Whether the weather will cooperate

[Odsox]

I know colder weather is on the way, but in a way I wish it would hurry up, well sort of.
Because it's been so mild I picked nearly 2 kilos of ripe tomatoes from the tunnel yesterday and there's more to come off of two very green healthy plants. I'm also still picking strawberries, although they are not very sweet now.

I like the fact that I can still pick tomatoes, but I would like to start eating parsnips, but they still have green leaves on them and that grass keeps growing which means I've got to get the mower out again sometime soon. And I would like those strawberry plants that are still fruiting to go dormant so that I can dig them up to force in the spring.
Ah well, I think my grandmother was probably right with her favourite saying ...

As a rule a man's a fool
When it's hot he want's it cool
when it's cool he wants it hot
always wanting what it's not

[doofaloofa]

This lull in the wind is pleasant

[Flo]

I do believe we are in for cold weather this weekend. A long spell of proper cold would be decidedly bad for the slug population which is running away with itself after so much mild weather.

[Green Aura]

I don't mind how cold it gets but I agree with doofa, the break in the wind is wonderful. I've woken up most mornings for the last week or two and looked out at our polytunnel with some trepidation.

It's held up thus far.

But our strawberries are still fruiting - not ripening of course - and our neighbour was out mowing his grass just last week. This is the north coast of Scotland for heaven's sake. 58 degrees north!

Anyone have any uses/recipes for green strawberries? Are they even edible?

[ina]

Anyone have any uses/recipes for green strawberries? Are they even edible?

If they are, the slugs will no doubt have them... :)

Frost here for the first time this morning, and a light coating of snow.

[Green Aura]

Glorious sunshine here, for the moment, but mighty nippy!

[Odsox]

So it didn't cooperate and there's no sign of it cooperating in the foreseeable future either.
The lowest the temperature we got was one overnight low of 8c, but most nights are around 10c to 12c.
A nice stable high pressure sitting over the country for a couple of weeks would do, nice and dry to get stuck in and at least have a tidy up.
But ... the parsnips are still growing, the strawberries are still fruiting (but not ripening) and now I see the outdoor PSB have fair sized heads on them

Anyone have any uses/recipes for green strawberries? Are they even edible?

Yes they are edible. My missus picked several large green strawberries and dropped them into stewed apple while it was still cooking. No real flavour, but bulked out the apples a bit. Waste not whatnot.

[Green Aura]

Interesting. I wonder what green strawberry chutney would be like.

[Flo]

Interesting. I wonder what green strawberry chutney would be like.

Don't fancy the idea at all.

[Odsox]

Well we finally got a short cold snap last week, although it didn't go below 4 degrees so no frost. Now it's back to mild wet weather again.
It's very odd though, normally I post pictures of my daffodils in bloom long before anyone else has any. But this year it seems as if everyone in the UK has had daffs in bloom since early December, where mine are still just in bud.
At least my parsnips have gone dormant, and if we don't get any really cold weather we will have new potatoes in February.

[Flo]

We have some nice deep frost here despite the sunshine. Would you like some frost Tony? Nope - on second thoughts we need it to kill the slugs.

[Odsox]

Would you like some frost Tony?

No thanks Flo, I can live without it quite easily.
Funnily enough, and annoyingly, the most likely time for me to get a frost is in March when the sea temperature is at it's lowest. Just after I've planted my tomatoes.

[Green Aura]

It's a balmy minus something here at the moment. Apparently -11 further inland last night.

I've had to put socks on.

[Odsox]

Oh dear
We are being lashed a bit by the outer edge of hurricane Alex at the moment, and it's +10 outside.

[Green Aura]

Oh good, it should warm up shortly then.