We had a great time in France on holiday - the first week with Tina and Keith near Dinan and the second week on our own near Erquay on the coast.
I was a little apprehensive before we went to the allotment for the first time after our break. Stuart has watered some of the plants in our absence and nothing seems to have suffered through lack of water.
The sprouts had become infested with black fly so I had to pull all the plants out before the black fly spread further afield.
Some of the dwarf french beans had gone a little old but the runner beans look in their prime and we've already had a couple of meals involving them and they are really good.
Some of the courgettes are definitely marrows now but taste just as good for all that, and more recently sown broad beans are now providing a few small pods of tasty beans.
The beetroot is excellent - lots of pretty large beets - and the distinctive flavoured kohl rabi are ready though I'm not sure Linda will be partaking too much of them!
The main crop potatoes are also just ready to dig so we'll be able to continue with our third consecutive potato crop to keep us self-sufficient for at least another month - a big success!
We've also continued to get cucumbers both from the allotment and the greenhouse - which also has lots of tomatoes on the point of ripening, as well as many hot cayenne peppers which should start to turn red very soon.
All in all it's turning out to be a really successful first year on the allotment and we'll have learned a lot from our own experience and from the other allotmenteers which we can apply in future.
