Strawberries, Strawberries, Strawberries

It's ages since I last wrote and things are really happening fast in the allotment. The warmer weather, plus the occasional rain shower has really brought on the fruit and veg. We have begun the harvest and eat our produce, and I have to say, there is very little to compare to the excitement of actually eating what you sowed as a tiny seed only a couple of months ago.

In the last two weeks we have picked 13lbs of strawberries and they are delicious - we have had strawberries as snacks, strawberries and cream, eton mess, and almost every other way of eating strawberries that you can imagine. Today I made strawberry jam in the microwave. I'm not quite sure about it - it seems mostly to taste of sugar, but it might improve by tomorrow. We have also had several helpings of spinach, masses of salad, turnips, radishes, courgettes, kohl rabbi, rhubarb, and today our first potatoes. WOW!
The turnips:
The courgettes:
and the kohl rabbi:This is last week's produce, and there was more this week!

What have we done - well, lots of watering when the rain doesn't oblige us; lots of weeding because the minute we leave it the weeds seem to take over; lots of netting to keep the wretched birds off the fruit and veg. This is me netting the cabbages and brussels sprouts - which have done really well since the birds have been kept away. You can see the improvement in the snap below: I have sown some more turnips, beetroot, radishes and parsnips. The recently sown rocket, salad bowl lettuce and tom thumb lettuce have germinated as have eldest son's row of 'surprise veg'. (They mostly seem to be radish, but here's hoping there's more to it than that!) Today we spent ages at the allotment today and transplanted the leeks into their final home - have prepared the soil nicely. We also planted the sweetcorn seedlings and the butternut squash.

Last week the tame photographer set to and created the most impressive system for keeping the shed door open. Left to its own devices, the door would swing shut, so we always had to hook or prop it open. Anyway, last week while I was busy weeding he made this fantastic device, with only a saw and a hammer!As you push the door open, it pushes up the bar and then fits neatly into the groove, thus holding it open.To shut the door you merely push up the bar and the door swings shut using gravity. It's, quite simply, magical. We need to creosote it so it doesn't rot away - maybe next week!

And finally, the shed got a much needed tidy.