1298g

30 August 2009

For some time now I’ve been watching the progress of my cucumbers from the grass, not venturing into their row, not wanting to get wet from a recently rain-soaked patch perhaps, or not wanting to disturb any frogs that might be hidden under the massive fronds of the carrots in the next row. Or, much more likely, I thought I could see everything I needed to see from where I was. Except that last night I went and looked among the foliage of my cucumbers and discovered a previously unseen cucumber that had meanwhile surreptitiously grown to the size of my neck.

So this morning I picked the heavyweight cucurbit along with the middleweight one I’d been expecting to pick anyway. Anyone need any cucumber? Come to our fridge! There’ll you’ll also find a handful of runner beans – or itchy beans, as they should be known. Those vines always make my arms and hands itchy and if I’m particularly lucky on the “proof of suffering” front, I also get a red rash up my arms from them.

Three more beetroot have come up, ready for sandwiches. One of the three kept getting nibbled by something in the garden. So either ha, ha, I took away your beetroot, or, oh damn, does this mean you’re going to eat everything else now? Just keep away from my tomatoes. They’re not ripe yet, though lots of them are definitely no longer green, and it looks like I might have a pretty good harvest from them in a while.

The final veg in the trug came from the first row of carrots. A good number of them are showing big fat tops above the soil, but of course I can’t see down into the soil to see how the roots are developing (damn you, science!). I carefully dug up two that were close to their neighbours, scraping away at the soil and firmly wiggling them like loose teeth before they finally let go and I was able to get an idea of their lengths. They’re not bad, but the rest can stay snug in the ground for a little while yet.