I had some lovely gifts for my birthday last week, but my customers are the gift that just keep giving. A few weeks ago I lost one of my precious Opinel pocket knives. I have one on me at all times – well virtually all times. I have knives of different blade lengths that I employ for different jobs in the garden and shed, but my favourite one (a Nº 6 as it happens) is almost always in my back pocket, so imagine my dismay when it went missing. I searched high and low for it, resorting to looking in the most ridiculous and unlikely places, and wasting a lot of time in the process, but all to no avail, it was gone. So I had to draft in a substitute, one that had previously gone AWOL but subsequently turned up when I emptied one of the finished compost bins. It wasn’t ideal, because a year plus in decomposing vegetation hadn’t done the beech wood handle any favours, so it didn’t sit comfortably in my hand because of its partial decay, but it was the right blade length for everyday use so I accepted its imperfections and got on with it.

The thing about Opinel knives is that the blades hold a very good edge, and with regular honing they stay pretty much razor sharp. My friend ‘Army John’ can vouch for that. John is a career soldier and has had tours in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan in extremely hostile environments. He has extensive experience of operating all sorts of weapons systems, and has even driven a tank. A couple of years ago he volunteered his services for a day, so I gave him the simple task of taking down the supports for the climbing beans. I issued him with a spanking new Opinel with which he was to sever the jute string holding the bamboo cane wigwams together. Within 2 minutes of starting work roughtie-toughtie Major John had cut himself twice! Like every bad workman he blamed his tool – it was apparently “too sharp”! 🙂

Anyway, I have digressed. A couple of weeks after losing my Nº 6 I was overjoyed to discover it in a returned veg box on the doorstep of one of my customers. They had found it sitting amongst their vegetables in the previous week’s order. For me it was the same feeling I would have if Lassie had gone missing and had returned home wagging her tail after weeks of absence. Not quite on the same scale as the loss of my constant companion Nº 6, something similar happened on my delivery round on Friday. On the end of their returned empty box a customer had clipped one of my ‘Zebra’ pens, my writing implement of choice, which, like the knife, had found its way into their order. Thank you dear customers for making an old man absurdly happy.

I had some lovely bird encounters last week. While I was up a ladder picking apples I experienced a magical 5 minutes. Reaching forward to pluck a Bramley from its fruiting spur I was delighted to see a Treecreeper less than a metre from me on the trunk of the tree that I was in. It must have known that I was there but it continued to search for insects up the stem of the tree before darting off to another. Just moments later, in the neighbouring tree appeared a beautiful Goldcrest, flitting from branch to branch in plain sight. What a treat. The following morning while at home, I opened the door to let Stanley the cat out, but he stood still on the threshold as we were both surprised by the calling and sight of a covey of Grey (English) Partridge either side of the picket fence that is the boundary between our garden and the arable field behind us. I assume that it was an adult bird calling from the edge of the field to its offspring that had obviously been grazing on the wrong side of the fence. Upon seeing me and Stanley they vocalised even more and darted through the pales of the fence to join their parent. I have seen and heard a solitary bird in the field before, but it was the first time I had seen a group of them. They are on the ‘red list’ having suffered a serious decline in numbers over the years, so this was a very encouraging sighting.

It looks fairly certain that we are going to get some significant rain overnight, which is quite good news for me, because on Thursday I sowed a cover crop (or green manure) of rye grass and vetch on one of the beds, and so a good natural watering will give it the start that it needs. This will cover the ground over the winter, with the rye grass holding on to nitrogen and the leguminous vetch creating nitrogen in the soil for future crops. It will be turned into the soil in the spring, adding organic matter to it. Also, a wet day will encourage me to clear some of the spent crops in the greenhouse and polytunnel, creating space for leafy greens to overwinter. I have been raising young plants of spinach, chard, spring greens, pak choi and land cress in the past few weeks, which will soon be ready to transplant.

This week there will be purple sprouting broccoli, pointed cabbage, cavolo nero, and Romanesco cauliflowers. The latter are not large, but they are things of great beauty and are very tasty. The sweetcorn are coming to an end, so this week’s cobs will mostly be smaller than they have been, and they may be getting a touch starchy, but the one I had last night was very good – tender and sweet. There is a limited number of heads of celery this week, not grown by me, but they are a nice addition to the shop. I obviously haven’t seen them yet, but imagine it will be one of the green stemmed varieties. I hope that they live up to my expectations. As well as Verdelli lemons there are now some Limes available, as the European citrus season kicks in. You may notice that a few items have modestly reduced in price this week as produce becomes more abundant.

Romanesco at the market yesterday

Right, that’s me done for this week. Have a good one, enjoy the rain, but I do hope that it will know when to stop – I’ve got lots more apples to pick!

Phil