Harvest Festival Assembly

So the deputy Head at my wife's school (she's a teacher not a pupil) has asked me to do a 15 minute assembly on what harvest means to me and why it has been celebrated for so long. 

The school is non religious, so I won't be focusing on religious festivals or any particular faith, more what it means to people in the real world when the harvest is brought in. 

So what would you include in this assembly? 

What does a safe harvest mean to you?

Do you have any interesting harvest stories?

Spring Harvests

Lots coming out of the garden already! Good if you like leafy greens at the moment! 

Lettuce Cancan, I've sold most fo these now. The bed will be claered this weekend then sowed with five rows of carrots. 

White seeded Samara, growing for seed and to sella few - these look lovely. 

A whole bed of spicy salad greens, I mmixed this myself but it seems to be a great mix. 

Beetroot bed - I transplanted these but they've taken so well. Three rows, with plants spaced at 4inches

First pull of beets

Di Choggia cut up ready for tea

Beeteroot tart 

A bed of radishes is ready now as well. Love the colours on these!

What are you having out the garden at the moment?

Allium Harvest

All the alliums (except the leeks obviously) have now been pulled and are drying in the greenhouse or on slabs outside.

Some things have done better than others. 

Lots of shallots! I think I should just grow these!

 The shallots did really well this year and we've a good amount to use in the coming months and enough to save to plant again next year. I roasted some with a roast the other day and I'd forgotten how good they taste, slightly caramelised on the outside and meltingly gooey in the middle - delicious!

All the onions, a bit small but they should keep us in onions for a while

 My onions weren't so good. The rust from my chives did spread but it didn't do too much damage, but I'm not sure how well they would have done with out it.

The red onions didn't amount to much. A lot of them tried to bolt and didn't really bulb up much and some have gone soft already, I'm ready to give up on red onions and just plant more shallots next year.

The brown onions were slightly better, none of them are going to win any awards for biggest veg but most reached a usable size and look healthy so should keep well.

Garlic drying in the greenhouse

 The garlic was a big success. I managed to harvest thirty two good sized bulbs with a handful of smaller ones that we'll use straight away. I was worried that I'd planted them too close together (my usual trick) but I fed them quite often and this has paid off. 

Thirty two good sized garlic bulbs with a handful of smaller ones

I'll save the biggest bulbs to plant again next season, leaving us a good amount to use. I'm not sure it's a years supply but it won't be far off. 

How has everyone else's alliums done this year? 

How are you going to be storing them?

21 Bales of Hay

I know to a "proper" farmer 21 round bales of hay isn't much. I know this because I grew up on a proper farm where most of our fields were bigger than the total area of what I've got now. But I'm still quite proud of our first little harvest.

Spike the contractor baling the hay

 The hay is really good quality, smells really sweet and we baled it at just the right time (the weather sounds like it's going to break next week).

So what to do with 21 one round bales of good quality hay? Sell it I'm afraid.

We don't have any ruminant stock and we've no where to store the bales in the dry (planing permission was turned down for a barn) so a hand painted sign on the side of the road is all we've got at the moment, just hope someone rings before they get too wet! If we sell them I'll put the money towards getting permission for a barn so next year we're not in such a hurry to sell them.