No - not the unlimited number of public sector strikes across Europe, but weather and seasons! Autumn is here and the first frosts have struck. The wayward Sucrette pumpkin plant that decided in the middle of September that it actually quite liked the soil it was planted in and started to try to colonise the whole of the border is now shrivelled and black. The big Vif d'Etampes feral pumpkin plant has had all its extremities nipped back, though the old leaves around the vast fruit are still OK. We hope there is enough left in the root stock to ripen this mammoth of the potager.
Tonight I will have to pick the last (5) aubergines, the last (6) green peppers and the final courgette for a final blow out of roasted home grown vegetables before the parsnips come right in another month or so.
We fear this period of frost will have also put paid to the wild mushrooms - not that we have found many this year. Talking to a friend who's husband can normally bring back a couple of kilos when he goes out foraging, she said he had been out for a whole morning and came back with one slightly chewed bolet.
This year I think we will have to be content with the nut harvest!
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