Some rich pickings...

For all the disheartening moments... the 'what's happened to those leaves?', 'what's been picking at that?' or 'why is it turning that colour?'... every so often there are some victories that make it all worthwhile...

Exhibit one - my two pea plants in the garden came up trumps!:

OK, it's only a handful - but what a tasty handful!

Well pleased with that result - not a bad haul from just the two plants. If I get a return like that from the new plot I will be very happy indeed.

I put some of the success down to the fact that I put a bed of mashed up nettles underneath the pea shoots as I transplanted them into a bigger pot, and that seems to have given them the boost they needed - they were the strongest looking pea plants that I've grown.

Exhibit two: After a hard day's work in the garden the other day, I thought it was only right to reward my efforts with my prize strawberry (this photo is not edited!):

Delicious!

Strawberry yields forever...?

Strawberries are great!

It's the season for them right about now, and of course Wimbledon has just come on the telly, so sales will be going through the roof.

If you have never tasted a home-grown strawberry, you are missing out. They're one of the first things that I started to grow, they're relatively easy and pretty hardy... I left my plants out over a harsh winter, and they have just got on with it.

The strawberries about a week ago

I have to thank my mother-in-law Anne for repotting them earlier this year... she saw the potential in some pretty grotty looking plants - and sure enough, they've produced another reasonable bounty.

My variety is Honeoye - I started with one plant, but at the end of the first year it sent out a whole load of shoots and I was able to split them into a number of pots.

I got a couple of decent strawbs in the first year.

The second year was a different story - I couldn't work out whether the pests were pigeons or mice, but before I could get my mitts on the juicy red gold they were systematically picked at and eaten...!

So, as soon as I saw them growing and beginning to ripen this year, I got them undercover and protected in my mini-greenhouse.

 I just picked the first one earlier this evening...

The colour is so vibrant, and eaten straight from the plant is about as tasty as you can get.

Once picked, they lose their flavour over time, and by the time you get them in the supermarket they will have been in refrigerated conditions for up to a couple of days, losing even more flavour.

Deliciously juicy, and with a sharp tang, there's a world of difference between these and the supermarket ones.

Just waiting for the rest to ripen up now...!