Last fruit out of the cold store

Walking today:    3.9km

One of the big challenges is harvesting produce through the summer and storing it for as long as possible. It's especially valuable to have something in store through the winter when our outdoor produce isn't so plentiful. 

Soft fruit (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, red, white and blackcurrants) is usually frozen, vegetables (potatoes, onions, shallots, squash and pumpkins) are stored dry and this year, for the first time, we had enough apples to store them cool in a fridge.

Our onions lasted five months until December, the last two shallots are about to be used, the Autumn Crown squash are lasting well and we still have several pumpkins left for roasting and soup. There are so many potatoes left (got a bit carried away with some two for one offers on seed potatoes last Spring) that they would last until September - except they'll start to sprout before then.

And these are the last 5 Braeburn apples out of cool store for cooking. The black spots, which are surface blemishes only and don't affect the taste or use of the fruit, are caused by calcium deficiency and we've top dressed the trees with bonemeal to hopefully address this for the coming year.

So, we've had fresh apples for six months now. Pretty pleased with that.