Monday 29 December 2014

Harvest Monday - post christmas

So I missed last Monday because I'd picked up the lurgy and didn't do much for a few days. Luckily I started feeling a bit better for Christmas week, and I had a few days off work on holiday too :)

My main seed order came in, which is exciting. I use the Organic Gardening catalogue and get 10% off as a Garden Organic member.

Included are Sturon onion sets:
Colleen early potatoes and Setanta main crop. I've set these out in the greenhouse lean-to (frost-free). The earlies had already started sprouting a bit and I want to make sure I get the right sort of shoots (if you leave them in the dark, they are pale and long, rather than the green leafy shoots in the light)
 
I picked a bit of coriander from the lean-to.
A small Savoy cabbage and kale for Christmas lunch

Some parsnips for Christmas lunch too. I didn't get a photo of the final meal but it included chestnut roast too (using chestnuts we harvested ourselves from the woods in autumn that I'd kept in the fridge). We also made our own gravy and bread sauce (using herbs from the garden)

On Christmas Eve I went round to friends' houses delivering cards and presents, including jars of my elderberry, apple and clove jelly. I've had good reports on this :).

My first chance to get to the plot for a while, on Sunday for an hour or so, I started a bit of clearing and brought back a few onions.

And today I returned to work (sigh) but it was sunny and I popped to the plot at lunchtime and picked some chard for tea,

And picked a chilli from the houseplant to go with tea too. They're starting to get quite wrinkly! But seem ok.

Zzz feeling a bit pooped after returning to work and with the tail-end of illness. So to end, a not very good but sunny Christmassy photo of my decorated birch twigs! Usually I collect some holly and ivy and make a Christmas wreath but what with being ill I didn't get round to it this year.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and have a great New Year!

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions :)

 

 

14 comments:

  1. Very festive branches! That is quite the surprisingly varied harvest you had this past week...how wonderful to use your garden goodies for your Christmas meals!

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    1. Thank you Margaret! We also had home grown potatoes with the lunch, I forgot. Yum.

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  2. Your weather is much warmer than I would have thought (I'm in Eastern Ontario Canada, so further south than you and we're very cold here!). What do you do with the potatoes at this time? Are you going to plant them? I usually get potatoes in the ground in May ...

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    1. Funny isn't it Susie. We just looked you up and yes you're quite a bit further south. Apparently it's because we're a little island surrounded by water, which regulates the temperature (warmer in winter, colder in summer) plus we get the Gulf Stream bringing warm water. And warm air currents coming up from the equator. Or something like that anyway!
      It's been quite cold today (for us anyway) still frosty during the day.
      I've put the potatoes in my lean-to greenhouse to 'chit'. This is where you put them in a cool light place to encourage them to grow strong short green shoots, which become the leaves when you plant them out (which I'll do in March-ish). It's meant to give them a bit of a head start though is sometimes debated whether it really does work. Worth a go though I reckon as doesn't take any effort. If I left them in the dark they could start producing the pale weak shoots that just break off and aren't good for much.

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  3. I'm very impressed with your Christmas nut roast made from foraged chestnuts. I bet the parsnips were delicious as well. How exciting to receive your seeds for next year. Mind should be here soon too. And so it will all begin again...

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    1. Thanks CJ. The nut roast was really tasty and made about 4 meals, so was worth the faff of peeling the chestnuts! Actually, they peeled much more easily than normal. I prepare them the night before, slit them across the width then boil for 15 mins, let cool slightly, then peel. Still got some in the fridge so might make another one.
      Yes, seeds are exciting! I should really try and save more of my own this year, saves a bit of money too.

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  4. Lovely harvests. And wow potatoes already started. You can't even get potato starts here until mid April. Not that I can grow potatoes now, but I used to. I also need to get my seed order in. I'm still debating right now.

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    1. The first time I ordered potatoes I was really surprised how early they were delivered too. And the fact that they already started shooting, so it's safest for me to set them to chit straight away than risk the other pale shoots developing (though in the past these pale shoots have developed before I set them out, so I just rubbed them off to start again witht the green shoots. The tubers are big enough that they haven't wasted too much energy yet). Sorry you can't eat potatoes anymore but you do grow plenty of other tasty goodies instead.
      Choosing seeds is tough, I could easily have spent a lot more!

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  5. Wow you are really ahead of the game with those potatoes. Glad you are feeling better

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    1. Thanks sue! Yeh they always deliver the potatoes around Christmas, which seems really early but doesn't seem to have any ill-effect

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  6. Happy New Year Lou.
    Glad to read that your feeling better.
    I am hoping to get my growing mojo back this year and then I can start comparing notes.

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    1. Thanks Shaheen. Yes I'm sure your growing mojo will return!

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  7. I sympathise concerning the "lurgy", because I have had a dreadful cold for the past 10 days - what a waste of my Christmas leave... :(
    You have got your potatoes started early. I won't get mine going for another month or six weeks.

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    1. Thanks Mark, I hope you're starting to feel better now, it's annoying when you're ill over the hols.
      Yep, the potatoes get delivered now so I just set them out to chit straight away. The part of the greenhouse I put them in is safe from frost. Otherwise if I put them in the shed I'd forget about them and end up with leggy shoots.

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