It is time to dig up our main crop potatoes in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden, during August, the entire crop was hit by blight; a common problem for growers this year. We cut the haulms right down to the ground and burned them. The potatoes were left in the ground to allow blight spores to disperse before digging, and to help the skins of the tubers to harden. Now it is time to dig all of the potatoes up and store them in the larder for use over the Autumn and winter. We will choose a dry sunny day and leave the potatoes on the soil to dry before they are stored.
The harvest continues this week with our apples. We have already been picking some of our cooking apples and enjoying apple pie, as well as popping some in the freezer. This week we will harvest as many apples as are ready and store them on apple racks in the garage. Each apple is given a gentle twist. If it comes away easily in your hand, it is ripe and ready to be picked. If not, it is left on the tree for another day. Similarly, the pears are now ready to harvest. However, these are picked before they are ripe and left in the fruit bowl or larder until they are ready to eat.
We are currently experiencing some unseasonably cold weather and the greenhouse heater has already clicked on overnight. Outside we have covered our newly planted winter salads with a cloche to keep them snug when temperatures dip. Hopefully it will warm up again soon!
