Uig Gala made a triumphant return at the weekend. The weather was very kind, no sun but only a few spots of rain. A bit of a breeze kept the midgies away. Dylan (age 15) entered a “guess the weight” of a huge trout competition and won! The trout was 4.7kg. Obviously figuring out how to cook it was left to me – I cut it into three pieces and baked them. It was very tasty with some French beans and the last Jazzy potatoes. We didn’t eat it all at once – even three teenage boys can’t eat 4.7kg of fish in one go. I’ve suggested in future Dylan enter competitions to guess the weight of cakes rather than enormous fish. The organisers of the Gala did a brilliant job, everyone was kept well fed and very entertained. Our stall did well too, we sold all our veg, lots of jam and a few crafty bits as well.
The bulk of our Summer Fairs are finished now. I’ve a few between now and November but with decent gaps in between. I’ve sold almost all of the stock we produced over the Winter. October is going to be spent making for the Christmas Fairs.
The yellow courgettes are growing very well in the greenhouse. I’ve no idea why, the weather is the opposite of good courgette weather. The follow on French beans are all producing now. I’m very pleased with the flat yellow podded beans. They were slow to start with but seem to keep going for longer than the green Cobra beans. They appear to be pretty resistant to red spider mite as well which helps. I’m not a fan of runner beans, I do think flat podded French beans make a good alternative, tasty and less stringy.
I’m trying to tackle the salad leaf problem. I’ve started peas for shoots and have sown rocket in the greenhouse. In a normal year slugs don’t eat rocket so hopefully there will be rocket and pea shoot salad at some point. I have some nice looking tatsoi in trays which I was planning on planting outside, I think the weather’s too rubbish for that, so I’m going to find space in the greenhouse instead.
This week’s Croft Shares will have:
Small – potatoes, tomatoes, French beans, sugar snaps and blackcurrants.
Medium – potatoes, tomatoes, French beans, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, courgettes and blackcurrants.
Large – potatoes, tomatoes, French beans, broccoli, kale, onions, courgettes, salad leaves or chard, parsley and blackcurrants.