flaming June????

At the moment June is turning out to be very much like May. Cool with winds and heavy showers and not a great deal of sunshine. The soft fruits are ripening but only slowly and I’ve noticed a lot of wind-burn on the apple tree leaves. Whether this will have a detrimental effect on yields we’ll just have to wait and see.

gooseberries slowly ripening

I picked just under two pounds of goosegogs which I'll freeze as I really didn't fancy fruit pie or jam making today.

I’m still making small successional sowings so that we have a continuous supply of fresh produce. Today I’ve sowed more carrots, beetroot and lettuce and have planted out two cabbages to fill gaps left by stuff we’ve already harvested.

Several tomato plants have set fruit which is swelling nicely but the lack of sun is really unwelcome at this time of year.

Having sterilized some brewing equipment (plastic bucket and wooden spoon) I was determined to pick elderflowers this morning but it was chucking it down so I’ll wait till the sun comes out. I have the fizzy pop bottles ready and waiting to be filled with elderflower champagne then we’ll be sipping our home-brew as the sun sinks slowly in the west after a glorious summers day. (dream on....this is Cumbria. You’ll be sat outside in your plastic mac)

During the winter we get thousands of geese on the marshes and the local wildfowlers are allowed to take certain species. Interestingly it is illegal to sell a dead wild goose but we got a couple of dressed birds from a neighbour last winter and put them in the freezer. For today's main meal we had goose breast with home-grown new potatoes, baby carrots and cabbage. It doesn’t get much better than that.