I’ve spent most of the past few days digging up potatoes and trying to fit in some basket making for the next Armadale Market. Basket making requires some forward planning as the willow has to be soaked for a few days first. I like to make a whole basket from start to finish in one day so all the other jobs (and the family and the little dog) are ignored. The basket then needs a few days drying time.
Potatoes also need to sit around for a day or so to dry out fully! Every aspect of potato growing is more time consuming than any other vegetable. The planting takes more time, the ground needs more prep, the harvesting takes longer, then they have to dry, and finally there’s the weighing. How well they grow is more of a lottery too. Everyone loves home grown tatties though, they’re an essential Croft Share ingredient.
We’ve decided to postpone building a shop at the gate until the Winter. I’ve enough vegetable outlets at the moment and the greenhouse badly needs some maintenance. Our big greenhouse was second hand about 20 years ago, it’s seen some weather and is in need of a bit of TLC. It’s been an invaluable growing space over the years – great for tomatoes, courgettes and French beans, once upon a time I grew all the salad leaves for the cafe in there.
This week’s Croft Shares have the following:
Small – Tomatoes, mange tout, broccoli or a small cauliflower, French beans and blackcurrants
Medium – Tomatoes, sugar snaps or peas, broccoli, potatoes, onions, courgettes and salad leaves
Large – Tomatoes, sugar snaps, French beans, potatoes, onions, courgettes, salad leaves, blackcurrants, chard and herbs.
The cauliflowers are being unhelpful as usual. They like to be ready one at a time. I can see this is pretty good for a home grower, but I’d like them in batches. They may actually be ready next week (not this week,) staring at them doesn’t seem to help.