The pumpkins started to grow and appear to be accelerating now.
The butternut squashes are the least advanced since they are the last that were planted. Funnily enough, one of those surplus ones that I planted with red beets is the biggest, and I had to start teasing it onto the aluminium trellis. I think that these grow faster than those planted in the lawn because the soil is more porous here.
The first female flower of the Hokkaido pumpkin showed up. It was probably pollinated and is starting to convert into the fruit now.
Some Hokkaido plants are getting bigger and they started to crawl out of the 50×50 cm squares onto the grass. I probably won’t be able to mow the grass between and around the poles again, which is OK, this was always the plan. I will be chuffed if I get two fruits per plant by the end of the season. If I get more, I’d be thrilled.
I started to harvest the marrow squash already. When harvested this small, they do not need to be peeled, although they do have prickly hairs that need to be rubbed off. They are sweeter than zucchini and are really juicy and tender.
That is why this first harvest was simply chopped into slices, covered wth spice and tossed in a baking tray with a duck for the last 20 minutes of baking.
If things go well, they should now accelerate in growth until we are no longer able to eat them fast enough, and they get bigger and with harder skin. I will write about the use of the bigger fruits in due course, with recipes.
And lastly a picture of a longhorn beetle that I captured in my coppice with my phone. It was a fast moving critter, I would not be able to go inside for proper camera in time. But I think this pic is worth publishing anyway. I am not an entomologist, but it was found on a willow, so I think it is a musk beetle, Aromia moschata. It is beautiful, although its larvae might destroy some trees in my coppice in due course. Which is not a big problem, the trees need to be replaced each decade or two anyway.