Hello all,
The end of August is very near & my runner beans are still flowering, still thick & leafy, but something has happened to them this week.
When the new beans form, they are not young & tender any more, but they make the seeds very quickly, as though they are in a panic to reproduce themselves for next season, which undoubtedly they are.
So, I thanked them very much for giving me such a great crop of Scarlet Emporor beans this year, and I am now leaving them to rest & recuperate and make the big fat runner bean pods that will give me next year's plants.
I estimate that we have picked over 150 kilos of beans this season, our family, friends & neighbours have been swamped by them, as have we. That said, they have been delicious & I have been able to swap them for some other French Veg from our kind neighbours. All of which means, that I haven't had to buy anything from the supermarket vegetable counter for the past three months.
Once the cold nights arrive in September, the leaves will brown & die off & I will harvest the big, fat, pods & dry out the runner bean seeds for next year.
The raspberries are now finished & I need to get out this afternoon & cut out the old wood, then tie in this years shoots to the strainer wires.
These will give us the crop of raspberries for next year & hopefully, loads of raspberry jam like I made this year.
The potato crop has been very good & I am half way through digging them up.
My next job after the raspberry canes will be to peg down the strawberry runners & pot them up for the Spring planting. Which means lots of delicious strawberry jam next summer. Ideal with some home made rice pudding!
So much to do before the onset of winter, but so satisfying.
Catch up with you all soon.
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