Red Raspberry

I went out this early this evening to water a few things and this is what I found. A bright red raspberry, almost glowing in amongst the verdant green leaves of the canes. After calling the girls out (there will be a lot more competition for ripe raspberries as everyone likes them, as opposed to strawberries which Mrs Matt doesn't like - not even in Pimms!) and a lot of build up, the raspberry was not quite ripe so refused to budge! Patience is a virtue as they say.

This is our first raspberry to turn red

French bean harvest
After the local school fete Emily helped me go round the French bean plants and gather our first harvest. They're sneaky things and hide themselves very well in the stalks of the parent plant.

Emily (as a tiger) helped me harvest our first French Beans

Cucumber update
This is the latest picture of the most advanced cucumber - it's about 5 inches long. It seems to be quite wrinkly, as if it has all its skin and is slowly filling it up!

First cucumber is about 5 inches long now

Charlotte potatoes
After the somewhat disappointing showing of the Red Duke of Yorks I had a quick look at the Charlotte potatoes that are growing in the patch at the end of the garden. I thought the foliage was dying back a bit so decided to get the fork and have a snoop under the ground. What I found reassured me that all is well! I found a few good sized tubers and once I'd found some I could not resist digging both the plants up! We have cold roast chicken, fresh new potatoes and salad with our own lettuces. Excellent. We have more than twice the amount shown in the picture but Mrs Matt had started cooking them before I could get my camera out!

Some of the Charlottes from the potato patch