Author: admin

Wow! What was that strange glowing orb in the sky on Saturday? What was that strange feeling of warmth in the air? I don’t suppose anyone has ever been so pleased to see the sun as the residents of Skye in 2024. This better spell should give all the veg plants a nice boost. The forecast is good again for next weekend. Sunday was a bit of a midgie fest so that made potato digging less than pleasant. I almost resorted to cutting eye holes in an old snood and wearing that as defence against the tiny biters.

The maincrop spuds have been affected by all the rain, some have a lot of slug damage but there’s still enough to go around. This week we have red potatoes, either Caledonian Rose, Alouette or Rooster. We won’t bother doing Alouette or Rooster again but Caledonian Rose was worth while. Caledonian Rose makes really good mash, it would probably make good roasties too. Alouette and Rooster are multi purpose, they both taste nice but the yield isn’t great.

Somehow despite the grey Summer I have successfully grown…an aubergine! I have a few plants purely as an experiment. They’ve grown surprisingly well, I planted them in the hottest, driest part of the greenhouse and we have a few little fruit now. I figure if they taste nice then it’s worth doing again with more plants.

In September veg starts to take an Autumnal turn although there should be a few more weeks of tomatoes, French beans and courgettes. I’ve some mange tout that was planted late for some September crunch.

This week’s Croft Shares will have –

Small – potatoes, French beans, broccoli, tomatoes and a green cabbage.

Medium – potatoes, French beans, chard, tomatoes, a green cabbage, courgettes and sugar snaps/mange tout.

Large – potatoes, French beans, broccoli, tomatoes, a green cabbage, courgettes, sugar snaps/mange tout, onions, kale and salad leaves.

The croft is not looking it’s best at the moment. There’s quite a lot of mud and the rain has halted mowing and strimming so the grass has got pretty long. The weather forecast seems to be toying with us, it keeps predicting sunshine in a weeks time, then the prediction slowly changes to the usual wet and windy. I really hope that very wet Summers aren’t what climate change has in store for Skye.

I’ve had a good look at all the Autumn veg. The leeks are still on the small side, but do look very nice. The cabbages and sprouts have been slowed down by the cool weather. The pointy cabbages are nearly ready though – we ate a couple and the insides are slug free! The swedes are enormous, cold and wet seem to be their ideal conditions. I’m also growing something called kalettes, it’s a cross between sprouts and kale. The plants are very attractive and it looks like they’re about to start producing the little sprout/kale rosettes.

I’ve sown and planted various salad leaves in the greenhouse. The rocket appeared at the speed of a rocket and so far hasn’t been scoffed by any slimy creatures. I’ve several trays of salad leaves waiting for gaps in the greenhouse. Anything planted now will grow slowly all Winter, ready for picking in the Spring. I think I’ll just fill up the Polycrub and greenhouse with over Wintering plants and figure out how to fit in Summer crops next year.

I spent a day tomato pruning. The tomato plants are laden with green tomatoes and it helps them to ripen if all the side shoots and old leaves are removed. Even on a cool day the Polycrub reaches 25 celsius. Some sun does help with the ripening though.

We did a taste test of some of the maincrop potatoes. I thought they all tasted good, Alouette was probably the tastiest, but the spuds are on the small side. Caledonian Rose seems to have a very good yield, big potatoes but quite a lot of slug damage. Rooster has grown very well and is the most versatile but probably the least tasty – it’s often the way with the more commercial varieties. I’ve also got a variety called Cara which I had read was pretty tasteless. I think it’s very nice, it’s grown well, cooks a bit like a Maris Piper and has that earthy home grown potato flavour that supermarket tatties are lacking. So far I think I wouldn’t grow Alouette again, it didn’t cope well with the clay soil and constant rain but the others are all worth doing. We’ve still got Picasso and Setanta to try. Our most frequent veg growing topic is how to improve our potato growing, really the answer is move to a drier location on a steep slope which drains well!

This week’s Croft Shares will have:

Small – French beans, tomatoes, courgettes, purple sprouting broccoli and kale.

Medium – French beans, tomatoes, courgettes, broccoli, potatoes, sugar snaps/mange tout and purple kale.

Large – French beans, tomatoes, courgettes, broccoli, potatoes, sugar snaps/mange tout, kale, salad leaves or chard, onions and parsley.

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.

Ohhh, the rain isn’t helping – we’ve had to speed dig the remaining Jazzy potatoes. By “we” I mean Dom. He dug the spuds, I washed and arranged them for drying. Next is bagging and weighing. We may also dig up the Sarpo Una potatoes – these are another second early type with an attractive pink skin. After that I’ve a few rows of Charlotte then a maincrop called Allouette. I’ve no idea how the weather will have impacted these. This year I have some emergency potatoes in a well cultivated, better drained bed. If all else fails I can dig these up for August and September.

The dodgy weather hasn’t impacted the mange tout or broccoli at all. I’ve some green cabbages which seem to be a snail magnet, I blame the rain for that. Hopefully the snail damage is just external and cosmetic.

The main casualty of the rain has been the salad leaves. I’ve managed to keep a small amount going but most of the rows I’ve sown have been instantly mown down by slugs. In the Spring I grow pea shoots in old fish boxes, set on top of metal frames to keep them away from anything that might eat the seeds. I think I might have to try that arrangement for Autumn salad leaves.

This week we have another Kilmuir Hall Craft Fair, lunch and cake available, and a nice selection of stalls. On Saturday the 17^th me and some teenagers have a stall at Uig Gala! Fingers crossed for some sunshine. We set up at Armadale Market outside on Saturday in torrential rain, then the rain stopped and it was sort of sunny for a while.

This week’s croft Shares will have:

Small – potatoes, courgettes, onions, French beans and tomatoes.

Medium – potatoes, courgettes, onions, mange tout, tomatoes, kohlrabi and broccoli.

Large – potatoes, courgettes, onions, French beans, tomatoes, sugar snaps, purple sprouting broccoli, salad leaves, chard and kale.

Finally I’ve reached a point were there isn’t a queue of little plants waiting to go in the ground. Just about everywhere that can be planted has been planted. I’ve just sown more salad leaves outside, and will be sowing mustard greens and planting Tatsoi at some point, but really if it’s not in the soil now we’re not eating it before Christmas! Salad leaves can still be sown undercover but there’s no space just now. Once the first batch of French beans are over I can pull them up and follow with something, probably chard.

I’m failing spectacularly at cucumber growing. In the past I’ve grown very tasty ridge cucumbers. Last year I grew my usual variety of ridge cucumber, for some reason every third cucumber was horribly bitter. This year I thought I’d try a classic greenhouse cucumber. I started out with ten plants, I’m now down to one. The rest have succumbed to slugs. The one remaining plant looks pretty healthy but I’m sceptical that it can produce enough cucumbers for all the current customers. My next cucumber plan is to go back to ridge types, but try a more modern variety. I once grew ridge cucumbers outside (yes, in Bornaskitaig) but I think the weather must have been unusual.

I’ve four craft fair type events coming up in fairly quick succession. I fitted in a bit of basket weaving and some jam making over the weekend. I hadn’t forgotten how to weave a basket so that’s a relief. The willow is more pliable in the Summer and the whole basket dries faster once it’s finished. I’ll be in Armadale on Saturday, probably with a lot of potatoes, eggs and jam.

This week’s Croft Shares will have:

Small – tomatoes, broccoli, French beans, mange tout and spinach/chard.

Medium – tomatoes, broccoli, French beans, sugar snaps, courgettes, kale, and potatoes.

Large – tomatoes, broccoli, French beans, mange tout/sugar snaps, courgettes, kale, potatoes, salad leaves, beetroot and onions.

A few months ago I was given two Cape Gooseberry plants. I haven’t tried growing these before but the plants were very attractive so I planted them in the greenhouse. According to the internet Cape Gooseberry bushes should live for several years and grow to quite a size. The plants I have look lovely and are adorned with little lanterns. I really hope they ripen properly, they could make a great addition to the veg Shares in 2025. Even if they aren’t super productive they’re worth it for the little lanterns.

I think the glut may have arrived. All three types of French beans are now producing, so expect to see purple, green and yellow. All four types of tomato are ripening (hurray.) The squash plants in the greenhouse are truly enormous, there must be many metres of vines now. The greenhouse was always the best squash/courgette environment. We think there may be a spring running underneath as some areas in there never really dry out. The Polycrub does a good impression of an arid dessert, the soil is super dry and needs a lot of watering. Some spiders are still in residence in the Polycrub. I did have a spider in hair incident, the spider was OK, I had heart palpitations. I have actually got used to them – I have a favourite one now. She’s not in the most helpful location but has a very large, symmetrical web which I’m trying not to walk into.

Outside the slug menace have retreated somewhat, not before doing a lot of damage to the cauliflowers. Will there be any more cauliflowers? Maybe if the slugs take a holiday. Slug damage to a cauliflower doesn’t make it inedible, it just looks awful. I think some cosmetic damage to organic veg is acceptable and to be expected, but zombie cauliflowers are a step too far. The broccoli is excellent this year though. The purple sprouting broc looks good too. The cabbages have got a lot of cabbage white caterpillar damage, hopefully this is just the outer leaves.

Me and the youngest boy had a busy time at the Kilmuir Craft Fair, I now have one basket left! The next Kilmuir Craft Fair is on August 14^th. Before that I have Armadale on the 10^th and the Gathering Hall on the 8^th.

This week’s Croft Shares will have:

Small – potatoes, courgettes, broccoli, tomatoes and mange tout/sugar snaps.

Medium – potatoes, courgettes, broccoli, tomatoes, French beans, chard and a cauliflower if they look reasonable, if not something else instead.

Large – potatoes, courgettes, broccoli, tomatoes, French beans, onions, kale, kohlrabi salad leaves and herbs.

I’ve done a better job of sowing and planting follow on crops this year. The greenhouse is stuffed full with French beans and courgettes which will hopefully be pick-able in September. I followed the first early potatoes …with more first early potatoes. I’ve just planted more broccoli for the Autumn and have sown a lot of chard. I’ll be following the onions with mustard greens and salad leaves.

The tomatoes have ripened more quickly this week. I’m trying a new yellow variety called Honey Delight, it’s grown a lot of leaf and a plenty of tomatoes which are just beginning to ripen. My favourite variety is called Honeycomb, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to be too reliant on one type of any plant. Each year I try a few new tomatoes but so far I’ve not found anything as reliable or early as Honeycomb. In the past I’ve tried lots of heritage varieties of vegetables. Sadly when it comes to tomatoes the modern, hybrid plants are more disease resistant and dependable. I have found heirloom kale and broccoli which are better than modern varieties. I grow a traditional allotment type of green courgette and a mix of old and new French beans. The problem with hybrid plants is that the seeds can’t be saved – well they could be saved but the resulting plants wouldn’t be the same as the parent.

We’ve dug up a lot of potatoes. There were some first earlies left and then we tackled the first row of Jazzy. This is such a good variety. I discovered it by accident. A couple of years ago the seed company didn’t have the variety of potato that I’d ordered so they sent Jazzy instead. I’d never heard of it, but it turns out to be a fast growing, waxy type, which produces lots of oval potatoes with very little slug damage. They taste good too! Just scrub or scrape, then boil and smother in butter! They hold their shape well so would be good in a curry with some leafy greens.

If anyone fancies extra tatties or some blackcurrant jam I’ll be at the craft fair in Kilmuir Hall on Wednesday with some produce, loads of eggs and a few baskets and pictures. The craft fair stock that I built up after Christmas is on the verge of running out, I’m hoping to fit in some basket weaving next week. I do feel a bit out of practice but I only have three baskets left!

This week’s Croft Shares will have:

Small – potatoes, broccoli, French beans, tomatoes and onions.

Medium – potatoes, broccoli, mange tout, courgettes, kale, salad leaves and beetroot.

Large – potatoes, broccoli, sugar snaps, courgettes, kale, onions, salad leaves, cauliflower, broad beans and garlic.

This is the point in the year when I spend a lot of time staring impatiently at plants willing the glut to begin. I’ll be climbing a ladder to pick the French beans so that’s a good sign. There will be tomatoes for Medium and Large Shares this week and potatoes for everyone. I’ve dug up most of the first earlies. I had a rootle around under the second earlies and the first row seems to be nearly ready. We staggered the planting of the second earlies, so hopefully they won’t be ready all at once.

Outside broccoli picking starts this week. All the broccoli so far has been grown in the greenhouse. I’m looking forward to removing the indoor broc and replacing it with French beans and chard. Once that job’s done, the greenhouse will be completely planted with Summer and autumn crops. Last year there was a lot of red spider mite in the greenhouse so I’m on the alert for that. These little critters aren’t visible but they can suck the life out of a French bean plant. There were a lot of green caterpillars in the greenhouse but they seem to have vanished. I’ve seen some cabbage white butterflies fluttering around, I think they must be the green caterpillar parent.

Me and the middle boy had a stall at the Armadale Market on Saturday – I don’t have nearly enough ducks to satisfy the demand for duck eggs on the South of the island. We also did very well on the jam selling front, I only have a few jars left. There’s a bit of a gap now in the market/craft fair schedule so I’ll be spending a week weeding, interspersed with a spot of jam making. We still have plenty of blackcurrants waiting to go in the jam pan. Our next craft fair is in Kilmuir Hall on the 24^th, it’ll be such a luxury not to have to get up at 6am and drive for an hour. The residents of Kilmuir prefer a chicken egg to a duck egg and I have plenty of those at the moment. The new hens are laying very well now that I’ve separated them from the older chickens.

This week’s Croft Shares will have:

Small – potatoes, Spring onions, kale or courgettes, mange tout and broccoli.

Medium – potatoes, Spring onions, kale, courgettes, French beans, tomatoes and onions.

Large – potatoes, Spring onions, kale, courgettes, French beans, tomatoes, onions, salad leaves, black currants and herbs.

This will be the last week of Spring onions, it’s not really Spring any more and the proper onions are nearly ready now.

Last Thursday felt like the rainiest day in the history of Skye. I wasn’t sure what effect this would have on the veg plants. Amazingly the mange tout grew about six inches! The big unknown is what effect the rain will have had on the potatoes. They had a really good start with nice weather in May, if we get a dry spell now I think they should be OK.

My old foe the slug is back with a vengeance! All the rain has increased the numbers. So far slug casualties are salad leaves and some beetroot. I’ve re-sown the salad leaves with varieties the slugs seem less keen on. Everything else is too big now for total destruction.

Winner of the best vegetable so far has to go to the courgettes in the Polycrub. I think the lack of sun might actually have benefited them, if it’s too roasting the courgettes don’t set properly. Prize for most affected by the weather probably goes to the broad beans. They do have some pods but keep dropping flowers. The base of the stems are vulnerable to slugs as well, a lot just snapped off in the rain. I’ve just planted an Autumn cropping variety, hopefully they will fare better.

Looking at the photos from last years harvest at this time I’d say we’re about a week or two behind on most things (apart from the courgettes.) This isn’t a huge amount of time considering the contrast between this June and June 2023. Amazingly the tomatoes are starting to ripen, The main type that I grow is called Honey Comb, it’s a very resilient variety.

Last week, slug activity and the grey weather necessitated a last minute change to the veg Shares. There weren’t as many good radishes as I’d hoped and fewer mange tout than expected. Some customers had beetroot, kohlrabi or pink onions instead. This week I’ve been swithering about whether or not to dig up the next lot of potatoes. I’ve decided to be patient and let them get a bit bigger. I don’t think slugs have destroyed anything I’m planning on picking this week, but I do think some quantities might be on the small side still so I’m adding in some garlic and/or onions. If you only eat garlic occasionally it can be stored at an ambient temperature for months.

Small – Courgettes, Spring onions, kale, mange tout/sugar snaps, blackcurrants and garlic. These mange tout are from outside, if I think portions are too titchy I may put something else in instead.

Medium – Courgettes, Spring onions, kale, salad leaves, French beans, blackcurrants, onions and garlic.

Large – Courgettes, Spring onions, kale, salad leaves, broad beans, blackcurrants, onions, garlic, Spring greens and herbs. I may substitute broccoli for broad beans if I find there aren’t enough beans.

The blackcurrants are tart as always and are delicious stirred into yoghurt or added to crumble. If you’re feeling very fancy, fruit compote and ice cream would be delicious!

I really think we’ve had enough rain now. Everything has had a thorough watering, a bit more sunshine would be nice. Usually by this point in the year our croft is mud free. This year the ground has all been re-mudded many times over. The ducks love a bit of mud but the poor chickens aren’t keen. I hope all the water doesn’t affect the potatoes, the ground doesn’t seem to be waterlogged so fingers crossed. The rain has caused a slug resurgence, a nice row of lettuce has been completely devoured, along with some beetroot seedlings. The youngest boy sowed a row of lettuce which looks perfect, not a slug in sight. I may have to bargain with a fourteen year old for some lettuce in the next month!

I regularly read the blog of a commercial grower in Oregon, https://cullyneighborhoodfarm.com, and subscribe to a newsletter from a grower in Germany. The veg I’m harvesting is often very similar to the Oregon farmer, the main difference is that their tomatoes and beans can grow outside, peppers are a fairly safe bet and they call swede “rutabaga.”. Currently the German gardener is experiencing an “incessant 12 hour cycle of torrential downpour- followed by 28 degrees.” I think what we have is probably preferable. Everywhere seems to be struggling with the weather this year, if anything we seem to have had less rain than other places in Northern Europe. Our longer term aim is to move from growing in raised beds to growing in long rows in the ground. In a wet Summer like this, raised beds are a much better bet.

The chickens are laying with more enthusiasm now that I’ve separated them into two groups. We’re now back up to around twenty five eggs a day, so lots for the honesty box with plenty spare for Armadale. The residents of Bornaskitaig aren’t keen on a duck egg, luckily South Skye inhabitants love them.

Next week I’m staring Medium and Large Shares. The outside broccoli is nearly ready. I’ve pulled up most of the indoor mange tout, the mange tout in the net tunnel has baby pods so I think I should be picking from there next week or the week after. The yellow French beans I planted are currently green, not yellow. Why is a mystery, maybe they will turn yellow at some point. I’ve just planted a lovely type of dwarf bean, Marvel of Piemonte as a follow on crop. This is a multi coloured, flat podded, stringless type. Although I haven’t seen a vole for weeks I’m still putting barriers around the bottom of the French beans. I’ve run out of fish farm pipe so I’m now cutting up milk bottles. This doesn’t look very professional but so far all the French beans are in one piece.

This week’s Croft Shares will have Spring onions, kale, chard, courgettes and two from the following – French beans, sugar snaps/mange tout, broccoli, radishes.