September in the Gardens
By Molly Hibbert
It's time for apples, plums and pumpkins. There's crumble for pudding (and leftovers for breakfast). Sun block is no longer needed. The surrounding fields are humming, with hay hurriedly being cut before the wet weather comes. Emily, who manages the farm at Thyme, is up early, pulling stray docks and Himalayan balsam and stays late into the night, to make sure everything is done in time.
Blue tits hang off the sunflowers, eating the seeds. We pick the dead flower heads, threading the stems through the wire fence, a final feast for the birds. We race the resident squirrels to the first fresh cobnuts.
Picked sunflowers providing a feast for the birds
Everything in the garden is flowering and going to seed, even the smallest baby seedlings, the size of my fingertip. Vic leaves a few rows of radishes in the ground, hoping for radish pods.
Finally, amongst the white flowers, the pods appear. They are crisp, sweet and spicy, like tiny perfect radishes. Some are hotter than others; eat them and play roulette, like with Padron peppers. The sweet peas are covered in pods now too - though unlike the radish, they are poisonous. Soon, when the pods are brown, we will collect them, dry them, and harvest the seed to plant next spring.
The last vegetables have been planted; another round of carrots, chicory and beetroot, more swedes and leeks, things that will survive the cooler weather. At break, we chat about wood chopping logistics, and the lavender that we are yet to pick and dry. When the rain comes down hard, we return to the tea shed to eat cake and tie fat bunches to hang from beams in guest bedrooms. Charlie, Head Chef at the Ox Barn, comes down to the garden first thing in the morning. We help him harvest the candy red Malus 'Rosehip', his favourite crab apples, for jelly and fruit cheese. Autumn is here.
Malus Rosehip Crab Apples
