Not literally but I am stunned how, in a Greek absence of less than three weeks everything has grown so fast. Naturally it is the weeds that have grown most rapidly and I sense some hard days ahead for myself and Joshua on that front.
But the garden is also bountiful. Joshua and I picked a half basket of plums and there are still further crops ripening on the trees. The apple harvest will be enormous both in the new orchard at the top of our fields but especially in the old one by the river. The new early cropping trees planted to make a colonnade along the river bank will be ready for their first harvest within three weeks.
The domesticated blackberry bushes and golden raspberries are dripping with fruit and the cooking apples are starting to drop so there is talk of a blackberry and apple crumble which, of course, I shall make but cannot eat as I watch my blood sugars like a hawk.
IN the vegetable patch, courgettes, marrows and squashes are ready to be picked as is the first beetroot crop, carrots and peas. Lunch today is eight ball squash, beetroot and radishes all picked by myself and Joshua who says he likes picking, he wants to do more gardening. The shallots and garlic need harvesting and I see chillies and peppers starting to grow. Triumph of all triumph, my tomato plants are coming good with decent sized red and orange fruit. The lavendar hedge created along the side of the garden overlooking the small road down to our house is ready for harvesting to make cordial and ice cream. My freezer is already bursting with ice cream and flash frozen strawberries and plums.
With the first potatoes ready to harvest and my later crop already up and needing hilling, meals can be largely home grown for the next few weeks Tough luck Tesco.