Summer vegetable harvesting
I wouldn’t say I am burdened with crops right now. I think I am picking lettuce only just one day ahead of the plants bolting in the heat.
And believe me it’s the only thing bolting about in this weather. It’s a languid wade more than anything. Over 35C every day.
I’m full of zip around 8am, and then start to fade around 10am. You see me ooze outside with much more vigour around 6pm. So that leaves me with a lot of non-garden time in between.
Luckily I have visiting Australian cousins to keep me wonderfully entertained.
But back to the veg patch. You can see these lovely red lettuce reaching skyward and making the leaves bitter as they go. 
I did however pick my first courgette / zucchini today. That went well in a salad. And my first handful of French beans. I will need to be picking every few days to ensure I don’t let them grow too big. I love these little beans quite titchy.
And I have left my trowell up at the top vegetable bed. It’s the start of the potato harvest. I find if I dig up about three or four plants, that’s plenty for the four of us around the table each night.
They are too tasty to mess about. Just boiled and then served with a slick of olive oil and a handful of chopped mint.
These are the Charlottes. The stalwart of the rather parched French vegetable garden.
But I have recklessly planted Pink Fir Apple, a firm family favourite which my husband’s family love. They live in Northumberland in the far north of England where rain actually features in their lives.
Why try them here? Because last year it rained and rained and I ate strawberries all summer and wishedI had planted these mild climate spuds.
So, typical; I buy them for this season and it doesn’t rain for a month and we are having a heatwave. I must confess that the hose is being hauled way up to the top of the garden and the potatoes are getting a drenching.
It takes ages. But at least I am giving them a fighting chance. Nothing more. I don’t dare dig them up until I’ve worked my way through the Charlottes.