lately on the lottie - mid summer

Incredible as it seems, we are already just over midway through the year.

The plot is bursting with both plant and insect life; some welcome, some not so welcome!

 
 

We have just harvested the first of our new potatoes -Charlotte -and they were delicious!
Just like the strawberries, the first potatoes are always eagerly anticipated.

The little Rosette apple tree has 2 apples growing nicely. I am not sure what happened to the other embryo apples that were there a couple of months ago. Maybe as the tree is in its first year it has put all of its energy into fewer fruit and shed the others.

The leeks, garlic and red onions are growing well and the Hinnonmaki red gooseberry bush has some deliciously sweet fruit on it.
But the slugs are making a meal from the climbing French beans and the plums are in a sorry state - see above photo!

The plums seemed fine until a couple of weeks ago when we had a huge hailstorm.
  Hail the size of small marbles came raining down with the force of bullets, so rightly or wrongly I am blaming the damage on the storm.





Meanwhile back at home, I made a chocolate raspberry cake; a single layer of all-in-one chocolate sponge with extra chocolate chips and a handful of raspberries dotted on the top before baking.
It turned out surprisingly well -a cross between a sponge and a brownie and made a nice pudding with extra raspberries on the side.


p.s you will have noticed that I have been tweaking my blog design and layout. I hope you like the new look.






Comments

  1. I love your blog design with the new picture layout. I don't know how to do this, but it looks really fresh. We have lots of redcurrants and gooseberries at the moment. I need to make some raspberry and redcurrant jam.

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    1. Thank you Fiona. The photo collages are done on a seperate website called picmonkey.

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  2. We have just had our first harvest of broad beans, a real treat.

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    1. Hello and thank you for dropping by. There is such satisfaction in eating food that you have grown yourself isn't there!

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  3. I've never seen more perfect potatoes!

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    1. Thank you! We grew them in big blue bins and escaped the dreaded scab this year.

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  4. We too ate our first Charlotte- surely my favourite potato! - this week. Delicious, though I must admit to never quite getting them not to burst open when I boil them -any tips gratefully received. And I also had problems with slugs and French beans. I gave up in the end and re-sowed in the middle of the plot as the slug and snail damage always seems worse near the edges of the plot by the paths - too many spaces to hide in and come out at night.

    Inspired chocolate/ raspberry combo cake there!

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    1. I think you might be right there. The beans are planted on the edge of the plot and seemed to do much better last year when they were more in the middle. Ah well, live and learn as they say!

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  5. Picmonkey's great, isn't it? I spend way too long playing on there though...
    That chocolate cake looks good. A fudgy texture is the best - sounds pretty perfect to me!
    Our gooseberries were rubbish again this year. So I bought some at the market and found some more growing out of a wall and baked a cake (Nigel Slater's Gooseberry Crumble cake). It was absolutely delicious. I'd recommend it to anyone. Especially with cream.
    Enjoy the lottie - and the collage-making!
    S x

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