OUTDOORS 29

Uh...more crops! As raspberries thinned to the odd half dozen, blackcurrants and gooseberries filled my freezer bags on plot trots. The gooseberries are now ripe, so better eaten than stored in the freezer for cooking later on - hence gooseberry crumble was the breakfast menu for a week or two, 4-5/7.

This is the front pathway. Most local people who scream in horror and start cutting back the plants, fixing the concrete base to conformity, and then relax. I like it as it is. I cut back the brambles from the path, so it isn't prickly, but 9/10 I let other things overflow from border to path. There is no reason to cement up the path itself in my eyes either - why should it be smooth? What is wrong with bumps and dips - unless you have a wheelchair going over it, which we don't?

Another round of crops! I pulled quite a handful so I had a good selection to enter the local village show with. Pictured above, the stalks I did not enter and below my entries - for 'rhubarb' and 'longest rhubarb'. I did not win 1st, second, or third place though.

Here are another batch of crops, from August 2017. Amongst which you can see a couple of large spuds. The large white one was perfect inside and out, while the biggest spud I have as yet grown red potato was half rotten inside - the other half tasted good and was enough for one potato though!

Tomatoes are coming at around 2-4 a day at present - but I am keeping up with them so far. Finally, for today, Let me share with you 9 packets of seeds that I purchased at the local Wyevale towards the close of the month.

Wyevale have a sale where seed packs only cost 50p each annually - and alerted to this at facebook via the allotments group, I ventured out to grab my bargains for the year, arriving just after 9am on the second day. I paid £4.50 in cash - but if it were not for the sale, this group would have cost me £26.50!!!!

INDOORS 39

Let's see how my food situation is going as of early July. Above you can see my freezer is stacked with fruit mostly - though the odd bag of chili, corn, peas and ginger are there some place. The fridge also is filled mostly with fruit.

Pie filling, fruit ready to turn into a crumble, and fresh berries line the top shelf - while a half eaten gooseberry crumble stars on the second, beside the mushrooms. Even the pantry contains plot produce - 3 jars of raspberry n rhubarb jam are stashed behind the spices, while 2 jars of pickle appear on the shelves.

Finally, is the fruit bowl full? Um...yes! Well, maybe not finally - here is the result of using some of the fruit for breakfast one Mid-July morn - blueberry, blackberry and banana rice milk shake and avocado - yum!

Here we see I have been busy in the kitchen - 'getting rid' of excess fruit in the guise of 'making jam'. I should say 'attempting' to make jam, perhaps - as this batch failed to set. It left a right old mess on the stove - so the day after my attempt at 'mixed plot fruit jam' - yet another jar or 3 of pie-filling, sigh - I was scrubbing the stove top clean again.