June! What a wonderful month. I am getting up really early, sometimes I am in the Patch by about 5 am. I feel full of energy and somehow move with the rhythms of the countryside around me, sensing that all must be grown NOW! Everything is coming up out of the earth and flourishing. It has to be the most beautiful month....baby veg plants everywhere. There is a lot of transplanting to be done now and peas, broad beans and the first early potatoes are nearly ready for harvest. We have had the first thinnings of the carrots, smothering them with butter. They were so sweet.
I can hardly bear not to eat the asparagus shoots which are poking up out of the earth! Each of the ten Glinjim plants have starting sending up fat little shoots. There can be no cutting them this year though, we have to let the goodness go back into the roots and wait until next year when we can just take a few shoots. Difficult to resist...June is the time for asparagus and I am looking forward to getting six weeks of cutting eventually and piling up a huge dish full with hollandaise, or just melted butter or shavings of parmesan!
It is only a few days now before I can pick the first of the eight zucchini plants that I have planted...I can already see the tiny little fruit forming and the buds which will become gorgeous yellow trumpets to pick and fry in a light batter. I have green Defenders, golden soleil, patti pan, yellow scallop, Griselle and de Nizzi round ones. I don't think you can have too many - there are so many things that you can do with them.
The tomatoes are doing well and in their big pots on the terrace. I have eight tamina plants and loads of tumbling toms and for the first time I have sown three cucumbers and now they are enjoying their big pots too. They are outdoor ones and I am hoping they will live up to their reputation for being sweet and juicy!
