Plum halves

Our old Victoria Plum tree rarely fails and we have another good harvest this year. However, when we had a day of strong winds last week a sizeable limb snapped off. This won't have much impact on furture crops but does give the tree a lop-sided appearence. It will probably grow out of it in due course. 

It was time to start picking. Interestingly, I did not come across any wasps and hardly any plum had a wasp hole. This was a little surprising as, largely due to the warm Spring and Summer, it has been a bad year for wasps as many have noted. (From an alternative perspective, you could say it has actually been a good year for wasps). 

The greengages (so sweet) have done well too, so all-in-all a notable year for stone fruit. We will be dehydrating some of the plum crop and also storing some in the freezer. Frozen plums are fine for future crumbles or if there is an urge to make jam during the winter. Our favourite is plum and ginger jam. 

Plum halves ready for freezing

Aubergine

The greenhouse crops have done well this year, as they usually do. It is easier to manage the environment in the greenhouse, or polytunnel if you have one. Unlike the main vegetable plots that have suffered with drought conditions and successive heatwaves this year. Still, some crops have done well. The most recent to be ready for harvesting, sweetcorn of which we sampled the first today, looks laden with cobs. 

Back to the greenhouse. The highlight this year is aubergines. I've picked quite a few already and there are more to come. Planting them into the border rather than pots appears to consistently be the better method if you have the space.

We both like aubergines very much and are surprised how many people we come across who aren't too keen on them. They do have the drawback of not being very preservable for later use. But visitors partial to aubergine don't go home empty handed.