The garden is particularly out of control at the moment. I haven’t done any serious weeding for a few months now. There are also many spent crops to remove.

On Thursday, 4th April, I picked the pumpkins and beans. The night-time temperatures are cooling down rapidly; it is possible to get early frosts at this time of year and I wanted to get these inside before that happens.

I picked 6 Hopi grey winter pumpkins, 5 Austrian oil seed pumpkins and 3 giant zucchini – I guess they are really called marrows. The pumpkins have gone to a sunny room to finish ripening. The marrows will be stuffed and baked for dinner tonight. I will cut them in half lengthways, scoop out their insides and mix them into a lasagne meat sauce. This will be spooned back into the marrow shells and baked at 180°C for about 40 minutes. We’ll sprinkle these with grated cheese and eat them – they are delicious!!

I also picked all of the beans – scarlet runner and peans. Over the last couple of days I have podded these; podding was finished today with the help of eldest young adult. The podded beans have been put in the freezer; they will be used over winter in stews.

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