August Harvesting

Just to note what is doing well in the garden at the minute, and what we are enjoying at the table.

Potatoes: Lots dug, and waiting to be used, lots more still in pots.
Courgettes: Producing steadily, but not in glut amounts. The round ones are especially good.
Squash - a few uchiki kuri, a crookneck, Anna Hubbard.
Runner beans: Keeping on top of them so far.
Dwarf French: Sharing with the slugs
Lettuce: Bitter and running to seed
Beetroot: Lovely and big - leaves yummy, roots mostly going into chocolate brownies
Onions: mostly harvested, eating lots
Shallotts: I have 1kg in a string bag for storage - don't think they will last too long, though.
Tomatoes:Lots of green ones - just a few ripening.
White turnips - pulled some today for my mother - await her verdict. I fancy them pickled....
Artichokes are still producing a bit, but the novelty has worn off. We are letting a few flower for the beautiful colour, and maybe the seeds will be viable.

Blueberries ripeing, and a few raspberies.

A little sunshine would go a long way...I suspect I might have a glut of something then...

My strategy on the onions and shallotts is to eat away at them,and have leeks and bunching onions for when they are all gone.

I'm trying not to buy any fruit or veg - so that part of the fridge is strangely empty. I think I'll have to crack and buy some carrots - they are miserable this year.

Getting Kids to eat Vegetables

In spite of involving my children in all aspects of growing and preparing their food, they balk at vegetables which are not disguised. Which is a bit embarassing as I'm doing all this work teaching and encouraging people to grow and eat their vegetables.

So, I have to be pretty fiendish to get vegetabls into them. And in fairness, anything with Tomato sauce goes down fine, so the blender is my friend.

But this weekend, I came up with a new way to get them eating vegetables - this time beetroot. I used this recipe and it went down a treat! Chocolate beetroot brownies - how could you resist! They were begging for more! Thanks Hugh!

I also served them at my Saturday gardening class, and had a similarly good reaction - along the lines of "they have vegetables in them - they must be healthy - yes please I'll have one more"

Beautiful Frosty Morning

 

 

It's a beautiful fresh frosty morning here - the leaves are well decorated. This is the coldest that it's been since we moved back here in 2006, and my laissez-faire attitute to the root veg may backfire on me. For the past 2 winters I have left the beets, turnips and daikon in the ground through the winter, harvesting them as needed.

But since we didn't have much frost, this was a fairly safe strategy. This year, my fennel has already taken some damage from the frost, we covered it with fleece on Monday, but I have more or less written it off. It's not really supposed to overwinter. I was hoping for a few more Beet and Daikon harvests, though - I'm hoping that only the surface is frozen, and that they will be ok. The leeks are looking a bit limp, and some of them are going to seed, so probably time to use them up too. If things thaw in the afternoon, I'll go out and harvest a few to assess the damage.


Lesson learned - get in some straw in the autumn for tucking in the root veg!

On the positive side, this frost will break down the bed I prepared at the weekend, and will do a good job of killing the pests, it's a necessary part of the cycle, and welcome as such.

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

It's been a good Christmas for me and the garden - We have had lots of visitors all through December, and we were able to serve up lovely Beet and Lentil Vinaigrette, Fennel and Orange Salad and Leek and Feta tart.

Also, we had our own home grown carrots and Brussles sprouts for Christmas Day. that was one of my objectives for the 2008 garden year, and I'm delighted that it worked out.

And there are still lots of leeks, beetroot and fennel in the garden. Not to mention daikon, chard, kale and cabbage. And thyme, parsley and rosemary. Though the fennel is taking some frost damage.

Yesterday I sorted out all my seeds - organised by the time of the year when they need to be planted. So I have grouped them buy month. I only have a few to buy - onion sets, shallot seeds, potatoes, and purple and rainbow carrots.

I planted about 30 broad beans - to start inside, and then move outside. Probably worth while starting some outside too. From my notes, I didn't get a great harvest from last years crop - and they are a lovely early veg. So will have to try for more this year.

My gardening class starts in less than 2 weeks - I'm having fun preparing, hoping that we will attract some students from outside the school community. The more the merrier!

For the first class, I'm planning to get all the participants to make a garden diary - in looking at this blog and my written notes, it's incredibly helpful to be able to look back and see what was going on, weather and plant wise, and what my ideas were to improve things in the future.

Also, divided some artichokes, and planted calendula, and I would hope to pass on some of these plants to the students. The dry weather over Christmas has been great for getting outside, although it has been very cold.

Weird Beet

 

Lousy photo, but this beet was bifurcated, and equally on both side, so it looked strangely human - lower body. But we ate it anyhow....