And so it begins...

Every year it happens, and every year I am taken by surprise.  Today The Glut started.  Two days ago I picked a couple of pounds of strawberries, and thought to myself that there would be "some more" this week.  Do you think the box above qualifies as "some"?  Almost four pounds here, more to come.

Two days ago I wandered around the plot, looking at the vegetables  - "Courgettes growing well, but it will be a few weeks before we're eating them" I thought.  Hey presto...
How wrong can you be?  Just a week for this to be ready.  As for the peas, the pods were all thin, hiding among the leaves.  Today...
I picked some early pods - the peas are still small (about the size you find in most frozen pea packets), as for the broad beans...
... you can see the beans at the top of the picture, small but perfectly formed.  Given the vast quantities the plants are producing, it makes sense to start eating them now.  Then I looked at the soft fruit bed:
You have to look closely at this picture, but the redcurrants in the foreground will be ready for a first pick in a couple of days, the blackcurrants (which you can just see at the top of the picture) likewise, the red gooseberries to the right of the blackcurrants are colouring up and I will need to do a first pick of the green gooseberries (on the right) this week too.

So much for my predictions, I was wrong on pretty much everything.  I have a busy few days ahead of me...