Overdue catch-up part 2: produce

Of course, while the rats have been giving us the runaround the veg garden, fruit trees and nature's larder have all been busy doing their stuff. Not without daily attention I hasten to add (daily watering of the veg garden and daily opening and closing of the deer-protection nets (opening them each morning to allow pollinators to be able to access the plants and diligently closing them every evening to protect the plants from hungry deer wanting a quick snack).

Having planted things quite late (due to still being constructing the terraces and raised beds at the time when we would usually be sowing seeds), things are a little behind where we might usually expect them to be - we are still waiting for tomatoes to ripen, we are still waiting for aubergines and peppers to form. But we have harvested (and eaten!) lettuce, beetroot, cucumbers, courgettes, potatoes and snake beans and have a daily crop of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries to add to our breakfasts, as well as having had apricots, plums and peaches.

Daily harvest of soft fruits.

Red Iris peaches, reale d'Imola apricots, dragon's blood plums and gold drop plums

The year of the plum!

Spicy plum chutney in preparation.

The proof is in the eating and I can confirm it is delicious!

When the sweetcorn was small!

Poor man's capers: pickled nasturtium seeds.

For the first time in six years, we have been able to pick walnuts from our walnut tree ahead of the squirrels stripping it bare. In fact, we have seen very few squirrels around this year - perhaps they have found an even more bountiful source of food or perhaps they are just giving us a break this year!

So, this year is our (my) first attempt at making nocino - a liqueur made from green walnuts. If you ever attempt anything similar my advice would be to actually heed the advice of the internet to wear gloves while cutting the walnuts. My hands and nails remained an attractive shade of black/brown for about 5 days afterwards...

Step one: pick about a kilo of walnuts.

Step two: cut the walnuts into quarters and place in a large, sealed jar with sugar. Leave in the sun for two days.

...and this is what it looks like after a few hours.

... and this is what it looks like the next day!

Step three: add alcohol, cinnamon sticks and clove sand leave in a sunny place for a few weeks!

The nocino should be ready by the end of August, so watch this space!

Soya beans

a bit of growth on the sweetcorn!

Field of corn (ok "field is pushing it).

A monster pumpkin next to the raised beds.

Tiny soya beans.

(Still) green tomatoes.

A lupin hiding amongst the pumpkin leaves.

Corn coming!

Corn flower.

Potato harvest.

The first of the snake beans.

From a short walk along our drive.

Almost there!

Almost grape harvest time.