What a lovely pair you have, Matron!

I was strolling round the fruit orchard at the RHS garden at Wisley today. This is one of my favourite places to be at this time of year. The fruits of nature laying all around me in the form of windfall apples and plums. There are thousands upon thousands of apple varieties in the world, but the supermarkets just prefer 2 or 3 that store well. Today I found apples the size of pineapples! As you can see here, I airbrushed in a couple of extra chins as well....

Here is one of my 'Jubilee' tomatoes which were sent to me from the USA earlier this year. I planted these seeds at the beginning of April, but I find it wonderful that they are ripening at the same time as the other beefsteak tomatoes which I planted under glass back in January! Nature has a way of finding a norm.

Crabapple Jelly

Yesterday, I couldn't resist any longer! A neighbour has the most wonderful crabapple tree in her front garden. Crabapple trees are useful for pollinating fruit trees as they have a long flowering period which covers a longer period than most apple trees. You will usually find a crabapple tree at the end of an orchard row.

Crabapple jelly is really easy to make. Wash and cut up the crabapples, then cover them with water, add the juice of a lemon and bring to the boil for about 30 minutes. Then put the apples and juice into a muslin or cheesecloth bag and leave to drip for several hours. Do not squeeze the bag or the jelly will end up cloudy. For each pint of juice you get, add one pound of sugar. Boil up the jelly until setting point is used. Put one spoonful of the jelly on a cold plate and leave in the fridge or freezer for 5 minutes. A finger pulled through this will tell you if the jam has set enough. When ready, seal into warm, sterilized jars. Enjoy!

More good stuff

This photo is living proof of my endeavours to encourage beneficial wildlife on my allotment. 2 years ago I laid some membrane down and covered it with a ton of wood chips. Not only was this a method of getting to my compost heap with more ease, it was my intention to encourage beetles and the like, who enjoy woodpiles and wood chips. You can just about see a brown substance on its legs and head. I am assuming that these are eggs being carried. I am also assuming that this is a stag beetle. It is about 2" long. Can anyone shed light on this please?

This photo is to illustrate how easy it is to make your own liquid feed. These are comfrey leaves. Scrunch up a bunch of comfrey leaves down the bottom of a bucket and put a brick on top.

Fill the bucket with water and then wait for about 2 or 3 weeks, I usually 'kick the bucket' every day or so to allow the methane gas to bubble up. You will be able to smell when it is ready! I must stress to blog readers that this feed is very strong and must be diluted about a cupful to every gallon. My dear friend recently poured neat liquid feed on his plants.... and phoned me up asking why they went brown and crispy! (so now you know, Stan!)

So here is my second crop of courgettes. My first plants are showing signs of slowing down production over the past few weeks after a splendid harvest this year. This courgette 'defender' has been put in a black plastic dustbin.

This picture is of my brassica enclosure, I have named it 'Guantanamo Bay'. I have also electrified the netting, put up machine gun towers at each corner, and dug in landmines all round. No critters are getting in here. Left row January King cabbage, centre row broccoli, right row protovoy cabbage.

I left one plant of my Vermont cranberry beans to go to seed. I shelled them yesterday. Can anyone with scientific knowledge please explain how 3 pods on the same plant as all the rest, produced red beans with white flecks, while the rest of the pods on the same plant have white beans with red flecks? I would love to know the scientific name for this phenomenon if anyone can help?