Apologies for the lack of recent updates, poor weather, trying to fix this antique computer after the major crash and the sheer volume of harvesting that we've had to do (plus processing the harvests to make the best use of them) has meant a lack of time for posting to the blog! As you can no doubt see, the recent wet weather has proven to be a boon for the weeds, turn your back for a minute and they seem to take over! ertainly doesnt look like a plot that won Very Highly Commended awards now does it! Lol!
As the nights start to draw in, the weather turns colder, the leaves begin to turn from the green of growth to the glorious autumnal colours of decay and the morning dawn cool and misty we find ourselves once more in the middle of a bumper harvest, our plot time is spent gathering in the crops, clearing the beds and reflecting on whats gone well and what our plans are for next year!
Some of our crops have been spectacular, the grapevine that we spent a large amount of time building an arbour for has repaid us with a bumper harvest, I took 15lb of grapes from it today, and there's still more to come! A couple of demijohns of wine will be made with these shortly!
The green caulies have also done really well, nice compact heads of caulieflower, some of which has been used in branston, some will be used in piccallili, but the rest has been enjoyed already!
The beans and brassicas have also been exceptional this year, fantastic harvests of tasty veg!
The first few sprouts were harvested (and eaten) today, with plenty more coming on, with 26 plants we should be eating sprouts right through until January or February!
The first of the borlotti beans are drying nicely, ready for harvest, with lots more still to come!
Our pumpkin harvest hasnt been all that good this year though, no idea why, but we normally take 30+ pumpkins, and this year we've only got about 20!
The broccolli has been fab, as have the caulies!
15lb of grapes, ready to make some more wine!
Yet more courgettes, another 14 harvested today, with more still growing on!
The butternut squashes have been better this year than ever before, as have the carnival squashes, lots to see us through the next few months!
And the sweetcorn! This is the first of the 2 trugs we harvested today! In total 150+ cobs of delicious, large sweet perfection! Our only concern, is how we're going to process and store it all!
The greenhouses are also still producing, we're over 250lb of toms for the year now, its becoming something of a chore to process them all, I've lots of passatta, puree, ketchup, sweet chilli sauce and pasta sauce made already!
The second trug of sweetcorn!
So, one days worth of harvest, approx £320 worth of organic, fresh, tasty fruit and veg!
As I said earlier, there's still plenty of crops growing, lots of broccolli, caulie, cabbage and sprouts, plenty of turnip and swede, more runner and borlotti beans, more courgettes, more grapes, more spuds, lots more raspberries, more toms, the fartichokes, leeks, borlotti beans, chillies and peppers, plenty more to take over the next few weeks!
As you can see, the rasps are heavy with delicious fruit, but producing sooo much we're having trouble harvesting it all! A lot is going over inbetween the times we are able to get to the plot!
The chillies in the now defunct hothouse are coming up next week, Ill be bringing them home to try and overwinter some of them in the hopes of getting a head start on next years cropping!
And as I said, the borlottis still have tons of beans left on them, once the pods start to dry we'll take these and pod them for storage and winter useage as dried beans! Lovely in a chilli or warming winter stew!
The bees have also been busy, we've had a reasonable honey harvest, about 30lb per hive so far, with more still to remove, but as we've a couple of hives that have become very large we are considering leaving a double super of honey on them, which will potentially reduce our harvest of honey for the year! At least we've got enough for our own use and some to sell to begin to recoup our initial outlay, perhaps next year, or definitely the year after we will recoup our start up costs abd it will then become a self sustaining hobby!
So, onto the balance sheet!
Balance Sheet Update - 7th October 2010
Total Veg Plot Costs 2010
Rent + Subs for 2 full plots £100
Seeds £20
Seed Spuds £20
Onion Sets £6
Growbags £15
Chicken Manure Pellets £8
Plastic 'wannabe' Polytunnel £61
Bamboo Canes £8
Flower Plants £28
Scaffolding Boards £100
Watering Cans £8
Soft Fruits £16
Clematis £10
Arbour materials £ 40
Cold Frames (2) £30 (1/2 price at Argos)
Redcurrant £7.50
Birdhouse £7
Birdfeeders (for arbour) £10
Total Costs £ 504
Next years costs have already started, £59.50 for seeds (Wyevales sale), £7 for onion sets (3 varieties, 200+ sets in total), £12 for dual plum tree, so a total spend for 2011 of £88.50 so far, with only rent and subs + seed spuds to come (should be a total of £120 ish to add), so unless we decide to undertake any large projects on the plot, next year should be a relatively inexpensive one!
Total Veg Plot Harvests 2010
Rhubarb £ 35
Fartichokes £ 4
Volunteer Spuds £ 15
First Early Spuds £ 15
Second Early spuds £ 30
Early Main Spuds £
Late Main Spuds £
Lettuce £ 14
Radish £ 15
Garlic £ 85
Strawberries £ 65
Summer Raspberries £ 35
Autumn Raspberries £ 15
Blackberries £ 35
Peas £ 40
Broad Beans £ 70
Courgettes £ 150
French Beans £ 110
Red Onions £ 20
White Onions £ 50
Cabbages £ 25
Peppers £ 40
Chillies £ 35
Tomatoes £ 210
Turnip £ 25
Swede £ 5
Runner Beans £ 100
Broccolli £ 60
Apples £ 12
Plums £ 5
Sweetcorn £ 150
Chard / Spinach £ 2
Aubergines £ 5
Cucumbers £ 11
Blueberries £ 5
Caulieflower £ 6
Grapes £ 35
Sprouts £ 1
Jerusalem Artichokes £
Summer Squashes £ 20
Pumpkins £ 20
Beetroot £ 5
Leeks £ 1
Total Veg Plot Harvests £ 1585
So, a total nett profit of
£ 1071 so far this year, with a large amount of harvests still to come!
Hope your plots are as productive, your harvests are bumper ones and that you are able to gather them in safetly before the weather turns!
More to follow soon, thanks for reading!
4 comments:
You're going to need a bigger freezer!
I had to buy a third one, and I haven't got a tenth of what you have!
Lol, a third one was procured last year, looks like we need a fourth one!
That is one awesome harvest! Not surprised you have been too busy to post much...
Lol, thanks Janet, its rather a good haul, just a shame that work gets in the way of plot time, we could grow more and keep it even better if we didnt have to work full time, ah well, only another 23 years to retirement.... unless they change the retirement age again! lol!
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