It was finally time...
The squash were ready for harvesting - we seized a rare dry, sunny day - which we haven't seen for a while - to delve into the squash beds and pull our the beautiful fruits hiding there. From Crown Prince to Bananas, with pretty Harlequins to boot - they shone in the sunshine and just begged to be collected up, cleaned and stored - ready for our local businesses and village people to enjoy.
Equipped with the secateurs, Sal worked her way through and presented to Melv for cleaning.
They were plentiful and the different colours shapes and sizes were adorable, the silk grey of the Crown Prince
Compared to the speckled and stripy Harlequin - a size for all, whether feeding a fully booked Sheppey, or providing for village people living on their own.
Then there were those in between, like the unusual shaped Banana
or the monsters such as this - unidentifiable!!
However the colour of the Uchiki Kuri can't go by unmentioned.
However all special in their own right - hey looked stunning as Melv placed them in the warmth of the salad tunnel to cure the skin, before we find them in a cooler location to store for the autumn and winter.
A lovely couple of hours work and definitely one of the perks of the job.
That's without getting to the eating part!!
However in that light- the other big reward is seeing local businesses using our produce and to hear that the squash hit the Sheppey's menu immediately was very exciting. It is massively satisfying to think that our growing efforts are inspiring local chefs to be creative and to experiment with new and innovative recipes.
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