Veg Plotting

We're back from a tour of the middle Rhine area, having travelled there by train and then making a base for ourselves at Boppard, just south of Koblenz. We had a lovely time exploring the beauty of the area, thanks to the local tourist tax of 1.50 Euros per night giving us the freedom of local buses and trains, plus free entry to the informative local museum. On our final day we headed upstream to the small town of Bacharach, a former capital of the region and full of old timber framed houses like those you can see in the above photo. It was also festival time, with the streets bedecked with colourful flags and other decorations, the central one giving a clue to us being in the heart of the wine making area, with vineyards stretching impossibly steeply up the valleys either side of the river. No wonder wine production continues to be mainly by hand in this area. We could see the first hints of autumn* along the river valley, though daytime temperatures and sunlight were distinctly ...

How's your veg growing this year? Here at VP Gardens , it's one of the strangest of seasons, particularly where the cucurbit family are concerned. I have no squash forming at all, and my cucumbers refuse to grow beyond an inch in size. Courgettes, on the other hand, are pumping themselves out like there's no tomorrow. How come one from the same family is prolific and the others aren't, despite all of them grown on my sunny patio? It's a mystery to me. It means I've added another quick and easy seasonal recipe to my courgette glutbuster repertoire: courgette tzatziki. It's perfect for a summer lunch when the usual cucumber glut hasn't materialised. Serve with plenty of warm or toasted wholemeal pitta bread, and this recipe serves two generously. Ingredients 1 medium courgette, grated Grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon + 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped + enough extra reserved for garnish - use what you have to hand which is more 'traditional...

There's been a phenomenal fruit set on my apple tree - a combination of early warmth at the right time for pollinators followed by plenty of rain means June drop hasn't really happened here this year. I thinned these recently alongside dozens more and removed a couple of others with brown rot (see next photo). I think there might be more of that to come this year, so I'll be keeping an eye out and keep my fingers crossed it doesn't take a more determined hold.  As you can see from the photo below I picked lots of fruit of a good weight and I pondered over  on Insta whether I could make an early batch of apple jelly from thinned or June drop apples when they're of such a reasonable size. My garden books and internet search gave me conflicting advice: on the one hand 'it's OK', and on the other 'oooh you shouldn't do that as there's a  risk of illness from a fungus which isn't destroyed by cooking.' Hmmm. I'm so glad I posed that...