Harvesting time
This month, the gardeners – Tim & Shelley– have been lifting the first early/second early potatoes. They carefully lifted the crops to avoid spiking the tubers and inspected them for signs of slug damage.
Most of the potatoes were in good condition, although the slugs have had some impact. There was no evidence of potato blight to date. Varieties harvested included ‘Ano’ - which has a lovely waxy taste - and ‘Amorosa’, a red first early with cream flesh.
After drying them out in the sun, the modern potatoes (post 1950) were stored in potato sacks in the Bothy ready for use by the Restaurant.
The gardeners have also been lifting our Heritage potatoes (pre 1950), including ‘Arran Pilot’ (1930), and ‘Red Duke of York’ (1942). They will mainly be kept for the Harvest Festival display in the Bothy.
Onions
The gardeners harvested the onions planted from sets last autumn. We used the organic variety, ‘Radar’.
The onions are dried in the sun, and then stored in the greenhouse under shade netting.
Tim started stringing them and they were hung up in the Bothy – a good place for display and for storage for the Restaurant to use.
Soft fruit
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I picked the gooseberries, which we grow as half-standards. We had a bumper crop from the ‘Invicta’ and ‘Hinnomäki Röd’ varieties – and grow annuals like Salvia viridis ‘White Swan’ in front of them to attract the beneficial insects.
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I also harvested masses of red currants, for the Restaurant. The birds had got there first, but there was still plenty left lower down the bushes.
Salad leaves
- With the help of volunteers I removed all the lettuce, which had bolted in the long dry spell.
- We replaced them with direct sown rocket, frilled leaf salad mix, and oriental salad leaves.
- The recent rain helped germination, and reduced our hand watering commitment.
- I have already cut some of the early sowings from a few weeks ago.
Top fruit
I have just started the espalier pruning (120 heritage apple/pear trees) around the perimeter of the Kitchen Garden, and will include a focus on these in the August update.
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