Just picked this gorgeous Spring Salad from the garden. Everything in this bowl comes from mtp and I’m so happy that all the different salad leaves have grown the way I wanted them too.
In the bowl is All The Year Round Lettuce, Lollo Rosso Lettuce, Corn Salad, American Cress, NZ Spinach leaves and Mustard Greens.
This year I have made a conscious effort to not grow ‘just Lettuce’. Lettuce is amazing when it’s home-grown but if you throw in just a few other items the salad you end up with is soooo much more interesting and colourful. Plus you can adjust the tastes depending on what kind of salad you are making (do I want spicy flavoured leaves, or do I want the salad dressing to do the talking?).
Sarah Raven suggests picking a few leaves from each plant and rolling them into a cigar shape, take a bite and that’s your salad. It really does work!
Am particularly impressed with my American Cress that, quite frankly is the most watercressy thing I’ve ever tasted. And… it has a bit of a kick to it too. There is tons more where this came from. Hmmm… I might have to have a Salad party to ensure we can eat it all.
Harvested our first crop of the season – Radish. I gave Jackson the honour, he pulled it up by the leaf and kept it at arms length until I had identified it. Then he said, “Can I eat it?”. Well yes of course you can. So I washed it and sliced it and gave him some to try. Predictably, he spat it out and said, “I don’t like that.”
Well, Radish is an acquired taste, even for some adults!
This is my final Winter harvest – a few Leeks, the last of the Christmas Potatoes, and a handful of Shallots. It looks like the makings of a soup to me! But if I was really relying on my garden to feed me then our family would be entering a very, very lean period indeed and I would probably be sacked as the primary food grower – understandably I think.
There’s a funny story behind this Pumpkin. Firstly, I’ve no idea what variety it is. I’m guessing it’s a Jack be Little or other small Pumpkin variety. The reason I don’t know is that it sprouted from a seed that was in my compost bin. When I emptied the compost out last Autumn I noticed that there were some Pumpkin (or possibly Courgette) seed in it, but didn’t think anything of it.
Then come Spring some of them started to germinate! I chose the strongest one and re-planted it in full sun on the other side of the garden. It flourished and became a large plant in no time at all. Then it flowered and set fruit. The only problem was I had no idea if it was a Pumpkin or a round Courgette at first. I almost picked it when it was small and green. But I decided to leave it just in case and I’m so happy I did.
Pretty soon it started to harden and turn orange. At this rate I think it will be ready in time to carve for Halloween. Yey!
I love it when you get something unexpected from the garden. Every year I end up growing something that I never intended to. And that’s part of the joy of owning a garden – you’re never quite fully in charge :) What did you grow this year that you didn’t intend to?
I made a super-late (July) sowing of Mangetout this year and they have really done me proud. Much of the main beds (and my Pea sticks) were taken up with an early sowing of Peas this year, but once they had gone over I sowed some Mangetout.
I have never sown Peas or Mangetout this late before. They just seem like a Spring crop to me (even though I know you can grow them all summer long). But I’ll definitely be trying this again as the size of the pods is great and they’re a welcome crunchy, Spring-like snack at this time of year when everything seems to be mellowing and flopping over.
This is what I harvested from my garden last night. A clutch of green Tomatoes. I had forgotton to stake one of my plants and the top fell over and snapped so I had to cut it off. But that’s okay because I’ve been looking for an excuse to make more Green Tomato Chutney for a while now.
The first of this season’s Peaches. Actually, I found this one on the floor so I had no choice but to eat it. It tastes lovely, slightly hard on one side, but still beautifully fragrant.
Then a small group of Raspberries. I have to get in there before my little boy does. I think this is the biggest harvest of Raspberries I’ve had to myself all summer!
And finally some Asters. A bit of an eclectic mix but sometimes that’s just what you get when you have a small plot. You gotta take what comes your way, haven’t you?
I harvested my Shallots a couple of days ago. They had reached the stage where their leaves had flopped over and dried out and the bulbs were looking pretty big. So I took advantage of a sunny day and dug the whole harvest up.
I put them in a wooden tray to dry in the sun for a few days – with the precaution of the lid from my Victorian cloche over them. And today I rubbed off the dirt and put them in this old sieve ready for storage.
They like to have air circulating around them so anything with holes in is ideal. Sometimes I use old Orange bags, or netted shopping bags if I have a lot to store.
I’m pretty happy with the harvest. Last year I grew Longor Shallots which are more bullet shaped than these. This year I went for round ones (can’t remember the variety). Some are a little small but they make a good addition to my son, Jackson’s, meals since he won’t eat a lot of oniony flavours anyway.
I always feel a bit smug when I put away the first harvest of the season for storing. I’m always a bit sad when I see Lettuce go to seed, or a Cauliflower go over. All that effort and I just wasn’t quick enough to enjoy it. With Onions and Shallots it’s a different story – none of it goes to waste (assuming none of them rot) and it feels good to know that all my effort will be rewarded over the coming months.
I had to pull my Elephant Garlic because it was trying to flower. I’ve showed it here next to some Carrots I pulled at the same time so you can see how big it is. They’re about 8 or 9cm across.
I must confess myself a bit disappointed with the Elephant Garlic. It’s not as big as I thought it would be and also doesn’t seem to have split into bulbs quite as nicely as you see in the photos. Oh well – it’s still edible, I’m sure.
Next year I might switch back to my usual Garlic. You get more heads for the garden space and in a tiny plot you gotta use the space wisely. Is anyone else growing Elephant Garlic? Did you have success?
It’s time to harvest the Blackcurrants. They’re so ripe I can actually smell them as I walk past the bush. I only have one Blackcurrant bush but it’s always dripping in berries so I always have more than enough.
I usually use the Sarah Raven method for harvesting Blackcurrants by cutting whole branches out with berries on them and picking them at my leisure. This solves two problems in one by pruning the old wood out and making it easier to pick the berries.
I didn’t prune all of the fruiting branches out because that would make the bush too small. I only pruned about a third of them out and next year I will prune the rest. Those branches will still fruit but just a little further up on the new wood.
I’ve made a few things in the past with my Blackcurrants:
This time I made Blackcurrant Cake from a recipe I found online. It was lovely, however next time I would put more sugar in as the Blackcurrants were still just a tad sharp.
Have fun with your Blackcurrants, if you have any, if you don’t then get some for next year :)
I can hardly believe I’m writing this but after years of trying to grow an edible Cauliflower I’ve actually gone and managed it. I’m in shock.
I harvested this Cauliflower a few days ago but there are another five or six of them in the ground. Before I went on holiday the plants were quite big and the middle leaves were starting to tighten. But there was no sign of a Cauliflower. When I came back from holiday (two weeks later) I had seven beautiful Cauliflowers, all in a row. I was amazed.
I have tried several different approaches in the past; liming the ground, netting the whole crop, using brassica collars. All to no avail. Every time, I ended up with something that was only fit for the compost pile.
The secret to my success this time must be that I sowed the seed last Autumn and over-wintered them in my coldframe. I then planted them out in early Spring and have been watering them like crazy during the last few dry months. I’ve also been feeding them with chicken manure pellets, once or twice since I planted them in the ground.
They seem to love it and have rewarded me with some beautiful curds. I made Cauliflower Cheese with the first one and all three of us virtually licked our plates it tasted so Cauliflowery. I’m always amazed how homegrown veg tastes are more intense than shop bought.
Next year I’ll be trying to repeat my success by sowing in Autumn again.
