What a difference the rain makes

I must apologise for the lack of news recently but it is coming up to the end of the bowls season so lots of matches to catch up on. I was knocked out of everything except the mixed pairs and spookily I was drawn with the same partner as in 2003 when we won the runners up medal. Next weekend is finals weekend so watch this space. It is also coming up to exams so we will have to fit in harvesting with studying.

Thankfully the rains came so apart from the greenhouses everything is happy and singing. A bumper crop, so much so that it barely fit on the table that Nick made from a pallet and very useful (copyright applied for).

The beans are finally taking off and the plants are covered in flowers so I think they are going to be chasing the courgette glut. Maria gave us a branch off her plum tree - they are so beautifully sweet that we ate three each and regretted it the next morning. We have started pulling onions and carrots. The taste of carrots that were in the ground less than an hour before is exquisite and so strong that they could make a mean on their own.

Aubergines and peppers are still doing well so loads of vegetable pies, crumbles and bags of mediteranean vegetables going in the freezer.

The freezer is now bursting at the seams so I have come up with a method of being more economical on space - Soup! So far we have:

• courgette and blue cheese
• courgette and tomato with basil
• courgette and corriander
• courgette and mature chedder with sage
• curried courgette
• minted tomato

You may see a theme here and as the courgettes are all yellow and the tomatoes are all yellow, I have had to be extra vigilant with labelling. As the herbs were also grown on the allotment, they truely are home produce (except the cheese and creme fresche which is healthier than cream).

Non of this would have been possible without the great JML handy seal. Click here to see a demo. It heat seals bags so tightly that even soup can be stored in them and as it is vacuum sealed takes much less space in the freezer.

I must also show you the melons. I am concerned that now that the weather has changed they will not get enough heat and light to ripen but they really look great. I have removed and the new fruit that is appearing and hopefully the strength will go into the five that I have kept. Regular cups of comfrey tea seem to be doing the trick of fattening them up.