First produce sale and french bean news

Check out the poll to the right of this column. If you highlight the results you can see where the votes have gone so far. The vote is for whether you'd like us to grow onions, shallots, or both next year.
We had our first sale of produce on Wednesday 2nd July and everything sold out in a flash. I think we sold about twenty five bags of potatoes, Swiss chard, lettuce, onions and shallots. And two courgettes. Some ended up on my plate (see photo above). We would have had a few beans to sell but someone (me) forgot to pick them. I think it was because Year One children came to inspect the progress of their onions, which they seemed to enjoy for some reason, and I was distracted. I grew the shallots elsewhere in case you were wondering.

If you bought a tomato plant and the leaves are starting to go yellow then it either needs putting in a bigger pot with some compost, or else it needs fertilizer. Even better than re-potting, is putting it in the ground as that's where they really like to be. I've just bought some Miracle-Grow Organic fertilizer which smells much like chicken manure pellets, but comes in a more manageable form.
The race is on to get the first ripe tomato, and so far it's RB class in the lead. Their Tornado F1 plant is obviously getting plenty of sunshine. I just repotted it (see pix) as the leaves were yellowing. May have left it too late, we'll see. Coming second are the Marmande tomatoes in the individual square raised bed in the vegetable garden (see photo in previous blog if you're really sad).
Remember not to overwater the tomatoes. Let them dry out before watering. This improves the flavour and makes the roots work harder. If it's all going very well you could consider pruning off some of the leaves, the idea being that the plants energy will then be diverted into the tomatoes rather than the leaves.

It's interesting to see the difference between the tomatoes in the raised beds and those in pots like these Tornado plants. The ones in the raised beds are massive in comparison!
One tip for anyone watering the raised beds: apparently parsnips like dryish conditions so maybe only water if they look like they are wilting, or if you know for sure that they haven't been watered for ages.

Below: The dwarf and climbing french beans have really gone crazy. The other day they were tiny and next time I looked there were tons to pick. And the more you pick, the more are produce! We'll be selling these in the playground on Monday 7th July at drop off - and there should still be plenty more for Fridays produce sale.