Posted on by Lesley

Experiments of the vegetable variety

This year has been full of experiments of the vegetable variety.

Tomatoes, red hot chillis, mild chillis, carrots, beetroot

It’s been the first year with the polycrub and growing in containers rather than beds. I started rather late in our short season, as the polycrub wasn’t built until the end of April. All of which meant that my expectations were set at a pretty low level for success.

And those expectations have largely been fulfilled ..

However, there have been a few pleasant surprises. Today I harvested my first cobs of sweetcorn. They’re small, it’s true, and there are only a few of them. But when I planted the corn seeds in May, followed by our largely sunless non-summer I really didn’t think that anything would come of them.

Sweetcorn – yay!

And yet here we are, eating sweetcorn from the croft with our supper. I’m a bit amazed that I’ve managed to produce something so seemingly exotic out of our cold, wet island.

I know that all growers are convinced that their produce is wonderful, but I’m a critical grower, honestly. Our tomatoes have been prolific but disappointing in taste this year and there are some plants, lovingly tended, that have not thrived or produced a harvest worthy of a repeat next year. However, this corn was absolutely delicious, an hour from plant to plate. Sweet and very succulent.

I stand in awe of the tolerance that some plants have for less than ideal environments. It gives me great hope for next years food production which will be in deep beds, fertilised with our own seaweed and croft compost.

A world apart in terms of taste!

Fifty seven degrees north. Who would have guessed!

16 Replies to “Experiments of the vegetable variety”

  1. Well done with your sweetcorn – I have never managed to grow it properly here – always some nice kernals and quite a lot of gaps. I am just picking the first ripe tomatoes – a hungarian variety with aname I never remember and can’t ponounce if I did. I ws given a couple of plants several years ago and have saved seed ever since because I like the taste and it does well for me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Thank you. I have just bought a small propagator going cheap because this is not when most people buy them, so next year I can maybe get some earlier stuff.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Excellent. I’m going to try some propagators next season to get my chillies kicked off early, I think. Hope yours works well 👍

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I tried some red kuri squash and some hardy French squash, but our summer has been so bad that the lack of sun combined with too much humidity in the tunnel meant that they got end-rot and the stems developed a horrible grey fungus. Sad, as I love squash ❤️

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Nothing beats homegrown sweetcorn. Maybe a really exceptional flavoured tomato is in your future. I am fond of Black Russians for over Wintering here, as they are somewhat cold tolerant, maybe they will cope with your Summers better?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment