Sunny outlook
You can almost hear the sigh of relief from every farmer in the county. The daytime weather prospects for this week look as though they will finally be given an opportunity to gather in the wheat harvest. I can see there being a few hours of overtime this week for the men of the soil, with the headlights on the tractors and combines illuminating the night-time arable landscape
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Fowl water
26th July
I took this week’s photograph at the market on Saturday; Michael the fishmonger kindly put down a bowl of water for visiting dogs to lap at, but the bantam was not reading the script, or the label!
Dudley, my rufty-tufty all-action dog, went to a grooming place today for a bit of a tidy-up – actually it was to dramatically reduce the thickness of his bear-like coat, because the poor thing has been over-heating all summer. He came back from the poodle parlour licking his eyebrows, smelling like a tart’s boudoir (or how I imagine one to smell), and insisting that his name be changed to Xavier. I’ve a good mind to take him to the river, and then to find something disgusting for him to roll in!
There was a tremendous level of bird activity at the garden today, with hundreds of Swallows endlessly scanning the skies immediately above me, large gangs of Greenfinches dashing from one plant to another, I let a Flycatcher out of the greenhouse, saw a Treecreeper on the trunk of a Lime tree, watched Green Woodpeckers looping from one apple tree to the next in the orchard, and all of this in addition to the normal tits, blackbirds, thrushes, and other little brown jobs. Lovely.
As July draws to a close so the Horsefly population diminishes, thank goodness. However, seamlessly taking their place are very large numbers of wasps; it looks like being a bumper year for them. I don’t have a big issue with wasps in general, because they do predate on some of the nuisance bugs in the garden, but they are a problem later in the summer around the beehives. They will wipe out a weak colony of bees as they rob a vulnerable hive of its honey stores, so around now it is important to restrict the entrance of the hives to allow the bees to better defend their home.
As forecast last week French Beans are on the new list. The Runners will follow next week. The only other addition this time is Marrow. The current batch of Florence fennel is almost finished, but there should be enough for everyone that wants it; some more will be ready in 2 or 3 weeks time. The Globe Artichokes are past their best, so I will now let them flower, and what beautiful flowers they are! In the polytunnel both the aubergines and the cucumbers are cropping well, but are starting to suffer from the ravages of Red Spider Mite, which will badly weaken the plants until they eventually grind to a halt. This week’s greens are chard, and round cabbage, but there will soon be some Pak Choi with a bit of luck. Lettuce remains in short supply because of the drought conditions, so it’s the mixed salad bags only this week I’m afraid.
Sadly it’s time to say farewell to loyal customers, and thoroughly nice people, Ann and Roger (well Ann is nice), who are moving this week to the badlands of the Welsh Marches. I think Roger will look good with his face painted with woad....just like a Smurf. I will miss their cheerful faces and our weekly exchange of banter at the Farmers Market; I wish them well, and hope that their move is a great success.
Right, I’m off to get that ridiculous velvet smoking jacket off of Xavier....I mean Dudley
| French beans - purple | £1.80 250g |
| Green pepper | £0.60 each |
| Langham Honey - clear | £3.50 1lb jar |
| Leeks - New season | £1.50 500g |
| Plums - Victoria | £1.00 500g |
| Sweetcorn - New | £0.90 each |
| Tomatoes - small & sweet | £1.40 300g |
