17th September

This year we have been hit with the white butterfly again, and they love brassicas, the long hot dry summer has has been great for them, so last week I had a wee walk through the crops to see what they have loved the best for eating this year.
The Brussel sprouts seem to have come of pretty good and the Brussels are looking healthy, in amongst the kale the red kale is standing over four feet in hight and looking fantastic, the Green kale is around three feet in hight and they have come of OK under some of the leaves there are butterfly eggs so we need to check them when we cut them but the black kale has taken a serious hit and they have had a feast in there.
Most of the Cabbages have been under the nett to protect against the pigeons and that helps a wee bit but they have got in there to but not to much damage as yet, we just have to check them when we cut them.
The Leeks, Onions, Red cabbage, courgette and squash don't get eaten by anything, but the Squash, courgette and Pumpkins don't like the cold or wind.
In the Squash part of the field we have finished the Uchi Kuri squash, we still have Bon Bon, Spaghetti and Masque de Provence. The Masque de Provence is a new one this year and is seemingly very good for soup but they are massive so we aren't sure what to do with them yet and there are hundreds of them.
The Pumpkins this year are looking great and already Orange, and we are thinking about putting them out from the first week of October, the reason for this is that again last year we harvested them in the first week of October and stored them in the tunnels on pallets but again they rotted, but I had taken some home and I stored one in a garden shed, one in our garage and one in a cupboard in the kitchen and they all stored for over a month and were still perfect before we used them.
So our thoughts are when we harvest them in two weeks, we will sent them out, and that way you should all get a nice organic pumpkin this year for Halloween.
And last thing sorry you have the same recipe as last week, we were at Glentress today Sunday 16th Erin and Calum had another mountain bike race there today, and it was late when we got back and now that I have done the newsletter I really can't think about a recipe.