Gardener's Question Time

My quinoa is turning yellowy-brown, and may soon be ready for harvesting

Last Sunday was the Farmer's Market at my local village. It used to happen every month until it closed down last winter due to some dispute over who should pay for the heating. Some brave soul has decided to try to start it again and contacted me, and presumably all the other stallholders, to ask us to come along.

As it turns out, only three of us did. A look of surprised disappointment crossed the face of each expectant punter as they stepped inside the door of the hall. Instead of a room packed full of tables with tempting meats, cheeses, coffee beans, vegetables, cakes, breads, jewellery, knitwear, potted plants, and a variety of other artisan products, they found two stalls selling bread and cakes, and one selling veg (me!) We did our best to make them welcome but the mostly empty hall echoed with their footsteps as they made the short circuit around our three stalls.

My stall... but where was everyone else?

Of course I did quite well and sold nearly everything, seeing as there was no other veg stall and people came to spend money. But it doesn't bode well for next month as it's possible they won't bother coming back.

I rushed on from there to a Cream Tea Party in Machynlleth. It was to celebrate the formal opening of the “Show Allotment” by the town hall, the newest Edible Mach site in which veg is grown in public spaces around town. This one has about twelve beds bursting with all manner of edible vegetation (including some curly kale I donated in late spring), and even has a small shed just like a real allotment.

My veg in full bloom

After people had had their fill of scones and cream we sat down for a Gardener's Question time with a panel of four local gardening experts fielding questions from the floor (literally the floor in my case, there weren't enough chairs). They spoke knowledgeably on a wide range of topics from why someone's cucumber plants were yellow to why it is dangerous to use municipal compost made from garden waste (because weedkiller from grass cuttings can find its way into it apparently).

A pheasant stands impertinently on top my polytunnel despite my shouting at it to flap off.

Two vegetable-related social events in one day - not bad! And I even made a bit of cash.