After the Frost

I have not spent much time on the plot in the last couple of weeks due mainly to the weather conditions but yesterday was sunny and not too cold so I was able to do some clearing of beds.I dug all of the carrots ,a bit late probably as there is some worm or slug damage to a lot of them . I also cleared all of the sprouts as they seem to be early this year and I was afraid they would be past their best for the Christmas dinner!
I spent last evening blanching and freezing the sprouts and some of the carrots with another session of carrots this morning.I must do an inventory of what is actually in the freezer for the winter.
I pulled 2 leeks as D.Aisling is making pots of Leek and potato soup at the moment.
The leek bed with the cleared carrot bed in the foreground. The beds further down were cleared by Kathryn and Gemma and covered with manure for the winter.It all looked a bit bleak yesterday.
The blackcurrant bush which I pruned a couple of weeks ago, I took put about a third of the old wood. The whole fruit bed will be mulched with manure for the winter.
The rhubarb bed is running next to the fence which needs repairing after the storm last weekend. The rhubarb was a soggy mess from the recent frost so I cleared all the debris and this bed will be widened and mulched for the winter. The bed was too narrow and needs another couple of feet but the carrot bed was in use until now so that is another job to be done before the winter!

The turnips are coming on and will be a staple for the winter. We did not grow turnips in previous years so decided to try them this year.The turnips we buy in the shops are so hard it is almost impossible to cut or peel them, again the difference in the ones we grow is amazing!
Lots of work lined up for the next couple of weeks before the ground gets too hard to work.