Today was harvest day. I pulled all the garlic and the beetroot with a view to putting up vast quantities of pickles for selling tomorrow. After all that effort, I produced four jars ... not terribly impressive, and less so when you consider one has not sealed properly. I did make two jars of orange pickle as well, but they have not sealed either - clearly I spent too long filling the jars and the mix went off the heat level required to achieve a seal - sigh.

Anyway, that aside, I now have one garden bed freed up for planting out the remaining gooseberry bushes, which I have now done. They are all putting on new growth, and look to be a fairly weepy, prickly variety. I will try to train them up onto a single stem to get them above ground level, but this year they seem doomed to spend their lives on the straw. Will have to get that nice little man to make me some more tomato stakes I think.

I will also have to find the source of lids that my freecycler gave me so that I can use good new lids - it took quite some doing to sort through what I had to find ones that were not stained, or rusted, or otherwise unsuitable. As it is mine say they are dolmio or similar - so will need to cut out circles of fabric to make decorative finishes tonight. So not much to contribute to the market once again. I will pull some lettuce heads up I think, so that I can fill a basket with those as well. Pack the bottom of the basket with moist newspaper to keep them fresh - that will hopefully do the trick. Would have taken photos of the preserves, but the light is not good at present, so will give it a go in the morning.