I keep joking we should have sown rice. However not only has it been wet, it's also been cool.
Most things are stunted, delayed growth, shivering their way to fruition.
I've had fabulous success previous years with courgettes and squash, sweetcorn, tomatoes and climbing beans. All things that enjoy the full sun the allotment provides. Usually.
This year the green beans are only just beginning to climb. I didn't think they would at all. The courgettes flower, form and rot. The squash are not sprawling crazily across any space the can find. The sweetcorn is supping up the water, hopefully will form ears soon but will have to wait and see. I haven't dared plant out tomatoes yet. Just taken the spares down there. Going to plant them surrounded by cold frames. Hopefully will get some crop.
However. The strawberries have gone crazy! They grew, they flowered, boy did they flower, absolutely covered in blossom. All the blossom surprisingly set. I have bunches and bunches of fruit. Some ripe, some ripening and others still growing.
Picked the first few yesterday and weighed out 650 grams worth. I'll have kilos of fruit to harvest.
Maybe there's a lesson to be learnt. Nothing sums up an English summer than Strawberries and Cream. There's obviously a reason for this. The berries love our weather. They like cool, wet and slightly warm conditions. They soak up the water to form juicy fruits. Strawberries from other countries never have the same taste.
My strawberry bed is huge. I nearly dug it up this year as the past couple of years crops hadn't been good. So glad I let them stay. Mainly due to laziness as I didn't quite get around to it. Think I'm going to be making lots of jam in the next few weeks.
I need to find lots of uses for Strawberries I think. Any ideas for strawberry recipes I should try?
