Slow painting

Saturday 31 August 2013

Summer update - blackcurrants


Despite lack of blogging activity, things have been happening at the allotment.  It's not in a fantastic state, but it's not critical either.

Rather than try to update all at once, I'm embarking on a mini-series of updates.  First up, our bountiful blackcurrants.  Or they would have been if we hadn't gone away for two weeks just at the peak of the crop.  We picked frantically the night before, and I froze 9lbs of berries.  Our little camping chairs provided the perfect way to avoid back strain while picking.

When we returned, the crop was on the ground and the wasps were having a merry time.  I did take another 1.5lbs from the bushes and made a few pots of jam straight away because the fruit was so ripe that it began to spoil once picked.  
 

Difficult to know when to go on holiday as a gardener!  If we'd gone the two weeks before we would have missed the strawberries.  Are just-picked strawberries in smaller quantity worth more than probably unmanageable loads of blackcurrants?  There is complex exchange rate of gardening which I haven't fully worked out yet.

What crops did you miss by going on holiday this year?