Thursday 13 September 2012

Slim pickings

There is something to collect from the garden for every meal, a handful of autumn raspberries to have with breakfast and a selection of greens to make a salad for lunch. But look how small the beetroot are! This year has been the poorest that I have ever known for many of the crops.  We have almost no apples or plums, such a contrast to last year when the plum branches broke under the weight of fruit.

The greenhouse tomatoes have done well
and the climbing hoya is having a second flush of blooms.
I have read that it was a popular flower to wear in buttonholes in Victorian times but it produces such sticky droplets of nectar that it must have made for rather messy lapels!
We are enjoying the greenhouse while we can.
The insects are out, enjoying the late sunshine. They have had a poor time of it with all the rain. One of the bee colonies in the orchard has been demolished by wasps. The other hives are alright but have made little honey, most of it they have needed for themselves.
So it's slim pickings for everyone!

16 comments:

  1. Oh, the raspberries looks wonderful as does the salad. I have been craving salads lately. I may need to duplicate tonight. You have been plagued with the rain and we with the heat. I am hoping to get into the garden this weekend and start moving everything around and clean up before things begin to go to sleep for the winter. Hopefully we will have winter this year. Bonnie

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    1. Guess what, Bonnie? It's raining. We are off to Yorkshire this morning, wet weather gear and woollies are being packed!
      I hope that the weather will be more even-handed world wide next year.

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  2. Beetroot? I thought those were cherries!

    Your cereal photograph is suitable for some big company's box front. I'd definitely buy it.

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    1. Sadly, no, they are beets! (But they taste good.) Recalling your beets post, I'll blog one or two of my favourite recipes when I get back from Yorkshire. (I should be packing.)

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  3. Your famine is my feast. Our autumn crop of raspberries is nonexistent.

    Beets? Have to buy them.

    Just the thought of having a greenhouse is enough to give me sweet dreams.

    xo Jane

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    1. Yes, a greenhouse is a fabulous thing, I can potter and faff about in mine 'til the cows come home.

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  4. Wonderful photographs. We live in central Utah and have no fruit this year, not even apples, pears or plums, the usual hardy fruit. It all froze in the Spring. But we have lots of vegetables from our garden. We have had a bumper crop of everything and we are very busy putting everything up.
    Looking forward to your beet recipes.

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    1. I've been looking at your onions - bumper indeed!

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  5. When are you opening your cafe up to the public?! I love beetroot pesto, have you tried it?

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    1. Beetroot pesto is new to me, is it a straight exchange of basil for beetroot?

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  6. My gardens have not done well this year either. It was a disappointing summer.

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    1. I could accurately describe our so-called summer as a wash out!

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  7. Slim pickings here too, except for Peaches and Figs. I have a few Bramleys, otherwise ZERO.

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    1. Oh, Cro, not Haddocks! I look to your blog (enviably) for sunshine and plenty.

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  8. I've put very little in the freezer this year as there just wasn't extra produce. Your pickins sure look yummy!

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  9. I've got three freezers but shall be doing a bit of a shuffle before long and closing one down. They are usually crammed to capacity at this time of year.

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