresh cilantro and dill.  The (few) swedes are also beginning to bulb up.

Why so big?   I attriubute it to soil building, mainly.  Chickens and ducks have been a big help in that, and I also think being no-dig is a factor, as clearly the soil life is happy underneath.  The weather has been favorable too with a good proportion of sun and rain;  I think it's just all come together this year for a Big party.

Food totals July 2022

A lot going on here!  Aug 2022

Vegetables

 

49.5 oz beets

17 oz broad beans

35.5 oz lettuce

73 oz kohl rabi

12.5 oz snap peas

50.5 oz cabbage

1 oz turnip

0.5 oz purple beans

20.5 oz artichoke hearts

 

Total:  260 oz or 16 lb 4 oz

 

Fruit

 

41 oz Morello cherries

 

Eggs

 

44 eggs from 6 hens and 2 ducks