Author: admin

I think the kids are probably relieved to be going back to school, I’ve given them endless jobs to do, everything from cleaning out the chickens to tattie digging to sowing salad leaves.

Once they’re back at school it’s all up to me unfortunately. They’ve taken it in turns to help me at the Armadale Market as well. We’ve all enjoyed seeing the parade of dogs there. The castle gardens are popular with dog walkers and I think we’ve seen every type of dog known to humanity. The favourite was a Scottish Deer hound, which was less than a year old, but the size of a small horse.

I am missing having beetroot to put in the veg shares. This is the most voley year I think I’ve ever known! I’ve sown some beetroot in the greenhouse, away from the voles, it might be ready by Autumn. I’m watching the carrots and parsnips as I think voles might fancy those too. They are ignoring the leeks which is good news and don’t seem to want to eat the spinach I’ve sown in place of the beetroot. I saw evidence of gnawing on some of the Winter squash so I’ve picked all the big ones and they’re curing in the Polycrub. I know that vole populations go in cycles so I’m hoping this mega vole year will be followed by a population crash next year. The little dog is trying to menace them off the croft, but I think he’s one against millions!

After a rocky start the brassicas are doing really well now, plenty of broccoli, the sprouts are pretty sproutful and the red cabbages are hearting up. So even with the voles to contend with there will be plenty of variety into the Autumn.

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – Tomatoes, broccoli or a small cauliflower, French beans, mange tout and chard.

Medium – Tomatoes (cherry and cooking,) broccoli, a cauliflower, potatoes, French beans, onions and kale.

Large – Tomatoes (cherry and cooking,) purple sprouting broccoli, a cauliflower, potatoes, Summer squash, onions, salad leaves, peppers and chard.

The cooking tomatoes are really delicious fried, can be used to make a sauce or as the base of a curry. The peppers are starting to go red so they’ll be appearing in the veg shares over the next few weeks. They are a pointy variety called Hungarian sweet wax.

The spud-a-thon continues. I feel like I’ve dug up tons of potatoes but I’ve actually only done the smaller beds, the really big field bed awaits! So far my assessment is that the yield is much better than last year. I’m not washing them this year, they keep better with the dirt on and it’s easier to get them really dry. The Charlotte potatoes probably need eating within a week or two of digging up, but the Belle de Fontenay and Arran Victory should store for a while, providing they’re totally dry and put somewhere dark. I have another tres fancy variety in the ground called La Ratte, I’ve just started pulling these up and they look good. We grew them from potatoes saved from last years crop. I also have a small bed of Orla potatoes, just to see what they’re like. They can be used as a new potato or left in the ground to mature.

The tomatoes have reached the roof of the Polycrub, some serious pruning is in order. This is the best tomato crop I think I’ve ever had. The Winter squash are also in the Polycrub and produced a lot of squash early on, then had a bit of a rest and have just started making more squash. The bottom half of the plants look dead, but the ends have nice new growth.

We’re trying to fit in prep for Armadale Market, in between some weeding and harvesting. Dom is making some very sweet little treasure chests – I’ll take some photos when they’re finished. I think my main contribution this time will be a few baskets and very many bags of potatoes!

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – Tomatoes, broccoli or a small cauliflower, potatoes, courgettes and salad leaves.

Medium – Tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes, French beans, Summer squash, mange tout and chard.

Large – Tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes, French beans, courgettes, mange tout, onions, salad leaves, a cucumber and tree cabbage.

The Summer squash either look like a snake, a flying saucer or a lumpy courgette. To prepare the snake, chop off the head and discard, that’s where the seeds are. The body can be sliced and used like courgette. The flying saucers have seeds in, these are edible and don’t have to be removed. Just slice the lumpy courgettes, they are mostly pretty seedless. All are delicious fried in olive oil with garlic. None of these varieties need peeling.

The cauliflowers are in three colours, white, green or purple. The green ones are the nicest looking I think. They all taste the same!

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.

We spent most of last week weeding and tidying the croft, it is looking very nice, almost park-like in places! The hedges and trees have really grown a lot this year, the wind reduction is really noticeable now. Our plan for next year is taking shape, we’re going to have a smaller, flat raised bed area and two new ploughed areas. The way to turn the back field into big beds for growing in seems to be to plough, add lots of organic matter, grow tatties for two years then try something else, like broccoli or beetroot. Hopefully after that, ploughing won’t be necessary again and we can just keep mulching with the usual mix of compost, old hay, leaves and seaweed. The fashionable growing method at the moment is “no-dig”, this involves spreading manure or compost on the surface, rather than digging it in. This works fine and is easier but we find that in order to get to that point “a bit of dig” is unavoidable. So ploughing’s on the to-do list for the Autumn along with a million other things.

I don’t think this is the best ever year for brassicas, but all the undercover crops are doing well. Lots of big red tomatoes now and some Orange Banana (great for frying.)

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – Tomatoes, courgettes, sugar snaps/peas, potatoes and tree cabbage.

Medium – Tomatoes, courgettes, mange tout, French beans, broccoli, chard and blackcurrants.

Large – Tomatoes, courgettes, sugar snaps, French beans, potatoes, kale, broad beans, onions, and salad leaves.

The blackcurrants are particularly good this year, they’ll be appearing in the Shares over the next few weeks. They are really good in an apple crumble or just stirred into yoghurt.

The croft is actually looking pretty tidy again. The weeds had got totally out of hand, but three boys were given some implements and now most of the dock has been cut down, the fruit cage is clear so we can actually pick the fruit and some of the paths are passable again. Most of the veg beds have been weeded and wildlife evicted. I pruned all the tomato plants and made sure they are securely tied up. It was very hard not to keep eating them. We restrict ourselves to the reject vegetables! Unfortunately all the tomatoes look pretty perfect right now.

Shockingly I’ve just started sowing the plants for next Spring’s harvest – purple sprouting broccoli, kalettes and cabbage. I’m not too sure where I’ll plant them yet, somewhere away from ravenous voles, so probably in the back field where the aerial predators are.

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – Potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, mange tout and French beans.

Medium – Potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, sugar snaps, courgettes, onions and broad beans.

Large – Potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, mange tout, courgettes, French beans, peas, salad leaves, chard and onions.

The big tomatoes I’m growing are actually turning red now, I wasn’t expecting to pick them until August, so expect some big toms in the mix!

I’ve dug up all the red potatoes now, this week some customers will have those and some will have Charlotte. The Charlotte are lovely just boiled and served with a bit (or a lot) of butter.

The Armadale monthly market was really great and the boy I dragged along enjoyed playing shopkeeper. I think I could probably sell three times as many vegetables as I’ve been taking – something to think about for for next year! All the gooseberry jam has sold, and some blackcurrant. Blackcurrant is now available in two sizes – 340g/£5.50 or 225g/£4.00. The chickens are still laying very well, not quite at the Spring level but at least a dozen eggs every day. The ducks have eased up a bit now, just a few eggs a day. They really enjoyed the torrential rain the other evening, they refused to go to bed and I ended up chasing them round and round at 11 o’clock at night.

I plant a very wide variety of vegetables as I have no idea from year to year which plants mother nature will decide she has it in for! Last year it was brassicas and slugs, this year everything wants to eat the beetroot. I’m sowing some extra beetroot in the greenhouse as there are fewer beasties in there. The beetroot that’s growing outside I’m just going to pick as soon as it’s a decent size, rather than let it sit in the ground until Autumn. Beetroot has always been one of my most reliable Autumn crops so this is pretty annoying. I do have some other good stuff lined up for October though – there are lots of squash, sprouts and red cabbage.

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – Red Duke of York potatoes, onions, sugar snaps, courgettes and beetroot.

Medium – Red duke of York potatoes, onions, mange tout, salad leaves, perpetual spinach/chard, broccoli and French beans.

Large – Red Duke of York potatoes, onions, sugar snaps, shelling peas, salad leaves, Salad onions, cavolo nero, tomatoes, purple cauliflower and broad beans.

The tomato season has officially begun, only a few so far so I’ll alternate them between the three sizes to begin with.

The purple cauliflowers vary in shade from violet to deep purple. I think the best way to keep the colour on cooking is to roast them.

There is visible progress at the gate now. We have a shiny new gate, the old gate was practically an antique. It has moved so eventually there will be an enclosed customer zone with the bus shelter shop in it. In the far distant future I have a vision of electricity and a fridge at the gate but that’s not for this year!

I have the next Armadale Market this weekend so I’ve made some jam – gooseberry or blackcurrant. It is 340g/£5.50. I’ll be making some smaller jars this week – around 225g/£4.00. If any any weekly veg customers would like some I can put a jar aside. I may make some chutney at some point. I’m using my parent’s kitchen so I would need to wait for them to go on holiday before chutney making. I can’t really subject them to hours of strong vinegar smells which take days to clear!

The tomatoes are starting to ripen – like everything this year that’s three weeks earlier than normal. I think this is the power of the polycrub rather than the weather. I’ve grown the usual cherry types that always do well, some big red tomatoes and some called orange banana that make the worlds’ best fried tomatoes.

I’m growing a couple of new (to me) heritage vegetables this year – some tall peas called “Champion of England,” they are looking pretty champion like. And a bean called “Lazy Housewife!” so far Lazy Housewife has produced a lot of leaves but is pretty lazy on the bean front. The old varieties do have some funny names.

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – French beans, mange tout, salad leaves, salad onions and broad beans.

Medium – French beans, mange tout, sugar snaps, courgettes, salad onions/onions, tree cabbage and beetroot.

Large – French beans, mange tout, broccoli, salad onions, salad leaves, chard, green cabbage, kohlrabi, onions and herbs.

The tree cabbage is actually called Paul & Becky’s Asturian Tree Cabbage, it’s a loose, leafy plant which grows big leaves that can be used like kale or Spring greens. All the leafy greens are good in an Italian style bean soup.

The long, sunny spell, followed by rain has had an astonishing effect on all the outside veg. I think this is probably what it’s like to grow veg in the South of Scotland. I’ve got pickable size beetroot and broad beans in the net tunnel that were only planted in the middle of May. It’s a good thing that the school holidays start this weekend as I could do with some teenage pickers and weeders. The weeds went from not really visible to horribly out of control in the space of a few days.

No sign of the baby hedgehogs – they aren’t in the nest anymore (neither is the mum), I think we missed their first foray onto the croft.

I’m going to start jam making this week, I have access to a nice, modern kitchen registered with environmental health. My own kitchen has too many, dogs and boys in it. I’m going to start with gooseberries and rhubarb. Then move on to blackcurrant. I used to make jam every week in the cafe, hopefully I’ve still got the knack. I’ll be taking this to the Armadale Market in two weeks but will also put some in the box at the gate and then in the more elaborate shop once that’s finished.

This week’s Croft Shares have the following:

Small – French beans, courgettes, Spring onions, perpetual spinach and broccoli.

Medium – French beans, courgettes, Spring onions, a green cabbage, perpetual spinach, broad beans and beetroot.

Large – French beans, courgettes, Spring onions, salad leaves, a green cabbage, broccoli, perpetual spinach, purple mange tout, potatoes and onions.

What a relief it was to have a bit of rain! Not a sentence I thought I’d ever say, but outdoor, spot watering just doesn’t really do the job. The brassicas and onions in particular aren’t enjoying warm and rainless. Plants in some shade seem to be coping better than those out in full sun. Of course the weeds will be enjoying the rain as well, I foresee a lot of weeding on the agenda.

The croft is really teeming with wildlife at the moment. There are baby sparrows everywhere cheeping constantly and going in the net tunnel then not being able to figure out how to get back out again. The youngest boy’s wildlife pond has numerous beetles and a frog. Most exciting though was the discovery of a hedgehog nest in the sheep shed – a mum and five babies! We’ve covered them with hay put a barrier in front of the nest to stop the sheep treading on them. I’m hoping to see some babies wandering about in a few weeks, ideally when armed with the camera.

This week’s Croft Shares are splitting into three sizes, Small has five different crops, Medium has seven and Large nine plus.

Small would suit a couple or someone who lives alone, Medium would suit a family or a couple who like to eat a lot of veg. Large is a one stop vegetable shop! Customers subscribing to a Large Share probably won’t need to buy much other veg.

This week Small has new potatoes, French beans, a green cabbage, perpetual spinach and sugar snaps.

Medium has new potatoes, French beans, a green cabbage, perpetual spinach, courgettes, beetroot and broccoli.

Large has new potatoes, French beans, a green cabbage, perpetual spinach/chard, courgettes, beetroot, Spring onions, broad beans, salad leaves and cooking onions.

The broad beans are young so no need to peel each bean! Just pod and cook. Courgettes are in two colours now, including a famous Italian variety called Rugosa Friulana. Yes, there are famous Italian courgettes growing on a croft in the Scottish Highlands.

Last week I spent less time weeding and more time preparing for our first ever market stall. I went on a very hot drive to Armadale Castle where they have a monthly market through the Spring and Summer. I took some leafy veg, eggs, pendants, cards and baskets. I sold most of the veg, all the eggs and a bit of everything else. I took a reluctant teenager with me and even he seemed to have a nice time! The other stalls were an interesting mix of jewellery, cakes, bread, knitting, handmade soap, plants and art. I’m looking forward to the next one on the 8^th of July and I’m sizing up a couple of other markets within a reasonable driving distance.

The veg harvest for this week’s customers is pretty surprising for the second week in June – we have new potatoes! They are Red duke of York, grown in the greenhouse, planted in January. Red Duke of York is one of the tastiest varieties, half way between waxy and floury. The courgettes are definitely in top gear and seem to be aiming for marrow status, there are still plenty of sugar snaps in the polycrub and there is a decent quantity of french beans now.

Next week I’m starting Medium and Large Shares. Medium collection is on Tuesdays between 4pm and 7pm. Medium will have seven different crops, lots of variety from week to week. Large will have nine or more different crops, including leafy greens and lettuce or salad leaves most weeks. Leafy greens can also be ordered separately or as an add on.

This weeks Croft Shares will have courgettes, sugar snap peas, French beans, salad leaves, radishes and potatoes!