First potatoes, supercabbage, jam

While watching Gardener's World, a weekly tv show, the presenter remarked how he traditionally digs up his first potatoes on July 8th. Partner and I looked at each other. He got out the hand spade and bucket. And then he dug me some fresh potatoes. And we now eat our own garden potatoes, and they are definitely big enough for eating. Partner makes the most excellent chips (AKA French fries) from them.

Speaking of big enough, I also grew a cabbage which Partner claims is heavier than Franklin. I wish I'd had photographic evidence, but Partner harvested it and we ate some of it before I got the camera out. However, it was still enormous (and in the fridge) so I thought I'd still take a photo of it--and then my batteries died so I had to recharge them. And we ate some more of it. As it's still really big, when my batteries are recharged, I may get a photo of the remainder*.

*I say remainder, but I think we'll be eating this cabbage for at least another week--maybe two; we've hardly made a dent in it.

After picking almost 5kg of strawberries from a pick-your-own farm, I proceeded to make fabulous jam. We, that is, Partner, Franklin, and I will be returning this Sunday to pick a similar amount; jam is our Christmas present of choice to local family members this year (sorry, international family!). Plus we need plenty for personal consumption. Please see previous paragraph about photographic evidence. When and if, I will post a photo of all twelve jars of jam (there were 13, but that one has also since been eaten). When we brought our two plastic shopping bags full of strawberries to be weighed at the stand, the cashier's eyes nearly popped out. I guess not a lot of people pick for jam-making there.

Pictured is my current kitchen table bouquet: lilies, roses, hydrangea, crocosmia, and laurel.