Progress so far

So I made a list or to dos I wanted to do duiring my vacation. So far:

I have two weeks off again, I have a list of tasks in my mind I'd like to complete:
-plant cherries (bought in early June?) nope, way too hot
-weed veggie path nope, too hot and as 'Suma wants to be with me, can't go to vp, she'll boil
-feed kids carrots from cold frames that's an easy one, though not every day
-start using beets from frames this is also an easy target; I also use beet tops as char, because I couldn't sow chard until straight to the veg plot, is't coming but slowly
-harvest Belgian garlic from both frames still going on, maybe half harvested (as I pick only what we eat)
-eat potatoes from bags (I still have 13 growing bags of potatoes) had some potatoe meals
-forage mushrooms this will goi on all to way to the winter
-find some more strawberries to make more jam (to say it was a succes is a bit understatement) Yes! Persuated one market stall seller to sell me one more 5kg box even they are now selling only hal kilo punnets; made 9 jars of jam

-take sys and ys to adventure park d wanted to come along, too
-move cut and split wood from field to forest (there's pallets waiting them to be stacked) will not do this now, there's a family of viviparous lizard babies living in the stack, they cute and really need the shelter
-have a little day trip with my sister. done yesterday, d came along, too, again. Nice and funny and we are all still tired.

Might still add something else on that list: take three youngest to nearby natural history museum , we'll take a train and have sushi buffet lunch.

Oops i did it again

I lost my 'shroom knife. Again. I've lost it several times, once my brother found it few months later (from the forest). Now it has a long and brightly coloured ribon d made just for that purpose - it's usually tied around my wrist and that ribbon is easy to spot even on autunm with yellow and red leaves.
But yes, I lost it again and can't find it. Darn.

But I did find a porchini, in a perfect state.

Miles of strawberries

So far I have managed to freeze about 10kg of strawberries, 2 kg went into jam. Os asked me to make some strawberry jam to taste (he doesn't eat shop bought jam anymore).

Boiling jars and lids.

And strawberries - I use jam sugar with some pectin. It'll keep at least a year, but I think this one will not see next summer...

I was away for three days driving along smallest of small country roads trying to find berry farms, and two days again this week. I have seen ostriches, lambs, the most huge orpington cockerel, bunnies and miles after miles of rows of strawberries (and Ukrainian berry pickers). Blueberries are not in season yet, and raspberries are ripe only in tunnels. lasti week I drove 500 miles, and in the end of day three I thought I wouldn't walk five hundred miles more... This week only 300miles.

And this wasn't the narrowest road I drove...

Next summer I really hope I don't have to do those tours, they are exhausting. (I do this as part of my work, not to get berries)

Kids have been eating handful of our own strawberries almost daily, they say they are far more better than bought ones.

Most of firewood is cut and split and stacked in storage for the winter. There is s small(ish) pile of cut and split wood in the field, it's still wet and have to be stacked somewhere to dry. There is also 8 stacks of dry and split wood which is still 1m long, so it needs to be cut. Kids hate me, because they have been stacking wood for three weeks now...

These 5 piles need to be cut, and we have three more piles like these to be cut as well. 'Suma found a new playground.

Veg path and polytunnel as well as greenhouse survived my being away. D had watered them just fine, not too much and not too little. Of course because we had very cold weather so there was no need to water anything much. There was even frosts at night a bit north from us, luckily we have had +5C or +6C nights. If I had basil, it would have suffered.
Well, now we have Saharan heat wave coming. Talk about u-turn.

I found first flowers in tomatoes -  I know, most people are already eating their tomatoes. I also have nice flowers in my melons, watermelon is a bit behind now. Cucamelon is also flowering.

This is  melon, do I really need to pollinate them by myself?

 We ate first potatoes a week ago, with pickled herring, chanterelles (from pur own forest), fried eggs and roasted vegetables. Kids were not impressed with violet potatoes, to me they were ok. We do have normal white/yellow potatoes, so kids will not be starving this summer. But those potatoes are really dark, deep purple.

Violet Queens and some unidentified white potatoes.

They are spuds even if they look like black beets. They even bleed blue.

Today I'm going to pick some more chanterelles, as well other mushrooms I'll find. Os will eat them happily, and I noticed last weekend all children eating them (fried in butter). Even ys, who has been refusing 'shrooms lately.

I weeded under my black currant bushes, they are not quite ripe yet, but soon. Noighbours white currants are ripe, asn well as reds. I might pick some tomorrow, I have room in freezer. Pity there's no lingon berries coming this year, I saw no flowers in spring and therefore no berries... Kids like them in smoothies.

Is this a hazelnut?

Carrots my ow (I have purple too, but they are tiny), saskatoon (serviceberry) I bought from a berry farm to taste. Ok.

I have two weeks off again, I have a list of tasks in my mind I'd like to complete:
-plant cherries (bought in early June?)
-weed veggie path
-feed kids carrots from cold frames
-start using beets from frames
-harvest Belgian garlic from both frames
-eat potatoes from bags (I still have 13 growing bags of potatoes)
-forage mushrooms
-find some more strawberries to make more jam (to say it was a succes is a bit understatement)
-take sys and ys to adventure park
-move cut and split wood from field to forest (there's pallets waiting them to be stacked)
-have a little day trip with my sister.

I had to come inside, because there's too hot for black dog like 'Suma. Now she's been sleeping an hour so we can go back outside, this time to pick mushrooms I found yesterday while at 'Sumawalk.

No heatwave no rain

We have had basically very boring weather all spring/summer. No great heatwaves (not Spanish bubble here), neither rain or floods. Some light shovers, only one thunder (can't call it storm) and some warm days.

Weeds love that.

I finally managed to tackle all weeds I wanted to get rid off, I left on purpose one patch in which I have sown calendula, but it never germinated. I'm going to cover it with plastic (empty mulch bags I have abundance of). I did found some swedes, but I think I'm not going to have a meal out of them. My magne touts/sugar snap peas have germinated very sparingly - I can't even blame pidgeons, haven't seen them or any traces of them at all in veg plot. Peas have made a bit better, but I will not dream of a huge harvest. I think I should sow some broad beans on empty spots, it'll look better (but it's too short time to autunm, so I'm not going to have any harvest on bbs either, unless I'm having them as greens). Few chards were still alive, some might even survive 'Suma who wasn't very amused to be at the veg plot day after day. Poor puppy.

Notice the strategic alignment along rows. Her head rests on empty spot at the end of a brassica row.

Potatoes in car tyres are thriving, there's plenty of blossoms. I don't remember last time my potatoes actually flowered!  On the veg plot they are not very pretty, but alive nevertheless.

This is what they usually get.

We (kids) have been eating our own strawberries on several evenings, I picked nine even sized ones a couple days ago, and yesterday I picked maybe twenty? I divided them between kids (didn't divide berries, like I usually do, to each get their fair share) and sys looked at them confused "You mean I can eat ALL of them, as WHOLE?" Poor kids, their childhood is miserable.

This was the very first fistful of strawberries.

(I did bought 5kg box of strawberries to freezer, and let kids eat as much as they wanted to. 2,5kg ended to freezer - but our own strawberries are tastier.)

There is not much to eat at the veg plot or polytunnel, some salad and herbs. Radishes have gone over, but I did read somewhere you can eat the seedpods, too. So I left them to flower and go to seed, I'll have a taste then.
Today I took first garlics off, they are that Dutch variety which is not doing well in our place. It's softneck variety, and two years of growing it has only managed to grow a bigger cloves, not bulbs.

That dark spot is actually just dirt. They're quite strong flavoured, I couldn't use all of those in my hummus.

My Russian variety (hardneck) is doing much better, it's growing scapes now (I really should harvest them), and I did plant last autunm about 80-90  tiny cloves from scapes and they are growing now, too. I think it takes at least two summers for them to get to the point of forming bulbs, but after that all my garlic is basically free (I will have enough cloves to plant every autunm and still eat all garlic I want). Last winter I bought about half adozen garlic bulbs, my own made it until March?

Hb and I met 30 years ago. Boy that makes me feel old! D said the other day she's only third of my age, and yes, she is. I'm feeling ancient.

What else... My brother got bees for the first time this summer, this week they harvested their first batch of honey, 35kg! And they need to harvest honey at least once if not twice this summer. Bet they'll be in sticky stuff up tp their necks in autunm. No, not really, I think there's a line behind their door asking for honey.

It's wonderful, golden, runny, clear. Even os wanted to taste and liked it. He's not fan of honey.

Very tasty with creamy Turkish yoghurt.

 I have also found some 'shrooms. Boletes.

I think this is a bitter bolete (tylopilus felleus)

Didn't pick it up for some reason...

Bitter boletes are not actually poisonous, but...

I have picked maybe the last batch of rhubarb (from neighborough's garden). I wanted to try rhubarb liqueur (equal amounts sugar, fruit and vodka). Maybe it's ready before Christmas? For hampers, perhaps.

And I'll end this with best picture of  'Suma I have managed for a long time.