Harvest is in full swing

After despairing of the cucumbers earlier in the season - kerpow, they have gone off like a rocket! The Armenian ones were a complete failure, but the apple cucumber vine is threatening to take over the garden, and we've had a few Lebanese cues as well.

Here's the latest harvest tally - I don't bother to weigh leafy greens, herbs or spring and salad onions....

I'm feeling quite pleased with that, as you can imagine. The beans are particularly satisfying as for several years I haven't had much luck with them. However, this morning I picked 1.5 kg of the scarlet runners, and then prepared them for freezing using my nifty new runner bean slicer. After blanching they are now on trays in the freezer, and I'll transfer them to bags once just frozen. Then I sliced up a few kilos of the lovely local red sensation pears, which are now in the dehydrator.

I also put the finishing touches on the 1.5kg of apple cucumbers I prepared for pickling last night (by cutting into "fingers" and covering with salt) - I used a vinegar combination of 50% apple cider and 50% white (cause I ran out of ACV!!) with 3 teaspoons of brown sugar and 4 mini chillis (also home grown). I boiled the vinegar for 6 minutes, then let sit to go cold. I packed the rinsed and dried cucumber pieces into cold sterilised jars, covered with the cold vinegar, removed the air bubbles and sealed. Hope they taste nice!

All that before 10am  - I call that a very productive morning.