My homegrown harvest, July 2019.

July's been a month of raspberries.  Sooo many raspberries.  I only have autumn fruiting raspberries, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them fruiting now!

I've had loads of greens too, which I've been shredding, wilting in boiled water, then squeezing into little handfuls to freeze, so I can use it later in the year.

We had our first, one and only cherry, it was delicious, the variety is 'sweetheart'.

My 'discovery' apples started falling off the tree so I picked them all, which was a mistake as they're SUPER sour and nowhere near ripe!  They're on the windowsill, I hope they'll soak up some sun and get a bit sweeter. 

I didn't manage to grow any carrots last year so yey for carrots this year!  The variety is 'berlicum' and they're really nice. 

I've also had loads of strawberries, purple snap peas, potatoes, beets, some baby onions and a little baby garlic.

What have you been growing this month?

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My homegrown harvest, June 2019.

Things are finally growing in my garden!  These are the first potatoes of the year - it was a mix of varieties.  The potatoes aren't quite ready so I just rummaged around in the soil and pulled out some big feeling potatoes without disturbing the plants too much! 

I've had my first raspberries.  I'm slightly perturbed that these are my 'autumn bliss' raspberries and they're all coming now!  Is this climate change?  Did I prune them crazy wrong last year?  What will I eat in autumn!?

The first strawberries have arrived too, I only eat home grown strawbs so these are a proper treat.  The first ever yellow raspberries came, a small total harvest of 5 berries but there's a big cane growing already for next year.  Purple snap peas and tons of kale and chard too.

I'm trying to keep up with picking and drying home grown herbs this year, I've picked oregano and mint this month to dry.  

I trimmed the onion tops back and ended up with a washing up bowl full of onion tops!  I washed and chopped them all, froze two boxes full, and popped another box in the fridge to be used up in stir fries, fritters, Joe's omelettes and I made a particularly delicious green onion pancake too.  I thinned out my cabbage seedlings and ate them, because waste not want not. 

It's all about the berries though this month, I've been out picking them every day! 

That's about it for this month, have you been harvesting much from the garden this month?

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My homegrown harvest, May 2019.

I've had a few tiny, tasty harvests this month, I hope next month there'll be much more! 

I picked these chive flowers and have popped them in a bottle with some white wine vinegar to make chive blossom vinegar, so far it's very pink! 

I've had my first pickings from my front garden raised beds. I planted my red onion sets and garlic cloves too close together on purpose so I could strategically pick the thinnings for an extra harvest!  I've picked a few stems from my perennial Welsh onions that I've planted out in my flower beds this year.

I've picked a whole load of mint to dry, Joe buys mint teabags but I hope he'll like homegrown instead to save some money and the plastic-y teabags. 

That's about it for this month, have you been harvesting much from the garden this month?

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My homegrown harvest, April 2019.

The first harvests of spring are starting to come in, they always taste the best.

I've been growing this cauliflower plant for about 18 months and was just debating cutting it down as it hadn't produced anything when all of a sudden a little cauliflower appeared, and within 2 weeks that little cauli grew until it was bigger than my head!  Although it was impressively sized, I can't say it was particularly tasty, I wouldn't grow this variety again (it's 'cut and come again', so it's supposed to make several heads but I'm not sure I'll bother with it any more).

I've also had some small shallots, I bought the shallots for 50p on sale really late in the season last year and they've overwintered, but not very well.  Some are really small and some are just about to go to flower, but it's nice to have fresh onions, whatever form they take.

Apart from the usual herbs, and a few pickings from my perennial welsh onions that's all I've eaten from the garden this month.  I can't wait for next month to see what's coming! 

Have you eaten any spring crops from your garden yet? 

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My homegrown harvest, August 2018.

So, it's a good year for raspberries.  They started early, I've had soo many and there are sooo many still to come.  No complaints, they're my favourite.

I've had lots of firsts this month too - first home grown apples (last year the squirrels ate a share of the only one!) and first tomatoes of the year, there are loads of green ones on the plants, but they seem to be ripening one by one! 

I've got nine blueberry plants, in their 2nd or 3rd year, and I'm getting ok crops off them now.  Lots of kale too, all of just one plant, I'm giving the stuff away!

Anyway, I think I mentioned my homegrown apples then got distracted by kale, I had 8 apples off my Discovery apple tree, and 2 off my other apple tree, that I bought as a Discovery apple but definitely isn't (it was a very cheapo tree from Wilkos!).  Woohoo!  Apples!  I'm doing the thing and growing my own fruit.  One day I will be Barbara from the Good Life. 

Finally, here is a spring onion.  A caterpillar popped out of it just as I was about to cut it up, and made me jump, and then the caterpillar fell on the floor and I haven't been able to find it, so there's a caterpillar on the loose in the kitchen somewhere. I'm not sure why I had one random spring onion in my raised bed, but I did and now I've eaten it and it was yummy. 

What have you been growing and eating this month? 

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My homegrown harvest, July 2018.

Lo!  Tis the first raspberry of the year!  I'm not sure why they're so early this year, they're autumn fruiting raspberries ('autumn bliss') and I didn't have any til late August last year so this is very strange but enjoyable.  I think I like raspberries even better than strawberries!

We've had the last of the strawberries, and some blueberries, black currants and blackberries too this year.  Joe's been eating most of them with yoghurt for his breakfast.

I planted a few mange tout plants, and the touts have been ready to mange this month. I'm not keen on the giant mange tout (although it doesn't help that I let some of them grow overly giant!), I think I'll just plant the purple ones in future. 

I planted my broad beans late this year, and only planted about 6 beans (because of snow!  It seems a long time ago since it was cold enough to snow!).  They've actually been the most successful broad beans I've ever grown, they were lovely plants that didn't need any support and had hardly any pests and grew loads and loads of beans.  If you've been reading my blog for some time then you'll know that I'm a very picky eater, so I, of course, don't actually like broad beans - but I do like falafel so these got turned into a batch of falafel and were frozen for a later day. 

How's your garden this month?  What are you eating? 

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My homegrown harvest, June 2018.

I'm not disappointed with my harvests this month, it's always nice to have fresh kale and home grown strawberries.  But I can't help feeling like I had much more to show last year.  A slow start due to a cold spring, too much sun and not enough rain now, and not having as much space to grow because I've temporarily lost my front garden raised beds are all to blame I think.  None of my lettuce has germinated and I can't believe I've gone since last year with no home grown lettuce.  I've just sown some more, I hope it will grow! 

Anyway, here are my little harvests for this month, 

Have you been eating anything from your garden yet?  Hope it's going better than mine!

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My homegrown harvest, May 2018.

I've just had a few little pickings from the garden so far this year, but the first of anything is always the sweetest!

These are onion scapes - unopened flowers from my Siberian perennial onions. Nice in a stir fry but they're a bit slimy to be honest!

I'm not entirely sure what variety these are, I think some are red spring onions and some are baby leeks - they came out of the raised beds as Joe was emptying them to be moved.  They're very strong!

'Scuse this terrible phone photo, but this is the first kale I've picked this year.  In fact I think this is the first kale I've successfully grown, so yey!  I know you're supposed to be able to pick it all winter, but my plant was only little so I waited for spring to come and for it to grow a bit more before harvesting from it. 

Have you been eating anything from your garden yet?

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