Dry Heat

Stuck indoors today because of the rain (hurray)  gives me the opportunity  to review recent progress.  The garlic crops, both winter and  spring plantings have been a bit underwhelming.  The autumn planted Elephant Garlic and home saved Early Purple Wight and Doocot I feel more forgiving toward. The spring planted Mersley Wight and  Solent Wight  got all the room and feed they required but turned yellow in early July. Digging them up they were small, showed signs of white rot and in many case developed as two stems intertwined below ground level.  While I will continue to grow my own Elephant garlic I don't think the return on the traditional sized garlic is worth it on my plot. Lesson learnt.  The picture shows the portion of the harvest that  justified storage.  Elephant garlic on the left, other autumn planted middle and spring planted on the right. The more fiddly smaller bulbs are still drying off in the greenhouse awaiting assessment for rot and suitability for cooking. 

Despite the heat and dry conditions the brassica patch seems to be full and ready for the coming (cooler) brassica season. The thin row is Swedes.  To the right are the winter harvested kales.  Now that we have had rain I am confident that they will survive to maturity.

Although a bit out of date this last picture is indicative of what is harvesting now.  Broad beans have been great and I have staggered further sowings.  Courgettes are now harvesting in torrents. Peas have been great this year, and again I have further plantings to come. Raspberries have been ripening daily. That is one days worth of ripened berries.

 So all in all I have been very happy with the produce so far this year, even though drought conditions have prevailed until yesterday.  

Scorzonera

 We are in the season of root vegetables.  It is high season for  Jerusalem artichoke. Celeriac, parsnip, swede are in their element.  Carrots and beetroot are still soldiering on while potatoes are all in storage.  Always keen on trying something "exotic".  Salsify and scorzonera take it turn about and this year we have grown scorzonera (sometimes called black salsify)

The flesh is white but the skin is markedly black:

Once peeled you need cook straight away as the roots exude lactose and discolour quickly.  You can get away with dropping them into water with a spoonful of vinegar (or lemon juice) to acidulate it .  The taste?  Bland in must be said.  Subtle might be kinder.  It and its white sibling Salsify have been compared to oyster in taste.  Not having tasted oyster I can't comment.

Scorzonera is reputed to contain protiens, fats, asparagine, choline and laevulin as well as minerals potassium, calcium,phosphorus,iron, sodium, and vitamins A, B1, E and C.  Also containing the glycoside inulin, it is suitable for diabetics.  So perhaps I should be more enthusiastic about it! 

Winter Vegetable Bed - Judgement Day

It is time to revisit the 4 seasons square foot vegetable bed for the winter harvest.  The above picture was taken on 21st December and the ones below were taken today as the crop was lifted. ( If you want to see previous seasons posts just click on "4 Seasons" in the labels list.) 

Here is the day's harvest 

    

First prize has to go to parsnips. 5 roots out of 5 and all of them stout and long,  The only problem with them was that they grew so strongly that their leaves flopped over their neighbours, depriving them of light.

The leeks also showed well with 6 out of 6 transplants growing long if slender.  Some bonus parsley was also grown in the same square foot.

Celeriac was a bit bullied by the parsnip foliage, One tennis ball sized bulb (or swollen stem) would be a fine addition to a stew.

I left the swiss chard in the ground.  It has already provided several meals worth from earlier harvest. Light picking over winter progresses but there is plenty more to come in late winter and early spring before new seedlings will catch up with it. 

The pigeons had a good go at the Swedes but three survived and grew larger than tennis ball size after netting.  These would have happily waited for Burns' night on 25th January.

Beetroots were only salad size, despite the long growing season.  To be fair I think the larger ones were raided to make soup by one of the classes.  These are just the tiddlers left behind.  Also featuring in the picture below is the one mooli (white radish) that reached any size.  There were some tiddlers too but this crop  was the victim of being overshadowed by it's neighbour - parsnip.

Next is a real experiment: scorzonera.  Plenty grew.  The roots are long thin and whippy. Very hard to dig out without snapping. There is also the challenge of how to prepare them.  Once peeled the white flesh oozes latex and rapidly turns brown.  You need to turn to French cuisine to get tips on how to use this exotic ingredient.  That said, they grew well regardless of the cold.

The only no show was carrots, which was a victim of its popularity with badgers.  No sooner had they reached a reasonable size that the whole square foot was excavated and only the tops left as evidence!  I am just relieved that the badgers restricted their mining activities to these (and some potatoes).

It is only a shame that this exercise can only be reported virtually as it was designed as an educational exercise for the children to participate in,  Perhaps next year?

Winter Survivors

Not the prettiest of pictures, but I must give credit to the crops which have survived the winter and are still providing food for the table.  

Top of the list has to be carrots.  

The fleece/mesh that was in place to keep off the root fly goes on to afford some protection from the weather.

Hardier than carrots but competing for sweetness are the leeks.  This is the last of them just before I lifted them to make soup yesterday.

Even more bedraggled but showing signs of recovery is spinach.  There were three rows of different varieties and I think it is the Winter Giant that has proved most robust in fighting off the persistent annual meadow grass.

Another hard nut is the Swede.  The pigeons have pecked off the leaves that the frost didn't get, but they still deliver on flavour. Kohl Rabi also deserves a mention as the big swollen stems have overwintered well.  Salsify has also shrugged off winter.

Last but not least I planted up the former strawberry patch with a mixture of brassicas in late summer and hope yet to get some spring pickings.

These are my winter survivors.

Remember Your Plot?

Days have shortened, temperatures have dropped, rain has been sweeping past and outdoor activities have become less attractive.  It is tempting to just forget about the plot on the other side of town. That's not to say that there is nothing cropping at the moment.  It's just that as soon as your gloves get wet you have to change them before you lose the use of your hands.  So today three pairs of gloves at the ready I harvested

The last of the row of fennel

                                  

Swiss chard:

and spinach:

 Cabbage:

Kohlrabi

Swede:

Carrots from under their cover:

and that's a row of salsify to the left which, like the parsnips, I have yet to explore. 

Less photogenic but also picked today Jerusalem artichoke and sprouting broccoli. There's plenty beetroot too and Brussel sprouts to come.  The leeks I am leaving for when things get really depleted.

Nearly forgot to mention the late brassicas planted after clearing the strawberry patch! There's spring greens, kale and mooli in there.   

So all in all I have still got lots of reasons to remember to visit the plot, (just don't ask me to do any weeding).

Look - No Carrots!

I have started clearing up the brassica patch. Here is today's crop.   Those aren't white carrots they are (small) mooli!

I said no carrots - I lied!  Here's One:

To Start at the Start

The gardening year should be digging in manure  in the Autumn.

First Cut

Here's me starting last week!

A bit of a trough

In fact the plot looks rather scruffy - but at least this is the beginning of this year

The Task at Hand

 and the end of last year's production:

End of Last Year's Brassicas

Some things are still in full production:

Swedes Holding Out

 Others are dormant:

Soft Fruit Cage

And others are lying fallow

This Year's Potato Patch (Last Year's Alliums)

The View from the End (Last Year's Curcubits and Sweetcorn)

I add manure to the "Other"  (Leaf and Legumes) and Brassica patches only, and plenty of it. The Weed Suppressant Fabric over last years alliums will be the new cover for the Brassicas and will be in place for three seasons (Brassicas/ Curcubits/ Alliums) so the fertility has to last!


The First Cut

January Icicles

Something new this January. Not the January King or the Swede but the Daikon Radish/Mooli variety Icicles.  I've never grown these before (although I have bought and eaten them). So I gave them a punt and sowed them in the brassica patch late last summer. Today, to celebrate my first allotment visit of the year I dug up the first  to see what had grown underground and was well pleased with the result,

OK I understand they are just long radishes -  that quick growing fill in hardly given a thought by most gardeners - but these radishes have volume.  Also given the pathetic results for my French Breakfast Radishes earlier in the growing year I am decidedly more impressed by well grown radishes than I was previously!

Another root untouched until the new year is Jerusalem Artichoke.  Last year they were all knobbly so my expectations were not high.  These come from two plants only weighing in at about 2lbs per plant (1lb after trimming and peeling) and are fabulously not knobbly.  Converted to soup already they are a seasonal delight.

After all that I forgot to dig up any parsnips so I will be going back to the plot tomorrow.  

Other tasks to be undertaken provided there are no real icicles:

Pick Brussels 

Cut back autumn fruiting raspberry canes.

Prune Gooseberries, Currants and Blueberry bushes

Dig up last carrots 

Transplant rhubarb from one end of plot to the other.

Transport compost from home - ready for the potato planting in spring.

All in all it is a hectic time of year when the weather permits.

Popsicles & Icicles

Rootin Tootin Burns Night

Looking through the seed packets I seem to have gone a bit root crazy this year: 

Aside from the range of carrots in the top row there's parsnip, the old reliable  "Tender and True",  the annual challenge of celeriac and a collection of oddities I have accumulated in the bottom row - Hamburg Parsley, Scorzonera and Japanese Burdock. But pride of place goes to "Bulbous" or "Turnip Rooted" Chervil"

I tried this last year with seed from an overseas source and it was a complete no show.  Having found a UK supplier I am hoping for success this year. We can all dream!  

Still on the subject of turnip related veg, and in honour of Burns Night (tonight) here's this year's 'neep' or Swedish turnip variety: Melfort. It's skin is green instead of the usual purple, but it is every bit as tasty and sweet.

Swede Melfort

After the Party's Over.... There's Always Soup

One of the highlights of our Christmas was this dessert inspired by a surprise course we were served when we visited the Musee Des Beaux Arts in Lyon last October: 

But now it's back to more common or garden fare: Leeks and Neeps make a fantastic soup (along with turkey stock)

T

I ground up this root today and now have a jam jar of macerated horseradish in vinegar at the ready in the fridge. 

Here's the last of the homegrown carrots (also heading for the soup pot)

Not pictured are some red cabbages which go very well with ham.

So despite the lack of posts, and the bad weather, allotment life continues... just more slowly.