I've made an important discovery. It's nothing earthshaking, nothing that will change the direction of modern civilization, nothing that will land me a fat cheque and a bursary from Harvard... it's simply this; I can't keep up with this blog at the moment.

Anyone who's bothered reading back this far may have noticed this already.

It's my hope that I might pick it up again in the not too distant future, but since I lost access to the internet at work there are just too many claims on my time. Being a husband and father is of course right at the top of the list (and Witchypoo's been ill this year as I think I mentioned). Putting the infrastructure of the garden in place is at the top of the list too, and so is actually running and maintaining what I've done so far. Then there're some urgent repairs and.. well, you get the picture. Then there's the fact that I feel I'm in danger of burning out so there has to be a little "me" time (currently indulging my latest hobby, metal detecting). Oh, and it's just about time to restart the spiritual activity, so add meditating and study onto the list too... and there's starting a self-sufficiency group in the area, which would be nice. And I really must finish off my children's story so the illustrator Shelly can get started, and there's the commitment to write the book on polytunnels and self-sufficiency with Mark early next year... have I missed anything? Oh yes, I have to go to work and do the continuing education for that. There can't be anything else, can there?

Can there?

So, I'll update when I can to try to provide some continuity on the assumption that one day things have to calm down - either because I'm on top of things, or because I've had a heart attack and have to spend some time recuperating. Not funny, but I'm not in a funny mood.

What's happening in the garden at the moment? The tunnel has just had most of its autumn sowing done - I'm trying to work out exactly how late things can go in and still grow, so there's saladings and fast-crop carrots on top of winter salads (mizuna, pak choi, mooli, rocket, land cress and I forget what else). I'm also experimenting with autumn sown broad beans and peas to see how early they're ready next year, some caulis because you never know, and some potatoes for the Yule period. They've had to be maincrop, because no-one seems to be selling earlies right now. Wonder why?

The tunnel is still producing tomatoes by the bucketload, which we're turning into paste* and drying, cucumbers which we're processing into relish, peppers for freezing and chillis for drying (note to self - get both of those in early next year!) and saladings, but the caulis are all finished and the melons are very slow to ripen. They're nearly there though. Peas and beans are finished in the main garden of course, but turnips and swedes are coming on nicely even if the broccoli was a disaster. Never again will I grow brassicas without netting them! The onions and shallots were splendid and are straining the garage rafters in store, and the garlic was... well... OK. That bears further investigation I think, since I'm planting some next month to overwinter. Finally the pumpkin patch was a HUGE success, and one that I'll be building on next year I hope. One huge pumpkin - not a hundredweight size but plenty big enough to carve, and twenty-five other assorted pumps and squashes. We shall not starve this winter!

The root veg are bang on target, and the potatoes are fine but did underperform from lack of water in the raised beds, which drain too damned well for potatoes I think. I'm expanding the veg plot to grow them in conventional rows next year, as well as adding an asparagus bed and generally having a bit more space. Also in the pipeline is strawberry patch A, currently partially dug, and the stakes'n'wires for other soft fruits. These will include an extra set of wires I've shoehorned in to grow on an absultely savage blackberry bush that I found in Bridport, from cuttings. It has to be from cuttings, since I read that blackberries are naturally occurring hybrids, and don't breed true from seed. This particular plant yields well and has remarkably sweet berries, but it has a distressing desire to chase you up the garden and kill you so I'll need to be fairly firm with it! But with around twenty jars of the finest bramble jelly I've ever tasted to its credit, the Bridport Bumper deserves to be saved.

What else... oh yes, this winter's tasks. This week I has been mostly planning a worm bin, a very simple and cheap effort made from used tyres. All things being equal, I'm hoping to start that off within the fortnight. Then there's the backbone for the edible hedge (still to design, now that I know the desired heights and spreads) and the irrigation to order and dig in. Sigh... what am I going to do with the rest of my time?

Anyways, apologies for the lack of updates but you can see exactly why. Things should improve.

Some day.

* An update on that one. I made one batch of paste but the reported shortcut to eliminate the long simmer (six hours!) didn't work, and some enquiries of friends have confirmed it; making tomato paste is a long job and uses a lot of energy. In business the heat would be reclaimed using a heat exchanger or somesuch, but reluctantly I have to say this isn't something we can do at home right now. Instead I'll open freeze the tomatoes, and then bag them; they can be defrosted for cooking when needed (I'm told the skins are loosened by freezing but I'll need to check that) and enriched with a little bought tomato puree. When we get hold of a pressure canner we might well jar them instead of freezing, but that's an experiment for another time.