Monday 9 June 2014

Harvest Monday - 9th June 2014

Well, last week I said I would show off some peas, so prepare to be impressed...


Yes, I admit, they are not particularly impressive - and only 200 grams of them. But the main thing is, they are home-grown. And in a sense they are a surprise bonus, because I had not intended to grow any peas this year, after all my previous problems with mildew and poor yields. If you follow my blog regularly, you will know that these peas were from a supermarket-bought pack of "Marrowfat Peas" which I tried to grow indoors for use as peashoots. In the end the plants turned out to be very wiry, with lots of tendrils so not nice for peashoot-production, which is why six months later we are here, eating a handful of mature peas...

The peas, like most of the plants in my garden suffered severely in a massive hailstorm the other day. It's a good job I wasn't growing mangetout, because all the pods and leaves are heavily scarred.


No complaints about the Lettuce though. We continue to harvest a steady supply of good-looking and tender specimens. I can't say that I am a connoisseur of Lettuce flavours, but I am very much aware of their texture, and these ones are perfect.  This is a Butterhead variety ("Devin"), and the hearts certainly live up to that name - soft, pale yellow and "buttery".



I have harvested my last little batch of Radishes.


They were the least good ones of the season, rather tough and not very juicy. Sunshine after a deluge of rain (and hail) caused many of them to bolt, so after selecting any that seemed edible, I pulled up all the rest. I'm not too unhappy about this because I needed to make room for my Swede Turnip plants, which are ready for planting out.

Had a few more Asparagus spears...


It's been my best year ever for Asparagus - though that's not saying a lot! I think it has earned a reprieve, so I won't dig it up just yet.

But now for the "piece de resistance"... The first of the potatoes.


Just over half a kilo of beautiful, clean, scab-free spuds! These are "Sharpe's Express", a First Early variety.


Mmm: perhaps photographing them on a blue-green plate wasn't such a good idea.


I have tried a different technique with these. Instead of tipping the whole plant out of its container, I just had a furtle around in the pot for the tubers and lifted them out individually. This means that the plant is still growing, and may go on to produce a few more tubers!

This my entry for Harvest Monday, where you can read about lots of other lovely things that have been harvested this week...

15 comments:

  1. Can't wait to be picking peas but we have a way to go yet.

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  2. A very nice harvest indeed. I never got round to sowing peas so that's one thing we're without this year. I've grown Sharpes Express in the past, and though not my favourite, I did enjoy them very much.

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  3. You have potatoes already??? WOW. And such perfect and beautiful, can't wait to get some of ours. Very nice peas as well, even if it's just a few of them. Mine are only now starting to bloom and half of them went to groundhog yesterday :(

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  4. A wonderful harvest Mark. Those potatoes look absolutely perfect.

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  5. Those spuds look so good. They really are just perfect.

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  6. Everything looks sooo good! I have to wait a little bit for my peas.

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  7. What a nice harvest, Mark. I LOVE fresh peas and those look great, although not many. I had even less than that, not even a handful, in my little Granny garden. But maybe next year, I will try more, as I believe it is possible to grow them! Your new potatoes look so nice...makes my mouth water! Enjoy your harvest. Thanks for the hydrangea site...anxious to check it out!

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  8. That is a perfect head of butterhead lettuce. I love the texture of butterhead, but I also love a super crunchy heart of romaine. It needs to be one or the other for my taste, no flabby lettuce for me. Lovely spuds too!

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  9. Lovely peas and those are the most perfect potatoes ever! Enjoy.

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  10. Your lettuce looks like a green rose - stunning.

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  11. So jealous of your peas! Mine haven't started swelling yet, your lettuce is stunning too.

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  12. Agree with Caroline Taylor ... stunning lettuce! Where the heck in the UK are you that you already have such beautiful potatoes? Congratulations for a fabulous Harvest Monday!

    Cold Hands Warm Earth

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  13. Some peas are better than no peas! We've had a long weird spring here and I have 4 foot tall pea plants.. but no pods as of yet. I saw the first pea flower this past weekend though so fingers crossed :)

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  14. How lovely to be eating your own peas and potatoes already. Our peas are still small, though the potatoes have begun to flower, so perhaps we shall be digging for treasure soon too!

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