A Good Year for the Onions

About this time every year I ask myself the same question, "Why oh why do I plant so many courgettes?".

I have green one, yellow ones, striped ones, round ones - you name it I've got it and Janice's excellent culinary skills are being stretched to the limits. There are only a handful of ways to cook the little devils!

I can't even give them away in the pub anymore. As soon as anyone in The Fox sees me coming through the door with two large carrier bags they disperse in all directions screaming "Courgette Alert!"

I'm even having nightmares about them. This is what it's like:

All suggestions as to what to do with my courgettes should be sent to:

home@werewolfofhampshire.co.uk

Needless to say when I raised the subject with The Welsh Bard he came up with this offering:

Cove’s premier allotmenteer
Is popular, but once a year
The Foxy locals tend to sneer
When Chris arrives to have a beer…
They hiss and boo whenever he walks in.

For days on end his bags are filled
As, once again, he tries to build
Enthusiasm, but it’s killed
When even the most veggie-willed
Discover that their appetites run thin.

The produce comes in endless rows,
And so the courgette mountain grows
Unstoppably, although he knows
That everyone who takes them throws
A lot of what he gives them in the bin!

I am longing for the day when I can stand in the middle of the plot and sing, at the top of my voice, this little song:

But it is not just the courgettes that abound.

French beans and runner beans need picking daily and the potato harvest has been the best since I took on the plot.

It's also been "a good year for the onions"!

And I'll leave you with words of Jerry Cheshnut, suitably amended, from the song made famous by George Jones and ruined by Elvis Costello:

What a good year for the onions
Many bulbs still linger there
The beans could stand another pick
Funny I don't even care
As you turn to walk away
Treading softly on your bunions
The only thing I have to say
It's been a good year for the onions.

Here's George, who sadly passed away earlier this year:

Hey Ho!