Harvesting + Balance sheet!

Hi Guys, sorry not posted for a while, struggling to keep up with work and all the harvesting!
This week's harvesting includes.........

12lb of toms (mainly processed into tomato and courgette soup/pasta sauce and frozen) Lots more to come!

gazillions of courgettes (note to self, dont need 3 plants each of 4 varieties of courgette next year! 15lb made into soup and frozen, still about 10lb to eat or process!)

10lb runner beans (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

5lb mange tout (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

5lb french beans (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

5lb broad beans (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

40lb spring sown onions from set4lb pickling onions

5lb peas (processed and frozen) lots more to come!

couple of green peppers, lots more to come!

1 1/2lb broccolli (eaten!)

2 cabbages

1 cauli

about 200000 parsnip seeds!

1lb carrots lots more to come!

4 cucumbers lots more to come!

8lb cooking apples lots more to come!

First Turnip!

And the one that made Mr D smile more than anything else, the first mushroom from the kit we bought last month! Big enough to feed 2 of us, and as you can see, Mr D was really impressed! (when he first saw it there was a cry from upstairs, I wondered what had happened!:D)

The first Mushroom, 4" across!!

Proud Mr D!!

So, onto the balance sheet then!

Total costs so far this growing year
Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100
Seeds £30
Seed Spuds £20
Compost / Grow Bags £20
Fertilizers etc £20
Muck £10
Total costs £200

Total Harvests
2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50
Rasps 22lb =£196 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)
Strawbs 10lb =£50 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)
Courgettes x 90 =£45
Rhubarb 21lb = £42
Cucumber 16 = £10
Chillies / peppers = £6
Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)
Onions = £60

Radish =£8
Mange Tout 20lb = £50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)
Broad Beans 13lb = £26 (£2lb at Tesco)
Lettuce x 8 = £5
Broccolli = £15

Cabbage = £14
Caulis = £8
Carrots = £11
Tomatoes 22lb = £25 (£1.22lb at Tescos)
Peas = £10
Runner Beans 15lb = £ 30
French Beans = £10

Mushrooms = £1

Apples = £8
Total Harvest so far 2008 = £740 - a profit now of £540!!

Also managed to get a grabbed piccy of Mr D at the plot, which lent itself to a good B+W conversion, but meant it lost his lovely brown eyes, so a bit of a play in Photoshop and voila!

So, what do you think, does the piccy work?

Anyhows, hope you're enjoying the summer weather (feels more like late autumn round here!) and that your enjoying a bumper harvest!!

Update and piccies!

Ok, as promised, after last weeks post of pretty flowers, back to normal, along with the weather! lol! First a few piccies, then an update on the balance sheet!
A few days sunshine and everything seems to take off like mad!! A view of plot 1, with the courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and most of everything growing like mad!!

Another panorama, taken in the middle of plot 1, looking 180 degrees (7 pictures stitched together!) Click on the image for a bigger version!
One of the pears on plot 1, we've not got many, but are planning to esaplier the 2 trees this winter, and hopefully a good prunning will result in better fruiting next year (and more light to the beds beneath!)
The 2 sisters bed, the sweetcorn have started to show the tassles, and the Mars pumpkins are producing a LOT of pumpkins, 17 at last count, all of a decent size!
Romanesco Cauliflower, the only 1 we've managed to grow in 2 years! Looking forwards to eating this one when it gets a bit bigger!

Leeks (musselburgh) from saved seed! Planted early and doing well, looking forwards to these come the winter!

The other pumpkin / squash bed, lots of fruit on here too, and the purple podded peas behind are also doing very well too!

Peas and runner beans on plot 2, going great guns! We've harvested loads, and still have loads more coming on, perhaps a bumper harvest this year! I was originally a bit dubious of growing runner beans, with childhood memories of stringy yeuchy stuff served up, but I have to say the 2 varieties, (scarlet emperor and enorma) are absolutely delicious, tasty, tender and sweet!

So, onto the balance sheet then!

Total costs so far this growing year

Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) £100

Seeds £30

Seed Spuds £20

Compost / Grow Bags £20

Fertilizers etc £20

Muck £10

Total costs £200

Total Harvests

2 batches overwintered garlic (97 bulbs) =£50

Rasps 22lb =£196 (£8.40 a lb at Tescos!)

Strawbs 10lb =£50 (£5 a lb at Tescos!)

Courgettes x 60 =£30

Rhubarb 21lb = £42

Cucumber 10 = £8

Chillies / peppers = £5

Spuds 90lb = £60 (£0.50 -0.80lb at Tescos)

Onions = £40

Radish =£8

Mange Tout 15lb = £37.50 (£2.50lb at Tesco)

Broad Beans 8lb = £16 (£2lb at Tesco)

Lettuce x 8 = £5

Broccolli = £12

Cabbage = £12

Caulis = £7

Carrots = £10

Tomatoes 10lb = £10 (£1.22lb at Tescos)

Peas = £5

Runner Beans = £5

French Beans = £5

Total Harvest so far 2008 = £613 - a profit now of £413!!

Not a bad haul so far, especially with the tomatoes now beginning to crop! Courgettes are cropping like mad, we've a load of soup made and frozen, along with lots of peas and beans, with many more to come! Toms and courgettes are also going to be processed and frozen, the base for warming winter soups, pasta sauces and spicy indian meals!

Hope your growing year and harvesting is going as well as ours! More piccies n further updates to follow!