In The Organic Garden This Week
Record Temperature for October
This is today’s harvest of organic broccoli! Why so much? I think the 38degrees on Saturday had something to do with it!
I had put up the covers on the bed so that the veges would not burn and that seems to have worked well. However the high temperatures push the growth of the broccoli heads forward and we had 7 or more ready in one go. Normally we can pace our harvest over a week or two but the extreme conditions brought it all on at once!
Never mind a few friends will be happy tonight since they have my excess for dinner!
I picked 1.5 kilos of broccoli altogether.
Oh yeah, a few carrots as well!
Fruit Trees are loving the Sunshine
That is a 10 litre bucket about half full of mulberries that we picked this afternoon and are currently turning into jam!
My dear wife had been preparing them for jam this afternoon and I did the last kilo an hour ago. We cut the little stems off the fruit to improve the jam. If you don’t the jam is a little crunchy – I actually don’t mind that but it is very smooth without the stems.
Seed Collection
I let my Bok Choy go to seed this winter and collected the dry pods as the plants died off. Today I removed crushed the dried pods and separated them from the seeds and now have plenty of organic seed for the next 12 months. I will also share a few with some of my friends who like to grow their own as well.
Preparing Seedlings For Next Crop
Last week I planted some beetroot, spring onion and tomato seeds. The tomatoes are heritage varieties and were great value and I hope to have an excess of tomatoes – which we will turn into sauce or paste and deep freeze. I hope to try drying this year as well, since the few I did last year were very yummy.
This is the fresh bed for the tomatoes and is full of manure, blood and bone and wetting agent.
Dinner Time
Just before I finish up I have ducked out for dinner and thought you might like to see what I am having – pork spare ribs on rice with prune and apple sauce with organic broccolini of course!
Have a good week!
The Organic Gardener
