Autumn Harvesting

It was around four months ago that we first sowed the pepper seeds into seed trays. All of the work in pricking them out, transplanting them and caring for their needs has been a long journey. However being able to literally see the 'fruits' of our labour has been worth it. The first year we grew an amount of chilli peppers was 2008. Previously it had been only a small number and just one or two varieties. With so many varieties to choose from we chop and change each year. It is always fascinating to grow such a variety of colours, shapes, sizes and heat ratings. Our response from customers has also been great. We have been able to meet the needs of sweet peppers and mild chilli's through to screamingly hot ones.

 

By now we always have many varieties of sweet and chilli peppers in full swing and other later varieties which will soon be ready to harvest. In total we generally plant around 20 varieties must surely give us one of the best local ranges available. We are truly proud of what we have achieved with our peppers in previous years.

 

Our final batch of beans are growing which will (weather permitting) give us late beans to the end of the season. In the first photo we have late dwarf beans (or French beans / green beans / bobby beans). You can also see a big leaf which belongs to one of our many sunflowers and the smaller yellow flowers are marigolds. We have them planted to attract beneficial insects. We help them and in return they help us with pollination and eating bugs.

The second photo is of our late stick beans (or runner beans). Again you can see more of our sunflowers in this shot. On the left (although you can not really see very well) is some of our salad leaves growing.

 

 

 

As mentioned above we have planted Sunflowers and Marigolds to attract beneficial insects. We have also planted Lavender and Nasturtium in our quest to use companion planting. This in another advantage to being a small company. We could not get a reliable quote from our new found friends. I think its fair to say from the behavior of the insects, like the ladybirds and bees, that they are happy with our companion planting system.

 

 

Another one of our range of produce which is available late in the autumn season are pumpkins. We have a couple of varieties to give sensible sizes for cooking with and larger ones for Halloween.