Let the picking begin!

A good blast of rain and a hot weekend later and things are kicking off nicely. Now as well as keeping up with the weeding we have the picking to keep up with as well. 

The Arran Pilot potatoes didn't flower much but as they have been in the ground since March it was time to see what we've got. The results were good, giving a good yield per plant and some of them are huge. They have a really nice taste and don't fall apart when boiled. There was very little pest damage or scab so really pleased with them.

I thought the Shetland Black spuds had gone a bit wrong and been ruined by something but after looking through all my books and digging around online I couldn't find pests/disease that matched what I was seeing or any evidence on the plants themselves.

Then I found an article that says this variety often doesn't flower and that while they are second earlies they are often ready at the same time as first earlies. It also said that they don't get very big. Based on this and the condition of the spuds themselves I've decided they were actually a success. They are a pain to harvest though. They just look like lumps of mud and are quite hard to spot as you dig.

They are really a roasting/chip/crisp spud as they are floury and fall apart when boiled, they actually turn the water a rather strange green colour too. 

The first couple of Dutchman summer cabbages have been really good. No damage from pests, very clean and a good size. 

The mangetout peas, Oregon, are ready now, the Boogie ones won't be far behind. They are very nice but grow so quickly that picking them at the right moment is a challenge.

A glut of broad beans is being dealt with by taking them to work, they go down well and make a healthy snack that keeps us out of the biscuit jar as well. 

The good news is that I'm getting requests for courgettes. As the courgette madness will be upon us soon this is good news.

Some of onions had some browning of leaves, when I tried to remove them they came out of the ground very easily. It looks like the dreaded white rot, luckily it only affects 3 onions so far. They weren't wasted though, they were fine to use straight away.

I've had to plant more carrots as carrot fly had been at them and I found the tips had gone soft when I pulled the Malbec variety. I think this was caused by the amount of rain we had as I've never seen this before

As always there is the odd problem but in general I'm happy with everything. The farm certainly looks a lot fuller than last year.

Happy gardening folks!!