Life is just a bowl of cherries

We've had a great year so far for fruit, loads of strawberries and the best crop ever from our cherry tree. The last couple of years we've had a few cherries which we've shared with the birds, usually an 80:20 split in their favour. This year we've netted it in time and the tree has performed brilliantly.

I was singing 'life is just a bowl of cherries' as I picked them. It's strange, I hadn't realised it was originally sung by Rudy Vallee in 1931. Honestly, that's way before my time. Goodness knows how that got into my head!

There are few things in life as sweet as a cherry from the tree and cherry jam is an absolute joy. The excess strawberries have been frozen to turn into my second favourite jam in a few weeks.

I did see a great tip on River Cottage for strawberries. They don't keep well in the fridge but Hugh cut them up and sprinkled with castor sugar which he reckons would give them a 3 or 4 day life. He added some fancy vinegar but I'm not so sure about that. I'm not very adventurous in the culinary department – if it wasn't for Val I'd probably live on egg and chips!

My redcurrants however have ended up as pigeon food. I looked at them reddening up and thought 'better net those before the birds have them'. Couple of days later, I realised it was too late. Not a currant to be seen.

My neighbour (I think plot 30) has a lovely crop of blackcurrants which he seems to be ignoring. It's really tempting to harvest them for him, but I shall resist. Some crimes are OK like bank robbing but pinching off an allotment is the lowest of the low.

If I see him I'll ask if he wants them and offer some jam. You can make an interesting Christmas liqueur by filling a jar or bottle with blackcurrants – very lightly crushed – and topping up with brandy or, I'm told, vodka but I'll offer some jam.

It rained a bit today but the greenhouse still needed watering so headed down late afternoon. Suddenly realised I'd a couple of cucumbers in the small greenhouse so they went into the swag bag along with some courgettes.

Watering

Despite the rain, the soil is very dry still. Well the hosepipe ban starts on Friday so it's still legal. Got the sprinkler going on plot 29 and gave the potatoes a good drink and then moved onto plot 5 where the sweetcorn, pumpkins and brassicas got a drink as well.

Using a sprinkler isn't the most efficient use of water but I control the spray so it goes where it's needed and very little is wasted. Ideally I'd use a soaker hose buried just under the surface.

Garlic Harvest

Next job was to harvest the garlic. It's always worrying. The foliage might look good but what's below? Something or nothing? Well four of them were 'nothing' – very small mouldy bulbs. The rest ranged from pretty good to fantastic.

Because I was way behind, I'd started them off in January in pots, planting out in mid-March. Better late than on-time. We've enough garlic to last a year from 4 bulbs. Of course, the weather has been on our side this year.

The shallots have done well so they'll be up next to sit on the drying frame. Some are bigger than onions but my onions haven't done so well, some are smaller than shallots.

I was going to say you can't win with everything, every year but maybe one year I will.