I was surprised and a little confused yesterday when my tame hen pheasant turned up with 6 tiny chicks. It is surely too soon for her to have gone off and hatched and incubated a new clutch of eggs since losing the first lot? I am now thinking that the 12 chicks I saw a few weeks ago were the offspring of a different hen that I mistook for her. Yesterday’s encounter was definitely with my special girl because she brought them right up to me, and the babies were happy to be in very close proximity to me, which is how I managed to get the photograph above. Once again the story does not end well, because this afternoon she appeared under the bird feeder alone. So unless she has a child minder the chicks have not survived. I will be keeping an eye out and would love to bring you positive news next week, but I fear the worst.
Today I was setting out Butternut squash plants, and my planting regime consisted of digging a hole, filling it with homemade compost, back filling it with topsoil and planting the squash into the resulting mound of soil. To do this I filled my wheelbarrow from one of my finished compost heaps. It’s funny what you find in a compost heap! First of all I came across a long lost pocket knife. I always use Opinel knives, and have several of them with various blade lengths, and from time to time one goes missing, this being one of them. The stainless steel blade was gleaming as if it was lost yesterday, but the wooden handle has seen better days. However, it is perfectly usable and the blade folded without any stiffness, so that was a good result. A couple of shovels full of compost later and I unearthed something equally exciting, a cluster of Grass snake eggs. It is not unusual for snakes to nest in compost heaps, as they provide a warm environment in which to hatch their young – these were probably last year’s brood. I haven’t seen any snakes this year, but have seen them close to this spot previously – including young ones.
The long lost knife
Snake eggs
There was a moment last week when I asked myself whether it was really worth it? It was when I was cutting lettuces for the veg boxes. It was so very disheartening to discard so many heads due to catastrophic slug/snail damage. I ended up having to cut more than twice the number of heads that I needed for the orders, which has now left me really short for this week. It was the same story when it came to harvesting the greens, and the latest batch of courgette plants have mostly been destroyed by the slimy little so and so’s, I am wondering if anything is going to survive their onslaught this growing season.
It’s not all bad news, because the first broad beans should be ready to pick in a week or two, and a few courgettes will be cut next week. The Florence fennel is looking pretty good at the moment and will bulk up in the next couple of weeks. I did a test dig of early potatoes today, and will be having the handful that I gleaned from the root I lifted for my dinner tonight. In the greenhouse and polytunnel everything is coming on nicely, including cucumbers after a very slow start. If I were to start all over again I would definitely opt for more tunnels, because the chance of ending up with good quality saleable produce is much greater than dealing with the myriad of pests and the vagaries of the weather when growing outside.
There is not much change to what’s available in the shop this week, but broccoli (calabrese) does make a return. Prices remain high for bought in items, and the choice is still very limited. The oranges are likely to be very large this week, so the price has been hiked to reflect that. The European citrus season is coming to its conclusion, and you will find that the fruit doesn’t keep as well as it did, so it might be an idea to keep it chilled until you plan to consume it. Last week I labelled the potatoes incorrectly. I had them down as Twinner when they are in fact Twister – a relatively recently introduced organic variety that is particularly resistant to blight. it is a good multi purpose spud.
On Thursday when I was weighing items for the orders I was listening to Radio 4, and resolved to follow Michael Mosley’s advice to eat more slowly as ‘just one thing’ to do to improve one’s health. Only a few hours later on the news it was reported that he had gone missing while on holiday on a Greek island. Today came confirmation that his body had been discovered. What a terribly sad thing.
I am going away for a week at the end of this month, leaving for Cornwall on Saturday 29th June for 7 days. I will miss 2 Saturdays at Wyken, so there will be no order collections on the 29th June or on the 6th of July. Deliveries will be as normal on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th, but clearly nothing in the following week. I will remind you closer to the time so that confusion is avoided.
I hope that the weather bucks up for my hols, otherwise the budgie smugglers will stay in my suitcase. It’s looking pretty unsettled for the foreseeable future, and not very warm either. Is this summer going to be a damp squib or will the jet stream sort itself out and surprise us all? I think that it’s safe to say that there will not be a hosepipe ban this year.
Have a good week
Phil