The feasting begins!

So far we have cropped:
Beets (from the garden)
Runner Beans (from the lotty)
French Beans (from the garden and the lotty)
A Courgettes (from the garden and the lotty)
Raspberries (from the lotty)
Redcurrants (from the garden)
Blueberries (from the garden)

Not much as yet. But it will gather momentum as we move through the season. Last year we got to a stage where we rarely went to the shops for veg, we just ate what we had, not what we felt like. Which was lovely :-) We are still eating the tomato sauce bases I made last year and froze, so I expect I'll do the same type of thing this year. The raspberries and redcurrants and blueberries are all in the freezer ready to be made into jams and jellies - I must crack on with the redcurrants as they are taking up too much room! Also, we have a lot of runners and french beans in the freezer from last season, we must try them and see if they are any good - if not, we'll compost them and just eat the fresh beans.

The apples are ready to pick and eat, they are dropping off the tree. However the number of lovely apples will be relatively small this year as the starlings have been feasting on them in the tree, we have had lots drop to the ground with bloomin big holes in them, and the starlings sitting cackling in the tree. I expect we will do a similar thing to previous years and stew them and freeze them after we have eaten lots - the apples that is, not the starlings. Tempted though.

The tomato plants on the lotty and in the garden are producing lots of lovely fruits, all green as yet, but the plum tomatoes are dripping with fruits. The courgette plants have numerous small fruits on them, and the pumpkins have one fruit the size of a large football, and several smaller fruits too. The beets on the lotty are growing very well, the yardlong beans are thriving, took them a little while to get going compared to the runner beans but they are romping away now, and the cannellini beans have got plenty of pods and are still flowering well. Oh and the sweetcorn has lots of cobs :-)

The mange tout and petit pois are producing pods, so we will tuck into the mange tout tonight with pork chops and runner beans. Lovely purple mange tout, looks spectacular, we do like our purple/red veg, we have red cabbage in at the lotty and purple beans growing at home, and we have seeds for next year - purple pakchoi, purple and white carrots, purple brussels sprouts :-) And plenty of purple French bean seeds and purple mange tout as well of course.

The not so good news, the cabbages at home have been slugged - we have now blued the bed so fingers crossed they survive. We still have some cauli seedlings to go in so once I crop the remaining beets I'll put them in and we can cover the bed with debris netting. But all the other braaasicca seedlings have been eaten as they weren't covered, so they have gone into the compost bin.