The cold weather starts to bite

[@markshaw5835]

Lovely harvest again, the weather playing havoc with the veg this year

[@myrustygarden]

Well the weather may bite but those harvests are simply amazing Steve 👍, have a super day, Ali 🥵🌞🫠🇨🇦

[@SteveRichards]

Won’t be long now before the main crops arrive

[@brimelowfarmbychon3329]

lovely

[@GARDENER42]

My French beans haven't even produced anything yet...🙁 Thankfully broad beans produced 45kg/11.2kg podded to fill the gap (leeks went in the same bed yesterday). I've about finished my first early potatoes (Swift) & picked a few charlotte from under the grass clippings mulch in their tubs last night. MUCH better taste & texture, so much so, I might abandon first earlies next year & just accept a smaller harvest from earlier planted charlotte. Heck, I can keep charlotte in their 30l tubs all the way from July to January in the garage & freeze enough mashed to see me through to April...

[@SteveRichards]

I keep charlottes in the tubs until early April myself and by then I have new Swift ready, but we prefer Charlotte too. This year I planted a batch of Charlotte in June, I'm hoping they store in their pots until the end of April. Picked the last of my broad beans and field beans yesterday, in the fridge now and they will last until the next succession of French and runner beans arrive. I don't freeze broad beans, we used to, but every year we found that they just sat in the freezer : All the best - Steve

[@AliW-xu4lv]

Another nice harvest, Steve. How often do you hatvest your stawberries and raspberries? Im finding every 2 days is ideal, but sometimes have to stretch to 3 days. Its hard to keep up with, but my freezer is filling up nicely. I suppose it depends on weather conditions too. They're slower at the minute because of the cold and dull weather. Also, I saw a video the other day about getting berries to last, fresh for 2-3 weeks. The woman in the vidoe washed them in 5% white vinegar, dried them on a towel for 2 hours and then put them in a mason jar in the fridge. I'll send a link. Im going to give it a go when the berries slow down. All the best - Alison

[@SteveRichards]

Most of them get eaten straight off the plants Alison, but the rest are usually harvested every day and frozen, but as you say it depends on the weather. If it's raining they don't get picked. Sometimes I don't go to the allotment so then I'm only picking from the garden. We are picking the black currants tonight, the freezer is almost full now, but we will still be freezing peppers later in the year : All the best - Steve

[@AliW-xu4lv]

@@SteveRichards I need to start harvesting every day then. I do harvest berries to eat fresh every day but need to make time for a full harvest. I suppose it'll be smaller harvests daily, than one massive one every couple of days, so might actually be easier. Thanks!

[@SteveRichards]

@AliW-xu4lv for us it’s more that we only have space for a couple of trays In The freezer each day

[@keithomelvena2354]

Hi Steve. Newcomer to your channel. I'm curious what your salad bowls are for? Do you supply commercially? I watch a few UK KZbinrs, seems everyone is having quite a difficult season? Hope that's not going to translate to a difficult coming season down here in NZ.🙂

[@wendycullingworth3879]

@@keithomelvena2354 what part of NZ Keith? We had quite the drought this summer in Tasman

[@SteveRichards]

Hi Keith, the salads are just for my family, I have a box a day, my wife has 2-3 a week, my daughters family had 4 a week and we give two away to friends. We are having a few issues but it’s not too bad, melons are struggling for example : all the best - Steve

[@keithomelvena2354]

@@wendycullingworth3879 Hi Wendy. We are in South Canterbury, about 20km west of Timaru. Yep, she's been pretty dry. From xmas through to end of May there was very little rain. Great growing conditions if you could get water on the garden though. Right now it's about as good as winter gets. Frosty nights down to about -1C and +12C during the day. Haven't seen a clould for a week. 🙂

[@wendycullingworth3879]

Oh....I've never seen that variety of peppers before, could anyone enlighten me please.

[@SteveRichards]

Lemon Dream from Moles seeds

[@wendycullingworth3879]

@@SteveRichards I'll research it - never come across it before. Brilliant channel Steve - packed with info. I hope you get some better weather soon.

[@AlbertaTellefsen]

How do you treat blossom end rot steve

[@SteveRichards]

I depends really, in the case of the peppers it's just a few of the first fruits, I'm not sure what causes it in this case, maybe the fast growing plants don't give the fruits quite enough calcium, but it only affects that first fruit, so we just ignore it. Generally it's down to inconsistent watering, or an imbalance between calcium and magnesium uptake, but I don't need to treat it : All the best - Steve

[@AlbertaTellefsen]

Thank you Steve take care.