Monday 10 September 2018

One day one photo - 10: Harvest festival

Actually no harvest festival has taken place. Maybe I should have one. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and the school used to do one around this time of the year.

We always had to take something in to school that could then be donated to less fortunate folks (this was in pre-food bank days).

My mum would generally give me a tin of baked beans or tomato soup to take in, and I would feel a bit embarrassed that we we weren't taking something that had come from a farm, like the word "harvest" implied. If only we had an allotment or vegetable patch back then.

So this is the latest release from my allotment. Everything there came from packs of seeds that cost around £2. Actually, I confess that the tomatoes came from my neighbour's allotment.

Apparently this has been a good year for tomatoes and people just can't give away enough. So he's been dishing them out to everyone who comes by.

I have had a great supply of courgettes though - green ones, yellow ones, and ones the same colour as marrows. The corn has been good too, though in these busy times I ended up picking them a bit late so they were a bit dry to eat.

As for pumpkins - I am just glad to know I have got something in time for Halloween. The last time I grew pumpkins was a couple of years ago, and I planted them so late in the season that they weren't ready until late November!

For someone who could never even manage to keep a cactus alive, I don't think I do too badly now. This year was quite challenging in the excessive heat, and I had to get down to my plot two, sometimes three times a day to water everything, and going away even for a weekend was out of the question. I was morphing into a farmer!

But it's paying off now, and I can also look forward to chicory (endives), fennel, and nasturtium, which conveniently need less attention than some of the other crops.

Furthermore, the secretary of the allotment society will be happy to see that I am making an effort. So hopefully I won't be on his list of people to get a warning letter! This good life isn't so bad!

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