12th August

The onions are getting bigger now with all this rain, this is now the third week that we have been harvesting them, and as we dress them in the field, our eyes are streaming, we were asked if they were old onions, they aren’t, at this time of the year we harvest them fresh, so they are only one day old when you get them, so they don’t look of feel like stored onions that are very dry and firm, we will eventually be harvesting loads of onions in advance, and storing them In the tunnel to dry of, but we will leave that till as late as possible, they taste much better being fresh.

Another crop we started to harvest this week is the beetroot, again they have been competing with the weeds this year, but they are also looking fantastic.

But one crop this year we have had a failure with, is the swede, and I don’t know why, they were direct sown the same day as the beetroot, and they never came, so I ordered another batch of swede and a different variety, sowed them again, and still no swede.

Swede are usually very easy to grow, so I’m baffled as to what has happened this year, especially since the beetroot is so good.

Inside the tunnels last week, we rotovated out the old Kohl rabi, and replanted mixed salad, and we had to rotovate out the fennel that we planted, this year it has all shot, this is probably due to the very high temperatures then some colder days then very warm again, which can put some plants under stress then they go to seed.