wet, wet, wet

No, I'm not referring to the 80's pop group but to the dismal weather conditions we've experienced over the last few weeks. As many of you will have experienced first hand, heavy rain does not make for productive allotmenting !

We've lost the carrots. To be honest I think we were a bit optimistic to hope that we would get a harvest from such late planting. They had been doing really well up to a couple of weeks ago then it got too wet for them and they started to rot.

On a happier note, we've harvested some petit pois - very unexpected - and some snowball turnips which are doing well. The turnips have been a bit of a hit at home as I've been using them in slow cooked stews. I "disguised" them by cutting them into cubes roughly the same size as the potatoes and everyone just assumed they were potatoes. Result!!! Our Nicola potatoes have had mixed success. We harvested the whole crop about 2 weeks ago but about half of it had been lost either to some unidentified burrowing insects or voles. Cloddigger picked up what looked like a large spud only to find it was just the skin - a vole had perfectly gnawed out all the potato leaving just the skin. Amazing and frustrating in equal measure. However, I can recommend this variety for its taste and we'll definitely try this one again.

There are still things growing and hopefully we will be able to harvest the sprouts and parsnips in time for Christmas.

A dry spell is forecast for the next few days so I'm looking forward to catching up with some tidying and preparing for Winter this weekend, and hopefully some up dated photos too!