Harvesting sunshine, sharing the bounty

The plot of rich soil that we nurture in the Thames Valley supplies us with a cornucopia of vegetables, fruit and flowers over the three growing seasons of our year. Spring sees harvests of leafy greens, tender leeks, rude pink rhubarb, fat petalled rannunculas and velvety tulips. Early summer brings luscious blousy peonies, sweet baby carrots, Italian agretti and tart lemony purslane. The dog days of summer give us vines laden with tomtoes, juicy onions and we busy ourselves preserving the bounty for the dark January days surrounded by vibrant armfuls of Dahlias, Glaidolis and Sunflowers. Early autumn sees a slowing of pace and daylength with pumpkins and squash sweetening in the low sun, Chillis to dry, borlotti beans and maincrop spuds to harvest for winter roasts, robust, ferrous kales and the last of the nastursiums glowing in the still warm polytunnles.