Harvest has begun

8 September 2007

My pumpkins are still lording it over, well, everything and the one that has crept out of the patch is still marching merrily across the lawn. A female flower on the end of that vine was open this morning, so I pollinated it and now we shall wait and see whether we get a pumpkin growing on the grass.

Meanwhile, I dug up my potatoes a few days ago and was pleased to see that the blight that affected the haulms had not spread to the tubers. They had been well earthed up and I didn’t disturb them for several weeks after the haulms were removed. This year has been pretty bad for potato harvests thanks to the wet summer, but I still managed to get 3.656kg from my row (my readers on the Continent are welcome to misread this as a harvest of three thousand, six hundred and fifty-six kilos should they wish). We’ll be trying the first of the crop tomorrow at dinner.

I’ve also harvested nearly all my sunflower seeds and discarded the plants. Can you tell that I’m getting antsy about getting my patch back? Even though I’m really enjoying the dawning of the harvest time, I can’t help thinking about what I should grow next year and I want to see my soil again so that I can measure it and plot and plan. I grew three big crops this year and next year I want to try a wider variety of smaller vegetables – beans, carrots, etc. It’s going to need some arranging and my librarian genes want to start drawing charts and perhaps even using coloured felt-tips. My coolness knows no bounds.

Braving the possible alien invasion within, I headed into my sweetcorn patch this evening and brought back three cobs, plus a little runt of a hanger-on. The cobs were stunning; I never imagined I’d be able to produce something like this. They looked like real sweetcorn! And were much more majestic than my first little crop last year. Thrown into boiling water for a few minutes and then served with a knob of butter they were yummy.