Big and small harvests

We returned from our short break on Friday evening and went out to the allotment to harvest some fresh veg for dinner and to see if our sweetcorn had survived the week. I'm pleased to say that they had. I don't know what had eaten my fellow plot holders corn but whatever it is it has so far not found mine. We picked four cobs and cooked them immediately upon returning to the house. I'm a huge fan of sweetcorn and eat it almost every day of the year but usually from a tin and heated in the microwave. I have to confess that part of its appeal is its ease of preparation! Steve in contrast rarely eats sweetcorn at any other time of the year but we both wait eagerly for this time of year when our cobs are ready. There really is no other way to experience what corn on the cob can taste like at its best than by growing it yourself and eating it within minutes of picking. Frozen, tinned or "fresh" from the shops just isn't the same. My husband summed it up tonight when he said, "this is the reason we have an allotment" as he munched on his cob. And another thing... you can't buy cobs in the shops that are 12 inches long.

Other plants survived our week away remarkably well. We had a punnet of ripe red tomatoes, a carrier bag of French beans and... you guessed it... a bag each of cucumber and courgette. No surprises there really. What was a surprise, and a delight, was my small crop of peanuts. It wouldn't amount to an airline pack of nuts but I grew them! And on the theme of nuts, after about seven years my hazelnut tree has finally borne about 30 nuts. Last year it only had 3 nuts and when we cracked them they were hollow. It is funny how sometimes you don't need more than a handful of something to consider it a successful harvest!