8th July The Truth About Self-Sufficiency

If we had to support ourselves on home produce, weight would be no more than an academic problem.

I was out picking strawberries, in total about 6. At one time there was about 60 a day, but these new plants, I don't know? Then there's the slugs, always hungry for something ripe, and lets not forget that mould stuff.

Blackcurrants? Isabelle claimed that the birds don't bother with them so they were left uncovered. Curiously the only remaining ones are just above the height that a hen can reach. Those "useless mouths" (if you'll allow me to quote Himmler for a moment); one hen is currently incubating what will no doubt turn out to be another couple of cockerels. So egg production is down at present. That doesn't stop them consuming 25 kgs of maize every couple of weeks along with an ever growing population of sparrows, but we like birds here.

Cherries? These have a habit of shrivelling up to the size of the stone inside before falling off, the surviving fruits are considered a great delicacy by the blackbird population.

Raspberries? Suffering from being moved in the great rearrangement of the garden but surprisingly unaffected by birds and with luck will probably yield a bumper crop sufficient for a pot of jam.

Pears? Normally turn out like bullets, maybe they're just a cooking pear?

Apples? Looking good apart from the sapling that the cat climbed up and broke off.

Blackberries? Practically inedible anyway, unaffected by birds.

Plums? Thousands of plums compared to about 4 last year, depends on frosts.

It's either a feast or a famine, but overall it's just famine permanently...