It's odd how some things do well and others don't when there's no obvious connection that might explain it. Despite the dry Spring my (early only) potatoes, carrots, garlic and parsnips have done really well. The sweetcorn was pretty good too. Salad leaves have been more of a struggle, but I suspect that's partly down to the deer. Early cabbages were excellent, but later brassicas seem to be struggling, though at least the plants look healthy having been protected from the butterflies. Beetroot haven't done that well, especially later sowings (deer again). Herbs like dill and coriander have managed a few leaves and then bolted.
One of the other crops that struggled was onions. Last year I grew enough that they almost lasted an entire year. This year many have been quite small. I went through them all earlier in the week and sorted out what might be good to pickle, what was large enough to be worth keeping and "the rest". This evening I've started working through that last group, peeling and slicing so they can be frozen as "ready-sliced onions" for curries and so on. It's a bit of a faff but least they won't go to waste which I feel is only right and proper given the way food prices still seem to be going.
My last batch of lettuces and mustards sown this year are just starting to sprout. They'll be the ones that go into the polytunnel and greenhouse to keep us in salad leaves over the winter.
The Polish Linguisa tomatoes that Dani kindly sent me seeds for have been absolutely great, producing lots of really appealing (and often quite large) fruit. I've been very pleased with them. We're planning a raid on the polytunnel tomorrow to pick most of what is ripe for a second batch of pizza/pasta sauce and I've already marked a number of the fruit so everyone knows "leave this one to ripen fully and then I want the seeds". It's quite possible that next year we'll ditch the F1 varieties entirely and just grow these, Amish Paste, a pale yellow variety called Lotos and a cherry called Garnet from saved seed. Unless of course I find other varieties that are new colours and taste good -- there's a variety called "Dívčí Prs" that looks appealing but I gather the Czech name is a bit iffy. I love a dinner plate that is a riot of colour
I have said to my father-in-law that I will try to propagate cuttings of his favourite F1 tomato, but if I can get them through the winter he's welcome to them.
It feels quite a shock that we're so far through the year already. I'm not entirely sure where the time went.
James
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