After all the hard work of the last few months today is the big day when I'll finally know whether my root crops are any good. You always have half an idea judging from the health of the foliage or the diameter of the shoulders at the top but until you actually pull the first one from it's bore hole you never really know for sure. It could be forked halfway down, or full of holes caused by carrot root fly or it might not carry its weight evenly all the way down.
However, I suspect things will be ok and it's just a case of finding 3 specimens that are well matched. In that case it's just a matter of how many I have to pull as I want to leave plenty of specimens for later shows. I'll be pulling about a dozen long carrots for the three shows over the weekend, 7 or 8 parsnips and a similar amount of stump rooted carrots. I'll probably have an audience as my new neighbours want to watch them come out of the drums......they cannot believe carrots could possibly be that long.
Last night I tied the tops of my onions and shallots with raffia and sorted them into sets. It's amazing how much better they seem to look after they've been tied. My onions are certainly the best I've ever grown.......not huge but an even, well matched set.
Also tonight I'll be lifting 4 leeks and 3 celery. The leeks need the roots washing, any split skins removing and the foliage tying. The celery will need the roots trimming to the
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