Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 905 : The garden ...

One of the things I'm most happy about on the homestead this year is how I am managing to extend our growing season.

This time last year we were coming to the end of most of the crop harvests and beginning to clear up the beds for winter.

But this year with staggered planting, second sowings and an increased variety of crops we still have two thirds of the beds in full production.

That is alongside extra crops growing in the greenhouses and the polytunnel.

We've got a third crop of carrots in the new greenhouse, alongside a fast growing bed of lettuce. In the first glass greenhouse the fuchsiaberries are cropping well to add an interesting new fruit variety to our diet.

In the old greenhouse the cape gooseberries are still going strong and the strawberries are on their third crop. The fig tree there has a lot of figs on it. I have never successfully grown figs before so I am really hoping they will ripen.

In the polytunnel we've got an experimental set of late tomatoes that are looking very green and vibrant. I'm hard pruning to concentrate all the energy towards the fruits but I don't know if it is just late for them.

There are also a dozen bell pepper plants coming to fruition, and the sweet potatoes might just yield something yet.

Out in the raised beds we still have potatoes, carrots, onions, cauliflowers, broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, red cabbage, chard, courgettes, marrows, pumpkins and rhubarb flowing into the kitchen on a daily basis.

Up high on my gardening dream list is to achieve full on year round food production.

I've just bought Eliot Coleman's book 'The Winter Harvest Handbook : Year-round Vegetable Production Using Deep-organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses' to help me in my quest.

The Joy of Giving

One of the great things about all this growing is that we have plenty for us, and then some left over.

We've been canning and freezing and dehydrating but still have some surplus.

One of my goals for our little patch of land has been to see if we can feed our family and others around us.

It has only been small scale so far with the vegetables that we have been able to give away - mainly courgettes, marrows, onions and rhubarb this year. But I hope this will grow.

On the egg front it has been even better. Our hens have been particularly bountiful. This year they have laid over 2000 eggs so far. We have given over half of them away.

We have never planned to sell our surplus crops, nor even trade or barter. We are happy just to give.

Giving has a wonderful side effect - unexpected receiving.

We have given vegetables and eggs. Friends have given us in return milk kefir grains, a spiralizer, cakes and most recently some delicious Chilean empanadas.

Giving tastes good.

Farewell Miss Rabbit

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back our pet rabbit had started a liaison with a dashing young wild rabbit.

She had been popping in and out every evening to see her beau, but it is now a week since we last saw her.

I am pretty sure she is pregnant as there were signs in her hutch that she had been making a nest.

My hope is that she has gone to live with Mr Wild Rabbit in a safe burrow somewhere roundabouts. Maybe we will be seeing cute little brown and white baby bunnies running about on the hillside in the next month or so.

Here's hopping...

Tasty Eats

I thought I'd end this post with a couple of delicious eats I've had today.

First up was my favourite rhubarb and angelica crumble. We have loads of rhubarb and loads of angelica so we thought we'd try them together. The angelica lifts the rhubarb up with a beautiful almost perfumed added flavour. Do give it a try if you have the ingredients.

We have lots of eggs so we are always looking for ways to use them. We didn't have time to make pastry so for a quick evening treat we made a cheese, onion and broccoli quiche using a couple of tortilla wraps for the base. It worked extremely well.

That's all for today. I'm off to listen to @sircork's show on MSP Waves Radio - he has top witness @timcliff as a guest this evening. Tune in at twitch.tv/mspwaves, and join in the chat on the PAL Discord server.

Night all.

If you found this post useful or interesting please do upvote, resteem and follow. Thank you.

You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

[all images provided by @pennsif]

Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 905 : The garden keeps on giving