[5th July]
My wife has been making (raspberry and gooseberry, though not together) jam this weekend, and cherry pie filling to go in the freezer.
We also picked the largest of the beetroot and had beetroot soup for lunch today (complete with predictable side-effects 🙂 It was very pleasant: beetrooty but not excessively earthy. Whilst checking on progress in the polytunnel I also noticed that we have the first flower buds on the bell peppers. They’ve taken a fair while longer to get started than the chiles. My final planting of peas are also sprouting. I’m keeping them in the greenhouse/cold frame until they get to a few inches tall to keep them away from the slugs and partridge.
Talking of pests, I checked the brassicas where I caught a small white laying eggs last weekend. Clearly I missed some of the eggs as a few leaves are heavily eaten. No sign of the caterpillars however, so I’m guessing that birds or wasps have taken care of them. There are also signs of carrot fly in the carrots. Not much I can do about that now, sadly. Next year I shall grow them under fine netting or fleece.