Great balls of mycelium! If only Jerry Lee Lewis had thought of that lyric his career could have gone in a different direction. When I was out walking naughty Nellie this morning I thought to myself that this autumn wasn’t very mushroomy, but almost immediately I noticed some Shaggy Parasols growing in the leaf litter close to the wooded path we were on. Well I say they are Shaggy Parasol, which are edible, though 1 person in 25 can get a tummy upset from eating them, but when you read about them they can apparently be confused with some of the deadly amanitas, so I didn’t have them on my toast when I got back. Another half mile on and we arrived at the river, at a point where an old iron bridge crosses it. I stepped on to the bridge, which is at a very jaunty angle, and crouched to peer over its edge. I had spied a pair of swans 50 metres upstream and I wanted a good look at them. As soon as they spotted me they came scooting down the stream propelled by their great black paddle feet and circled immediately below me, perhaps thinking that I had something for them. Nellie kept her distance.
Leaving the swans behind us we took the path that goes at a right angle to the river and which passes a copse. Looking into the trees I spotted some white things littering the floor of the wood so I went to investigate; was it white plastic that has been dumped, chunks of polystyrene, or discarded fertiliser bags? None of the above. There were multiple groups of giant puffballs dotted through the trees. They were not all classically domed, some were much more irregular shaped, looking almost like parts of thawing snowmen. Most of them were too old to be harvested, which was a shame, because it is one of the few wild mushrooms that can be eaten confidently, because it is unlike any other. Anyway, it’s good to let them mature to spread their spores when the inside of the fungi becomes like a dusty sponge. So much for my non-mushroomy autumn.
I think that we probably all experienced the dramatic storm on Monday – thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening. At one point a clap of thunder and its flash of lightning were simultaneous, making the potting shed shake. The rain came down in torrents, but it was short lived because in total my rain guage only measured 8.4mm. This was the moody and spooky sky when I was on my way home, the cloud formation was one that I don’t remember seeing before – one that wouldn’t look out of place over the plains of Kansas or Oklahoma.
Since then the weather has warmed up to the point where this weekend was every bit as warm as one in mid summer. It’s a real treat, but you can’t help thinking that at some point soon we will brought back to earth with a bump, but until then let’s just enjoy it. It’s saving oil, electricity and logs, so I’m not complaining.
Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of the ideal soil conditions to sow Broad Beans. I prepared a bed and sowed 3 one hundred foot rows, which will hopefully provide a nice early crop in the late spring of next year. Earlier in the week I finished gathering in the rest of the winter squash – mostly butternuts, but also some Harlequin and Blue Kuri types. The yield this year was pretty good, and with proper curing the fruit should last for several months. The supports for the climbing beans have now been taken down and the bamboo canes have been bundled up and stored in the dry. In the coming week I will begin clearing tomato plants from the greenhouse and polytunnel, because the poor things are exhausted after a long growing season. There will be a few kilograms of stragglers that will ripen, but it is now a case of diminishing returns, and if I don’t pull them up very soon it will be too late to get any overwintering crops established.
I will be getting in some of the Isle of Wight mini plum tomatoes this week, so salad days can continue for a while yet, particularly as I will be cutting lettuce again. There will be pointed cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli (not mine), red cabbage, kale and chard. The aforementioned Butternut squash will make an appearance alongside Uchiki Kuri and Delicata. There is a good selection of potatoes, red and brown onions, swede, carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips and beetroot. There will be cooking and eating apples, Limes and Fino lemons.
Picking of the late apple varieties will commence tomorrow. I collected the first batch of juice from the farm on Tuesday – a paltry 160 bottles. I could do with a good volume of late fruit for pressing, otherwise stocks will diminish very quickly.
Have you had an invasion of Ladybirds this weekend? We have. There have been thousands of them, covering the outside walls, coming inside and forming large clusters wherever they can, and landing on you if you are bold enough to venture out of doors. Most years there is a moment like this when they take to the air and congregate in large numbers, but I don’t recall if it’s always around now. I suppose they are looking for somewhere safe and dry to hunker down for the winter.
Right, I think that will do for now. Hold off your chutney making for another week, I will add green tomatoes to the shop next week. Enjoy what remains of this bonus Indian Summer.
Phil